IL SISTEMA (1969-1972)

The first line up of 1969:

Enzo Merogno................ Guitar, vocals

Luciano Cavanna................ Bass and vocals

Floriano Roggero................ Hammond Organ and Thomas organ

Ciro Perrino................ Drums, percussion, flute and vocals

Next in 1971 another musician joins the band:

Leonardo Lagorio................ Flute, saxophone, and electric piano

The rehearsals

Luciano Cavanna has a clear classic background. He plays organ, piano, guitar and trumpet. In IL SISTEMA he decides to play bass.

The band is in contact with Anselmo Genovese, who engages them as session musicians for his shows.

In the first months of 1970 the band is playing own compositions for these shows.

They find a isolated warehouse to practice between Bordighera and Ventimiglia.

Genovese invites them to record music in the studio. The band feels that there are opportunities for them.

The gigs

Before the summer of 1970 starts, they have the opportunity to perform in a theatre that is the property of a religious community in Vallecrosia. They have a signpost outside: An evening with IL SISTEMA.  You can imagine that it is hilarious to start off with songs of Black Sabbath and continue with Uriah Heep's Gypsy.

Some radio stations are playing some of this kind of music but they are hard to receive in Italy like Radio Luxembourg. Radio Montecarlo is well received but is playing only commercial music.

Ciro has bought the long play records from Black Sabbath and King Crimson. The owner of the shop buys these records in London, more fascinated by the sleeves than by the music he doesn't really know at all.

This kind of records is hardly to get in Italy.

The members of the band often pass the French border to buy these records. They are listening endlessly to these records and a compilation of the Island label with Jethro Tull, Mott the Hoople, Free and Spooky Tooth.

Places and rehearsals

Meanwhile the collection records of Ciro is steadily growing. Under the influence of this music the repertoire expands steadily.

The collaboration with Anselmo Genovese ends. They have to find another accommodation to rehearse. In Pompeiana, a small village, they find a good place shelter near the family home of Luciano Cavanna. They work on the walls of the room to get better acoustics. They want to record the music to be able to listen back and perfect their music.

Every day they practice from 8 a.m. until midnight. Hardly any time is taken to eat.

They use a Philips mono low speed tape recorder of mediocre quality, an antique case that Ciro still holds with two microphones to create a wider sound.

Magic during gigs

They start working on a solid base on bass and drum. They want a solid rhythm section to support the band especially for the live performances. The first live performance is in the Galassia in Sanremo. The owner believes in the band.

At that time the performances are actually focused on dancing.

Now something exceptional happens.

During the performance people stop dancing and go on the ground and sit on the tables to listen carefully to the music.

After the show it is quite quiet for a moment and then the applause breaks loose. This is very unusual.

Here are musicians at work who actually write songs in the original language that are worth to be listened to. Gradually there are more performances as in Club 64 in Sanremo.

The Baccanale Festival

They are invited to the Baccanale in Sanremo. This is a concert organized by the pupils of the humanistic high school, where the show lasts the whole afternoon.

The pupils determine which band has the most skills, is most interesting and has the most charisma. This event is taking place in the winter garden of the casino where usually the Sanremo SongFestival is occurring.

IL SISTEMA is playing his best repertoire with songs of East of Eden, Pink Floyd, King Crimson, Gentle Giant, early Atomic Rooster, Blood, Sweat & Tears, The Nice and the classical Spooky Tooth.

Here again the same scene. The audience stops dancing to listen to the music.

Because of the loud sound the management of the casino

tells them to stop the show. The walls are trembling and the fiches are shaking on the tables. Hereafter the Baccanale is never organized there.

Meeting with Leonardo Lagorio

At the Baccanale the band meets Leonardo Lagorio, who is playing in the band Woops.

IL SISTEMA is impressed by his musical skills for the saxophone, flute and piano. Soon he will be a member of the band.

Anecdote

In the meantime the number of gigs are expanding. The distances to the venues are increasing.

