Afterhours - Seeds of Italian alt-rock

Together with Marlene Kuntz and a handful of others, Afterhours have left an indelible mark on independent rock in Italy. A long journey packed with events that has made Manuel Agnelli's band one of the leading names on Italy's so-called alternative scene, and that has allowed a certain kind of music - often underrated in our country - to come out into the open and prove itself a major force, not only in terms of records sold, but also, and perhaps above all, in the huge success it has enjoyed live.

When Agnelli himself was asked how he explained the band's enormous live following, he replied: "For me the rule is that going to a concert is more exciting than listening to a CD, which is a bit impersonal. Some bands, us and Marlene for instance, have the ability to renew the emotion they convey, almost every night. That way you can play a hundred and twenty dates a year and be certain people will keep coming back."

The English-language beginnings

The first news of the band dates back to 1988, when the single "My Bit Boy" came out on Toast, followed the next year by the mini-LP All The Good Children Go To Hell. Besides Manuel, the group's stable lineup at the time included Paolo Cantù on guitar (later a well-regarded member of Six Minute War Madness and A Short Apnea, as well as tour manager for Afterhours themselves) and Lorenzo Olgiati on bass, while Alessandro Polizzari sat behind the drums, later replaced by Max Donna. The choice was to sing in English, with the clearest sonic influences being bands like Velvet Underground and Television. The first leap in quality came with their contribution to the tribute album "Something About Joy Division", with a cover of "Shadowplay".

Afterhours thus entered the orbit of Vox Pop, releasing During Christine's Sleep on that label in 1991 and Pop Kills Your Soul in 1993. The latter saw the arrival of Xabier Iriondo on guitar, while Cantù and Olgiati left the band. The sound evolved into the eclecticism that would go on to define the group, pairing highly aggressive tracks with others full of visionary madness. Also significant was the 1992 mini-CD "Cocaine Head", which marked the arrival of Giorgio Prette on drums.

A small underground cult

The real turning point in the history of Afterhours, however, is the splendid cover of "Mio Fratello è Figlio Unico" recorded for the tribute to Rino Gaetano in 1993: English is abandoned in favour of Italian, a crucial choice that allows audiences to appreciate the beauty of the band's lyrics, which are ironic, transgressive and often surreal.

So in 1995 came their first album in Italian, the last one released on Vox Pop, Germi, which brought them recognition with a wider audience. An exuberant album, made up of devastating tracks like the title track itself and "Siete Proprio dei pulcini", alongside other intense pieces like the splendid "Strategie" and "Dentro Marilyn" (which Mina would later cover). The sound defies classic categorization, marked by a madness rarely found on the Italian music scene.

The success of Germi was only a preview of the Afterhours phenomenon, which came to full fruition in 1997 with Are You Afraid of the Dark?, an album of extraordinary success that reached well beyond the alternative rock audience.

The record, released on Mescal, has been hailed as a milestone of Italian music, thanks to an incredible run of tracks touching on different kinds of sound: from punk atmospheres ("Dea", "Sui Giovani d'Oggi ci Scatarro Su", "Lasciami Leccare l'Adrenalina") and grunge ("Male di Miele", often called the Italian "Smells Like Teen Spirit") to more pop-leaning moments ("Voglio Una Pelle Splendida" and "Pelle"), passing through tracks with flashes of lo-fi ("1.9.9.6."), and reaching its peak in episodes like "Rapace" and "Punto G", where different genres collide within the same song.

The hugely popular tour that followed turned Afterhours into one of the standard-bearers of Italian rock, a flag that kept flying even after the release of Non è per sempre in 1999. With this album, the Milanese band, while retaining the irony and surrealism of their lyrics, moved closer to pop sounds (especially on the title track and on "Bianca"), though there was no shortage of shadowy, melancholic tracks (above all "Oceano di Gomma"), while the grit of "Germi" proved to still be alive in songs like "La verità che ricordavo" and "Non Si Esce Vivi dagli Anni Ottanta". Alongside the now-stable lineup of Andrea Viti on bass and Dario Ciffo on violin, Roberta Castoldi appeared on cello. Agnelli stated: "What's being underestimated is the fact that the return to the Eighties also means a return to a very superficial and very flat way of seeing things: indifference, apathy, and above all arrogance, which were somewhat the hallmarks of the Eighties. There is a huge danger, in my opinion, of going backwards."

