This is the story of the historic band from Alessandria Quel Pazzo Mondo.
As much at it is possible to recollect episodes and realistic dates and try to be as close to the truth as possible.

Quel pazzo mondo was born in Alessandria (Piemonte) Italia June 1970 . The founding members of the Band, those left after the split between the Oscars and Don Miko of “Don Miko e gli Oscars" They were: Carlo Schiavoni (Lallo) Drums and Vocals, Piero Nano Base and Vocal Backing, Vincenzo Pandolfi (Joselito) Keyboards and Vocals.

The Oscars’ guitarist Gianni Bongiovanni, retired from music.

The Band “Don Miko e Gli Oscars” was active from 1963 to 1970 with their last live performance at the Capannina of Vigevano (PV).

We note that The Oscars accompanied the Singer Don Miko throughout the itallian tours from Sicily to Sardenia. They participated at two “Festival di Sanremo” As Don Miko” accompanied by his band “the Oscars”

Don Miko also participated in many national events like Festival of Venice, Festival of S. Marino, Festival of Pesaro, and large gatherings of the Journalistic Heading “Ciao Amici” held in large stadiums with audiences of up to 20,000 like the Genova Palasport, Rome Area Frascati, Milan’s Statio Vigorelli and many more with famous national artists, possibly all. We cite, Equipe 84, Little Tony, Gino Paoli, B. Lauzi, I Ribelli, Nomadi, I Dick Dick, Camaleonti, E.Vianello and many More.

Tours and concerts in almost all the mythical Italian Pipers and many Discotiques and Theatres including Sicily with the famous Italian presenter Mike Bongiorno.

So in June 1970 QPM is born:

Carlo Schiavoni (Lallo) Drums and Vocals, Piero Nano Base and Vocal Backing, Vincenzo Pandolfi (Joselito) Keyboards and Vocals.

Fraco Rock, Guitars remained in the band for a few months we think until September 1970. We have to note that over the first few months the band was looking for a new name what would have a good impact. One that would reflect the band’s jovial lifestyle and experiences.

During that period almost everything felt new and a colourful way to dress was in vogue derived from Flower Power.

Always searching from something strange that would shock the senses the band recorded their first single (45 Vinyl) for the Italian label Durium of Milan

“Canzone mia” and “Brava Maria”

As well as the members of the band two session musicians were included:

The very talented Mauro Culotta on the guitar and Giorgio Usai as supplemental keyboards.

In 1970 the Band was asked to collaborate with the Balducci Brothers who were singer songwriters from Liguria who wanted to form a new national artistic project with the Label Numer Uno under the name “I Computers” recording the Italian version of David Bowie, “Space Oddity” called “Ragazzo solo Ragazza sola” which became a successful hit in Italy.

Since “I computers” did not have a band, their live performances were under the title “Quel Pazzo Mondo Dei Computers”

When performing without the Balducci Brothers the group went under the name of jus “Quel Pazzo Mondo”

The first contract of one month duration for live performance was to have some meaning for the new “QPM” project and to improve our live performance was in a prestigious night club in Genova. This involved nightly shows and included in the beginning Franco Rock the Guitarrist.

Unfortunately things did not go as predicted and Franco had to leave the band, while QPM continued to perform in the night club as a trio.

Following various auditions and research for a replacement guitarist we received a letter of interest from a guitarist from Foligno.

We tried him out found him to be excellent so he quickly became QPM guitar player. So Luciano Piccinno, Guitars, Vocals, songwriter was also an excellent audio specialist joined the group.

The name Quel Pazzo Mondo came about while we were discussing a name in front of a poster for the Movie, Questo pazzo pazzo mondo. (That Crazy Crazy world) That was the inspirations for the band name. We thought that we fitted the craziness depicted in the movie, so we looked at each other and laughed!

So we had the name and the rock dress to go with it.

During that period our repertoire included as well as our own music cover songs from Uriah Heep, Deep Perple, Chicago, Blood Sweat & Tears, the Beatles and many others.

