At the beginning, there was music

uring late 1996, Doriano (a little angry guitar) and Alessandra (a very warm blues voice) decided that the world could not get on without the Gin & Tonic band. Being musicians in a band was very exciting, but it was necessary to find at least a drummer and a bass guitar player to complete a (minimal) line-up,. No problem for the drummer: Marcello, one of Doriano's friends since university years, seemed to be the best choice (a little mad - like each drummer must be, anyway - and very large size!). In addition, he was very happy to join a band with Doriano, more seriously than even before (in the past, they had only met sometimes for occasional jam sessions). Finding a bass guitar player was not so easy, instead. How many bass guitar players do you know? They're not so many! We were able to find one, however, 'cause Nicola, (husband of one of Alessandra's friends) was a bass guitar player and, in addition, without a band (just right on the mark!). Only a little problem: Nicola had two jobs, a wife and two sons... not so much time to play music in a band, unfortunately... anyway, he was happy to meet us for an initial session.

The first session

o, in December 21st 1996, Doriano, Alessandra, Marcello and Nicola had the first session at Le Risonanze, a well-equipped rehearsal room. First of all, it was clear that the main goal was how to play, arrange and perform, before than what: everything would be as serious and professional as an hobby can be. Then, cover tracks only: in fact, it would be probably easier to find some place for gigs (clubs or pubs) if performing songs that people knew! The start-up session was very exciting: something exploded as a kind of magic that haunted everyone of us, Nicola too, though he said he didn't want to have a continuous work with a band. Well, the first step was over, but we had to complete the line-up of the band.

Completing the line-up

he first idea was to look for one more guitar player, to develop a R&Roll repertoire but the chosen guy (one of Doriano's friends, too) could not be present for an entire three-sessions sequence! Looking for someone else? We didn't think so... perhaps, we thought, it was better to find a keyboarder, because, with the keyboards, it would not be possible to play R&Roll music (in vintage sense, at least, i.e. only for guitars and bass), but it would be possible to play cover of a wide variety of musical styles, from symphonic rock by Queen or Pink Floyd, to soft rock by Dire Straits, to hard blues by Gary Moore, to R&B by Blues Brothers, to something soul, for instance Gloria Gaynor or Diana Ross... Ok, let's find a keyboarder, let's go! Doriano set mind to Osvaldo, a guy known during the Military Service a few years before, with whom he had some session just in that period. Osvaldo was a very good keyboarder but a little shy... ("Hey Osvaldo, how about joining us in a band?" "Do you think I'm able to...?") Why the hell doesn't it exist a "musical" version of Viagra? Now the line-up was complete, anyway, and the band started to work a lot to arrange and play a convenient repertoire, carefully selected for future live performances.

Choosing our name

fter some sessions, as the repertoire was increasing, it was clear the band needed a basic thing: a name! To find this, the band decided to have dinner together, 'cause the matter was not so simple. A lot of suggestions, during that evening, but no one good enough. Someone suggested to assembly the initials of our first names: the results were NOMAD (please!...) and DAMON (doesn't it sound like an heavy-metal band?). By lucky, before that serious meeting degenerated and got worse (because of the terrible jokes said by Doriano and of a love for wine, by Nicola, just discovered by the band...), Alessandra had a very good idea. Our band's goal was playing in clubs and pubs, so maybe it was appropriate to have a name with a fresh, happy, explosive meaning: why not something like Whisky & Soda? Good idea, but Whisky & Soda sounded too common: Ok, what about Gin & Tonic, instead? The proposal seemed to be very good (no one was able to suggest something better, too...) so the band got its name! Also, Marcello the drummer suggested one more thing: why not getting a nickname for everyone, too? Marcello had recently bought a set of Pearl drums, so he chose Pearl Man. Nicola, the bass player, was a chief of martial arts: thus he became Sensei, obviously, while Alessandra, the band vocalist, got the nickname Baby, just for being the band baby. About Doriano, the guitar player, Marcello suggested Stratomaster, because Doriano owns a Fender Stratocaster, but Stratomaster was too "large", isn't it? In the guitar history, Stratomaster could be Jimi Hendrix, Hank Marvin, Eric Clapton, Ritchie Blackmore, David Gilmour and a lot of others, but Doriano...! So Doriano chose Blue Steel, maybe he was not modest but, at least, it was a tribute to Blues, with a taste of Rock. Finally, what about Osvaldo the keyboarder? One day, we met Osvaldo carrying a wonderful keyboard, a new Korg Trinity. After the session, he asked Andrea (who managed the rehearsal room) about his new keyboard: Andrea answered something like "...Oh, Ok, a very good stuff that... that Trilogy!..." Trilogy? The name of a so wonderful and powerful new keyboard not correctly and carefully pronounced? Too late to become angry, Osvaldo got his nickname: Trilogy!

