Anyone for a game of bingo ? There
can be few fates more ignominious than becoming a bingo hall for a once proud
concert venue, but that is what has become of the Teatro Espero in Rome,
another staging post of the Sisters’ 1985 Italian tour.
The Espero had been built in 1953
as a cultural focal point of a new neighbourhood of the capital as it spread
further and further into its seven hills, and Sisters fans would have had quite
a trek out into the subuebs to the Monte Sacro district to see the band behind the rather
unprepossessing façade "behind the mid-street petrol station" (not quite as glamorous as "above the chemist") on what is now
known as the via Nomentano Nuova, but which was originally called the via di
Ponte Tazio (just to confuse any keyboard researcher).
On May 2nd 1985 the
band were again in great form for a three-piece as they adjusted to life after
Marx, and the performances were all the more remarkable as they were clearly
just fulfilling contractual obligations : the band had already decided to split
with Von continuing to sail the ship alone, as this remarkable interview
originally published in the Italian magazine Il Mucchio Selvaggio (and now posted
by the interviewer Federico Guglielmi on his blog) will attest.
The Sisters gig that night was
recorded for several high quality bootlegs, including Black Planet and the
picture disc “We’re All Aware Of That”, most of which can be found on YouTube
nowadays.
Many other bands followed on from
the first gigs at the Cinema Teatro Espero which formed the First Italian Punk
Rock Festival which took place rather belatedly in 1980, and featured a live
performance from Cap’n Sensible. Wall of Voodoo, Christian Death and Red Lorry
Yellow Lorry (correctly named by Eldritch in the interview as the best of their contemporaries) also played the venue in the mid-80’s, as well as a legendary gig
from metallers Mercyful Fate (which I'm glad I didn't attend judging by the hopefully embellished web accounts), but the venue closed and became a clothing shop
of the well-known VISA brand in Rome in the 90s before turning into the Bingo Espero Palace,
a role it sadly retains today, as can be seen in the photo. Hang on, isn't that a Mercedes parked on the right outside the hall ???
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