History - SEMIRAMIS

The band was formed in 1971 in Rome (Centocelle neighborhood) with Maurizio Zarrillo, Marcello Reddavide, Memmo Pulvano.

After a few months, in view of the historic concert at Villa Pamphili in Rome, Maurizio contacted the organizers (Pino Tuccimei) asking to take part with his band in this great event. After having received the ok, he realized the importance of the event and asked his brother Michele Zarrillo, who had already been on the stages of the capital for some years, to join the Band as guitarist and singer; they agreed that their name: ”Ipotesi di una metamorfosi” was not suitable for this purpose. From an idea of Marcello, passionate about Dante and the Divine Comedy, he discovered in the fifth canto of hell the story of Semiramis, a Babylonian queen whom Dante mentioned as Semiramìs and from here SEMIRAMIS became the historical name of the band.

In the summer of ’72, after participating in the Villa Pamphili Pop festival, Memmo Pulvano left the band for work matters.

Settimio Cora, drummer in PICCOLI LORD with Michele, was called in his place but after just one week he was dismissed due to character differences. During the search for a new drummer the band felt the need to broaden the sound and brought in Giampiero Artegiani on acoustic guitars. Since the band had still the drummer role vacant, Giampiero, recommended his friend Paolo Faenza to his bandmates and in September ’72 the lineup which gave birth to FRAZZ was complete.

The Band, as it was usual in the ’70s, locked up in rehearsal studio (tenderly called ”the asylum room”) for a year, from September ’72 to 16 September ’73 and based on the literary composition of Marcello Reddavide narrating the story of a psychopath later called FRAZZ (Faenza/Reddavide/Artegiani/Zarrillo/Zarrillo), composed the 7 songs that will give life to their LP ”Dedicato A FRAZZ”. From 17 to 28 September 1973, recording began at the Reg Son studio in Milan. Before the official introduction of the album which took place in February ’74, the band boasted a series of concerts and participations in the most important festivals of the time (together with big names such as Banco del Mutuo Soccorso, Osanna, Rovescio della Medaglia, RRR, Balletto di Bronzo…etc.) in ’74 they solit up; they paid the price of being inexperienced given their young age (17 years on average). In January ’74, close to the presentation of DEDICATO A FRAZZ, which took place at the Francesco d’Assisi high school in Rome, Marcello and Maurizio left the band and in their place Tony Massarutto came in on bass and Giulio Ferrarin on keyboards. A little gem for fans, the presentation concert was opened by a very young Antonello Venditti! In the autumn of ’74 both Robert Cunningham, owner of the music magazines Sound Flash and SuperSound of the time and producer of the band, and Trident Records, made the BASF studios in Rome available with the intention of making a second album.

Being unaware of the great opportunity and given their naive young age, the fantastic SEMIRAMIS experience ended after a few weeks. In 2013 Paolo Faenza called Giampiero and Maurizio with the intention of reviving the band (Michele was not interested and Marcello said no for work reasons). With the inclusion of the new elements Vito Ardito, Antonio Trapani, Ivo Mileto and Daniele Sorrenti, the band resumes its concert activity with the first reunion at the Planet in Rome, as part of Guido Bellachioma’s Progressivamente Free Festival in September 2014, obtaining a great success among the public who after 40 years could listen to ”Dedicated to FRAZZ” live (a delegation from Japan also came). As in the old days, the hanging of FRAZZ (mannequin that had the looking and features of Giampiero Artegiani) was inevitable. After a series of concerts and the replacement of Daniele Sorrenti for personal reasons with Rino Amato, in 2017 the band recorded the concert at the La Claque theater in Genoa, giving life to a live CD/DVD produced and distributed by Black Widow of Genoa, with the seven songs from Dedicato a FRAZZ plus two unreleased songs composed for the occasion. In August of the same year, this work was presented in Japan in a concert at the Club Città in the Kawasaky district of Tokyo and subsequently in Italy in Rome as part of Guido Bellachioma’s Progressivamente Free Festival.

