Stadio drummer and founder Giovanni Pezzoli has died at the age of 70. The stadium itself announced the news on the official Facebook page. “Our minds and our hearts are full of pain! – we read – we want to remember him with his smile and the desire to make music to entertain us and you. Bye Giovanni”. The message is followed by an image of a broken heart.
Pezzoli, born on May 14, 1952 in Bologna, founded the band Stadio in 1981 together with Gaetano Curreri. Even as a boy, in 1962, while watching the first editions of the Sanremo Festival, he tried to follow the rhythm of the songs broadcast; builds a rudimentary battery of half-empty detergent barrels, played with knitting needles and a pedal made of Meccano parts and curling spring.
His career as a drummer begins with Lucio Dalla, a long collaboration that will lead him to play on almost all of his albums until 1992. At the end of the ’70s he met Gaetano Curreri, who, together with his friend Vasco Rossi and the group Le Cinque Lire, they recorded in Bologna. And with the help of Dalla and Ron, Stadio was born shortly after. To crown a long career, on February 14, 2016, Stadio won the 66th edition of the Sanremo Festival in the “Champions” section with the song Un giorno mi dirai, but despite the opportunity to represent Italy at the Eurovision Song Contest 2016, gave up them up until the trip to Stockholm because they are on tour (Francesca Michielin will replace them).
On March 25, 2016, a few days after the start of the “Miss Nostalgia Tour”, Pezzoli was struck by a serious illness while on vacation in the mountains. In 2017 he returned to the stage in Cattolica, presented by an excited and moved Gaetano Curreri and accompanied by an ovation of applause. Then he was replaced in the band’s live releases by Adriano Molinari, collaborator of Zucchero, then by Iarin Munari. In June 2021 the new hospitalization for controls. Then, in November 2022, his health deteriorated, forcing him into hospitalization amid fan fears.
Just a few days before Christmas the last photo of Gaetano Curreri, Andrea Fornili and Roberto Drovandi in the studio: “It’s time for music”. Among the comments, many were hoping to see the band perform at a concert together again soon. But Pezzoli will be absent for the first time since 1977.