The entrance was triumphal. September 1979, the Verona Arena lights up for the Festivalbar. “I walked through the door in a sand-colored Rolls Royce convertible. It belonged to a friend of mine who had just bought a lot of paintings, and he had packed them all into the car. ‘
Surely they weren’t scabs taken at the flea market.
“No, but they weren’t mine. But the apparition was scenographic, madness mixed with exhibitionism ». Alan Sorrenti that Festivalbar won it with You are the only woman for me. Those were her crazy and golden years. Cut his long hair, shaved his beard and abandoned the hippie clothes for the elegant white suits designed by Gianni Versace, the twenty-nine-year-old half Neapolitan and half Welsh broke the charts (not only Italian) with his iconic falsetto singing: We are children of the stars / without ageless history, heroes of a dream; or wondering poignantly: I don’t know what I would give / to stop time. Rise, fall and rebirth of a man who lived between England, Italy and the States. And that today, at 71, he opens another chapter in his life with an album, Beyond the safe zoneand a tour.
Its history starts from Italy.
«From Naples, where I was born and partly raised. There I felt like a foreigner, a Welsh mother, Gwendoline, known as Gwen, and a Neapolitan father, Francesco. I wore jeans and a fur coat to put my souls together. In that city I wanted to stay as little as possible. Fortunately, I often visited my grandparents in Wales. And then my mother worked at Nato di Bagnoli, there was the scent of sweets, the music that came from the offices … when I crossed those borders I found America. At 16, in order for me to learn English well, she enrolled me in a private school. In Folkestone, on the Channel ».
Again: another life.
“I plunged into a different reality. A somewhat rebellious classmate of mine had found a way, in the evening, to take over the director’s car. He was going down to the city and I was following. When pub doors opened I listened to Otis Redding’s velvet voice and Beatles songs. One evening, in front of a live music venue, I saw an incredible line, I managed to get in and there were three guys on stage playing. At the end of the concert I knew it was Cream with Eric Clapton. Those were the waves that made me vibrate ».
Was he a rebel?
“Yes, but I managed to contain myself until I was 18. When I returned from Folkestone to Naples, I performed with I Volti Senza Nome. We were going strong. In London I had seen Family concerts. At one point the singer took the microphone stand and threw it at the delirious audience. I copied it, in fact it worked ».
You know the accidents …
“Not even one. The spectators and the owner loved us. A little less the Hearts of Stone, the group that played before us and lent us the instruments. When they saw me they were terrified but they never said no to me ».
Were his parents happy with this subversive son?
«For me they would have wanted more. So much so that I had enrolled in Medicine. One exam only, passed with flying colors. I wanted to show him that I wasn’t stupid. But they left me free, thanks to my mother and her democratic spirit. Only one thing upset her. ‘
Which?
“She was terrified that I would lose my English accent and start speaking American.”
And dad?
«An employee of the tram company and a draftsman, he was more rigid, but he did not have a strong character … he let it go. Besides, as a young man he too sang, he recorded a record. When, during the Second World War, he was imprisoned in England they had him exhibited. But the end of the conflict reduced his ambitions. I believe that music is part of the family DNA: my sister Jenny sings and so does my mother, in college, during the end-of-year party, when the prom queen is elected, she went on stage ».
Is it true that he offered a joint to Nino Manfredi?
“I really don’t remember this one. And it seems strange to me that she did it, she couldn’t stand me so much ».
Because?
“For a few years I was engaged to your daughter Roberta. Manfredi was at the peak of his career, he had made a film like By grace received, I was a twenty year old who played. I understand, my visits to his house broke his concentration. His wife Erminia used to say that my music was therapeutic ».
Naples in the seventies was a river of creativity. Who knows how many meetings.
«With Tony Esposito we played in my father’s stove warehouse, who always thought about working. Unlike me. And then the New Company of Popular Singing, Roberto De Simone, Peppe Barra, Eugenio and Edoardo Bennato. The stories intertwined. Pino was in the Sanità district, more soulful than Vomero, where I lived ».