With the release of Siam tre piccoli porcellin, Afterhours renewed their presence on the Italian rock scene with a record that didn't want to be just another celebratory live album: "The audience is an irreplaceable part of us. And I think that making a record with the audience inside it, acknowledging that fact, was the main reason that drove us to record this album. The audience is a fundamental and essential part of our project, because 80 percent of what we do is a live project. Because that's what we live for and live on." And who else but Manuel Agnelli could have come up with the idea of a touring festival that could show the whole of Italy the existence of a vital, top-quality "indie" world? So, in the summer of 2001, the Tora!Tora! Festival got underway, bringing Italy's leading alternative acts in front of audiences bigger than even the rosiest predictions. With Afterhours as hosts, artists who took the stage included Marlene Kuntz, Modena City Ramblers, Subsonica, Massimo Volume, Cristina Donà and many other leading figures of a too-often underrated Italian musical underground.

At the end of 2001 they decided to go back into the studio to begin work on their fourth album in Italian. A major surprise, however, awaited them: Xabier Iriondo, one of the three founding members, decided to leave the group. A more uncertain future, or new territories to explore? It didn't take long to get an answer.

Xabier Iriondo has left the group

In 2002 Afterhours released Quello che non c'è, their fourth album in Italian. The rollout was on a grand scale: the first leg of the tour saw them on stage with Mercury Rev. An important event, destined to highlight the new traits of a band that had shown real courage in diving into a new dimension. The path they took, however, appears convoluted and, above all, not yet clearly defined. Manuel Agnelli undoubtedly tried to break away from a past that perhaps no longer suited him: Iriondo's departure from the group, certain fan attitudes that had become almost unbearable, and the maturing of the man himself... These, among other things, were the causes that led Afterhours to make an introspective, pained record, far more intimate than its predecessors. Agnelli's writing technique had changed: the famous Burroughs-style "cut up" disappeared, giving way to more "narrative" and deliberate structures, but while one can appreciate both the undeniable talent and the conviction shown in this choice, a small pang of regret remains for that past in which every line concealed a simple mystery. Just as there remains a longing for the more alien sounds also found on the much-criticized "Non è per sempre": an album that was pop, yes, but a deviant, oblique kind of pop with few parallels in Italy. Quello che non c'è has all the symptoms of an album that is potentially great but rarely actually delivers, with some mesmerizing dark flourishes alternating with frankly disappointing dips in tension. Even the early shows revealed some uncertainty: perhaps inevitable, given the changes that had taken place, but ones that made the prospect of the band splitting up seem more plausible.

In 2005 Ballate per piccole iene was released, produced by Greg Dulli. A record with a leaden atmosphere, where darkness lurks beneath the surface. The moments of pure introspection stand out as the most compelling, and even where the guitars clatter in, the noise is always composed - see "Così com'è" in this regard, the bastard offspring of various tracks like "Germi" and "Male di miele". There's no sense of a will to overreach, to write the definitive song, but "La sottile linea bianca" could rightly become just that, with its brooding pace, moving between falsettos and timid distortions that drift over a delicate piano backdrop. A little further on, around "Ci sono molti modi", an Agnelli devoted to the cult of the pensive ballad resurfaces, while "La vedova bianca" brings back forceful white-noise bacchanals. A mention is also due for the single "Ballata per la mia piccola iena", which works as the perfect impact track, with its barely-there melodic line repeated over an unexploded guitar crescendo.

Considered by many to be their most mature and accomplished record, it stands out above all for being the darkest and most hopeless. One of the absolute peaks of Italian rock in the 2000s.

Thanks to their collaboration with Dulli, Afterhours caught the interest of the UK's One Little Indian, which commissioned the band to make an English-language version of Ballate per piccole iene. Ballads For Little Hyenas came out in January 2006 across much of Europe. It contains the ten tracks from the original, plus a cover of Lou Reed's "The Bed".

Around the same time, Enrico Gabrielli - a multi-instrumentalist who had already worked with Marco Parente - officially joined the lineup, along with Roberto Dell'Era, who stepped in to replace bassist Andrea Viti, who had left the band for "artistic, professional and personal reasons".

Buoyed by a "refreshed" lineup and with a finished English-language release and promotion ready to go, the American arm of One Little Indian decided to release and distribute Ballads For Little Hyenas in the United States, where Afterhours embarked on a 26-date tour supporting Greg Dulli's Twilight Singers and Jeff Klein. The band won over almost unexpected praise from fans and critics alike, and at every show the number of people who had come to see them, not just the headliners, grew night after night. It was only a matter of days, by that point, before Ballads For Little Hyenas was also released in England, on 9 October 2006, where the band found themselves promoting the record in venues packed with fans.