One can imagine that our dress code included tight bell bottom pants, boots, medallions and very long hair. Shirts with extra extra wide collars etc.

The band rehearsed in a small shack by the river Tanaro in Alessandria nick named “La baracca”

This was owned by Carlo Schiavoni ‘ s father who was a river boad builder.

The remote location of “La baracca” allowed the band to rehearse at all hours of day or night even allowed recordings to be made with little external noise.

QPM used amplification Baiardi, a local manufacturer who gave us equipment for testing in a public setting and as promotion to make the brand known to the public.

We eventually bought Bariardi equipment as it became a finished product.

Incidentally Baiardi became the company that designed and built powerful lighting that illuminated the Twin towers and other structures in July 1976.

Later QPM purchased sound equipment from Montarbo. A late generation W4 as amplification for medium to large venues. For very large venues and open spaces we would hire supplemental and powerful equipment, to an output of 10.000 Watts with monitors, microphones etc. Alternatively, the organizers of mass events would provide lights and sound equipment.

Our repertoire included our releases and unreleased material plus covers.

In live concerts our repertoire included covers of music by Uriah Heep, Deep Purple, Chicago, Beatles, Rolling Stone, Santana, Blood Sweat & Tears, Queen, Led Zeppelin, Doobie Brothers, Grand Funk e Joe Cocker, Bee Gees, Police, Cat Stevens, Creedence, and italian artists like Battisti, Equipe 84, The Rokes, Ivan Graziani, L. Dalla, PFM, Pooh and many more.

Included were our own arrangements of unreleased beautiful and interesting compositions by the Great Singer songwriter Paolo Conte with whom we collaborated and recorded numerous demos which were submitted to our label Durium Records.

The venues we often performed at including our 30 day tour in Germany in 1971 and later a 60 day tour in 1972 in Dusseldorf and in 1976 in Holland.

In Italy we performed in many venues in different regions of Italy including provences of Turin, Milan, Alessandria, Pavia, Genova, and many Festivals on the Ligurian and Adriatic rivieras.

In winter we also performed at skying resorts.

All of this thanks to our Manager/Agent Valter Olivero who was always extremely professional and attentive. Valter guided the band from its infancy through many years of our musical career.

Our transport was a Ford Transit blue which though many sacrifices we were able to purchase in 1971.

The Van was decorated by a characteristic insignia painted by us, which consisted of a large Red Quel Pazzo Mondo on a white background picture of a beautiful girl with long hair flowing in the wind.

This image was created by Luciano Piccino (Our guitarist who was very creative)

In 1973 Luciano Piccinno, guitars, decided to leave the Band and complete his ovedue Military Service which he had been able to defer up to that time. This was an important change, as he had brought enormous talent to the band not only as an excellent guitarist with a fantastic stage presence but who was also a prolific singer songwriter.

He composed a number of our recordings including "Catene nuove", "Dammi il sole che non ho" e "Più grande del mondo"

Following a lengthy selection process we chose a local talented guitarist Paolo Stella. He had been a member of two local bands “The Hoods and “La locanda delle Fate”

Paolo, a talented musician and singer quickly became integral part of the new formation.

In 1974 it was Vincenzo Pandolfi’s (Joselito) turn to leave the band. This was another important loss.

As keyboards and vocals he had a charismatic presence on stage with his Hammond organ and a mythical candelabra with various lit up candles on it of ever changing colour!!

Joselito was replaced by Mauro Panattoni an excellent and well qualified musician and singer from Canelli (AT).

After his parting with the band, Joselito performed one more night with Quel Pazzo Mondo on the NYE of 1974 as Mauro was unable to attend that evening.

The story of Quel Pazzo Mondo ends on the 31^st of December 1980 at the “Discoteca Piro Piro” in Cilavegna (PV) This was the last official performance of the band. Members of the band at the time felt that there were no more stimulating and important projects in the future and decided that is was better to dissolve. It was nevertheless and exciting story which lasted a good 10 years!!

