"A misura Duomo" september 2003

Bar Boon Band, notes and verses of desperation and hope (By Daniela Stasi)

"Those who take drugs because they like the others' company… wow
Those who if alcohol kills slowly I'm not in a hurry
Those who… Saturday night's slaughters oh yes
Those who have to touch bottom oh yes
Those who touch bottom and start to dig oh yes
Those who touched the Kingdom of Heaven oh yes
Those who…I hope I can make it oh yes
Those ones…"

This handful of words belongs to the about eighty verses of "Quelli che… la droga", a text freely inspired from Enzo Jannacci's "Quelli che…". This blues represents one of the threads forming the plot of "Bar Boon Band", a show performed and created by a group of homeless and the voluntary social workers who take care of them. Railway stations, troubled lives, people who keep on looking for their own purpose form the subject of these recitals. There are moments when sounds and lyrics interlace creating a unique form of art, telling stories of drug and alcohol addiction, loneliness, desolation, desperation and… hope. Hope to make it, hope to change, hope to succeed in living with oneself and the others. "Bar Boon Band" is promoted and organized by "S.O.S. Stazione Centrale" - the street service of don Antonio Mazzi's "Fondazione Exodus Onlus", that since 1990 has been supporting "bottom class passengers", that is to say drug addicts, tramps, extra communitarians and psychotics - in collaboration with the "City Angels" and the associations of "Comitato Milano per l'Uomo". The show was ideated by Maurizio Rotaris, who has been an educationalist and a counsellor for socially marginalized people and drug addicts for 17 years, as well as the head of "S.O.S. Stazione Centrale" for 13 years. On this occasion, he dismisses his usual clothes as a social worker and plays the role of the blues man: the arpeggios of his electric guitar follow and pursue the stories he has listened to, his sonorities convey optimism and induce the homeless to hope. Always and at any cost. "The idea aroused five or six years ago - Maurizio Rotari explained - from the necessity to do something more than simply provide for the primary needs of the people we assist. The "Bar Boon Band" recitals were initially meant as collective meetings for the homeless and nobody else. We wished to make them dance and sing, all the tramps we were supporting in our hearing centre, we wanted to give life to a sort of exclusive club for the homeless. The other ones couldn't get in. As time passed, however, we decided to change it into a different form of communication: to reach drug addicts or alcoholics by means of notes, to create lyrics and music about the events that the people we had met and listened to had actually experienced". In other words, the show is a different means of communication addressed both to the people assisted by "S.O.S. Stazione Centrale" and to the "outer world", those who live inside of "society". "Bar Boon Band aims at conveying a positive image of the clochard, let's say an artist tramp, a person who inspires sympathy - Rotaris continued - we wish people realized that the homeless are resourceful men and women, although they have escaped from, or have never entered, the traditional circuit of society. Obviously, we have no intention to belittle the gravity of their situation". During the last months, two "Bar Boon Band" shows have been performed: on 26 June, the Worldwide Day against Drugs, at the "F" stairway of Stazione Centrale, and on 25 July at the "Fondazione Fratelli di San Francesco", where the recital took part in the event promoted by "Comitato Milano per l'Uomo", which was entitled "Voluntary work never goes on holidays" (Il volontariato non va in ferie).

The show

"Bar Boon Band" can be described as an experiment of solidarity, where poetry, music and images mould one another creating a strong message of hope for all those who live in poverty and in a condition of serious marginalization. For a few moments, then, the interlacement of notes and verses becomes pure improvisation, either a chorus or a solo, strong and frail at the same time. The "band of tramps" is open to everybody, tuneful and out of tune voices, poets and illiterates, anyone who feels like listening, singing and taking part in it. The formation includes Maurizio Rotaris playing the electric guitar and Marco Faggionato, "street poet" and author of the lyrics. And moreover… the narration is entrusted to Barbara Rosenberg's dance company and to Federica Clapis, the special effects are by Federico and Shiva Rotaris, the images by Isabella Balena. Diego Raitieri accompanies anyone who feels like singing with his acoustic guitar, journalist Fabrizio Cassinelli is the leading voice of the chorus and, finally, Mustapha Talbi plays the tambourines. The recital is divided into four parts, one following the other, each part being dedicated, respectively, to the street, the drugs, to feelings and hopes. The whole show is made of 15 poems, 15 musical excerpts, 4 voices of the chorus and sudden raids of the blues songs entitled "Quelli che… la droga" and "Quelli che… la vita di strada". The show is a melting pot of realities that seem to be so different from one another, but which are linked by the thin and strong thread of creativity.

Ideas, projects and hopes

The next "Bar Boon Band" will take place within a few days at the seat of the "Fondazione Exodus onlus" (Viale Marotta, 18/20; tel. No.02.210151). Among the projects that should be realized in the next future there are the projection of the images that now form the core of an itinerant exhibition, the production of a CD and the planning of regular performances of the "Bar Boon Band" show during the months of September, November, December, March and June. "Those who… we hope they are going to make it".

For further information about the next performances:

S.O.S. Stazione Centrale
Piazza Luigi di Savoia, 1/17
02.66984543