The group was formed in Bologna towards the end of 1976 - in the famous occupied house "Traumfabrik" in via Clavature n.20 in Bologna where artists and musicians met, including Andrea Pazienza and the designer Filippo Scozzari - within the local music scene and as an evolution of the "Centro D'Urlo Metropolitano" in the context of alternative rock, of which they represented one of the most important and innovative Italian experiences. In the period in which the group was born, the end of the Seventies, Bologna was one of the capitals of this musical genre (also thanks to the record company Italian Records, which also produced Confusional Quartet and Stupid Set). The original line-up consisted of Alessandro Raffini (Billy Blade), Marco Dondini (Bat Matic), Giorgio Lavagna (Andrew Nevada), Ciro Pagano (Robert Squibb), Gianluca Galliani (Nico Gamma) and Giampiero Huber (Johnny Tramonta). The latter left the group in 1979 and was replaced by Marco Bongiovanni. The group's name, "Gaznevada", was chosen by Raffini after reading a story by Raymond Chandler entitled "Nevada Gas". The group started playing punk music inspired by the Ramones, but in a short time managed to create their own style, made of neurotic sounds, very rough saxes, almost funk rhythms, new wave influences (Devo and Contorsions for example) but also electronic. The Centro D'Urlo Metropolitano is in time to document his song "Mamma Dammi La Benza" on tape. The piece is distributed on "Sarabanda" at the time of the "Convegno sulla Repressione" (Bologna-September 1977). The first publication in the name of Gaznevada was a cassette entitled "Gaznevada" (Harpo's Bazar, 1979). In 1979 the first album "Gaznevada" was released and after the series of concerts "Gaznevada sing Ramones", where the band played songs by the American band, Gaznevada participated in the Bologna Rock festival, which saw them engaged in the sports halls of Bologna along with other groups from the punk rock scene of the time. Their first work on a totally independent record was "Nevada Gaz", then in 1980 with the album "Sick Soundtrack", they imposed themselves on the attention of critics as a totally new band, capable of welcoming and reworking the new sounds that arrived from the United States and the United Kingdom. Their noir / science fiction image increases curiosity and success. In 1981 the publications continue, with a sound that is always similar to the previous album: the mini-album "Dressed to Kill" is released in which we find a cover of "When the Music is Over" by The Doors and the song Antony Perkins, one of the few in Gaznevada Italian language. From 1983 the breakthrough of the band will take place. After the punk and new wave experiments, with the explosion of the made-in-Italy disco, the group changed course, entering the trend of sophisticated dance and becoming a little more commercial: these passages are witnesses like "I.C. Love Affair "(which had enough success in clubs and climbed the charts all over Europe) and" Ticket to Los Angeles ", with which the band participated to the 1984 Festivalbar. Later will be released "Special Agent Man" and "Living in the Jungle ". Between 1983 and 1988, year of the bamd dissolution, three other albums will be released: "Psychopathic Party", "Back to Jungle" and "Strange Life", all with typical Italian dance tunes sounds, in that period produced by Guido Elmi, historic producer of Vasco Rossi. Later (1989), after the dissolution, Ciro Pagano gave birth to the techno group "Datura". Lavagna, Raffini, Marcello Albano, G. Galliani, M. Sabbioni and a very young Neffa (in those days called Jeff) on drums and vocals, founded the cover band "The New Velvet Underground" which will be protagonist of some concerts where they will re-propose the most significant pieces of the Velvet Underground, also playing in an event like "musical shoulder" to the "Thin White Rope ". In 2012 the album "Sick Soundtrack" will be inserted by the magazine "Rolling Stone Italia" among the best 100 records of Italian rock, certifying the greatness (even if meteoric) of a band perhaps too far for the time, initially not understood but able to create an unheard music for Italian ears, with a style full of personality and very different from other bands of the period. On June 18, 2019, Gianluca "Gaz" Galliani (Nico Gamma), keyboardist and founding member of the group "Gaznevada" will die at 61 years.
Discography:Album1979 - Gaznevada 1980 - NevadaGaz
1980 - Sick Soundtrack
1981 - Dressed To Kill
1983 - Psicopatico Party
1985 - Back To The Jungle
1988 - Strange Life
Singles
1980 - Nevadagaz 1981 - Dressed To Kill
1982 - Ragazzi Dello Spazio
1982 - (Black Dressed) White Wild Boys
1983 - I.C. Love Affair
1983 - Special Agent Man
1984 - Ticket To Los Angeles
1985 - Living In The Jungle
1985 - Mary Is A Clerk
1986 - Sex Sister
1987 - Thrill Of The Night
1988 - Sometimes
2002 - Dance No Dance
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