Our favourite extreme music festival – Supersonic – is almost here. We look forward to the treats in store and Jimmy Martin talks to Italian psych/prog horror legends Goblin
Not so long ago, Brian May was heard to remark that Queen’s soundtrack to Flash Gordon marked the first instance of a rock band providing the score to a motion picture. Much as we all love Flash Gordon and the glorious bombast that accompanies it, such a claim is plainly nonsense. Not only does it ignore the frequently meandering and inconsequential work that Pink Floyd delivered to score films like Zabriskie Point, More and La Vallee, and the work of Can on the numerous celluloid projects that led to their Soundtracks album, but it also fails to take into account the twin titans of 70s rockscore lore, whose startlingly vivid work looms large over not only much else of a similar disposition, but sometimes the very films themselves: Florian Fricke’s Popol Vuh, and the Italian maestros of florid grand guignol, the band synonymous with horror auteur Dario Argento, Goblin.

Goblin’s cult following originally began around the time that their score to Profondo Rosso became a chart hit in their native land, somehow taking a sound which occupied similar territory to the ill-reputed likes of Mike Oldfield and Emerson Lake And Palmer, yet injecting it with a dynamism and drama that places them well outside the more self-regarding and indulgent spheres of mid-seventies experimentation

Indeed, such was the impact of Goblin’s music, that the symbiotic relationship between film and soundtrack was often thrown beyond its usual metier. During the making of Argento’s heavenly bloodbath Suspiria, for instance, much of the music was recorded before any of the film was actually shot, and played on set to build up the requisite atmosphere. True to form, it’s genuinely hard to imagine that film’s otherworldly allure being anything like as potent without Goblin’s dark, deliciously overwrought blend of progressive baroque and wild, raw experimentation blasting away in tandem.

Read the full article
http://thequietus.com

Goblin perform for the first time in the UK at Supersonic Festival on Sunday 26th of July and also at the Scala in London on Monday 27th of July
Tickets for Supersonic Festival are available from www.theticketsellers.co.uk
and for the London show from www.ticketweb.co.uk

Goblin played the Donau festival in Austria back in April and the reviews were good – it’s got us all extra excited for their appearance at this year’s  Supersonic Festival.

Italy’s Goblin proposed a world where punk never happened. At their first concert for 30 years, they played a selection of classic material from their 1970s horror film soundtracks, from Profondo Rosso, Suspiria and Zombi, plus material from their 2005 album Return of the Goblin. It was amusing to see the young, trendy crowd rocking out to Goblin – much of their set consisted of precisely the kind of symphonic Prog rock and Gary Moore-style guitar solos long considered the high watermark of cheese. But the exigencies of film soundtrack composition always saved Goblin from Prog’s worst excesses and gave them a unique palette, tempering their more grandiose moments with creepy nursery rhyme melodies and ghoulish whispers – current Black Metal fantasists like Deathspell Omega or Velvet Cacoon (and even NNCK) owe much to Goblin’s pioneering vocal work. The Wire – June 2009

And here’s the setlist from that gig:

Magic Thriller

Mad Puppet

Dr Frankenstein

Roller

E Suono Rock

Aquaman

Hitches

Suspiria

Zombi

Tenebre

Dlen Dlon

Profondo Rosso

L’alba dei Morti Viventi

Killer on the Train

Non Ho Sonno

In honour of having Italian legends Goblin performing live on Sunday night at this years Supersonic Festival, we will be screening ‘Suspiria’ on Friday evening before the festival opens. The screening will take place at Vivid, an arts centre located in deeepest darkest Digbeth, with ‘deadly’ cocktails on sale.

Places are limited  – you must book in advance by emailing info[at]capsule.org.uk with ‘Suspiria‘ in the title – this is free to weekend ticket holders only – first come first served!
More info

Jessica Harper stars as Suzy Banyon, a young American ballet dancer who arrives at a prestigious European dance academy run by the mysterious Madame Blanc (Joan Bennett) and Miss Tanner (Alida Valli). But when a series of bizarre incidents and horrific crimes (including what Entertainment Weekly calls “the most vicious murder scene ever filmed”) turn the school into a waking nightmare of the damned, Suzy must escape the academy’s unspeakable secret of supernatural evil. Experience the most shocking and hallucinatory horror movie in history as you’ve never seen or heard it before, now featuring the fully remastered landmark score by Goblin and a heart-stopping new film transfer supervised by director Dario Argento and cinematographer Luciano Tovoli.

This is the definitive version of SUSPIRIA, an aria of terror beyond imagination and one of the most extraordinary horror films ever made. NOT ONE FOR THE FAINT HEARTED!

With thanks to Anchor Bay Home Entertainment

Supersonic Festival Tickets BUY NOW

Throughout their career which spans from the early ‘70’s, Goblin have soundtracked around 20 films, with ‘Profondo Rosso’, ‘Suspiria’ (a film that became the benchmark in 70’s gore flicks) and ‘Dawn Of The Dead’ that really form the basis of their legendary reputation as they perfectly showcased their vast stylistic repertoire from the prog-flavoured rock they’re best known for, through tribal rhythms, electronics, orchestration which seamlessly fitted and added to the impact of the on-screen action.

Recent years have seen a huge resurgence of interest in the band’s work, particularly  amongst the alternative rock, goth and horror film communities, with very well received reissues of their classic soundtracks and DVDs of the films they worked on, plus the compilation cd ‘The Fantastic Voyage Of Goblin – The Sweet Sound Of Hell’. 2005 also saw the publication of the book “Goblin – La musica la paura il fenomeno”, written by Giovanni Aloisio, and there is even a band in the US made up of Goblin fanatics and calling themselves Zombi.

“The legacy of Goblin is vast and full of surprises, and they’ve had a great influence on how rock music can be used in film scores. And, as such, Goblin can claim to be not only one of the most important of Italian rock bands, but also creators of some of the finest Italian film soundtracks alongside the redoubtable Ennio Morricone!” Alan Freeman

CONFIRMED LINE UP:
Head Of David (first show in 23 years) / 65 Days of Static / The Accused / Arbouretum / Atomized/ Berg Sans Nipple / Caribou / Corrupted / Chris Herbert / Diagonal / Earthless /Flower & Corsano Duo / Goblin/ Growing / Iron Lung / Jarboe / Khyam Allami / Kim Hiorthøy Kylie Minoise / Master Musicians Of Bukkake/ Nancy Wallace / Pontiak / Pram / PRE /  Scorn / Skullflower/  Taint / Theo / Thorr’s Hammer / Venetian Snares / Zu / ZzZ

Weekend Tickets: http://www.theticketsellers.co.uk
Rough Trade East – London  / Polar Bear – Kings Heath  / Swordfish -Birmingham / Plugd Records – Cork City

Further info on artists/hotel deals etc
http://www.supersonicfestival.com