A5 zine documenting the Hardcore Punk movement in Napoli.
It’s the DIY story of an anti-dream spanning between 1979-1983 and told through the archive of Davide Morgera, drummer of the infamous Neapolitan HC punk band Underage and head of the main punk fanzines of the city.
Here are collected the original colored A4 before getting the xerox treatment and a bunch of photos showing the kidz life in the streets of Napoli between music, anarchy, politics and chaos.
It might sounds as a Napoli very own story, and sure it is (e.g ZX etc.), but it’s actually the emotional background of a generation that somehow resonate still now in the DIY expanded attitude.
Contro-potere, anti-everything, in the eternal present, chaos for chaos.
In the words of Davide Morgera:
“Close your eyes. Turn up the volume. No, it’s not Beethoven’s Fifth. Imagine, you can. We are in 2024, fuck! UNDERAGE. Not in the far 1983 when these songs, and this kind of – I don’t feel like calling it - ‘music’, wasn’t what it is today. When punk, hardcore or whatever you want to call it, was not catalogable. It wasn’t describable - we were just living. No thought but spitting on the system. When there were still people who didn’t give a fuck about technique, they were just playing because they were feeling the need to shout their anger to the world, to vomit on others all the hate received. And never gave back. UNDERAGE and the ZX. Centro Storico, Via Dei Tribunali, Via Atri. The temple. Naples like London. Where are the “Centri Sociali”? They still have to come to the city, Gianturco is the suburbs of the world. Tiredness. For now, just tiredness. Will of smashing everything. It doesn’t matter what comes next. It doesn’t matter what came before. The important thing is now. Right Now. The time is now. Smashing everything after the first concert in town. Bloody hands and bloody drumsticks. The wild mosh pit and a kid who crashed on the snare drum. That’s the point. The scratchy portrait of CHAOS. Of what was and is said to be dead. The screams, the mess, the essence, the spirit, the intentions are irresistible thrills that seize you. The guitar and the noise smash and blend everything that goes through your head. “And this should be music?” "No!”. Nobody said that. They can’t sing, they sound crap, the quality is terrible! “So? ‘fuck off!!!’. Something to say. To be recorded, played, written, sung. UNDERAGE and MUSI CA-OS. I don’t care. Are your ears bleeding? Yes? It’s because you’re listening to the truth. And the truth sometimes hurts. We wanted chaos. The anthem of “Individual Anarchy”. That’s enough, there was too much repressed anger. Lives, tragedies, fights, forgiveness, returns, scams, disappointments. They told us that it was dead back in 1978, that things had changed. No, darlings, we really don’t think so. Fuck you. It’s all extremely present, if not worse. Naples has died once again, there is still violence in the metropolis, there are zombies still today. UNDERAGE and the 7’’. When did you record it? The day before yesterday? No? Because that’s how it sounds to me. It’s been 40 years, not 15 as in “Marijuana punk”. There were only deceptions. The hair has grown up but the brains are the same, if not worse. Back then people used to scream, people have changed. Back then they were screaming, now they close their eyes in agony. Because CHAOS will never end.” NAPOLI PUNX - 1979-1983
A5 64 pgs, limited series of 150
Design and layout Davide Salvati Scans and photos Davide Morgera Curated by Giovanni Napolano -Publisher
