It’s not every day that you hear Elio, that is Stefano Belisari, talk about himself, his life and his career and that of Elio e le Storie Tese. Ok, there is certainly the story of his son Dante, autistic, with whom he has been fighting a battle for years for the recognition of that disorder by the State; but the beauty of Walter Veltroni’s interview on Corriere della Sera is that it touches on many themes, starting from an analysis of his path and his humor – something that, over time, his comic mask has somewhat prevented.
The occasion is that of the so-called Charity Concert – a small tradition, scheduled for May 26th in Monza, the Trio Medusa will also be there and “people will really play, without autotune and similar devilry” – and the next summer tour. But in short, hadn’t Elio and the Storie Tese disbanded? «But no, we like to mimic the big groups that break up easily and then maybe do one last reunion tour that lasts ten years», he joked.
Among the best moments of a career which nevertheless sowed traps here and there (“We had long-term success, which is not always a good thing, we can get lazy”), the participation in the Sanremo Festival in 1996 and 2013, respectively with The land of persimmons And The monotonous song. «We saw it as a public service to be performed. We knew there was an audience made up of people like us and we wanted to represent it”, he said, referring to the first time, when they were still saboteurs, to the point that their second place finish in 1996 ended up at the center of an investigation. A little hand, perhaps, had tampered with the ballots with the votes, to prevent him from winning to the detriment of Ron and Tosca with I would like to meet in a hundred years: it would have been an outrage. “I was interrogated,” she said. «In the end the policeman told me, off the record, that we had won, that bleached ballots had been found. Giorgia told me that they had told her the same hypothesis too. We weren’t interested in her. We went there to break the lie and we succeeded.”
Among others, there was a big “ball bust” when at the 1991 Concertone they improvised a piece, then renamed it Sandblasting, in which they recounted scandals and intrigues at the court of a First Republic close to collapse. «At the rehearsals, the day before, we dressed up as good guys and performed a classical repertoire. They made us swear that twenty-four hours later we would not move from there. But then we started a horrible rap that collected all the information published in the newspapers at that time on Andreotti, Cossiga, Ciarrapico. They interrupted the live broadcast and gave the line to Vincenzone Mollica. When the organizers came on stage to make us stop, I threw myself on the floor screaming: “Like Jim Morrison!”. We locked ourselves in the dressing room, waiting for something to happen. We saw some carabinieri and said to ourselves: “We’re here.” Instead they wanted a photo.” The truth, he continued, is that «we enjoyed creating futuristic-type situations, aimed at provoking reactions in the public. We like that he is alive, participates, has emotions. My nightmare is seeing people asleep.”
The most difficult moment was the death of Feiez, the multi-instrumentalist of the group who died at the age of 36, due to a cerebral hemorrhage, during a concert of a parallel project, in which Elio also participated, in December 1998: «When he collapsed, while playing, I had the feeling that a piece of me was gone, that nothing would be the same as before.”
In general, however, Elio gives the feeling of no longer having much fun regardless. «They are all with the handbrake on, afraid of the Always Open Great Tribunal of social media which judges and condemns everything, which sanctions everything that allows itself to go outside the pre-established canons, no one knows exactly who. There has never been a time so bigoted, so conservative.” On his participation in LOL in 2020, for example, he recalled how «people thanked us because we had made them laugh. As if we were saviors from the incipient sadness. Once upon a time we had a lot of fun. In the Seventies there were terrorism, drugs, kidnappings. But we were laughing like crazy.” His favorite, among today’s faces, is Valerio Lundini, who «has that type of lunar, unpredictable comedy» that takes him back to his myths, that is «Cochi and Renato, Jannacci, Mel Brooks, Monty Python, Frank Zappa» , but also the Skiantos.
Finally, regarding his son’s autism, he said that it was his wife who noticed the first suspicious behavior in her son, especially because the couple has twins and the confrontation was inevitable. «It was difficult to find someone who could give us a clear diagnosis and who could direct us. There is no protocol that a mother and father can follow, which acts as a compass in that tidal wave. They have to search with the lantern, alone, in the doubt of not having found the right people and solutions.” And again: «Now Dante is 14 years old, and he is aware. Even too much, he says it all the time. He did an impressive job, a heartbreaking effort. For him everything was effort: putting on a shirt, going to the bathroom, talking. He was taught everything. He worked hard, but we were able to allow him to be followed. But who doesn’t have money? Here too, just when the public hand should rebalance the differences, instead social inequalities are accentuated.”
Many of the private associations that deal with the disorder will meet at Concertozzo, together with parents of autistic children. «We will also share fantastic experiences like that of PizzAut – founded by Nico Acampora, father of an autistic boy – which is becoming a real phenomenon. Instead of having the kids stay in institutions, he thought of employing them in restaurants and is now designing 107 mobile vehicles with five autistic kids on board each. Is not it beautiful? Thus they even produce income, they become taxpayers. President Mattarella, with the sensitivity we know, wanted to highlight this exceptional experience. But he is a father who invented it. Politics, governments, not received.”
