#78 Torino, Stadio Comunale, 8.9.1988

Human Rights Now!
Torino, Stadio Comunale
September 8th 1988

Youssou N'Dour
Tracy Chapman
Claudio Baglioni
Peter Gabriel
Sting
Bruce Springsteen

- - - - -

It was 25 years ago today. Well.... almost...
It was 25 years ago yesterday ;-)

The 5th show in the series - after London, Paris (2 dates) and Budapest - that brought the Amnesty International message and especially the Universal Declaration Of Human Rights all over the world.

Those early dates were musically not yet as adventurous as the tour would prove at later stages (I would give almost everything to go back in time and see the shows in Africa and India!), but the ones I saw were all solid performances by everybody involved.

I do remember the first Wembley show as the weakest. Gabriel played in the early afternoon, immediately after Youssou and before Tracy Chapman. But though the decision was dictated by the will of letting others go ahead and take the better spot, the choice proved to be wrong and a mistake: most people had not yet even arrived at the stadium and his performance was already over! Not being a fan of Sting and knowing that I had a few more dates ahead to see them all, I left after Tracy's set!

The French audience was great as always, but the thing that struck me the most in Bercy that year was how good it all sounded, proving once again that the advantage of the second night in the same venue is a clear plus! This was particularly significant in PG's set during the opening number: the combination of Shankar's violin and Youssou's voice was superb. It's just a pity that Nusrat didn't get aboard on the tour, so as to replicate daily/nightly the sheer magic that was the Cornwall Coliseum night!!

About Torino, then...
It's funny that in typical Italian style we were the only ones to make a huge fuss about the invited "local" artist. The voices against Baglioni were loud and numerous, but in retrospect they were just silly... In most other places the selected musicians was definitely not the "best" the local scene could offer, but nowhere else - at least that I know of - people booed their own representative.
That, more than any artistic whim or inspiration, is the reason behind Peter appearing on stage in the middle of Baglioni's set to support him during the song "Ninna Nanna"...

PG's set was abruptly interrupted in the midst of Shock The Monkey by a power failure which silenced the whole stadium all of a sudden. But things were quickly fixed and after 10/15 minutes, with a second Monkey take, thing got back to normal.

In the past few months a number of different recordings from that day have been lovingly and carefully recovered, repaired and remastered by a bunch of fans to completely recreate that beautiful day. The full package includes 5 audio cds and 1 dvd which you can download FOR FREE from a torrent site near you (you can choose among Dime, Jungleland and the Genesis Movement one)
 :-)

The video above is the grand finale for the show with everybody onstage doing a fine version of Bob Marley's and Peter Tosh's hymn "Get up! Stand Up!", and it has been reconstructed using audience recorded audio, pro shot extracts from a tv program and some amateur video footage. But the dvd includes more, and I'll let you find it out by yourself.

As always, I hope you'll enjoy it!


Full Setlist

• ALL ARTISTS
Get Up! Stand Up!

• YOUSSOU N'DOUR
Nelson Mandela
Immigrés/Bitim Rew
Bamako
The Truth
Kocc Barma

• CLAUDIO BAGLIONI
Strada Facendo
Via
Amori In Corso
Notte Di Note, Note Di Notte
Ninna Nanna Nanna Ninna (with Peter Gabriel)
Uomini Persi
E Adesso La Pubblicità
La Vita E' Adesso

• TRACY CHAPMAN
Across The Lines
For My Lover
Behind The Wall
Fast Car
Freedom Now
Mountains O'Things
Talkin'bout A Revolution
Why?

• PETER GABRIEL
Of These, Hope
Games Without Frontiers
Family Snapshot
Shock The Monkey (stopped for blackout)
Shock The Monkey
No Self Control
Don't Give Up
Sledgehammer
In Your Eyes
Biko


• STING
01 King Of Pain (3LP bootleg)
02 If You Love Somebody, Set Them Free (SM tape)
03 One World (Not Three) (LDB master series)
04 Fragilidad (LDB master series)
05 They Dance Alone (LDB master series)
06 Fortress Around Your Heart (LDB master series)
07 Bring On The Night (LDB master series)
08 When The World Is Running Down (LDB master series)
09 Don't Stand So Close To Me (LDB master series)

• BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN & THE E STREET BAND
Born In The U.S.A.
The Promised Land
Cover me
Working On The Highway
The River (with Sting)
Cadillac Ranch
War
My Hometown
Thunder Road
Beacuse The Night
Glory Days
Born To Run
Raise Your Hand

• ALL ARTISTS
Chimes Of Freedom
Get Up! Stand Up!

#4 - Torino, Palasport, 30.9.1980

Last day of three dates Italian tour, and besides the mess of the night before (for me, that is, it was spent with no sleep at all between the station and the police offices), the general mood was higher than ever: a funny episode happened while waiting for the show to begin which raised the spirits even more when some of the roadies pulled a trick on the audience by deciding to play a tape (no cds yet at the time...) of I Know What I Like... The Palasport almost exploded - like they were ready to witness or expect a miracle to happen any moment - but then reason prevailed and the roar soon changed into a giant chorus...

As in the two nights before, Peter introduced every song in Italian, reading from some "phonetically" prepared sheets. It marked the start of a long series of "corrections" that the audience usually shouted out loud and Peter dutifully acknowledged.

The gig itself was not the best of the three, as fatigue was by then quite evident on Peter's face, as this was one of the final dates of the world tour that had taken up much of the year for him. Nonetheless he didn't spare a drop of sweat, and the raw energy of the performance was once again staggering.

The best of it all came near the end: first, during Biko, a bunch of hotheads got sort of carried away and when Peter turned the microphone to the audience with the usual formula - «the rest is up to you» - they actually got hold of the microphone to start singing into it! The sound engineer quickly turned the mike off, but not before a couple of "oh-oh-oooohs" could be heard by everybody else...

And lastly, after DIY and On The Air the lights came up, and the usual outgoing music started to play. The band had already skipped And Through The Wire from the set, and evidently they thought they would just end it there.

But we did not want to hear about it: everybody went on clapping and shouting for more nonetheless, so that Peter was in a sense "forced" to come back on stage. When he did, with all the lights still on, he gave us an amazing version of Here Comes The Flood, and the image of him with wet eyes at his piano is still one of the strongest I bear in my memory.

Setlist

Intruder

The Start

I Don't Remember

Solsbury Hill

Family Snapshot

Milgram's 37

Modern Love

Not One Of Us

Lead A Normal Life

Moribund The Burgermeister

Mother Of Violence

Humdrum

Games Without Frontiers

I Go Swimming

Biko

On The Air

Here Comes The Flood

(This review was originally posted about 10 years ago on my old, old website. The original format is still available here)