Biography

I Pooh, or Pooh for short, are like the Rolling Stones of Italian popular music. One of music's longest continuously running acts, they formed in Bologna in 1964. Like other groups of the 'beat' generation their music consisted of American and English pop covers sung in Italian. The original band was composed of # Valerio Negrini (Drums)
Bob Gillot (Keyboards), Gilberto Faggioli ( Bass Guitar ), Mario Goretti (Guitar), and Mauro Bertoli (Guitar). As the 60's wore down and the Italian music scene began to find it's own voice Pooh gravitated toward a more... melodic pop. The group had some line-up changes during these years with the the definitive Pooh line up taking form. Roby Facchinetti (voice and keyboards) joined in 1966 replacing Gillot. Red Canzian (voice and electric bass joined 1973 replacing Riccardo Fogli who had replaced Faggioli in 1966. In 1967 , Mauro Bertoli left the group. In September 1968, Dodi Battaglia (voice and guitars) joined the group, when Mario Goretti left the band. Finally in 1971, following Valerio's departure, the band recruited Stefano D'Orazio, the drummer of the Naufraghi. The line-up of Facchinetti, Battaglia, D'Orazio, and Canzianhas been together since 1973 with exception of some albums in the early to mid 70's staying in the vein of pop music.
Much of the Pooh's music is not really of interest of proggresive rock fans. However there was a period when even the most successful of the purveyors of melodic pop where drawn in the progressive rock boom that swept all of Italy in the early 70's. The Pooh's detour into prog was brought on by the addition of Canzian who had a keen interest in progressive rock and had been guitarist of Capsicum Red before taking over the bass chair in Pooh. Pooh released a series of albums in the 70's that are of keen interest to those who have a deep interest in progressive rock. In fact.... some of their albums have been hailed as 'masterpieces' OF Italian progressive rock and for years were HIGHLY sought after by collectors of Italian progressive rock recordings of the 70's in the dark days before many of the albums were available again for us relatively easily. Albums such as Opera Prima, Parsifal, and Un po' del nostro tempo migliore are where the prog fan's should look first.
The group well is recommended for completionsts of Italian progressive rock and those who like their prog on the .... melodic and orchestrated side. I have these albums and find them to be an interesting listen and are quite highly recommended.

--- http://www.progarchives.com/artist.asp?id=3832 ---