Trial by fire

hen we started looking for a club where the start-up gig would take place. Osvaldo found a good one, cause one of his colleagues managed Pier 113, a little club so called cause the internal area was adjusted to be similar to a submarine, and therefore it was easy to get an engage for a show. So, in April 1997 the 15th , the Gin & Tonic band had the first gig playing in a totally sold out club (not so much people, however, cause Pier 113 was not so large!), full of screaming people! A complete success! During the gig, the band discovered some unespected Osvaldo's cabaret style features, cause during "Shake A Tail Feather" (the well-known Ray Charles song from the Blues Brothers movie), Osvaldo stopped the keyboard intro (was it a mistake? We don't know...), wore his dark glasses and started again the song: standing ovation! All the present people appreciated the gig very much, and some of them began to dance on the tables! Finally, the club manager decided to offer the band a glass of Gin & Tonic and Doriano - he doesn't love alcohol - thought that the band might better be called something like "Lasagne al Forno" or "Pizza Margherita"... Anyway, the trial by fire was over!

Some other gigs

ow, it would be easier to say "and the story continues..." but things didn't get that way. The band had a new gig at Pier 113 again in June the 27th, but the show was not as good as the precedent one, also because Alessandra, the vocalist, felt ill; so, after the performance, she had no more voice to speak for some days (and her husband got some relax...). Then, the band stopped playing during the summer until September, when they met again to restart musical activity, ready for a new year, possibly full of gigs. First of all, the band had a show (quickly prepared and played) at the Judo Preneste Sporting Centre (where Nicola, the bass player, was employed as Judo teacher). A Sporting Centre is not built for musical exhibitions, so it was very difficult to have a decent sound quality. Anyway, the band had a very good performance , also thanks to Osvaldo, who showed his ability as sound engineer. But Osvaldo is our keyboarder, so the band would need two of them, one as keyboarder, the other as sound engineer!

One step beyond

fter the Judo Preneste performance, the Gin & Tonic band got immediately ready to further gigs, possibly in a more popular club ("Hey, this evening we will have a gig at Pier 113! Would you come ?" "Yeah? But why don't you play in a club like the other bands?"). How approaching another kind of club? During the Pier 113 period, the band had to contact a Service to rent what the band needed (monitors, microphones and drums). So they met Nico, boss of a Service suggested by one of Alessandra's friends and, in addition, manager of Caruso Caff� Concerto, a well known club of Testaccio in Rome.

Recording a demo

o get a gig at Caruso, obviously, it was necessary to have a (good) demo, so Gin & Tonic had a recording session at the rehearsal room. Andrea, who managed it, was adjusting all sounds while each one of the band was picking up his headphones. Adjusting the bass level was not so simple ("Do you hear me, Nicola?" Andrea was monitoring all the instruments levels "No, I can't hear anything!" "Can you hear me now? Your instrument level is up to max!" "I do keep on hearing nothing!" "I guess you're deaf!" "What?"). But finally, everything was set up. The idea was to make a live recording, not using multi-tracking mode, cause they wanted to get a demo as quickly as possible. However, it was convenient to have a live recording, cause it was very fast but it was not so easy, cause all the musicians had to play together and, every time someone made a mistake, the band had to play all the song again. This was well known to everyone, so that Marcello, the drummer, made the band record I Will Survive (Gloria Gaynor) five times, until Alessandra, the vocalist, got a so tired and dark vocal tonality that it became perfect for the Blues! However, the demo was ready (not wonderful, but at least decent), and the band got in touch with Nico. So, after they "assembled" a convenient number of people (as "claque"...), in December the 21st, they boarded on the Caruso Caff� Concerto stage.

