S to S

Biography     Discography

To reconstruct the story of S to S, we must move to the south-west of Belgium to a city named Seraing where the Cannella brothers  lived. Fulvio, was the first from the family to be attracted to rock-music. When he was thirteen he became roadie from a locally well-known band called STRAP. Pretty soon he knew for himself that playing rock music was what he really desired. Influenced by such heroes as Johnny Winter, The Allman Brothers Band and Mountain he started playing the guitar himself, but still continued to work for STRAP. Being roadie was not only load and unload the material, but it was also setting up the gear, mixing the sound during concerts and rehearsals. But even more important; he watched their guitar player for hours, just to learn the skills. So all this time he kept rehearsing his guitar to get better and better.  “….I was always seen as the young guy within this band; I played well but not as good as them; I understood that to get further I would have to start my own band…” he remembers…

In the late sixties he had been a member of a successful local outfit named THE CLOSED who had released a single “Lovin’ / My Little Girl From Kentucky” on Hebra records.  George liked what he heard in the studio and decided to join ETNA. Quickly he laid down the drum tracks on both songs. The single was released on AGS records (named after Serge) early 1976, and found its way to youngsters and jukeboxes in the region. Both songs….“Una Donna Senza Vergogna”  and  “Carcerato” were sung in Italian, another reference to the Cannella brothers’ Italian  roots.

No keyboards on the B-side but instead strange sounds and noises on the vocals. Now this was the kind of music they liked; with heavy guitars!  Despite this achievement the band fell apart quite soon after the release. But the nucleus of ETNA stayed together to immediately form a new band, this time a power trio. Fulvio on guitar, Mirco on bass and George on drums and vocals. They rehearsed almost every day and it was Fulvio who came up with the idea’s for several songs. Playing cover-songs was never an option; the boys wanted to play real fast music as they knew no other band who did played that way.    

Serge, who had stayed with them, suggested to change the name to a more rocking one. A first option was “East / West” but finally they opted for a more controversial S to S. The band played a couple shows but pretty soon they came up with the plan to record an album. The key person for this idea was a guy named Michel Dickenscheid who wanted to build a studio in a little town named Ougrée.  As this was a low-budget plan, he needed some extra hands to help. The deal was, when the studio was done, the band would be able to record their album right there, totally for free. 

The next day all vocals were put on tape and a fourth day was used to adjust and mix everything together. The lyrics were written by Danielle Renkens who was a friend of the band at the time. She was the only one around the band who was able to come up with a decent story in English. She would later also pose for the back cover of the album.

There was one song named “I’m Fool” that sounded completely different than the rest. It was much slower and had a real mystic atmosphere around it, thanks to synths and a psychedelic sax blowing around, pretty much like British rockers Hawkwind.

For this special tune Fulvio was thinking about the film “The Exorcist” to inspire him to write that haunting atmosphere. The saxophone was played by Michel Dickenscheid itself.

And this without playing a single gig together! After some time he did not show up at rehearsals anymore, so Mirco had to switch to bass again. The keyboards were played by Gabriel Planamenti during two sessions.

Fulvio remembers more of it: “…for me it’s really a pity that there are a few songs lost from those recordings. We had recorded 10 or twelve songs and especially those that I liked the most (at the time the last one’s we had written) weren’t chosen for the album. One of them was really heavy with a guitar that sounded like a race-car … unfortunately the original tapes are lost…”

In the meantime Mirco was also playing drums for fun in their rehearsal space with two friends of him ; Michel Verjans (guitar) and Remo Di Matteo who sang. As soon as things got a little bit more serious they decided to start a real punk band and named it Acétylène.  Claudi Spelgatti joined them on bass and they gained quite a big local following.

The recorded S to S album was finished early 1977 but stayed on the shelf for about another year. They needed some funds for the sleeve, so when it finally came out it was already 1978. It also came a bit as a surprise that the album logo was written in the well-known Sig-runes style. It was the manager who came up with that idea as it looked special.  “…. I had not seen the sleeve of the album before it was released and I was explained otherwise. But what did we know by then…; we were 17 years old, only interested in playing music that’s all.… although it’s a pity as quite soon after the release I was embarrassed for that S to S logo, it was never necessary….” explains Fulvio.  Nevertheless the logo did not cause any trouble as record shops or organizers did not banned the group for it. Only 300 copies were made but not every album was sold in those days, probably around 200.

