Il Gran Teatro Amaro

Il Gran Teatro Amaro

Genres: 11, Avant-Garde, dark cabaret, cabaret, neofolk

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About Il Gran Teatro Amaro

In the second half of the 1980s, Francois-Régis Cambuzat and Roberta Possamai founded a band called “The Kim Squad”, named after the Kipling novel “Kim”. They were quite successful in the Italian independent scene and released two albums,the title of the second one was “Uccidiamo Kim” (“Let’s Kill Kim”). Music in the style of Nick Cave or Crime & the City Solution. In 1989, they played at a festival in Groningen/NL where they met with resident Robert van der Tol. After a Russian tour with The Thin White Rope, they had to look for a new guitarist and bassist, and they recruited Stephan Lienenkämper (a student at Utrecht conservatory from Münster/GER) on bass and Robert van der Tol on guitar. The band was electric and ahead of a tour of Italy. In the beginning there were actually two bands : the electric one (5 people), more serious because they were playing the songs of the album; and the acoustic one (3 to 4 people) to play in bars, on the street, at parties, vernissages, funerals, whatever, to make some money. Francois Cambuzat came up with the name for the acoustic set, “Il Gran Teatro Amaro”, he would say in interviews “It’s a theatre and it’s bitter, like life”. Then they suddenly lost their drummer, the next Russian tour was cancelled anyway, No drummer, no tour, no money. Francois Cambuzat and Roberta Possamai came to live in Groningen for a few months, and the band gradually developped their repertoire. The “electric band” was abandoned, and they had their first “official” gig at University Theatre in Groningen. Instead of playing in noisy bars, they peformed their new repertoire in front of an attentive audience. They toured Italy four times a year, profiting from The Kim Squad’s reputation, amazing, surreal gigs in the deep Italian South, in Calabrian monasteries and on Sicilian village squares. Permanent touring provided the band with strength and professionalism, and they always played unamplified, under every circumstance, completely acoustic. Francois Cambuzat was the crucial personality of the band in many respects. He would throw glasses or chairs to shut people up, sit at their table and drink their wine, tell stories to help people understand the songs; his power drove the band. Together with Roberta's female charm, it was irresistible.

Taken from Last.fm

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