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It's November 1992, we're in Rome and HER PILLOW manage to get their
first gig date before they have even put together the group. In the space
of two weeks and after four phone calls they organise their first concert. Over
the phone, the owner of the club forces them to give a name to the group
(if you can call it that) so as they can use it to advertise the concert. There
and then Fabio asks his
missus to tell him the first English word that comes to mind. Her answer
was "pillow" seeing as at that moment in time she was couch-potatoing as she was wont to do. Seeing as it was her
that said it, the group put two and two together and hence the name - Her
Pillow.
It's
the 16th January and in the group line-up are Fabio, Nicola, Roberto M. and Roberto O. . The place
is called "Queen Lizard"(it will subsequently become a famous
venue for Karaoke Nights) and it's packed out with friends, only friends in
fact. The show is made up of 12 numbers (Tom Waits, Lou Reed, Pogues, Velvet Underground and others) that all in all
last for 40 minutes. The concert lasts for over 2 hours and we play some of
the numbers 3 or 4 times! A great evening.
In
October 1994 the band gains three new members: Luca Pasqualini
(drums), Luca Mereu (mandolin) and Francesca (vocals). The
result is that we make a little more noise, we play a little more Irish
music and we wind up a little bit drunker at the end of the concerts. After
about a year the mandolinist leaves the group and
Peyo Maya takes his place with the banjo. (Peyo is of Basque origin and has a great love of Ireland). The
rock-traditional aspect of the group is radicalised as a result and we play
many, many covers of the Pogues.
The
first concert on a real stage dates back to this period (at the Rome
Palladium with lights, screens, amplifiers and 2000 dancing people!!!). It
was organised for St. Patrick's Day by Radio Rock who we will do some other
gigs with. With this line-up we start out on the long road to SUCCESS until
the beginning of 1997 when Peyo quits the group
and the current banjoist Luca takes his place.
After
having travelled around Italy for a bit for
the European Music Festival, we play once more in Rome (this time at
Gianicolo, practically inside the fountain) but
instead of Luca Pasqualini on the drums, there is
Gabriele and that's
not all. Instead of having...no one on the violin, we have the Brazilian Rodrigo.
The
line-up is complete and it is with this line-up that we make our first CD,
published by "Avvenimenti" that comes
out on 17th May 1998. There are 14
traditional tracks, adapted and arranged by HP on “L'IRLANDA NEL CUORE, LA BIRRA NELLE VENE”.
Not a
year goes by and we're back in the recording studio (this time in Simone Satta and Spike's Diapason studio in Rome) to
record the second album “HA-ROO”, with the same
number of tracks as the previous CD but with the participation of some of
the best artists from the traditional Irish music scene in Rome. In the
meantime we get ready for a summer "tour" that will see the group
climbing into a van and going around Italy from the
north to the south.
In
the course of time, however, we haven't forgotten about producing a
collection of our unreleased tracks. It would have already been done, or
almost, if someone (not mentioning any names but suffice to say that his
instrument is the electric guitar) hadn't decided to cut some bread
forgetting that his middle finger was not part of the filling. We'll have to wait and see...
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