On 9 February 2007, the first of two double DVDs was released (the second would follow in May of the same year). Lasciatevi infettare, non usate precauzioni contains all the promotional videos shot since the band's beginnings, along with clips from television appearances and concerts over the years, as well as numerous interviews retracing the band's first ten years.

In March, Afterhours return to the United States for their first headlining tour, kicking it off at Whisky Bar in Austin, Texas, for the prestigious South by Southwest music showcase.

“The Milanese kill off Saturday night” and the Sanremo appearance

These are intense years for Afterhours, marked by line-up changes (with the addition of Enrico Gabrielli on horns), a move to Casasonica management, and a deal with major label Universal. Caught up in this whirlwind of events and emotions, it's no surprise that their eighth studio album – The Milanese kill off Saturday night – comes across as rather unsettled, torn between the search for new horizons and the need to stay true to its own musical identity. On one hand, Afterhours remain tied to their primal nature (“E' solo febbre”), loading some tracks with riffs and electricity (“Neppure carne da cannone per Dio”, “Pochi istanti nella lavatrice”, “Tutti gli uomini del Presidente”); on the other, there's a desire for a quiet revolution toward calmer, more relaxed tones, tied to a more melodic, popular sound. This is where the album shows its weak spot: despite some elaborate, polished arrangements involving horns, strings and piano, songs like “Riprendere Berlino” and “Tema: la mia città” come across as unconvincing, lacking the bite and backbone that have always defined the work of Agnelli's band. And when the tempo slows down even further, things don't improve; while the sly “Tarantella all'inazione”, with its rhythm, manages to stand out fairly well, the slow Lanegan-style folk ballad that gives the title track its name feels insipid, and “Dove si va da qui” first bores with its piano and drum machine, then irritates with a falsetto passage. Fuelling this craving for tenderness are Agnelli's personal and family affairs, which surface here and there, especially in the closing “Orchi e streghe sono soli”, a tender fable dedicated to his daughter, a piece of newly (re)discovered neo-romanticism. The excess of zeal poured into building certain sonic structures ends up producing simple, unremarkable songs that betray a desire for change that hasn't yet been fully brought into focus. But the path has been taken.

In 2009 Afterhours took part in the Sanremo Festival with the song “Il paese è reale”.

It was an appearance handled without losing their identity, with a track that reflected the sounds the band had recently been exploring. They were eliminated in the first round but won the prestigious “Mia Martini” Critics' Award and exponentially increased their visibility. No new album followed, but rather a compilation (titled precisely Il paese è reale) which, alongside their Sanremo entry, also featured 18 other acts from the Italian alternative scene. Manuel Agnelli thus confirmed himself as a kind of modern patron, always attentive to new talent.

Also in 2009, Manuel Agnelli took part in making “Domani”, a single recorded with some of the biggest names in Italian music, aimed at raising funds for the areas hit by the earthquake in Abruzzo.

That same year he wrote the duet “Adesso è facile” for Mina, for which a music video was also made. The whole band took part in the recording sessions for the track.

Meanwhile, Enrico Gabrielli left the band, announcing his decision through a terse statement posted online.

He was replaced by violinist and multi-instrumentalist Rodrigo D'Erasmo, previously of Nidi D'Arac.

A well-received run of concerts followed, designed for theatre venues, featuring old and new songs reworked with fresh arrangements. Various guests took turns on stage, and on many dates plenty of room was given to performances by comedian Antonio Rezza.

In 2010 and 2011 Afterhours took on two summer tours notable for the presence on stage of Xabier Iriondo. These were hugely popular events, conceived without the pressure of promoting a new record, a kind of greatest-hits live show in which many songs that hadn't been performed in years found new visibility.

Iriondo's return gave the band's sound a jolt, steering it back toward more electric, visceral territory compared to the overly elaborate arrangements that had characterised the recording of “The Milanese kill off Saturday night”.

In 2011, Agnelli, Iriondo and Gabrielli took the stage for the Italian dates of Damo Suzuki's Network: the show recorded at Circolo degli Artisti in Rome would later be immortalised on a live album. Agnelli also played keyboards on the Italian tour of the Twilight Singers. Meanwhile, Afterhours began considering the direction their next album should take, and rumours grew increasingly persistent about a permanent return by Xabier Iriondo.

At the end of 2011, Afterhours embarked on a trip to the United States that allowed them to go back to playing small venues, rediscovering a more direct, more genuine connection with their audience. They also got to experience the thrill of recording sessions in studios of established renown, such as Steve Albini's Electrical Audio in Chicago.

