Capsicum Red

Bruno "Red" Canzian (guitar, vocals)
Mauro Bolzan (keyboards)
Paolo Steffan (bass, vocals, piano)
Roberto Balocco (drums)

Many Italian music fans only know Capsicum Red by name because their singer and guitarist Red Canzian had a very successful career (until now!) with pop band Pooh, and this four-piece from Treviso didn't catch so much interest in their short career.

The name Capsicum Red was chosen by the producer Pino Massara when he discovered Canzian, singer and guitarist with I Prototipi, and took him to his newly-born label Bla Bla in 1970.
The first single, Ocean, was recorded the following year by Canzian with studio musicians, and they were presented as a foreign group, the single being a huge hit in Italy. The track Ocean was used as main theme in a TV show, ...e ti dirò chi sei.
Another single, Tarzan, came soon later, recorded in London with the musicians of the group Stone the Crows, but it wasn't as successful as the previous one.
Both singles contained commercial songs very far from the album sound, and were lately included in the rare Tarzan label sampler, issued by Bla Bla in 1972.

After assembling a proper group with keyboardist Mauro Bolzan, bassist Walter Gasparini and drummer Paolo Podda (later replaced by Paolo Steffan and Roberto Balocco, the latter from Panna Fredda), Canzian strongly moved, with the Appunti per un'idea fissa LP towards progressive music with classical influences.
Side 1 contains the long Beethoven-derived Patetica suite, a very interesting piece of classical prog with keyboards to the fore. Side 2 is on a lower level with three shorter songs that in some cases seem to be weaker.

The band came to its end in 1973, with Red Canzian briefly joining Osage Tribe and later Pooh, and Paolo Steffan forming country-inspired duo Genova & Steffan with an album release in 1975.

LP
Appunti per un'idea fissa	Bla Bla (BBL 11051)	1972	gatefold laminated cover - lyric inner
	Vinyl Magic (VM 050LP)	2008	reissue of the above - gatefold cover
CD
Appunti per un'idea fissa	Artis (ARCD 029)	1991	reissue of 1972 album - now deleted
	Vinyl Magic (VM 050)	1995	as above but with 4 bonus tracks from singles - reissued in 1999 with same catalogue number and new label name VM2000
VARIOUS ARTISTS COMPILATIONS
Tarzan (with Tarzan, Shangrj-la, Ocean and She's a stranger)	Bla Bla (BOP 90001)	1972	single cover Bla Bla label sampler - also includes Osage Tribe, Well's Fargo, Black Sunday Flowers
	Artis (ARCD 043)	1992	CD reissue of 1972 album - now deleted
	BTF/Vinyl Magic (VMCD120)	2007	new CD reissue of the above with mini-gatefold cover and 6 bonus tracks
SINGLES (with picture sleeve except where noted)
Ocean She's a stranger	Bla Bla (BBR 1306)	1971	gatefold cover
Tarzan Shangrj-la	Bla Bla (BBR 1322)	1971	gatefold cover
In una sera Un fiore	Bla Bla (BBR 1332)	1972	probably a promo and never commercially released
PROMOTIONAL AND JUKEBOX SINGLES (with blank cover)
Ocean	Phonogram (ASC 1031)	1971	juke box single with 4 tracks, also includes Patty Pravo/Love story, I Nuovi Angeli/Donna felicità, Lorenzo Pilat/71
Ocean	Phonogram (ASC 1032)	1971	juke box single with 4 tracks, also includes Patty Pravo/Love story, The Mixtures/The pushbike song, Brian Hyland/Gypsy woman
Tarzan Shangrj-la	Bla Bla (ZB 2P)	1971	juke box single

Not easy to find, the Capsicum Red album has a nice laminated gatefold cover and a lyric inner as most of the Bla Bla releases. Non-laminated covers are also reported to exist, this is probably a slightly later pressing, as it happened with similar records.
The only existing vinyl reissue came out in 2008.

The two officially released singles also have gatefold covers.
A third single, In una sera, is mentioned in the RAI (Italian TV) archives with an otherwise unused catalogue number, this was intended for release in 1972 and probably never issued or just in a limited promo pressing. Both tracks on it were already released on a single by Migrants in 1970 (cat.no.Bla Bla BBR 1304).

Two CD reissues exist of Appunti per un'idea fissa, a first one by Artis and a later one on Vinyl Magic with a better sound quality and four bonus tracks from their singles.

The first single Ocean was also released in Greece by DPA (cat.no.5203) with company sleeve and in France on Philips (6115 001) with an art sleeve.

Appunti per un'idea fissa - gatefold cover

Appunti per un'idea fissa - inner gatefold

Ocean - 7" single cover

Tarzan - 7" single cover