Biglietto per l'Inferno

Claudio Canali (vocals, flute, flugelhorn)
Marco Mainetti (guitar)
Giuseppe "Baffo" Banfi (organ, moog)
Giuseppe Cossa (piano, organ)
Fausto Branchini (bass)
Mauro Gnecchi (drums)

Born in 1972 in Lecco, in northern Italy, from the ashes of Gee and Mako Sharks, Un Biglietto per l'Inferno are still regarded as one of the most influential italian prog bands, despite a single LP release, their magnificent eponymous album from 1974.
The band had an intense live activity, that took to a very powerful sound driven by the twin keyboards of Banfi and Cossa and the lead guitar of Mainetti, with flute intermissions by singer Claudio Canali.

The album is a masterpiece, its hard-rock based sound being perfectly enriched by keyboards and flute, and the lyrics are strong and effective.
The five long tracks are all very nice, and the album is worth its high price. Two tracks, Una strana regina and Confessione were also released as a single, the latter in an instrumental-only version, with the same cover design as the album, the classic picture of jumping singer Claudio Canali, taken by Caesar Monti.

A second album was recorded and ready to release under the production of Eugenio Finardi, as was a single taken from it, and the band was even in touch with Klaus Schulze, but the Trident label's end brought Biglietto per l'Inferno to split after some concerts in Italy and Switzerland at the end of 1975.
The album had a limited circulation among fans as a bootleg tape, and only gained an official issue in 1992 on the Mellow label.

Of all the band members only keyboardist Baffo Banfi had a relevant solo career (as J.B.Banfi) with three solo albums in a cosmic vein between 1978 and 1981 (the last two of these came on Klaus Schulze's IC label), while drummer Gnecchi has played in jazz groups and collaborated with PFM guitarist Franco Mussida in his first solo album Racconti dalla tenda rossa, from 1991.
Singer Claudio Canali has become a friar, unusual choice after the strong dialogue with a priest in the lyrics of Confessione.

The long-awaited 30th anniversary box set has finally been released in early 2004, and it's a welcome release for anyone who's loved this group or wants to know it.
A pleasure for the eyes amd the ears, the set includes CD remastered versions of both official albums, a third CD with a live recording from 1974 and a bonus DVD including some video tracks of band members, interviews and audio cuts. Furthermore, a nice book with pictures, lyrics and interviews. A great product, and the first box set ever released to celebrate an italian prog group!
The live CD included in the box set has been put on sale separately, this time with a better mini-LP gatefold cover.

LP
Biglietto per l'Inferno	Trident (TRI 1005)	1974	single cover
	BTF/Trident (TRI 1005 LP)	2005	reissue of the above
Il tempo della semina	Mellow (MMLP 103)	1992	recorded in 1975 - gatefold cover with inner
	BTF/Trident (TRI 1009 LP)	2007	reissue of the above with different gatefold cover
CD
Biglietto per l'Inferno	Vinyl Magic (VM 006)	1989	reissue of 1974 album - now deleted
	BTF/Trident (TRI 1005)	2001	as above
Il tempo della semina	Mellow (MMP 106)	1992	different cover than the vinyl version
	BTF/Trident (TRI 1009)	2004	as above
	BTF/Trident (TRI 1009)	2007	as above with mini-LP gatefold cover, slightly different from the above
Un Biglietto per l'Inferno	BTF (BG 000 BOX)	2004	3CD+1DVD box set - includes remastered versions of the two official albums, a live CD + 1 DVD + 116-page book
Live 1974	BTF (BG 003 CD)	2005	live in Lecco - same CD included in the above box set, but with different mini-LP gatefold cover
SINGLES (with picture sleeves)
Una strana regina Confessione	Trident (TRN 1005)	1974	both tracks from first album but B-side in instrumental version
Vivi lotta pensa L'arte sublime di un giusto	Trident (TRN 1009)	1975	both tracks from second album single never officially released, promos may exist

Biglietto per l'Inferno has always been regarded as one of the best italian prog albums ever, and for this reason is very difficult to find.
Early promotional copies of the album contained a release sheet with information on band members.

As many of the Trident label releases, this was counterfeited in the late 80's, a very similar issue to the original but easy to identify if you know its distinctive elements. See the Trident page for details and avoid buying it if you're not sure. Some dealers' descriptions don't help at all!!!
Some original copies exist with large "second type" SIAE stamp, of the kind used between 1975 and 1978. These can easily be stock copies which were stamped and put on sale later when discovered in some warehouse, but are definitely worth the same as an original copy and surely to be considered as legitimate first pressings.

The album also had a vinyl reissue in mid 90's, some of these copies are still easy to find in italian record fairs at low prices, but be warned if you don't know where to look at!!!
The cover of this reissue is on a rough cardboard and the jumping man picture looks bigger, with the hand on the top right corner missing.. The name Biglietto per l'Inferno is on the left side of the cover and slightly bigger than the original one, that was on the bottom side of the cover.
The back cover contains the song titles that are not on the original.
These reissues also had a negative colour Trident label, with black writing on white background.

Second album Il tempo della semina was recorded in 1975 but, due to Trident label closing, it was never released until 1992 when it appeared on Mellow label, both on vinyl and CD.
A single taken from the new album also planned for release on Trident was withdrawn and never officially issued. Promo copies are rumoured to exist.

No foreign vinyl issues exist.
A beautiful recent CD reissue on the japanese Arcangelo label (ARC-7004) comes with a hard mini-LP cover.

The recent Un Biglietto per l'Inferno box set released by BTF includes remastered versions of the 1974 first album and the posthumous Il tempo della semina, a 1974 live CD, a DVD including some video cuts of the band members along with a large book with the full history of the band, interviews and pictures.


Biglietto per l'Inferno - front cover	Biglietto per l'Inferno - back cover

Biglietto per l'Inferno - mid 90's reissue front cover

Il tempo della semina - gatefold cover

Una strana regina - 7" single cover

Un Biglietto per l'Inferno - box set

Live 1974 - CD

Il tempo della semina - CD - 2004 standard edition and 2007 mini-LP cover issues

Obscure, sublime, exciting are some of the words that describe this band. Biglietto musically stands apart from the rest of the Italian scene by interweaving from one minor scale to another one causing a dark atmosphere and suddenly breaking into superb melodious passages.
Songs like Confessione, Strana regina and Il nevare showcase the above mentioned. L'amico Suicida probably the most complex effort on the LP is a 13min+ masterpiece. From its obscure beggining to some of the most beautiful melodies and finally to a song full of changes in tempo and mood. The lyrics on this song are about the suicide of a friend, a vivid description is sung and very well backed by the music.
The mediocre recording quality helps accentuate the mysterious atmosphere that the music poses.
Every element in this LP is perfect, from the thunderous drumming in Confessione to the beautiful vocal lines in Strana regina. Nice moog sounds, distorted hammond organ, vivid bass lines, transversal flute and fuzzed guitar leads make this piece of vinyl the most complex prog I have listened to. (The CD version has cut some parts in songs like L'amico suicida; maybe about 2 or 3 minutes on the whole album is missing.)
Juan Carlos Lopez

At last Biglietto per l'Inferno have their own website, with any kind of information on the group. It's at http://www.bigliettoperlinferno.com

Keyboardist Baffo Banfi has two websites dedicated to his current work in the creative video productions, with La Vetraia at http://www.lavetraia.com (a very small space in this website is dedicated to Il Biglietto per l'Inferno) and Videoland at http://www.videoland.it

Thanks to Rocco Trezza for some information included in this page, and to the fellow collector Juan Carlos Lopez for his above review and more info.