At the end of the “Jack On Tour”, a multi-part documentary was produced and aired on a satellite channel, along with an album (Meet Some Freaks On Route 66) featuring seven tracks from their back catalogue, specially rearranged for the occasion, plus a cover (“Dolphins”) performed together with Majakovich (their support act on the American dates).

In the early months of 2012 two new tracks are released, which will be part of the upcoming album.

The electrically charged "La tempesta è in arrivo" is licensed as the soundtrack for the Sky TV series about organized crime in the Brenta area, "Faccia d'angelo", starring Elio Germano.

This is followed by the release of the single "Padania", which quickly establishes itself as an instant classic for the band, with those acoustic textures always ready to explode at any moment.

Padania

On Tuesday 17 April 2012 the new album is released: it's called Padania and is produced by Afterhours and Tommaso Colliva. The cover features the image of a gate open onto nothing: a puddle, snow, fog, everything very cold, whitened, the landscape of Padania today. Milan has always been at the centre of Afterhours' songwriting, appearing in song titles ("Milano circonvallazione esterna") and even in an album title (The Milanese kill off Saturday night). But this time Padania (in which Milan plays the role of proactive engine), rather than a geographical place, is to be understood as a state of mind. Immersed in a hyper-frantic daily routine, the "Padanian" within each of us gets swept up in the stressful chase after personal and professional goals that are ever higher, and ever more fleeting, losing touch with reality and with one's own essence, to the point of becoming depersonalised. This is the central theme of a sort of lean concept album which, thankfully, doesn't aspire to the grandiloquence of certain 1970s rock. We don't know whether Agnelli intended to tie the album's title to certain political events. What is certain is that some lyrics are steeped in worried, disillusioned glances at the current state of affairs, and the recent embarrassing scandals that made a laughing stock of the Lega Nord came along at just the right moment to make the final result even more topical. Padania is the offspring of ideas developed individually by each member of the group, a reflection of the various souls that make it up - an element that, however, in no way undermines its cohesion. If anything, being the focal point of so many creative forces is a bonus that very few other bands in the world can afford, especially in the current line-up, perhaps the best Afterhours have ever had. It's precisely thanks to the constant line-up changes (and thus the periodic injection of fresh, motivated energy) that the band has managed over time to guarantee consistently high standards, stylistic novelty and brilliant results. On Padania we have the first appearance of violinist and multi-instrumentalist Rodrigo D'Erasmo, who finally manages to break free from the cumbersome comparison with Dario Ciffo and doesn't leave fans missing the departure of the overly intrusive (in terms of arrangements) Enrico Gabrielli. D'Erasmo, seasoned by three years of intense live activity with the group, is carving out an important role for himself: Agnelli grants him great freedom of expression, not only handing him responsibility for the brief "Iceberg", but also allowing him to be present pretty much everywhere with the sound of his violin, often distorted. We also have the second appearance of Roberto Dell'Era, the flamboyant bassist also gifted with an interesting voice, and the third appearance of Giorgio Ciccarelli, an under-the-radar but indispensable guitarist, the kind who does the less flashy work, a sort of midfielder on stage. There's confirmation of Giorgio Prette on drums, and the already mentioned return of Xabier Iriondo. Padania opens with the track you wouldn't expect: strings sketch out the backdrop, over which Agnelli's voice enters, immediately searching for solutions different from those of the past. After two and a half minutes comes the first collective explosion. There couldn't have been a better opening for all the fans who were expecting both reassurance and novelty from these grooves - an intense incipit with Manuel vocalising in open homage to Demetrio Stratos (although in recent interviews he's said he looks more to Diamanda Galas). "Metamorfosi" sketches out, from the very first notes, that atmosphere of genuine exploration and experimentation that will permeate much of the fifteen tracks collected here. Then the guitars arrive, far from linear, pleasantly unpredictable: "Terra di nessuno" is a song overflowing with sounds, almost unable to contain them all, bursting at the seams. "Costruire per distruggere" (the most political track of the bunch) is the masterpiece almost nobody expected anymore from a band that too many considered content and turned in on itself, a ballad that's anything but conventional, showing everyone just how much Afterhours want to build great songs without ceding a single inch to compromise (and the trick repeats itself on "Ci sarà una bella luce", with vague bluesy shades and Iriondo's typical jagged edges). More crafty (though far from banal) are "Nostro anche se ci fa male" and the closing "La terra promessa si scioglie di colpo" (a glimmer of hope surfacing at the end of the tracklist), just to reconfirm their appeal to the female audience through those great ballads full of writing that's become less cryptic, more accessible, but never falling into the banal. "Fosforo e blu" (the most worthy heir to "Dea" and "Germi") has the power to put whole hosts of young (and not-so-young...) screaming bands in their place, but "Spreca una vita", "Giù nei tuoi occhi" and "Io so chi sono" also prove plenty abrasive: an absolute triumph. The two "Messaggi Promozionali" are interludes that poke fun at the persuasive power of TV commercials, proof of how a few seconds of improvisation can give birth to a track capable of living a life of its own. All things considered, Padania turns out to be a record of wonderfully oblique pop, of majestic alternative rock, of fierce critique of the system, of mature reflection - an independent record, solid, strong, confident, cohesive, a record that wants to amaze, at times genuinely bold, in the face of those who have been proclaiming the death of the album format for years.