They play in Piper 2000 in Viareggio and Voom Voom in Milan. Consequently transportation has to be arranged for the band and the instruments. Because of the meager financial resources they are buying an old, second-hand, orange van, a Fiat 1100 T.

Soon they find out that the predicate old is nothing too much said.

During a cold winter day on the way to a gig a giant rip forms under the foot of Ciro in the bottom plate of the bodywork from the van. So there is immediately fresh air in the van, but this air is very fresh.

Quickly they are learning the laws of the music business. The owner of the venue tells them to arrange accommodation and food, but they have to understand that they have to perform free. Well what are you doing then? Accept so.

It is one of the most requested places for Italian and international rock bands. This very generous offer in quotation marks can you not let it run? So accept.

Increasing popularity

Leonardo Lagorio ends his obligations with his band Woops.

In the Eden Rock nightclub he plays for the first time live with  IL SISTEMA as a guest musician.

In the spring of 1971 the booking Office 3p organizes a new gig in Piper 2000.

From all over Italy the fans are coming along.

They get all sorts of comments. A bald visitor with a military outfit tells them they are playing very well. Also he tells that the bands, that don't fulfill the expectations, with instruments and all got thrown off the stage. The message is clear.

IL SISTEMA is attracting more and more attention. Alberigo Crocetta, a talent scout, asks them for a prestigious festival with avant-garde music. Eventually they don’t go because of the choice of Enzo Merogno for his studies at the university.

Later Crocetta asks Ciro what kind of choice he will make.

Anecdote

For Ciro the choice is clear. He wants to continue with IL SISTEMA thanks to many contacts with music venues and booking offices they have gained.

They are painting their van black with the name of the band in large blue letters.

Once they are on their way to a gig in Milan and ending up in a demonstration with banners on which has been written: Abbasso il sistema (away with the system). This is hilarious and funny at the same time. After a long dispute and explanation the demonstrators eventually understand that they are not the representatives of ' the system ' and let them go.

Another time they do some open air performances in San Giuliano, a small town near Milan.

At the end of the performances their van has been stolen. They rapport to the police.

Quickly the police finds their van back in a creek near Milan. All bags of the drumkit were open. The thieves have undoubtedly been searching for drugs. At that time it is automatically assumed that musicians are either drug addicted or drug dealers. Finally nothing is missing and fortunately the drumkit is still at the place of the gig.

Musical development

With Leonardo Lagorio in the band they start working on new repertoire. Here we arrive at an important turning point in the career of the band. Already Luciano Cavanna wants convert classical masterpieces to rock style.

Luciano and Ciro go to a special music store for long play records in Nice in France to buy Moussorgsky’s The Night of Bare Mountain.

Luciano is modifying this piece for a five-men rock band. In this piece the start with the violins is played by the Hammond organ and a drum cymbal, while an English sung part at the end replaces the original strings.

Luciano writes the dark and gloomy lyrics for that part.

With only seven instruments and a voice IL SISTEMA manage to build a complete piece of music without doing violence to the original masterpiece.

With Leonardo on flute, the band can now also rearrange the songs of Jethro Tull.

First Popfestival

The 3p Studio from Genoa asks the band to perform in Loano on 26 August 1971.

There the first pop festival in Liguria takes place in the nightclub I Pozzi di Loano.

This will be held from early in the morning till the middle of the night. Some of the participants are the New trolls, Nuova Idea, Delirium, La Morte di Irene, Mia Martini (the first winner of the Festival della Musica d'Avanguardia e di Nuove Tendenze in Viareggio), Garybaldi, Sergio Gadolla’s Dandy’s, The Trip, Latte e Miele and Maya.

There are about 3000 spectators.

In order not to lose too much time between the gigs the organization decides that each band will perform with the same amplifiers, microphones and drumkit. But as you know, every drummer has a preference for his own composition and layout of the drum unit.

Ciro makes his drumkit available to the drummers of the other bands. Now every drummer can play in optimal conditions without the poor drumkit, made available by the organization. Consequently Ciro has to replace the drum skins of his drumkit at the end of the show.

