We are not interested in expanding our sounds as much as possible, with any
means necessary, to become famous, to preach, to sell. Everything we have
done, gigs, tapes, t-shirts, we always gave them away as a gift, because we
are not interested in business, not even the alternative one. We don’t want
to trade in slaves, we fight to overcome problems that sometimes seem
undefeatable. The best things we have, we don’t want to sell them or barter
them, like our arse, our mouth, our prick at £20 a go. We want to enjoy
them, give them as gifts to our friends, even waste them. We don’t give a
damn about the easy thrill of earning a living through our music or through
the things that we do best: the dream of the Fiat worker. We try to live
fucking the separation between bricklayer, guitar player, action man and
chef that the bourgeois culture is proposing. We start from the
self-management of the occupied houses in Turin in which we live. We are not
interested in pocket-money from the gigs, if we are offered a proposal of no
money or fundraising, we will go: to cook food, to repair the roof, to play,
to do an action, putting our energy, our ideas and if required our money,
into it. The sensations we have felt at a party or at a gig where there is
no commerce involved is completely different than finding ourselves in front
of a till at the door, a barman, a record stall or a chilm seller (as is the
regular case in occupied squats). We love drugs, alcohol, stay at the table
after dinner for hours. We prefer not to pay for tickets as an audience but
to participate more and more, in the city centre streets, in a garden or by
a lake, on the roof of the Royal Palace. Music is an arse and if it’s not a
good one, then what kind of arse is it?
This CD is part of a series of International projects within the
self-managed/squat scene: Bella Vita in Turin, Voultigeur in Paris and
Boulan in Geneva. These projects are intended to eliminate money as much as
possible within our relationships. We start with our more intimate
relationships, amongst our friends, but we would like to expand the idea and
involve many more people. It can be done! We have already had many public
outing like dinner in a piazza in the city centres of Turin and Geneva or a
mobile gig + bar in Paris where we invited people to participate without
opening their purses. Each person offered what he wanted to find, there were
no paid performances or voluntary shifts. Participation of this kind is very
much subjective, spontaneous and creative. Each person decides how to get
what is needed for the event: legally or illegally, it doesn’t matter. Of
course it’s not the revolution and the merchandise is still around and the
Swiss banks don’t care about chocolate. We are talking about passion
becoming a protagonist, we are talking about the elimination of the customer
who consumes, pays and usually goes away without complaint. The elimination
of the club organiser and of his bookkeeper. We want to have the chance to
participate in full as protagonists. Above all it’s a better way of being
together. It is not christian charity because we are not the Apostles of God
giving to all the needy people. This is not the welfare state assisting the
lower class, who have no income yet claim the right to party. There are no
rights and no duties. If there is a lack of money you can solve the problem
in another way, just look around and take it from where it is. Not only for
the Saturday night party, everyday would be better. This CD is a gift. It is
not for sale in the shops and you will not buy it in the underground scene.
It is a proposal that would like to generate a thousand more amongst the
free people who are not waiting for the revolution.
Che Guevara never existed. Mankind has already been on Mars.
I thought, why write a text if it will never be read? I have been answered
‘yes we all need to express ourselves’. So what? all the texts in our scene
say the same thing ‘blah, blah, blah…together we’ll succeed…blah, blah,
blah…up the collective life and the positive feeling’. In reality, I don’t
want to lie to myself, I don’t put others before me. If there is little food
and a lot of people I always try to get enough for myself. I never offer my
best ‘deals’ to the others. When there is an action I flee, leaving the risk
to others - the brave and strong. If a text has to be written I always wait
for somebody else to do it, then I express my critique: never exaggerate
with bullshit. They talk about collective life but I’m very cautious about
that. At the end of the day we are alone. I never help those in trouble
‘cause no one will ever help me and anyway, there is always somebody else
ready to help. I’m always ready to party, I can stay peacefully at the bar
when someone else is providing. I can even be the barman just to be on the
same level as the provider. I find meetings very boring and rather than
falling asleep, I prefer to stay at home and anyway it is always the same
people doing the talking. They say “don’t work, steal your food” but I’m
afraid of that and I already got caught once. The Dole is not enough, I
cannot go to the bar everyday and this upsets me a lot. I don’t know how the
others manage. They have money and are clever too. One has to find a
balance. For this I invite myself to every dinner and to every party, after
all we need happy people to have a good time. My problem is, I haven’t got
enough money. I would like to be offered some ‘deals’, but I always hear
about them too late. This is unacceptable when one is talking about
communism. The leaders put me in difficulties: they are always the same
people , they know everything, always committed, always criticising the
other hypocrites. They smile at me. “I puke on power”. This is what they
want. They want to be the foremost in every project. They can keep to
themselves, I don’t take orders, I’m not a pawn. I’d rather do my deals on
my own. No leaders. But you know life is not just black and white. Sometimes
I’m sad, actually, pretty often. Not that I think of topping myself
but…sometimes…then I take drugs, when I can, hiding myself, because it’s too
expensive to share. Except with real friends, they are different, we agree
on almost everything and when we are at the bar we enjoy taking the piss out
of everyone else. We like gossiping and bad mouthing people just to spread
shit. You should try it, it’s very funny. I’m afraid of the future. Today we
are all together, we meet at parties, at gigs, at manifestations, but when I
get old…the others will be settled down so I should really make a move, I
don’t know, try to learn to make a living. But, it is difficult to find
anything that is not work, something that I like and that will guarantee me
a pension. It is not with posters, flyers, fanzines or this free CD that
will secure my pension. I’m sure the rest are thinking the same thing
without saying. Now I’ve read what I have written and I think I have
exaggerated. Honestly I like all those groups of pseudo-anarchists,
pro-situationists or whatever they’re called. We had a good time together,
we did make good deals together and we became a gang. I cannot say exactly
what we did, in case some cop reads this booklet. I’m sure they will.