The decision not to perform at the 2012 May Day Concert caused controversy, after the band had been moved at the last minute by the organisers to a slot after midnight, once the live RAI broadcast had ended, and with the requirement to play at more controlled volumes. Afterhours refused to perform under such conditions (it would have been the first live outing for the new songs) and immediately afterwards improvised a surprise concert at a venue in Rome.

On 19 May the band performed for free in L'Aquila alongside Teatro degli Orrori, to help the Abruzzo city get back on its feet three years after the devastating earthquake that struck it.

In early June the Padania tour kicked off at the Atlantico in Rome, a real crowd-pleaser all across Italy, reaching a peak of emotional intensity on 21 October at a show in support of Angelo Mai, the Roman venue that had been shut down and subsequently squatted. The concert, announced only two days in advance, saw bookings - handled via email - sell out in little more than a minute, thanks to the news spreading like wildfire through a relentless social-media drumbeat.

Meanwhile, Padania wins the Targa Tenco for best album of the year, and had also allowed Afterhours to win the PIMI, the Targa MEI for independent music, as best group of 2012 "for the artistic quality and the courage of the album Padania, produced entirely independently, and for the related tour".

The band members also prove particularly active with their respective side projects.

In September 2012 Xabier Iriondo releases Irrintzi; the year before, Roberto Dell'Era had put out his fine solo debut under the name Dellera, that Colonna sonora originale which made the shortlist of five for the Targhe Tenco "Best Debut Work" of the year.

In March 2014 a special edition of Are You Afraid of the Dark? is released, made up, besides the original remastered album, of a bonus disc on which every track from the tracklist is re-recorded by Afterhours together with major Italian and international guests. Standout names include Mark Lanegan, Joan Wasser, John Parish and Il Teatro degli Orrori. This release is followed by a commemorative tour, on which the band plays the songs back in the same sequence as the album.

During 2015 two important changes take place: within a few months both guitarist Giorgio Ciccarelli and even drummer Giorgio Prette leave the band, replaced respectively by Stefano Pilia (Massimo Volume) and Fabio Rondanini (Calibro 35).

Meanwhile all the members develop their own parallel projects; particularly active are Roberto Dell'Era, who releases his second solo work (Stare bene è pericoloso), and Xabier Iriondo, busy as usual on several fronts (worth noting the launch of no fewer than three new projects: Foaming Bitch, Todo Modo and Bunuel).

At the end of the year the first biography of Manuel Agnelli is published, "Senza appartenere a niente mai", written by Federico Guglielmi by piecing together interviews, reviews and radio encounters accumulated over the years. The book, published by Volo Libero, traces Manuel's personal journey and the artistic path of what has always been "his" band.

Folfiri o Folfox

June 10, 2016 saw the release of Folfiri o Folfox, a torrential record (we're talking about a double album with a full eighteen tracks), complex and ambitious, that doesn't resemble anything Afterhours had produced before (a sign of just how much weight the individual members now carry), while also embracing a deliberately experimental approach. In the days leading up to the album's release, Manuel Agnelli gave several interviews, presenting it as a concept album about death and rebirth, and as a work intended to push the boundaries of Afterhours' songwriting and sonic research even further. The death in question is that of Manuel's father, an event that permeates the whole record starting from its title: Folfiri and Folfox are two medical protocols for treating colon cancer. The memory of his father surfaces from the very first words of the touching "Grande", a tear-jerking account of an unkept promise, that of a bond meant to last forever. The references to what happened are extremely strong in the elegantly jazzy textures of voice and piano in "L'odore della giacca di mio padre", in the title track, centered on the aforementioned medical protocols, and in the rounded "Ti cambia il sapore", a bitter account of the effects chemotherapy cycles have on mind and body. The desire to push further musically leads to a demanding record, often achieving excellent results (the almost stoner free-form instrumental jam "Cetuximab", named after an anti-cancer drug), but also with a few inevitable weak spots ("San Miguel", the only truly negligible episode). The first track to strike for its immediacy, the catchiest and most accessible, the real instant classic of the bunch, is "Non voglio ritrovare il tuo nome" (accompanied by a video released at the end of May), a sort of new "Non è per sempre".