The winners

IL SISTEMA plays at the end of the afternoon. The sun goes down slowly. A gentle breeze provides cooling of the heat at the place.

The band starts with America from the Nice, then Bourree by Jethro Tull and the strong Black Sabbath of the eponymous band. Next they play the soft I Talk to the Wind, and the strong Pictures of the City by King Crimson. As a highlight they play finally A Night on Bare Mountain.

This attracts everyone's attention. The audience storms the stage so the band can't go anywhere.

There is an overwhelming applause and a loud cry for an encore. But the organization is so tight that for an encore it is necessary to cancel the next band Delirium from the program.

There is little choice because the public has enforced an encore. So the band plays again Bourree and A Night on Bare Mountain.

A standing ovation follows.

The band is unanimously declared the winner of the Pop Festival and gets the cup for the winner.

Unfortunately, this victory cup has been lost. The triumph is entirely for IL SISTEMA.

After this unforgettable experience there are more possibilities for the band.

Record contract?

They set the first steps for drawing a record deal.

They get more offers for gigs, but slowly internal tensions arise. Guitarist Enzo Merogno wants to focus more on his studies and less on the live performances, while the band now needs the ultimate dedication to perfect their music and to achieve the definitive breakthrough.

Changes

Luciano and Ciro provide replacement for Enzo Merogno. Floriano and Leonardo take care of the management part of the band. Finally they choose for Guido Damiano, a guitarist and singer from Milan.

His parents have a mansion in Sanremo, so that he can easily join the band.

Ciro has known Guido Damiani for some time and has some musical ideas in common with him.

The introduction of a new band member often influences the music. This happens also with Guido.

He contributes to the compositions. He introduces songs he has made at an earlier stage.

Fiasco

On October 14, 1971, the band participates in the First Davoli Pop Meeting, organized by the historical music instruments brand Davoli in the Sports Palace Reggio Emilia, sponsored by the magazine Ciao 2001.

Because of several causes this gig is a fiasco. They barely get time to do a sound check and there is no one who checks the sound in the room. At that time there were no sound engineers to support the bands. Improvisation is the rule.

Ciro must play the drum kit of Davoli because they have organized the event.

There is too much feedback from behind the stage so they cannot understand each other completely. Afterwards, the amplifier of Damiani appears to be off.

The crowd is scattered and far away, so the sound is not optimal.

Thanks to the harmony between Luciano and Ciro it isn’t a complete fiasco.

Back home there are changes happening. The collaboration with Guido is under pressure. Luciano tells to need more time to write new song material instead of rehearsing over and over again.

Musical paths

IL SISTEMA begins to experiment with the electronical  deformation of their original sound with the help of Carlo Cavanna, the elder brother of Luciano. He develops a hybrid between a machine and a synthesizer, called Empirico Primo, soon followed by Empirico Secondo. 

Ciro is fully fascinated by this ancestor of the later synthesizer, that can excite and deform sound.

The role of the members of the band change.

Guido leaves the band. He is temporarily replaced by drummer Guido Sottile. Luciano is playing solo guitar in their last great composition, which has been derived from his creative brain. Ciro focuses on electronical devices. 

Il Pozzo is the greatest evidence of the artistic growth of the band. It has been inspired by the personal spiritual changes in the life of Luciano. He discovers a new religion and is practicing this with heart and soul. Soon he will stop as a professional musician.

The approaching end

Now everyone in the band has to decide how to continue. This means the end of IL SISTEMA.

Floriano Roggero has to do his military service and cannot refuse.

Leonardo Lagorio goes to the band Museo Rosenbach, where Enzo Merogno is already playing.

Ciro decides to concentrate on his piano play without stopping his experiments with electronic music.

The end

Altogether the existence of IL SISTEMA lasts about three years. It doesn’t bring them a record deal.

The band only has a contract for concerts and live gigs.

Mellow Records publishes a double long play album and a CD, based on the tapes recorded during the rehearsals of two years.

It’s a pity that IL SISTEMA never has recorded original records.

Generally it is believed that the band was capable of more than was recorded.