Tomorrow night RAI 2 will showcase a selection of live clips from Zucchero’s career in the tv program “Just Live”. The show will start at 23:30 and finish at 0:40.
Also some news concerning Zucchero’s All The Best Tour: the August 1st date scheduled for Sassari (IT) has been moved to Alghero (IT) on the same day. One would imagine tickets remain valid for this show, but for more information get in touch with ticket sellers or Friendsandpartners.it.
So far only one North-American date has been officially announced (the sept 27 one in Carnegie Hall, New York), but Zucchero and band will also appear at Toronto’s Massey Hall on October 2. The same venue they played last year. For more info on the current tour, including links to online ticket sales, please visit our tour page.
Finally, Zucchero has said in an interview with Italian newspapers that he is already planning his new studio album, which should be released in 2010. He is also looking forward on working on some new, as yet unspecified projects. All this means that the All the Best tour will probably meet its maker after the UK tour this winter, so go see those shows while you can.
Zucchero and band have started the summer leg of their All the Best tour, and will be spending the next weeks performing at festivals throughout Europe. Without the hornsection, and with a slightly shorter setlist, the focus is more on the uptempo tracks and the hits, but the quality remains the same. After these summer shows, the tour will continue in North- and (presumably) South-America, although for now only the Carnegie Hall concert has been announced, after which it will return to Europe for Zucchero’s first ever UK Tour in November and December. With seven shows lined up, this should be a great chance for the fans in Great Britain to experience Zucchero live. Dates are listed below, and tickets are already on sale through www.bookingsdirect.com.
Although last saturday’s San Siro show was billed as the only Italian concert Zucchero would give this year, a bunch of new Italian shows have been announced last week in August. Together with the already announced European dates, this makes for the following summer dates:
JUNE
27 UK, London - Hyde Park (Nelson Mandela’s 90th Birthday) - TICKETS
28 THE NETHERLANDS, Utrecht - Vredenburg Leidsche Rijn - TICKETS
29 BELGIUM, Brussels - Couleur Cafe Festival - TICKETS
JULY
05 SPAIN, Madrid - Rock in Rio - TICKETS
06 UK, Guilford - Guilfest - TICKETS
08 FRANCE, Saint Malo du Bois - Festival le Poupet
12 MAROCCO, Chefchaouen - Alegria Festival
15 FRANCE, Montelimar - Stade Tropenas - TICKETS
AUGUST
01 ITALY, Sassari - Stadio Sanna
03 ITALY, Palermo - Velodromo
06 ITALY, Catanzaro - Area Magna Grecia
07 ITALY, Lecce - Stadio Via Del Mare
09 ITALY, Viareggio - Stadio Dei Pini
12 SWITZERLAND, Avenches - Rock Oz’Arenes - TICKETS
13 ITALY, Grado - Stadio Isola della Schiusa
Zucchero promised something special for Saturday’s San Siro concert; instead of the usual stadium concert experience, San Siro would be turned into the world’s largest theatre. That didn’t really happen, yes there were chairs on the field, and yes the ushers were all dressed up in black suits and ties, but a theatre it was not. Special, however, it was. After supporting acts Neri Per Caso, pianist Giovanni Allevi and rocker Gianluca Grignani played their diverse, but excellent, sets, Zucchero and band entered the stage at 21:00, and began a blitzkrieg of hits that didn’t stop until 23:40.
During that time, thirty songs were played, including four great surprises. Dune Mosse and Un Kilo, regulars on the FLY setlist of last year but unplayed so far, returned to great enthusiasm, Wonderful Life received its tour debut in an excellent version, with the crowd singing along loudly, and Rispetto, the title track of Zucchero’s 1986 album which has gone unplayed for at least 16 years, was thrown into the, now, traditional power trio of Baila/Overdose/Il Mare.
But the entire concert was memorable, from the dancefests of Bacco Perbacco, Baila (sexy thing), and Pippo, to the scream along power of Solo Una Sana, to Miserere, which ended with all of San Siro, including Zucchero himself, honoring the late Luciano Pavarotti with a loud “LU-CIA-NO”. With almost 30.000 visitors at San Siro, and another 1.5 million at home watching Italia 1 (10% of tv viewers at the time of the European football championship), it’s safe to say San Siro 2008 can be called a great success.
Setlist: 01 Iruben Me 02 Occhi 03 Tutti i colori della mia vita 04 Bacco Perbacco 05 Un Kilo 06 Amen 07 Cuba Libre 08 Il Volo 09 Blu 10 Diamante 11 Cosi Celeste 12 Baila (sexy thing) 13 Rispetto 14 Overdose (d’amore) 15 Il Mare 16 Dune Mosse 17 Indaco dagli occhi del cielo 18 Nel Cosi Blu 19 Miss Mary 20 Wonderful Life 21 Con le Mani 22 Pippo 23 Solo una sana 24 Diavolo in me Encore 1; 25 Hi De Ho 26 Hey Man 27 Menta e Rosmarino 28 Miserere Encore 2; 29 X colpa di chi Encore 3; 30 You are so beautiful
Zucchero already announced last year during the American leg of the FLY tour that he would return to the US, Canada and South-America, and it looks like he will. On September 27 Zucchero and band will again perform in Carnegie Hall in New York, the same legendary hall they brought down last September. Tickets for the show will go on sale monday through the Carnegie Hall website, no info yet on any other American dates, but we will keep you posted!
