CCCP – Faithful to the line and that old tape found by chance that takes us back to 1983

It is Friday 3 June 1983. I CCCP they are about to perform in the gym of the Galileo club in Reggio Emilia. It's their first concert. «The dance of ideas satisfies us as much as that of bodies», he says Giovanni Lindo Ferretti from the stage. A short article published in the local section of a newspaper defines him as “draculian with Battiato-like tendencies”. On the other pages, the first ones, we talk about the threat represented by the dollar towards the European Monetary System. Negotiations on supermissiles between the USA and the USSR. And new arrests for the collapse of Banco Ambrosiano. The pro-Soviet and melodic punk band from Emilia begins to play Live in Pankow: «I want to take refuge under the Warsaw Pact. I want a five-year plan, stability.” The Berlin Wall it would fall just over six years later.

It was in the German capital that the CCCP – Faithful to the lineat the beginning of the Eighties, after the meeting between Ferretti and Massimo Zamboni. And it is in Berlin that they will return to play, more than thirty years after the last time (before the long-awaited live return to Italy this summer). The show is called CCCP to DDDR: to the two classic “Ds” of the Deutsche Demokratische Republik (the German Democratic Republic), the third is added, Dismantled. Three concerts, on 24, 25 and 26 February (sold out), on the eve of which a new album will be released: Nothing but new new it is the recording of that first live performance on June 3, 1983, in the Galileo gym. But not only. It's a record that contains unpublishednever recorded covers and old arrangements of pieces released years later, in subsequent CCCP albums. Nothing but new new makes you travel back in time, over 40 years. And it takes us back to the genesis of one of the most influential groups in the Italian alternative music.

A tape found by chancerummaging in search of material for the Reggio Emilia exhibition Congratulations! CCCP – Faithful to the line. 1984 – 2024 (set up in the Cloisters of San Pietro and can be visited until 10 March). It seemed that it was unlistenable, that its content was irretrievable. Instead, the notes played in Reggio Emilia in '83 have come back to life thanks to a restoration. With them, in addition to the great classics, there are some pieces that not even the group remembered. There is Sexy Soviets which would be published with the title in '89 BBB, in the album Songs Prayers Dances of the 2nd Millennium – Europe Section. A mononote pedal, coming from the electric guitar and then eliminated in the final version, accompanies the consolatory cynicism by Ferretti: «Times of misery, times of pulsations».

There are also two totally new songs. Waves And Oi oi oi. The latter is a piece with grain new wave – you can hear something of Diaframma's Florence in the 80s – which tells of the difficulty of those who have the awareness of living in the wrong era. Early or late? It's not important. However, “our time is not like yours.” Finally, a treat for fans: the cover of Kebab Träume of the German group Düsseldorf DAF. A piece often present in CCCP's live setlist, but never recorded. Once again Germany returns, where the Fedeli alla linea were born. On the other hand, Emilia, Ferretti said, thanks to the Brenner motorway, has a special bond with Berlin. As if Carpi was his last suburb.

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