Gang
Tribe's Reunion

THE REVIEW

«Tell your friends ... THE GANG IS NOT FOR SALE».

Red, Johnny Guitar "Riff" and Bum Bum reunited for one night only, on February 28, 2009. They co-opted bassist Gugo "Patchanka" in place of Buster, opened the chest of old and precious memories - stored more than twenty years ago - and unearthed ten tracks from their early works: «Tribe's Union» (from which are taken «Night In Chains», «War In The City», «Killed In Action», «Libre El Salvador» and «Badlands»), «Barricada Rumble Beat» (represented by «Rumble Beat», «Song Of Prisoner», «Warrior Poet» and «Not For Sale») and «Reds» («Forever And Ever» is the only extract).

And they proved to the lucky ones present at the Extra Alternative Club in Recanati that, even if wrinkles age the face and hair turns white, the passion that makes your heart beat and the vigor that moves your arm... well, those don't certainly fade, they actually push you forward with even greater force and electrify your guitar better than any amplifier.

Nothing has changed, not even the wind, since the Severini brothers, with more maturity and awareness than at the beginning, took a new path, wandering like modern minstrels to tell an Italy devoid of memory stories that deserved to be told.

Now is the time to bring everything home, if only to bitterly realize that songs do not make revolutions, at least in that part of the country where they lovingly try to make us understand that art and culture are not something to eat, certainly not.

But The Gang comes from another part of the Country - the one with a capital C - the one where a voice always resonates that the centuries have not diminished and that remembers, again and forever, not to surrender and to kneel only if it serves to take aim, like a partisan of the new era.

It is a sentimental album «Tribe's Reunion», because it appeals more to the heart than to reason: because the heart tells you that The Gang is on the right path and the goal is near; that bastard called reason, on the other hand, would instill the certainty that no, it will never make it. And the emotion is the feeling that remains strongest when listening, contributed not a little by the farewell notes of three covers as significant as few, such as «Nobody's Hero» and the timeless «Garageland» and «I Fought The Law».

The Gang fought the law... and the law won. But it will continue to fight, of this there's no doubt, and sooner or later, the wind will change too: and this, indeed, can only be convinced by the heart.

I love you, just as I always have and always will love the Clash.

PS For me (and for many others, I hope), album of the year 2010. Merry Christmas.