Pino Daniele?
“He. A little smaller than me, I passed him on the stairs of my house. I went up and he went down, a boy with a great mass of black hair. He was going to play with my sister. A couple of months before he died he invited me to his concert in Naples. I was happy to hug him again after so many years. A person full of enthusiasm and projects. Behind the scenes he confessed to me that he wanted to recreate Neapolitan Power. ”
How did it end up in America?
«I went with the producer Corrado Bacchelli to record my third album. It was a daring journey. We didn’t have any money, so we took a plane from Rome to Luxembourg, then stopped in Brussels, from there to Reykjavik, Iceland, where it was snowing so hard that we were stuck for a day. Eventually we managed to fly to New York. It displaced me, it looked like Naples with skyscrapers. We slept at the Chelsea Hotel, the one frequented by Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen and Janis Joplin. The impact was unusual and spectacular: I found myself in front of the great jazzman Sun Ra. He was with his tribe, a crowd of people. I thought: this comes from another world ».
In San Francisco she found herself in the same room as Santana.
«For an interview with two: those were the years she wore white, we talked about spirituality. He was standing on top of a mountain. I below ».
He then arrived in Los Angeles.
«The world I was looking for, another dimension. I realized this as soon as the door of the plane opened and I saw the palm trees. In my pocket I had the contact of Jay Graydon, the producer of Toto, Manhattan Transfer, Al Jarreau. My San Francisco sound engineer gave it to me before I ended up lying on the console with alcohol problems. ‘
What atmosphere was there?
“When we weren’t working we went to clubs. I once met Stevie Wonder’s sound engineer who was going crazy because the great Stevie also called him in the middle of the night. I often slept in Humphrey Bogart’s former home, which was bought by my producer at the time, Greg Mathieson. An empty villa because he and his wife, with their six punky children, didn’t have the money to put it back in place. Those were incredible, exaggerated and unexpected years. He used to wake you up in the morning and you didn’t know where you were. I remember the Chinese manager of a girl who had spent the night with me, he waited all the time outside the door. As the Eagles sang: life in the fast lane certainly makes you lose your mind ».
In ’77 he wrote Stars sons.
“It wasn’t born suddenly, but the inspiration came to America. I was in the stars not only in a physical sense, I took several planes, but also for the energy and magic that Los Angeles transmitted. That year George Lucas’ Star Wars came out, I queued at a movie theater, Sunset Boulevard was a constant glitter. In Italy I presented it for the first time at the Divina in Milan, a gay club. That evening Grace Jones was also singing La Vie en Rose. For me that song remains a revelation, I am still a child of the stars ».
Did success bust your existence?
“I wanted to manage my life and I couldn’t do it anymore. In the beginning, fame is a fun game, a good movie in which you are the protagonist. After a self-destructive madness comes out, you start to get so messed up and done that you can no longer create what you want “.
In 1983, his ex-wife accused her of drug use and trafficking. There was the trial, the sentence.
“Mistakes are made in life. But after the emptiness, in 1988, I started a human revolution, I became a Buddhist for Soka Gakkai International. From that moment there is another Alan ».
A mistake that he would not make again?
“I wouldn’t get married.” He laughs and adds: “Now I would do it with my magic light, my partner Barbel: a special ceremony, nothing civil or religious”
You called your son Sky. The cosmos returns.
«Sky Julian Markus, he’s 19, has two passports and two surnames. He pushed me to record the new album ».
He titled it Beyond the safe zone. Because?
«We are entering a new, unknown and mysterious phase where certain references have vanished. We find ourselves facing challenges that lead us to overcome our limits ».
When did you pass yours?
“A lot of times. I remember a trip to Hawaii: I launched myself with a pulley on a tightrope over a precipice. But my son jumped in and I followed him. Experiences that must be tried. I use my life to the fullest, Bowie said. ‘
October 13, 2022 (change October 13, 2022 | 21:55)
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Alan Sorrenti: «I saw Clapton at 16, but I didn’t know who he was. Manfredi couldn’t stand me ”