Artist

THE TRIP

1969-71:
Billy Gray (guitar, vocals)
Joe Vescovi (keyboards, vocals)
Arvid "Wegg" Andersen (bass, vocals)
Pino Sinnone (drums)

1972-73:
Gray and Sinnone quit, enters:
Furio Chirico (drums)

One of many english bands coming to Italy in search of success during the beat-era, The Trip included a young Ritchie Blackmore in their first line-up, along with founder members Andersen and Gray and drummer Ian Broad, but a line-up change brought two italians in, keyboards player Joe Vescovi from Savona (later the leading figure in the band) and drummer Pino Sinnone from Turin.

With a stable line-up the band had a good recording deal with RCA and released their first album in 1970, and a single taken from it.
The Trip (sometimes referred to as Musica Impressionistica, from a title on back cover) can't be yet considered a prog album, rather a rock-blues LP, with five long pieces led by guitar and organ. The long opening cut Prologo, is a good introduction to the band's sound that since their early days has always mixed english and italian-sung tracks in their production.

Also in 1970 the band members acted in the film Terzo canale - Avventura a Montecarlo, a nonsense comedy based on the story of a band trying to get to Montecarlo from Italy and playing the Rome Caracalla Pop Festival in the end.

With Caronte, in 1971, the Trip's sound became much more original, with more space to Joe Vescovi's keyboards. Since the first notes of Caronte I, the opening track, it's clear that a classical influence has enriched the band's sound. The long Two brothers is another highlight of a very important album.

After the second album two members quit the band, with Billy Gray releasing a solo album, and the band kept on as a trio with new drummer, the young Furio Chirico from Turin, coming from some important rock experiences with 60's groups I Ragazzi del Sole and Martò e i Judas. 
Atlantide, housed in an ambitious gimmix cover, obviously sees the leading role of Joe Vescovi's keyboards, with the sound veering toward an ELP-like style. The band was now very popular in Italy, and the album's first copies contain a promotional single with a long interview and excerpts from the LP.

The same line-up released the fourth and last album, this time with the short-lived Trident label. Time of change contains yet another step in the band's sound evolution, still keyboard-based but with stronger classical and jazzy influences.

After Time of change drummer Chirico left to form Arti & Mestieri, the others tried to revive the band with the help of Osage Tribe's drummer Nunzio Favia, but the band split after some months.
Joe Vescovi briefly joined Acqua Fragile at the end of 1974 and later both he and Favia joined Dik Dik.

Joe Vescovi has reappeared in 2002 with a new Beatles-inspired band, Shout!, including ex-Acqua Fragile bass player Franz Dondi. A CD is released on Electromantic.

Only the first Trip album is really difficult to find (but not among the most expensive ones) while the others are more common, and all have had vinyl and CD reissues. 

The Trip has a single cover and like most contemporary RCA albums this has a glossy LP (not properly laminated but the overall effect is similar) and a pasted back on thick cardboard in the same style as the US album covers. The late 80's reissue is on a thinner cardboard and has different numbering.

Caronte comes in a gatefold cover with the record inserted from the centre of the gatefold, the reissue having a standard side-opening cover.

Third album Atlantide has a very original centre opening large cover with record inserted from the top, reproducing the mythical Atlantis island, and the design is faithfully reproduced in the reissue. Early copies of the album included an art sleeve bonus single with a band interview on both sides.

Fourth album, Time of change, their only on Trident, has a standard gatefold cover. This has probably counterfeited as most albums on this collectible label (see Trident page for details).
This album was also issued in 8-track cartridge version on Trident with number TRE 1002.

Caronte and Atlantide have also been reissued in Japan (RCA/Edison Rock Series, nos. ERS28011 and ERS28009, both have single covers), the latter also in Korea (Si-Wan SRML 1008 - centre foldout cover); no counterfeits exist of these.
The single Believe in yourself was also issued in Portugal on RCA Victor (20055 - year 1972) with the same picture cover as the italian version.

Caronte has been reissued on CD in March 2003 by BMG with mini-LP gatefold cover and obi, as part of their "Dei di un perduto rock" series, and later repressed in October of the same year when a second batch of those CD's came out (including, among others, Atlantide).
The CD was announced by BMG as being also available with standard jewel case (cat.no. 74321-98534-2) but was probably never issued in this form.

The band also appeared on (at least) three RCA various albums compilations, all of these are very rare and collectible, and in two of these The Trip were included with tracks unavailable on any of their albums. 
Particularly interesting is the Terzo canale - Avventura a Montecarlo film soundtrack, with the band also featured in the film, that also included the rare New Trolls' track Autostrada. Along with the album a promo single was released with excerpts from the soundtrack cuts, and individual singles by The Trip and New Trolls were issued.

A new website dedicated to The Trip is at http://thetrip.altervista.org/intro.htm

Drummer Furio Chirico has his own website at www.furiochirico.com 
Info on the 2002 CD by Joe Vescovi's new band Shout! can be found on Electromantic Music's website at www.electromantic.com 
The last Trip drummer Cucciolo has his own website at http://www.ricordati.com/cucciolo.htm

Thanks to John Elvis Gualtieri and Guilherme Tofani for some of the information on this page.