Unfortunately, on July 7th, shortly before leaving for Japan (August 10th), Maurizio Zarrillo tragically passed away due to a sudden illness. Disheartened by this loss, the Band nevertheless decides to honor the commitment made in his memory. Daniele Sorrenti returns to his place permanently (the two were very close) and in a short time he prepares to leave for Japan knowing that a very emotionally difficult task would await him there, playing what he had always heard from his friend. In 2018 Antonio Trapani will also be replaced initially by David Giacomini and immediately afterwards by Emanuele Barco (brotherly friend of Daniele Sorrenti) and Rino Amato will leave the project. After the experience of Japan, the galvanized band continues to play concerts and begins a new writing activity for a new album but towards the end of 2018 Giampiero Artegiani, who had been ill for some time on 4 February 2019 in Rome, left us. Another terrible moment and Paolo Faenza is the only one still active of the “VECCHI” encouraged by the others and continues the adventure with a concert on 30 March 2019 at the Club Giardino in Lugagnano. In mid-2023, shortly before entering the studio (Soul Sound Recording Studio in Rome) for the recording of the new album ”La Fine non esiste”, Marco Palma, coming from Laviàntica, joined the band and was entrusted with the 6 and 12 string acoustic guitars and Giovanni Barco, Emanuele’s twin, also joined the band, taking his place as the lead vocalist of the Band. The album was released by BTF Records in February 2024 with the external and internal cover paintings created by Massimiliano Angelotti; the Mix & Mastering by Maurizio Pinna ”Mixwithnorules”.

The Band is currently active with a series of national and international gigs.

Line-up from ’71 to July ’72

Maurizio Zarrillo – Keyboards
Marcello Reddavide – Bass
Memmo Pulvano – Drums
Michele Zarrillo – Electric guitars and vocals

Line-up from August ’72 to January ’74 Maurizio Zarrillo – Keyboards

Marcello Reddavide – Bass
Michele Zarrillo – Electric guitars and vocals
Giampiero Artegiani – Acoustic guitars / Synth
Paolo Faenza – Drums / vibraphone

Line-up from February ’74 to September ’74

Michele Zarrillo – Electric guitars and vocals
Giampiero Artegiani – Acoustic guitars / Synth
Paolo Faenza – Drums / vibraphone
Giulio Ferrarin – Keyboards
Tony Massarutto – Bass

Line-up from 2013 to December 2016

Paolo Faenza – Drums / vibraphone
Maurizio Zarrillo – Keyboards
Giampiero Artegiani – Acoustic guitars
Ivo Mileto – Bass
Vito Ardito – Vocals / Acoustic Guitars
Antonio Trapani – Electric guitars
Daniele Sorrenti – Organs / Piano / Synth

Line-up from January 2017 to July 2017

Line-up from July 2017 to August 2017

Paolo Faenza – Drums / vibraphone
Daniele Sorrenti – Organs / Piano / Synth
Giampiero Artegiani – Acoustic guitars
Ivo Mileto – Bass
Vito Ardito – Vocals / Acoustic Guitars
Rino Amato – Synth Piano Organs
Antonio Trapani – Electric guitars

Line-up from September 2017 to October 2018

Line-up from November 2018 to February 2019

Line-up from April 2019 to November 2022

Paolo Faenza – Drums / vibraphone
Daniele Sorrenti – Organs / Piano / Synth
Ivo Mileto – Bass
Vito Ardito – Vocals / Acoustic Guitars
Emanuele Barco – Electric guitars

Line-up from December 2022 to today

Paolo Faenza – Drums / vibraphone
Daniele Sorrenti – Organs / Piano / Synth
Marco Palma – Acoustic guitars
Ivo Mileto – Bass
Giovanni Barco – Vocals
Emanuele Barco – Electric guitars