For the second edition, SEI doubles up and moves to the Ionian Sea. On Wednesday, August 8th and Thursday, August 9th, Gallipoli ‘s Stadio Comunale hosted a two-day festival of ska and rock, reggae and punk, hip hop and pop. Two evenings in the company of Italian and international artists and the best realities of Apulia and Salento. Among the 2007 guests Skatalites, Verdena, Three Merry Dead Boys, Vallanzaska, Fido Guido, Leitmotiv, Makako Jump.
The first night of the festival is marked by the rhythms of ska, rap and reggae. Headliners the legendary Skatalites, the group that marked the birth of ska. The Skatalites have made a stop in Salento for their “40th anniversary Tour”.
On stage alongside them Vallanzaska, who presented in Gallipoli the CD Cose Spaventose. With this album Vallanzaska have achieved what every band yearns for: the invention of their own genre. A trademark, a unique style: the “Vallanzaska style”.
Plus Taranto singer Fido Guido and Trieste’s Makako jump and, to end on a high note, Villa Ada Posse, one of Italy’s most popular crews abroad. With its great songs, concerts and hundreds of dance hall around Italy, the Villa Ada reggae crew has contributed in a fundamental way for more than a decade to writing the history not only of reggae in Rome, their city, but also of Italian reggae.
On Thursday, August 9th, Sud Est Independente shifted to decidedly harder sounds. Guests were Verdena, a group idolized by the public and critics as the most original and interesting rock act on the Italian scene. The band from Bergamo, which was back from tours throughout Europe, presented Requiem, the fourth CD of their production, in Gallipoli.
Also on stage were Tre Allegri Ragazzi Morti .Led by musician and cartoonist Davide Toffolo, the band presented the CD “The Second Sexual Revolution” in which the Pordenone trio’s rock’n’roll, after their South American experiences, was colored with more dance grooves, enriched by their many collaborations. As always, their live show ended with Toffolo’s now mythical mantra, “Life is bad but I didn’t invent it”.
From Salento, finally, Leitmotiv, Spread your legs and Logo arrived on stage too. Also performing over the two evenings were the two winning bands from the competition held August 6th and 7th at Cotriero in Gallipoli. The two winning bands were selected by a jury composed of journalist Maria Pia Romano, event organizer Mino Munitello, and Rai singer and chorister Michele Cortese.[:en]#SEIfestival 2007 – August 8/9 @ Stadio Comunale of Gallipoli (Lecce) featuring Skatalites, Verdena, Tre Allegri Ragazzi Morti, Vallanzaska, Fido Guido, Leitmotiv, Makako Jump, Spread your legs and Logo.
Since its beginning in 2006, the SEI has declared its vocation to choose heterogeneous groups and projects, to transform itself every time expanding the horizon of its proposals to offer to its audience a broad and varied overview of the music looking for different genres, from punk to singer-songwriter, from rock to ska, from folk to the upbeat rhythms. In the different locations of Salento that have hosted the festival, took turns artists like Kings of Convenience, Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, Cat Power, Baustelle, Gogol Bordello, Bugo, Skatalites, Daniele Silvestri, Verdena, Tre Allegri Ragazzi Morti, Vallanzaska, Teatro degli Orrori, One Dimensional Man, Russell Leetch, Is Tropical, Populous, Giuda, Fast Animals and Slow Kids, Mannarino, Avion Travel, Negrita, Calibro 35, Brunori Sas, Amor Fou, Lombroso, Dellera and many other Italian and Apulian realities such as Crifiu, Mascarimirì, Mery Fiore, Sofia Brunetta, La Gente, Una.
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