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    Angel with Drumsticks
    Angel with Drumsticks
    Angel with Drumsticks
    Ebook128 pages1 hour

    Angel with Drumsticks

    By Pamela King

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    About this ebook

    In a scathing indictment of the Vatican and its handling of the aftermath of the first La Messa Dei Giovani in April 1966, a new emotive book chronicles the well-known story from a formerly silent perspective; the founder of the band Angel and the Brains.

    Angelo Ferrari, drummer, singer and founder of the Italian Beat rock group recounts how the band was formed and its music ambitions. The story continues to tell the truth about what happened in the 12 months after “La Messa”
    “La Messa” was conceived to fulfil the desires of the Vatican II to make the Catholic Church more appealing to young people but, because of resulting bitter and vicious arguments within the church and the media, the Vatican took a course of action that was inconsiderate, hurtful and cold hearted.

    The story describes how these young musicians, who had responded to an invitation from the church to perform the first rock mass in Rome had their fledgling careers destroyed by the Vatican.

    The reader will discover that many articles written in recent years are wrong in their descriptions of what happened following La Messa and falsely acclaim the event as being a successful innovation of the Catholic Church at the time.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPamela King
    Release dateMar 23, 2013
    ISBN9780987541215
    Angel with Drumsticks

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    • 5/5
      Angel With Drumsticks tells the absorbing story of a group of talented young musicians in the1960s who were squashed by the Vatican.I admit that, before reading Angel With Drumsticks I had never heard of the ‘Rock Mass’, ‘Beat Mass’, or ‘Mass for the Young’ as it was variously called. I had never thought of Italian bands experimenting and working hard to develop an ‘Italian beat’, influenced by the Beatles, but certainly no carbon copy of them.This was the dream of Angelo Ferrari and the teenage boys who joined him to write and practice songs and hope for performing breaks. They called themselves ‘Angel and the Brains’. As Pamela King says in her preface, they were ‘good Catholic boys who responded to an invitation from a church representative to fulfil the new desires of Vatican 11 to be more appealing to young people.’ The Mass, performed in a church, and including two groups besides Angelo’s – the Bumpers and the Barrittas - was phenomenally successful in attracting a young audience; but the response of the Vatican hierarchy was as swift as it was unexpected. The band members were excommunicated (though the order was later rescinded). A proposed tour, including playing at the Albert Hall, was cancelled, all sponsors and venues pulling out simultaneously; the small company, Ariel, which had recorded the Mass went broke, and the three bands suddenly discovered that they could not even get gigs in small Italian towns. Those priests who had supported the Mass were moved to remote postings. ‘Angel and the Brains’ played in Tunisia for a while before breaking up, and Angelo’s promising musical career was finished.King has interviewed Angelo, who emigrated to Australia, and quotes his own thoughts and feelings, still vivid after nearly fifty years. Angel With Drumsticks contains some fascinating photographs and newspaper articles, providing insights into the furore over the rock mass and the way the controversy has continued to re-surface over the years. It is a balanced account and at the same time a very personal one. The force and speed of the Vatican crackdown, when the bands believed the church had initiated the experiment in an endeavour to attract young people, remains a mystery. I highly recommend this book.

    Book preview

    Angel with Drumsticks - Pamela King

    Angel with Drumsticks

    The rock that shook the foundations of the Vatican

    By Pamela King

    Copyright

    Angel with Drumsticks

    Pamela King

    Smashwords Edition

    Copyright © 2013 Pamela Jean King

    ISBN 978-0-9875412-1-5

    Contents

    Preface

    1. Not just any rock concert

    2. How did I get here

    3. Band formation

    4. Angel and the Brains meet Giombini

    5 The Mass

    6. Religious music causes an outcry

    7. Vatican reform or Vatican retreat

    8. Exciting outcomes

    9. Vatican interference and obstruction

    10. New successes, new challenges and new set backs

    11. The church and the media since 1966

    12. But the music lives on

    13. Angelo blames the church

    14. Author’s final note

    Preface (back up top)

    When I told Angelo Ferrari I wanted to write the story of the band his response was:

    "Well.... you want to know my story and the truth about the Mass Beat? The story of how the Vatican ruined the career of young musicians? I will tell you the true story and not the fantasies of the many media reports."

    This is the story as it was told to me by Angelo Ferrari, drummer, singer and founder of the Italian rock group Angel and the Brains. In researching support information for this book, I have discovered considerable information that is incorrect, not the least of which has emanated from the Catholic Church.

