Gig in Milan

Ciao ragazzi… I bet you all are waiting to read the report from the big gig in Milan! Well, let me started… after the gig in Poland I was quite sure I’ll not have any gigs around Europe at least till the fall, because of eternal money problem plus family obligations. But the situation changed for just a couple of hours when I find out a low cost flight and a place to stay in Milano. So despite the moaning wife and the small amount in my pockets I flew to Italy on 14^th June in perfect condition of spirits. After almost 2 hours flight I landed in Bergamo, from where in went to downtown Milan. I had some free time for sightseeing before a mighty crew of Russians comrades joined me in the hotel. As you may know Russian and Bulgarian languages are very similar, so there was not any language barrier or even a need to communicate in English. It was a bit late so we decided to go to downtown of the city, instead of visiting Skinhouse Milano, which was far away from us. Unfortunately the whole city centre was empty, no people on the streets, pubs closed down, not even stores were open where you can get cold and cheap beer L In moments like this I realize how much I love Eastern Europe where you can have drinks on reasonable prices 24/7 J  So finally we find out a place where we had some beers (0.66 ml, just to notice) the good mood was back, so we’ve spend the night till 4 o’clock drinking and singing on the streets.
           So at Saturday after an early beer start and lunch we headed to the edge of the city where the meeting point of the gig was. On the metro station we met some beautiful Canadian skingirl which couldn’t stand the charm of our gentleman crew and joined our ranks.  Just a few meters before the gig venue we were stopped by civil police who took away and pictured our passports. Fuck you “Old bill” it’s not illegal to visit skinhead gigs…still!

   The gig venue appeared to be a big store - house with well sized open air area in front of it. Right on the moments when we’ve entered, Brutal attack was having their sound check. Nevertheless the acting of Ken on stage was emotional as always, so we had a few songs in advance before the real start of the gig. We used this time to buy some T-shirts and cd’s from the numerous tacles with merchandise and to put the Russian (Imperial) and Bulgarian national flags on the stage.

     The gig has started around 7.30 p.m. with the first band for the evening – Wolfsfront,   totally new and unknown band from Germany. They played the typical for their country aggressive R.A.C. with metal influences mixing own songs with covers of Hassgesang and The Oppressed (Ultra Violence). Not bad performance at all, but in Germany there is too many bands who sound quite the same and this one makes no difference.  The sound of the vocal was a bit down, but the sound technicians fixed this problem for the next bands.

Second on stage appeared Garrota from Varese . The band has been around for a couple of years, producing a demo cd entitled “Fuori dai nostri quartieri” in 2008 and full length album “Dalla Parte Sbagliata” in 2011. They have played a dozen of own songs plus a cover of Plastic surgery – “Rivolta”.

Next on the row was Linea Ostile - a brand new band from Bolzano/Trento. Apart from being rookies, I give my credits to them because their sound is melodic with rough vocals, quite similar to an old and famous Italian band "Peggior Amico". They have a five songs demo cd self - released just a few weeks ago.

Corona Ferrera was fourth band for the night. They are formed in 1993. They have produced a demo in 1993, with 4 songs and split EP with Gesta Bellica from Verona named "Tempi Moderni" produced by Tuono Records. This split features three songs by Corona Ferrera. In 1996 Tuono Records produced the first and only album by CF named "Skinhead Action" with 10 tracks. They have also appeared in 6 compilations among which "Fuori dal Ghetto", "Tributo a Janus" "I Ragazzi Sono Colpevoli" "Keep It White" "Tribute To Legion 88" "Best Of Tuono Records".  It was great to listen live and sing together old songs like "Nessuna Resa", "Combatti", "Uno di noi", "Giustizia" and others. Italian and Spanish guys went totally crazy! Another top performance was also the song "Non ho tradito" ("I have not betrayed"), the lyrics are from a poem from an Italian soldier parachutist from Folgore Division written while he was in prison after the II World war.

Brutal attack was the next on the schedule. They started with their usual set with tracks  “Tales of glory”, “Healing hands” and “Always near”. As always there was a fantastic stage performance of “good old” Ken who was jumping on big PA system columns like a mental teenager J  In the middle of their set the electricity in the hall went off for a couple of minutes, so it was time for the crowd to sing a song, which was Aurora’s evergreen “Avanti Ragazzi (di Buda)”. Right after the electricity was back on the band waste no time and we got “Rock against communism” which led to massive pogo in front of the stage. Sadly Ken didn’t want to perform any Skrewdriver covers, despite that crowd was yelling for “Free my land” so after few more songs the set was ended with encore of  “Tales of Glory”.

ADL 122 is a veteran Skinhead Italian band formed in Milan over 1993. Their name is chosen in opposition to the Decree Law 122 issued on April 26, 1993, involving “emergency measures in the material of racial, national, ethnic and religious“, from there the acronym A.D.L. 122 which gives the name to the band. They have play an energy set of 14 songs such as “I ragazzi sono coplevoli”, “Anni Passati”, “Skinhead 88” and of course their most know hit “Off”.

Guys from Bully Boys came on the gig place at the late hours of the day, coming directly from Slovenia, where they had a small local gig the previous evening. We had time to have some brief conversation and took some pics with their fans on the open air area. They started their performance after midnight with songs from their last two albums such as “Superstar’s back”, “Nobody’s Hero”, “Dead man tale no tales” and “Hate me please”.

  For some reason Scott sang without the needed for such gigs passion( I guess he waste it all previous night in Ljubljana) , which was felt by the crowd. The other negative thing was that the long awaited “promotion” of their brand new album “From Amerika with Love” did not happened at all. Scott apologized for this from the stage, no matter that I doubt it was his fault. Anyways their performance and the whole gig ended with the top classic “Skinhead Superstar”. For this song the band invited few girls to join them on stage. But they were too shy to sing on microphone, so it was time for yours truly Revolt NS editor to invade the stage and sang the song from the top of his awful voice J What an unexpected end of the show, isn’t it J

So unfortunately it was time to say “goodbye” to all the comrades across Europe. Concert was attended by around 900 people from countries like Spain, Portugal, France, Italy, Germany, Poland, Czech Rep., Sweden, Hungary, Slovakia, Russia, USA, Canada and of course me from Bulgaria. May be because of the too many drinks, but I had the feeling the gig finished too fast. To be honest the concert was pretty good, but I’ve expected much more from some of the bands (especially from Bully boys) and from the show atmosphere in general. The whole event passed without any incidents between the attenders from the different European nations in a really friendly and joyful atmosphere. I would like to thank the boys and girls from Italia Hammerskins and Crew 38 for the job well done! Regards to my comrades from Germany (Joanna, Massimo, Yves& PC rec. crew), Kris, Tomasz and Polish skinhead gang, Gery (HS Hungary), Pigi (SPQR Skins Rome) and at last but not the least Kirill, Vlad and the rest of the Russian crew!!!

The morning after we find out that our photo is already in Italian newspapers  which you can see HERE Having in mind that now the main political party in Milan is leftwing, these news was like a bomb for them, 900 skinheads in the center of Milan!

To summarize it with just few words - it was a perfect weekend in Milan, those who have miss it can only regret!!!

Exclusive report by Editor
Photos by Fabio