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