Live at Caruso!

he gig was a success, even because there was Silvio, a very good sound engineer, and Gin & Tonic were able to perform a pleasant show. After the end, Nico met the entire band, told them the gig had been very good and asked them about a new one. The band was happy, having a gig in a club like Caruso was a not so easy, but Nicola, the bass player, said that having music with the band was becoming a too hard work: he had a wife and two sons, he didn't want to have gigs too many times, so he preferred next gig to be after two or three months.

A split within the band?

o, happiness for the good gig at Caruso was not fully felt. He said he wanted to leave the band and Marcello, the drummer, did an enormous and difficult work to save, if possible, the Gin & Tonic original line-up. He succeeded in doing it, at the moment. Live at Caruso again, in February 1998 the 15th. Silvio, Caruso's sound engineer, was not there, so there were a set of troubles (i.e. larsen and feedback, because of bad adjustments) that did not make the show vary pleasant. The band performed in a pretty decent way, anyway, but was not very satisfied, as for the previous gig, and did not play with a lot of feeling, even for the loss of groove of its bass player, Nicola.

Live at Caruso again and live at Max

ext gig, in April the 19th (at Caruso again), was a complete success, in terms of pleasant show and very good performance: the band was growing up, even if Nicola was not so glad to play. The last gig of the season (before summer) was at Max, a club managed by Nino Frassica (a famous Italian showman). One week before the show, Doriano, the guitar player, had bought a new powerful guitar effects processor, full of "bells and whistles" (as Americans say), something like the captain Kirk Enterprise! Only a little trouble: how to learn using a new guitar processor fast enough to be ready for the next gig? Maybe it was not the best time to buy some new stuff; moreover (wasn't it enough?), Doriano decided to change his guitar strings set, one day before the gig, and this produced some troubles with guitar tuning! In addition, the Max sound engineer was not so good but, by lucky, the show went out in more than a decent way, even because Alessandra did a very good job, both as a as vocalist and as Gin & Tonic frontline.

The band must go on

he summer was approaching, so clubs were closing. What doing now? No gigs at all or only outdoor? And what about recording a new demo? Unfortunately, we did nothing! Infact, our bass player decided the music was not so exciting to him anymore and he also wanted some more time to spend with his wife and sons. The band had to look for a new bass player but Alessandra met Mauro, one of her colleagues, who was a bass player, without a band, and hungry of music! Wow!! What a lucky event! Gin & Tonic captured Mauro immediately: it was necessary to integrate him as soon as possible in the band. Mauro showed an high level musical skill, cause of his capability of playing almost everything (he had played in a lot of bands for years). So, he got his nickname: Juke Box, just in case! Ok, the band got ready again so, in October, they decided to look for the first gig with the new line-up. Which club for the first performance? Caruso Caff� Concerto, obviously!

Gin & Tonic release 2.0 running!

he gig, in October the 25th, was not supportedby a good sound engineer. Moreover, Marcello, the drummer, had a high fever. Thus, the performance was not so perfect. As if it was not enough, the club manager told us that it was necessary to complete the show within midnight, and then the band could play only for almost an hour. About this, Osvaldo, the keyboarder, said "This gig went out worse than a coitus interruptus!". What saying more? Anyway, the band was operating again, fully ready for a lot of performances.

Two candles on a cake

fter a two-weeks break, the band decided to come back to the rehearsal room, to record a new demo. The demo went out easy as a good work, close enough to the band feeling and grooving. So, on stage again, cause December the 21st was approaching, and it was Gin & Tonic First Birthday! The 21st would be on a Monday, so the band decided to have a gig (at Caruso) on Sunday the 20th: it would be enough to play until midnight to reach the 21st... This time the sound engineer was Sergio, better than the precedent one, so the performance was a complete success. Many of the people at the gig started to dance, too! Ok, happy birthday Gin & Tonic, may the music be always with you!

And the story goes on...