History of the Cyan Three
Formed in their hometown of Brighton , at the end of 1964 they signed a contract for a 45 rpm single, released by Decca at the beginning of the following year, which however went unnoticed on the British market. Having arrived in Italy on 19 June 1966 at the invitation of Alberigo Crocetta , who called them for a series of performances at the Piper Club , at the end of the same year they became Patty Pravo 's support band (whom they met in the club), playing in her recordings both at 45 and 33 rpm, as well as in concerts. This is how the Venetian singer remembers the group: «I was accompanied by the Cyan Three , three English boys of the same age as me who would follow me for a few years. Gordon Faggetter (who would soon become my boyfriend) played the drums, George Sims the guitars and Roger Michael Smith the bass (the youngest of all, he was a year younger than us)." [1]
At the end of 1967, keyboardist Alberto Visentin joined the group , coming from the beat group I Volti (which had then taken the name of The Pipers ), and known in the gossip columns for being the husband of the actress Cristina Gaioni , and increasing the number of members of the group the name is changed to Cyan . This is what Patty Pravo says: «I started my career in a trio, with the Cyan Three, bass, guitar and drums. Very nice, but after a while I realized that, with a repertoire like mine, other instruments were also needed, such as strings and keyboards, for example. I called Alberto who was the most advanced ever, him, his wonderful Farfisa Compact and Binson Echorec. So I took him away, with the help of our factotum Augusto Piccionetti, from the group of the time, I Volti , who were already quite popular but whose career I ended by taking away Visentin." [2]
In 1971 they recorded a single, entitled Misaluba , which was quite successful; always in the same year, for a short period they changed their name to La Macchina , and it was with this name that they participated in the launch of Mia Martini 's album Oltre la hill . They took part in CantaGiro and many pop festivals around the peninsula, and enjoyed great success in 1972 with the song Mama, papa , a cover of a song by the Dutch group Cardinal Point , which in their version also entered the charts in Holland, Argentina and South Africa ; in the same year they performed a series of concerts in the United States, including the Hilton Hotel in LAS VEGAS as Mal 's backing group .
At the end of 1972 they carried out a promotional tour to promote their album, together with two other artists from the same record company, Claudio Baglioni and Fiorella Mannoia . In 1973, drummer Faggetter left the group to dedicate himself to painting (a painting of his would become the cover of Francesco De Gregori 's album of the same name in 1974 ), and was replaced by Franco Di Stefano , coming from Mike Liddell 's Atomi . Over the years they also became one of the most valid groups of session men within the Italian RCA , playing on many successful records recorded by various artists for this record company.
They also collaborate on many soundtracks: among these we remember Blue Jeans , a 1975 film by Mario Imperoli , with the soundtrack written by Nico Fidenco , and Rome on Drugs the Police Cannot Intervene (a crime film by Lucio Marcaccini ), written by Albert Verrecchia , in which they work with Tony Esposito on percussion, Baba Yaga on backing vocals, Sammy Barbot and Edda Dell'Orso on lead vocals. They then changed record company, moving to EMI Italiana , and recording the theme song for the television show La Vela , the song Sono un Tipo démodé . At the end of the decade they participated as De Gregori's musicians in the Banana Republic tour , from which the live album of the same name was taken.
In the 1980s they continued to work as a session man.