Therefore I will say nothing. We didn’t do only illegal stuff, we enjoyed
ourselves as well. About the Italians, the language is a bit difficult to
learn but most of them speak good French. They are a bit hyper and very
politicised, but I like their madness. Above all, their Bella Vita. That’s
good. If life could all be like that, I would sign the contract. BUT AT THE
END FOR ALL I SAID AND BECAUSE THEY’RE ALL A BUNCH OF PRICKS I STEP OUT OF
THIS CD PROJECT - FUCK OFF - FUCK ME.
There are ideas that don’t leave us on our own, ideas that allow us to make
something out of our life, that give a meaning to our story, new ideas which
transform our everyday living. Those are the ideas that we would like to use
to change the state of things rapidly and deeply. It’s up to us to find the
way of breaking the fatalist environment that mummifies our destiny, the way
of pushing ourselves to the edge, of constantly finding new dimensions in
our life.
There is Bella Vita, which is an important moment in our collective
expressions.
She is the need to communicate, to meet, to be protagonists of a daily
resistance.
We want to live differently. Our means are several, all interesting.
We are
different but some of our desires are the same.
We’ll make new friends.
Honestly, very often I’ve got problems with musicians. It’s strange, but I
can’t explain why. You know, they are nice people to be with, cool,
interesting and all.....but, when it comes to money, everything goes wrong.
It is the same problem you’d have in any shop! How many times I think about
it, when I”m going to a gig in a self-managed place. I’m not even talking
about the ordinary venues, one knows what the story is there. I wouldn’t
haggle for a piece of cheese in a supermarket, nor the price of a ticket in
a stadium. But in the places closer to my politics, I would expect a
different behaviour. I can’t explain why, but the guys from the band think
that I’ m merely trying to see their gig for free. On the contrary, very
often I don’t give a fuck about their gig. Like many others, I go there to
meet people, to chat, to drink, and sometimes I enjoy the music, sometimes
I don’t, but anyway it is not the main thing. The aim is not to scab an hour
of music. For that, there are more effective ways than a long argument at
the till. And once again, less dear is always too dear. I would like to
enrich the discussion, to bring it towards new horizons. But very often it
is impossible to go over the daily mediocrity of human life. It is like
there is no solution or a way out. People, ‘alternative’ or not, seem to be
satisfied with the present situation. The issue of gratuitousness has to be
solved at the root. If we are talking about giving, offering, in a world
ruled by profit, we will not go very far. We should really throw these
relationships, which are being imposed on us or sometimes we impose on
ourselves, in the loo. If only the musicians, the gig organisers and the
“consumer” would try to conceive the event in a different way. We don’t want
to be limited by time, nor be the paying spectators who let the actor lead
the play like a club where everything has already been organised for you.
The event should be a privileged moment that allow us to forget this world
and its rubbish, and amongst it the money. Where everything is possible, not
only what is in the programme. We realise that it is possible to have free
parties, without clients or customers, without actors or audience, where you
bring along what you wish to find, where the band plays for the fun of it,
where you can find something completely different from the usual commercial
relationships. And what a party! We want to go on all night, all week , all
life. And although I know that a free record or a free party will not
change the world, I think it could be a starting point. This free round
piece of plastic is not a model of what to do or not to do, it doesn’t want
to be a pseudo- revolutionary moral lesson and it is not the frenzy of a
kept student in transgressive mood. We are far from the realisation of our
desires, and sometimes it’s hard, but we will not be content with a little
corner of heaven in this shit world, and sometimes we let ourselves go and
we dream about a world without theft because it is without goods. We like to
live beyond our means, but we want them to justify their end.
Therefore, fill wine in the empty glass, drink wine from the full glass,
never leave the glass empty, never leave the glass full…I love you