Band members continued their own road in various activities:

Carlo Schiavoni (Lallo) Drummer and lead vocals continued with QPM until the 31^st of Dec 1980. Then played as a session musician for two years. Then he obtained his licence as a Theatrical agent and event organizer and promoter forming his own agency “Elle Agency” organizing many concerts involving well known artists like:

: L. Dalla, Vasco Rossi, E. Ramazzotti, Pooh, P. Conte, Jovanotti, L. Pausini, G. Nannini, G. D'Alessio, O. Vanoni, G. Paoli, Dik Dik, Nek, Camaleonti, Little Tony, M. Vandelli, Zucchero F. , R. Vecchioni, Ladri di Biciclette, Ron, D. Rettore, V. Capossela, Ami Stewart, L. Barbarossa, F.Battiato, A. Oxa, L. Carboni, R. Cocciante, Ricchi & Poveri, E. Bennato, E. Finardi, U. Tozzi, T. De Piscopo, E. Ruggeri, P. Turci, A. Baroni, Stadio, PFM and many more
Shows: G. Faletti, G. Casella, Gigi & Andrea, B. Grillo, Fichi d'India, Aldo, Giovanni e Giacomo, Gerry Scotti, Teo Teocoli, E. Iacchetti, G. D'Angelo, F. Fazio, A. Albanese, M. Boldi, G. Sabani, Zuzzurro & Gaspare, Il Gabibbo + Veline, D. Ballantini, G. Gnocchi and many more.

Dee Jay: Linus, Amadeus, S. Secchi, Kay Sandwik, Prezioso, F. l'Olandese Volante and others. Large Events: 3 times la Nazional Calcio Cantanti, Nazional Calcio Attrici, Nazionale Calcio Pugili e molti altri.

Vincenzo Pandolfi (Joselito) migrated to Sydney Australia where he married his fiancé Elaine.

He enrolled at the Sydney College of Chiropractic where he graduated in late 1979 and practiced until 2014 as a Chiropractor/Osteopath.

Over the years he has continued his music interests as a hobby writing and recording songs.

Piero Nano Base player and vocals, one of the founding members of QPM, left the band in 1977 and found employment at the Valle Lomellina (PV) council. He continued to play as a hobby. Unfortunately this fantastic musician and dear friend suffered a sudden illness while setting up the instrumentation for a gig with friends in Alessandria. His passing was an enormous loss to all who knew him, but particularly to all of the band members who had shared so many wonderful experiences with him.

Luciano Piccinno (Guitar and vocals) took up a career as sound engineer for EMI in Cologne (Germany)

He assisted in recordings of “Stumblin” Interpreted by Chris Norman and Suzi Quattro utilizing the digital mixer console of legendary NEVE.

Following his experience at EMI he took a position at Radio Cologne WDR and was involved in recordings of performances by the WDR Symphony orchestra using digital technology and mixing of various takes on a SONY PCM-1610 System. It must be noted that at the time the were very few sound engineers qualified to use this advanced digital technology.

In 1985 Luciano assisted in WDR recording of Operettas, musicals and pop performances using the digital format.

From 1986 to 1989 was responsible for live transmissions at WDR.

In 1989 moved to Television for WDR in Düsseldorf as “Mastro Audio/Video” where he remained until retirement in 2010. During his long career he was Moscow ath the Bolshoi threatre wich director Alexander Lazarev, In Japan with the Dusseldorf Symphony and Choir during the interpretation of Richard Wagner “Loherngrin” with the famous René Kollo.

In the 90s he developed interest in Video technology and undertook specialized training as Norimberg, after which he took up position as engineer responsible for TV transmission in Dusseldorf.

In the years following the dissolution of QPM there where no reunions of the band due to the physical distance between the band members. We did try however to collaborate via internet on various compositions. We are still very good friends and stay in touch on a weekly basis.

