Rigolò Rock Club
Date
Credits
- Marco Trioschi Founder
- Luigi "GIGI" Bittoni Founder
- Gabriele Casalboni Design Director
- Dj Rone Performer
- Omarescu Performer
- Gabriele Ravaglia Musician
- Rita Gulminelli Collector
- Barbara Barrotta Layout Designer
Format
- Logo 396
- Flyer 183
- Advertising 690
- Postcard 169
- Ticket 35
Printers
Media
- paper 2255
Techniques
- offset lithography 684
- photolithograph 14
- printing 993
- Mimeography 14
Locations Made
Rigolò was one of the main hubs for alternative music, rock, and new musical trends in Romagna, open from the winter of 1991 until its final night on May 31, 1996.
It began as a club/space linked to the local branch of the PCI (Italian Communist Party) in Alfonsine (RA), in the same rooms and from the ashes of the famous "Milleluci" club: a dance hall popular in the 1960s.
The two founders, Marco Trioschi e Luigi "Gigi” Bittoni (who, following the forced closure of the club, opened "Rock Planet" in Cervia, which is still open today), wanted to mimic the Afro-funk clubs typical of the Romagna Riviera. After the limited success of their first nights, they were persuaded by Gabriele Casalboni, a furniture maker with an enormous collection of rock vinyl records, to try a more alternative approach. The first parties featured rap and funk, later moving on to true rock, even the hardest rock. The name "Rigolò," in fact, comes from the Romagnolo dialect term used to mean "ruzzolone" or rolling on the floor, evoking a playful and carefree atmosphere, typical of rock music dancing.
Although small and niche, considering the mainstream musical tastes of the time, it hosted famous bands such as Antrax, Doctor and the Medics, Massive Attack, The Sick Rose; as well as the Italians Afterhours, Articolo 31, Casino Royale, Marlene Kuntz, Negrita, Prozac +, Skiantos, Statuto e Tre allegri ragazzi morti. Bands, sometimes just starting out, but musical reference points over time both in the underground and, sometimes, in the more mainstream world.
On that unusual Friday night, the venue had two distinct areas:
– the large room (where the more commercial and light rock was played) with the main console and the large stage for the various bands to perform;
– the small, dimly lit mezzanine upstairs, a gathering place for the more extremist fringe of the clientele, made up of punks and metalheads.
Over the five years of its existence, several slogans were created, one for each season, all inspired by the main DJ, Gabriele Casalboni. In line with a markedly punk and “Do It Yourself” approach he collected images from magazines and coined phrases, which he then refined with the help of Barbara Barotta and her father at the Linotypia Nuova Ravenna studio where the graphics were assembled. In the early months (late 1991), all the club's communications were printed using a mimeograph machine, in black only, at the Communist Party headquarters, free of charge and on the paper available at the time. Subsequently, the entrance tickets and concert program flyers were printed – almost always two-color – first (1992–1994) by the Grafica Alfonsinese printing house in Alfonsine (RA); later (1995–1996) by the Tipografia Romagna in Faenza (RA).
LIST OF SLOGANS BY YEAR
1992 - "ROCKЯEVOLUTION"
1993 - "BETTER ONE FRIDAY LIKE A LION THAN A HUNDRED LIKE A SHEEP" *
1994 - "THOSE WHO G☮ EⒶRN IT"
1995 - "IT'S NEVER TOO LATE TO... ENJOY"
1996 - "CULTURE IS DEAD, SUPERMARKETS ARE ADVANCING" **
* DJ Casalboni didn't know it was a fascist-sounding phrase:
it created problems with the Communist Party landlords.
** The year of the forced closure, in favor of a supermarket.
PERSONAL MEMORY
I was fourteen years old, and Alfonsine was my London, just two train stops away. Throughout my time there, I never missed a Friday night, even though I had school the next day. Max, the punk DJ upstairs (who was like a brother to me), would take me there during opening hours: I'd help him arrange the many heavy vinyl records and then mosh pits with friends until 1:00 a.m. My parents, already separated, took turns, every other week, to pick me up, braving a buttery fog. In those dimly lit rooms, up and down the stairs, I found my first love, the music I love and the many friendships that are still by my side after more than thirty years.
