History
Biglietto per l'Inferno's members were from Lecco, Lombardy, coming from the bands Mako Sharks and Gee. The year 1972 marked the band's first concerts. In 1974 the band released their eponymous LP, a mixture of hard rock and progressive sounds. The most prominent instruments in the record were Marco Mainetti's guitar and Giuseppe Cossa's keyboards. Claudio Canali,the lead singer, also played flute. The lyrics Canali wrote for the song "Confessione" were about a murder: despite the band's name, meaning "Ticket to Hell", the lyrics have no references to hell or demonic themes - (except the quote "What do you say, brother - you have murdered? (...) I cannot save you from the eternal fire, you only have a ticket to hell"). The other songs feature lyrics dealing with social and psychological themes.
The second album Il tempo della semina ("The Seed-time") was recorded in 1974-1975 (production by Eugenio Finardi), but was not issued until 1992. Biglietto per l'Inferno split up in 1975. Some of its members continued their careers in the music industry: Giuseppe Banfi recorded four electronic music albums in 1977-1988 under the name Baffo Banfi, while Fausto Branchini issued several pop music singles. Mauro Gnecchi joined a jazz band and worked for Racconti della tenda rossa by Franco Mussida. Mainetti earned a Ph.D. in physics and Canali retired to live as a monk in a monastery located in the mountains near Lucca, Tuscany.
A 30th anniversary box set was released in 2004 containing remastered versions of both official albums, a third CD with a live recording from 1974 in Lugano, and a DVD including various material.
In 2007 Pilly, Mauro Gnecchi e Baffo with Fra Claudio (Canali) blessing, restart the band. The new project is characterized by a folk music texture and by the ".folk" suffix that has been added to the end of the bands name. As although a folk element could be heard in the earlier incarnation the new Biglietto is a much expanded band with a more diverse range of acoustic instruments being used than before. As well as the obligatory flute which was always a key element of the bands sound we also have Accordion, Bagpipes, Ocarina, Mandolin, Violin, acoustic guitar, stand up bass, fife and recorder. The most noticeable difference to fans of the band will undoubtedly be Canali's replacement, female vocalist Mariolina Sala. The rest of the new members all fill their rolls with admirable aplomb with guitarist Franco Giaffreda playing with a more modern metal style, the jazzist Enrico Fagnoni at bass and double bass and three pure folk musicians: Carlo Redi, Raineri Fumagalli and Renata Tommasella The band published in 2010 a new album Tra l'assurdo e la ragione and starts a live tour.
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