Blue Beats and Strange Encounters

So i was riding my bike back from Monfalcone yesterday, and a beautiful vintage shiny red spider convertible going in the opposite direction caught my eye. I turned to look at it better, and realized that Gino Paoli was driving it. The popular singer-songwriter was born in Monfalcone and still has relatives there, so his presence actually makes lots of sense. He wrote and performed many songs now ubiquitous like Una Rotonda Sul Mare, which had a then-unknown sessionman named Gato Barbieri on sax, or La Gatta, which always makes me very, very sad for obvious reasons. He also lives with a bullet lodged next to his heart, ever since his then-companion tried to shoot him in the early sixties.
Another thing that makes him interesting to my eyes are the two tracks he recorded with ska-rocksteady revival supergroup Giuliano Palma And The Bluebeaters in 2000, which stayed in limbo for some time while his record company decided what to do with them (they were considered "too wierd" for a greatest hits release), and eventually emerged on the second printing of the Bluebeaters' debut album.
The tracks recorded at those sessions were the classic Che Cosa c'è, as suggested by Paoli, and Domani, a song bandleader Giuliano Palma proposed to cover and that Paoli himself had forgotten that he'd written!
I'm presenting this track today because it's my favourite of the two, mainly for the fantastically retro background vocals. Listen and agree.

Giuliano Palma And The Bluebeaters feat. Gino Paoli - Domani (320kps 8.64Mb mp3)



Seeing the guy brought back fond memories of the Bluebeaters, probably the best rocksteady combo in italy, who only perform very sporadically due to contrasting schedules with members' "official" bands (Casino Royale, Africa Unite, Fratelli di Soledad, Vallanzaska, Reggae National Tickets). A quick net search brought the good news: they're touring once again! Since i've always managed to barely miss them every time they've neared my whereabouts, i plan to catch them in Marcon on the 1st of may.
Which makes a great timetable for my next months: PFM performing their Fabrizio De Andrè tribute in trieste on the 1st of april, Bluebeaters 1st of may, Skatalites at the sunsplash on the 1st of july. A little bit of regularity is good every now and then.