Of course the QPM roll call included many highly professional musicians who over the years made valuable contributions to QPM. Below we list some of those musicians:

Mauro Panattoni Keyboard e Vocals

Paolo Stella Guitar e Vocals

Alfio Schiavoni Percussioni e Vocals

Roberto Massone Bass e Vocals

Roberto Tosin Keyboard

Piero Panizza Guitar

Roberto Carbone Guitar e Vocals

Massimo Slonzò Keyboard e Vocals

Danilo Arona Guitar e Vocals

Gianluca Romagnoli Keyboard

Giorgio Lo Bianco Guitar e Vocals

and others.

We note that from January 1976 to October 1979 the band varied the formation to include as brass section with Sax, Trumpet and Trombone in order to improve the repertoire and live sound which now included Funky Disco Music.

Brass:

Gianni Sappino Sax
Gigi Chiappin Trumpet
Emilio Evangelisti Trumpet
Angelo De Regibus Trombone,
and others including being part of the band of Rocky Roberts.

The last official formation:

31 Dicembre 1980 presso Discoteca "PIRO PIRO" di Cilavegna (PV)
Formazione:
CARLO SCHIAVONI Drum e Vocals
ALFIO SCHIAVONI Percussion e Vocals
PAOLO STELLA Guitar e Vocals
GIANLUCA ROMAGNOLI Keyboard e Vocals
ROBERTO MASSONE Bass e vocals
Fonico, Assistente di palco Diego Carnelutti.

Discography "Quel Pazzo Mondo":

1970 CANZONE MIA Lato A - C.E. Trapani - G. Balducci 3'15" Ediz. Duomo
1970 BRAVA MARIA Lato B - C.E. Trapani - G. Balducci 2'42" Ediz. Duomo

1971 QUESTA BAMBOLINA DI GUAI Lato A - Daiano - G. Balducci 3'05" Ediz. Carrè d'As
1971 CATENE NUOVE Lato B - C.E. Trapani - W. Olivero - F. Cassano 2'20" Ediz. Durium

1973 PIÚ GRANDE DEL MONDO Lato A - C. De Stefano - W. Olivero 3'32" Ediz. Duomo
1973 DAMMI IL SOLE CHE NON HO Lato B - C. De Stefano - W. Olivero 2'31" Ediz. Duomo

1972 UNA LINDA MUCHACHITA INFERNAL Lato A - Daiano - G. Balducci 3'05" Ediz. Carrè d'As

We make mention of the fact that some of the 45 records including Questa Bambolina Di Guai and Catene nuove are now collector items.

Promozions, and radio tv participations by Quel Pazzo Mondo:
* Guest Artists of the Saturday night show "Stasera Si" on RAIUNO from the Milan studios, Conducted by the famous Quartetto Cetra.

* Guests of del Saturday afternoon show for younger audiences "Chissà chi lo sa" on RAIUNO from the Milan Studios, Conducted by Febo Conti, including international artists like The Sweet

* Guests of the RAIUNO NYE show of the 31 December 1971 from Discoteca Bacharach in Bologna, with other guests artists like Demis Roussos (Aphrodite's Child), Marcella Bella, Adriano Pappalardo e Patrick Samson.
*Guests of the TV Capo d'Istria, with interior shots of the thermal resort.

* Partecipation (Percussion only) on the set of the Film "Inganno Italiano" (Vds. Partially filmed at the Hotel Salera ,Asti in '72)
* Guests of the German Television ARD, in February'72 with exterior filming at Villa Helga in Dusseldorf. (Germany)

* Guests over many weeks on Radio Montecarlo, Radio Cosmo and many other national and international radio stations

* Printed media including nazional magazines:
Settimana TV - La Stampa - Il Piccolo - Il Tempo Libero and many other publications: Press Kit, Posters, Manifesti, Locandine, Flyers ecc...

"Quel Pazzo Mondo"
Vincenzo Pandolfi (Joselito)
Luciano Piccinno
Carlo Schiavoni (Lallo)