The boys were proud when the album finally came out and to give it a proper release-show they decided to organize a show themselves at the auditorium of the technical school at hometown Seraing. It was a big success and was nearly sold out with 800 people attending. Of course on stage the songs sounded different, not that special massive guitar-sound, but nevertheless still filthy and extremely heavy.  Right after that release Fulvio decided to quit school at 17 and spend more time to the band.

The band stayed pretty unknown outside the Liege-area and was surrounded with mystery in the rest of Belgium.  Lots of people regarded them as punks but musically they had nothing in common with that musical revolution from England.

S to S continued in the years to come, writing new songs and playing concerts but unfortunately only in the southern part of Belgium and Brussels. On Sept 7^th,1980 they played a festival along Golden Earring and Tom Robinson’s Sector 27 at the Parc Municipal at Dour.

In the early eighties the band decided to engage an extra singer, David Bouldou, as he was a real stage-personality.  When everything seemed bright there were once more line-up problems when George announced that he would leave the group for his marriage. For the other musicians stopping this band was no option, so they started looking for new drummers and tried a few of them on stage. The first one that really seemed to fit in was Angelo Liota. But also this reincarnation wasn’t meant to last long. David Bouldou decided to leave after six months S to S and only a handful of shows. Angelo Liota followed….

So once again both brothers Cannella were on the lookout for a drummer. This time it was Jacky Losana who joined while Mirco started singing.  S to S was evolved a lot during all those years and the songs from the first album were replaced by new tunes, so the set-list was by then completely different than a few years earlier.  Also the style of the songs itself wasn’t that speedy anymore; now their music revealed much more of Fulvio’s major influences; heavy boogie-rock as played by The Allman Brothers or Foghat. Now they dared to include a blues tune or a rock & roll cover (“Johnny B Goode / Be Bob A Luna”) on stage. But still S to S had many original songs such as “Wasting Cola”, “Hello Johnny”, “Where Do You Go”, “Hey Rock’n’Roll” and “What Can I Do”; more than enough for a new album. Unfortunately none of the new songs ever found their way to vinyl. During all those years there was a lot of talk about making a second album. Michael Dickenscheid  agreed to record it once more in his studio. Of course they needed some money although the studio wasn’t that expensive for them as friends.  Fulvio: “…in the early years I was at his studio all the time, so it was obvious that we would do our second album right there…. Once again we were well prepared and we worked everything out musically…. even the studio itself wasn’t a problem at all…. but we simply missed that final kick in the butt from someone to guide and stimulate us to actually do it … that was more a problem than trouble with the lineup….“

In 1982 the adventure ended. Fulvio looks back: “….the S to S album shows the energy of our youth…. it was a great adventure for us as youngsters, without any regrets. Or maybe there is a single regret…. that we finally did not made a second album… But the fact that we still are friends after all these years and occasionally are playing together can be seen as proof  for a positive adventure….”

After the split Fulvio Canella stopped playing for about five years. When in 1987 he heard of a contest by radio 21 “Concours Franco-rock” he decided to try his luck and also send in a demo-tape he recorded that night as FOUFI with two freshly written songs which he sung for the first time himself.  To his surprise he heard on the radio that he won the preselection and so he was invited to present his music in a live setting. He asked his brother Mirco and George Abry to help him out on that day. Much to his surprise he won once more and from there on he was on the road again and never stopped. Many concerts followed and even bigger festivals. One of them was broadcasted on the radio (festival de Dyon). Unfortunately from this creative period there is no music released on record. Fulvio’s musical style is since then more changed to rock and blues. Around 2004 he started playing all alone, only for amusement, with now and then some guests to help him out. He was successful so he kept doing it right until 2010.  By then he got an offer from his old colleague David Bouldou to join his successful band BOULDOU AND STICKY FINGERS. David grounded this Rolling Stones cover-group in 1996 and hasn’t been off the road since then.

Since the nineties George Abry was seen behind the drums for several local cover- and blues bands as The SQUARE ROOTS BAND, BLUE WAY or BLUES DRIVER (with FN GUNS singer Steve Rogers)

Other bands who were at that time playing fast with two guitars (as f.i. Judas Priest), just didn’t do it  a whole album long like S to S. So this music certainly can be called pré-heavy metal as it was almost two years before the whole “NWOBHM” movement started in England. It’s a pity that at the end of the seventies there was no one there in Belgium to put them to a higher level.

Finally after 38 years, the album was rereleased on Sommor records and distributed by the Spanish Guerssen label. It’s a great thing to give everybody the opportunity to discover the sounds and words of this remarkable piece of Belgian musical history.

© Pascal D’Hooghe

/header