Zucchero’s big Milan concert in San Siro stadium on June 14 will be shown on Italian television. Commercial network Italia 1 will broadcast the show live.
Zucchero will take part in the second edition of the Wind Music Award, introduced last year to celebrate the Italian music scene. The show will be aired by Italia 1 on June 4 and 5. Last year Zucchero appeared too, doing a playback version of Un Kilo.
A little more than four years ago, Zucchero played the legendary Royal Albert Hall in London to celebrate the release of ZU & Co. That night, with thirteen guests, among them Eric Clapton, Brian May, Solomon Burke, Tina Arena, Paul Young and Luciano Pavarotti, joining Zucchero on stage, will always remain one of those classic “I was there” shows. So when it was announced last year that Zucchero would return to the RAH, two questions were on our minds; would this show live up to the 2004 show, and would any of Zucchero’s mates show up for a jam session.
And to answer these questions: nope there were no guests (though the wonderful Sharon Corr did play along in Dublin on friday), and yes, it was right up there with 2004. With a band that keeps on getting tighter and tighter, and a whopping 27 songs, sunday’s Royal Albert Hall show was nothing like the surprise fest of four years ago, but it was an excellent showcase of what Zucchero has been delivering this tour.
From the very first sounds of Iruben Me, with Mario Schiliro’s guitar and Zucchero’s voice howling through the song, to You Are So Beautiful, with Zucchero accompanied only by David Sancious’ piano, the Albert Hall was captivated. And while it took Solomon Burke for the Hall to finally explode in 2004 in a fiery Diavolo in Me, this time around (helped by the countless Italians who came to see their man) everybody was on their feet from the first sounds of Bacco Perbacco.
Meanwhile, throughout the gig, the band showed they are at the top of their game this tour; Kat Dyson (ramming her guitar during Solo una sana or doing wonderful backing vocals during Cosi Celeste), ‘reverend’ Polo Jones (with an extra long sermon and some bass-in-the-air-throwing), Adriano Molinari, David Sancious and Mario Schiliro played with apparent ease and joy, while the addition of the horn section (with James Thompson shining with his solo’s in Cuba Libre, Blue and Il Mare, and Massimo Greco in Everybody’s got to learn sometime) gives songs like Pippo and Con le Mani some extra flavour.
So no surprises last sunday in London, but (yet again) proof that Zucchero and his band can take down any concert building they wish, and that if you have the chance of seeing them perform during the next few months, you really, really should.
Setlist:
Iruben Me / Occhi / Tutti i colori della mia vita / Bacco Perbacco / Amen / Cuba Libre / Il Volo / Blue / Diamante / Cosi Celeste / Baila (sexy thing) / Overdose (d’amore) / Il mare… / Everybody’s got to learn sometime / Nel cosi blu / Miss Mary / L’Urlo / Con le Mani / Pippo / Solo una sana… / Diavolo in me / Encore 1; Hi de Ho / Menta e Rosmarino / Miserere / Encore 2; Senza una Donna (Without a Woman) / X colpa di chi? / Encore 3; You are so beautiful
The wonderful pictures shown in this post were made by our friend Giovanni Pagani. For more of his RAH pics, see here, for pictures of friday’s Dublin show, see here.
More summer dates for Zucchero’s All the Best tour have become official, among them two French festival dates, and one in Morocco. Also, Zucchero will perform in the Netherlands again (somebody enjoyed himself in Rotterdam and Groningen), this time in Utrecht.
JUNE
14 ITALY, Milano - San Siro - TICKETS 27 UK, London - Hyde Park (Nelson Mandela’s 90th Birthday) - TICKETS 28 THE NETHERLANDS, Utrecht - Vredenburg Leidsche Rijn - TICKETS 29 BELGIUM, Brussels - Couleur Cafe Festival - TICKETS
JULY
05 SPAIN, Madrid - Rock in Rio - TICKETS 06 UK, Guilford - Guilfest - TICKETS 08 FRANCE, Saint Malo du Bois - Festival le Poupet
12 MAROCCO, Chefchaouen - Alegria Festival
15 FRANCE, Montelimar - Stade Tropenas - TICKETS
AUGUST
12 SWITZERLAND, Avenches - Rock Oz’Arenes - TICKETS
It’s not really a classic live vid, since it’s, well, not live, but this vid recently uploaded on Youtube by Warner Music gives us a nice glipmse into the studio session Zucchero had with Mana back in 2003 to record a new version of their Eres Mi Religion.
