"I play golf with my son and my friends to keep fit. I'm not retired because I still have many things to say to my fans who have followed me all these years": words of the legendary
Mal dei Primitives
who, crossing the finish line of his
80th birthday on February 27th
, he releases a new album with the emblematic title,
'I'm still singing',
and an autobiographical book entitled
'La furia di Mal'
.
In the beginning it was the Meteors, then the Spirits, then the Primitives, finally just him, Mal, pseudonym of Paul Bradley Couling, born in Wales and Italian by adoption.
Charming, feisty and charismatic, a former apprentice electrician, Mal found America in Italy, more precisely in the heart of Rome, in the legendary Piper club.
In 1966, the artistic adventure of that boy with the charismatic look and unmistakable accent began, which will mark the history of rock.
"My wonderful career in Italy began right in the place in via Tagliamento number 9, - recalls Mal - a place inspired by the English models from which I came".
Mal and his group were discovered by Alberigo Crocetta and Gianni Boncompagni who were in London looking for ideas and did not hesitate to sign the boys The Primitives.
The group immediately won the sympathy of the Italian public, but above all it was Mal who, with his vocals and a singular look, managed to carve out an important place for himself in the musical panorama.
Four times at the Sanremo Festival, Mal was also the protagonist at the cinema with the so-called musicals.
Among his many television appearances, we remember the ironic participation in the program 'L'ultimo waltz' with Fabio Fazio and Claudio Baglioni.
In the theater with the musical 'Grease', with Lorella Cuccarini and Giampiero Ingrassia, he shared the dressing room with Amadeus.
"I don't want to criticize
Sanremo
but fashions change, I don't have tattoos and I don't dye my hair. Maybe that's why he didn't call me", quips Mal who defends the tradition of bel canto loved throughout the world.
Self-taught, like all those of his generation, he cultivated the natural gift of singing while maintaining, despite his stay in Italy, an unmistakable accent.
"My wife still calls me Paul", says he, who has been linked for over 30 years to his partner,
Renata
, with whom he has
two children, Kevin Paul and Karen Art
.
He ironically defines his way of speaking as "Laurel and Hardy".
It was Luigi Tenco who told him that that accent would bring him luck and it was exactly like that.
'
Pensiero d'amore'
is one of his unforgettable songs but also
'Bambolina',
On his eightieth birthday, Mal publishes the new album 'I'm still singing' on digital platforms and stores (and also on vinyl), with songs in English and Italian, produced by Clodio Music, re-appropriating the rock and ballads with international atmospheres.
"I've been waiting for this day for 80 years and it's finally here" he jokes as he presents the album which contains
11 unreleased songs,
many of which he wrote.
The single that gives the album its title, 'I'm still singing', is the leitmotif.
Mal sings "I keep singing... I keep swinging. Rock and rhythm keep my feet on the floor. And I keep dancing. I keep being romantic...".
Pick Whiters, former member of The Primitives and drummer of Dire Straits, embellishes the single.
Also arriving is the autobiographical book, for the publisher Bertoni, 'La furia di Mal' whose title recalls another emblematic adventure of the artist.
"No one believed that that show could be successful but I agreed to sing the theme song anyway. It was called
Furia
and the series had a black stallion as its protagonist. We didn't plan - says Mal - to produce a record with the song, but only to broadcast it to "beginning and ending of each episode. The children, however, went crazy when they heard the song. From one day to the next everyone was desperately looking for Furia's album and Ricordi rushed to produce it and put it on the market".
Nearly half a century later, 'Western Fury' is an everlasting success.
Mal des Primitives
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