’70s Italian rockers finally reach Korea

A legendary Italian progressive rock band and its original members from the 1970s are coming to Seoul next month.
PFM, or Premiata Forneria Marconi, stunned rock fans when they emerged three decades ago at a time American rock was still the norm in the world of rock n’ roll.
The veteran group performs “progressive rock” with symphonic orchestral music in the background. The genre arose in the late 1960s principally in England, so followers were surprised when an Italian group not only attempted but was highly successful at the style.
PFM is the only Italian progressive rock band that has had success in the United States, England and Canada.
“It’s almost a pity that PFM is coming finally, 30 years after they debuted,” says Hwang Woo-chang, a music critic, in the April edition of Monthly Proud. “There will be fans out there who will naturally ask what is the point of a rock star coming when he is already old.”
“But no need to worry about that,” he said.
Mr. Hwang said concerts in Tokyo and Osaka in 2002 had the same program that PFM will perform in Seoul.
“They sounded the same as they did 30 years ago,” he said.
The line-up for the concert in Seoul includes original members Franco Mussida on guitar and vocals, Patrick Djivas on electric bass and Franz Di Cioccio on percussion. Also appearing will be Gianluca Tagliavini and Lucio Fabbri on keyboards and Piero Monterisi on percussion.
Some of the songs they will perform are the “Impressioni Di Settembre,” a song from their greatest hits album, “The World Became the World,” and “Dolcissima Maria,” also titled “Just Look Away” in English.
Sung Si-hwan, a DJ and long-time fan of the band, said, “It was about 25 years ago that I first had the chance to introduce PFM and its music on my late night radio program.”
He said he had a hard time even pronouncing the unfamiliar Italian words back then.
Because only American and British pop was popular ― or even known ― in Korea in those days, he could not find anyone who knew about the group. He eventually resorted to consulting an Italian-Korean dictionary.
“I looked up the words ‘premiata,’ ‘forneria’ and ‘marconi,’” he said. “They meant ‘receiving awards,’ the middle one I couldn’t figure out, and the last word was the name of an inventor.”
“So I ended up talking nonsense on the radio that this unfamiliar Italian group was born commemorating an inventor,” he said. “It was horrible.”

by Lee Min-a

The PFM concert will be held on May 9 at the LG Arts Center located near Yeoksam station on subway line No. 2. Tickets cost from 30,000 won ($31) to 60,000 won. For more information call 2005-0114.