    The story tells of young musicians, good Catholic boys, who responded to an invitation from a church representative to fulfil the new desires of the Vatican II to be more appealing to young people, only to be excommunicated and have their promising careers ruined before they reached manhood.

    There are many articles written about the church backpedalling on the aim of Vatican II, but there are no articles that we have been able to find outlining the Vatican’s immediate response to the Mass, its actions and the repercussions. This story has only been made possible through the recollections of people who experienced the injustices.

    Some of the names in this story have been changed to protect the privacy and security of innocent people.

    A lot of the research material for this book was taken from Italian text. Every attempt has been made to accurately retain the message of the text during translation.

    I would like to express my sincere appreciation to Alessio Marino of Beat Boutique 67 for his interest, support and encouragement and to my editor, Jennifer Edmonds, for her valuable suggestions and friendship.

    Pamela King

    1. Not just any rock concert (back up top)

    The young men fidgeted behind stage, waiting for the seats to fill and their signal to begin. This was to be the biggest concert yet in their fledgling music careers, and each one was filled with that curious mixture of excitement flavoured with nervousness that comes from such an event. They had practised until they were flawless—their fingers knew every chord change, their voices every harmony, they had been living and sleeping and dreaming this moment for weeks and they were as ready as they could ever be—yet still the hearts fluttered lightly and breath was occasionally short; they knew that this was an important milestone.

    Three bands, all comprising young men, would share the stage, and each take their turn at the songs they had been allotted until the last number, which they would perform together. They had never worked together before—this was the first time they had ever met—and they wondered how their very different and distinctive styles would play out together on stage.

    As they waited, they could hear the concert hall filling.

    Just over two hours earlier, when their car had pulled up outside the forbidding building designed by 17th Century architect Borromini, the young band members stared at the intimidating building and took a collective deep breath. Angelo dropped his cheek into the palm of his hand. Well, we are here, I hope everything goes alright.

    It had been a typical Roman spring day. Aprile dolce dormire is an Italian expression meaning ‘April sweet sleep’. In Rome it is a beautiful mid-spring month, the days are usually fresh, mostly sunny or partly cloudy. It is known as a month for quiet relaxation and great for day trips or short holidays.

    Now, as the bands launched into their music—delighting their audience with their new beat, their new style, their new way—the gentle spring air was shattered, the music was so loud it could be heard kilometres away. Even the thunderous Italian traffic with its constant discordant harmony of horns could not be heard in the forecourt of the Oratorium let alone inside the hall itself.

    The 2,000-seat auditorium had no pre-booked seating and it was a matter of first in, first served. The organisers had been hopeful of a healthy turnout, but even their most optimistic assessments were shattered when over 10,000 turned up, and around 8,000 were turned away from the doors of the already full hall. Speakers were hastily erected outside for the benefit of these eager young fans, who jostled and crowded on the outside, desperate to hear the sounds of their favourite band.

    The national Italian television station, RAI, set up their television cameras to record the occasion and police lines were unable to contain the horde of youngsters who, motivated by this new and vital mystical feeling, had swamped the seats, tables and cornices to insure those few centimetres of space needed to wiggle their limbs.

    The boom of the drums and bass sounded like a thunder storm about to hit—and it was.

    The 8,000 fans, mostly young people, who couldn’t get into the venue, were intoxicated by the sounds coming from the huge speakers that had been hastily set up so everyone could still hear the music being performed inside.

    Inside, the applause was nearly as loud as the music and young girls were screaming with tears running down their faces as they jostled to get a closer glimpse of their new music heroes and, if at all possible, touch them.

    As the words and the music drew the crowd in, eager for more, the musicians were both astounded and elated by the adulation and excitement of the crowd.

    The young musicians of Angel and the Brains had practiced industriously, perfecting their talent and style. They had already enjoyed some success with their new Italian beat but this was a phenomenal response to their new style. At last our music is being received well, the young Angelo Ferrari thought to himself as they handed over to the next band on the stage, and wished with all his heart that his band were performing more than their allotted four songs.

    At 6pm the temperature was still a warm 20 degrees. Inside the Oratorium, the crowd of 2,000 people, RAI’s lighting and the stage lighting added to the intensity of the heat. Inside it was hot, airless and smoke filled, but the audience in their frenzy didn’t seem to notice.

    Members of Angel and the Brains had hoped that this concert would go well, and launch their music careers, and it seemed that their hopes and dreams were to be realised this night. They could have no way of knowing that this concert that would see them rocket to the dizzy heights of fame, would also be the cause of their ultimate failure.

    What the bands and

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