But the registers employed are many: there are gritty moments ("Il mio popolo si fa", "Qualche tipo di grandezza", "Fa male solo la prima volta", "Fra i non viventi vivremo noi") alongside others that are more rarefied but still charged with tension ("Lasciati ingannare") and drama ("Il trucco non c'è"). Rounding out the picture are mid-tempos steeped in disillusionment ("Oggi"), fragile acoustic interludes ("Noi non faremo niente"), desert blues ("Né pani né pesci") and instrumentals where D'Erasmo's violin takes center stage ("Ophryx", plants belonging to the orchid family, the ones pictured on the album cover). For its length and the sheer variety on offer, Folfiri o Folfox could loosely be compared to a "Are You Afraid of the Dark?" stripped of the generational anthems that made it immortal (you won't find a new "Male di miele" here), where cut-up techniques and post-adolescent fury give way to a hard-won maturity that allows the band to tackle serious, deeply unifying themes. There's a great wordiness animating the new lyrics, with Agnelli continuing to imbue the entire band's work with himself, channeling his own experiences and life into compositions able to anchor the album's development to a strong idea. Afterhours records inevitably keep talking about him. Less immediate than any previous release, but enormously rewarding once you find the right keys to unlock it, Folfiri o Folfox grows exponentially with repeated listens and establishes itself as a work destined to stand the test of time, a true contemporary classic, the ideal successor to evergreens such as "Quello che non c'è" and "Ballate per piccole iene". The album closes with the choral "Se io fossi il giudice", surprisingly prophetic in anticipating Manuel's next role, that of the much-discussed X-Factor judge: but that's a whole new story, yet to be told, for a figure who never stops (and never will stop) making headlines, for better or worse.

Manuel the solo artist

2017 was dedicated to a tour conceived to celebrate the band's thirtieth anniversary, with a setlist meant to serve as a genuine historical overview, an approach that drew many longtime fans to packed shows. Rounding off the project, while Agnelli served a second consecutive year as an X Factor judge, November saw the release of a retrospective, Foto di pura gioia, featuring 76 tracks spanning the Milanese band's entire career.

But during this period Manuel proved himself to be above all a television personality. From February 22 to March 22, 2018, he hosted the late-night RAI 3 show "Ossigeno", five episodes in which he welcomed major musicians both Italian (Emidio Clementi, Ghemon, Vasco Brondi, Brunori, Zen Circus) and international (Joan As Police Woman, Ben Harper, Editors), also making room for a few Afterhours performances.

On October 23, 2018, Noi siamo Afterhours premiered at the Festa del Cinema di Roma, a documentary film directed by Giorgio Testi that, starting from the concert held at the Forum di Assago the previous April 10 (a show that closed out the thirtieth-anniversary celebrations), brings Afterhours' artistic journey back to life. The film was released as a CD/DVD on January 25, 2019.

At the 2019 Sanremo Festival, Agnelli collaborated with Daniele Silvestri and Rancore on the song "Argentovivo", which won the Critics' Award named after Mia Martini, the Press Room award named after Lucio Dalla, and the "Best Lyrics" award. "Argentovivo" would later also win the Targa Tenco for "Song of the Year".

Meanwhile, after wrapping up his third stint as an X Factor judge and hosting the second season of "Ossigeno" on RAI 3, Manuel announced his first solo tour in over thirty years of activity, kicking off on April 30, 2019 in Assisi before touring various theaters across Italy. By his side on stage was the by-now ever-faithful Rodrigo D'Erasmo.

This was merely the prelude to a genuine solo career, launched on record in November 2021 with the tracks "La profondità degli abissi" and "Pam Pum Pam", written for the soundtrack of the Manetti Bros.' big-screen "Diabolik". "La profondità degli abissi" would go on to win both the David di Donatello and the Nastro d'Argento for "Best Original Song" within a few months.

Preceded by the singles "Proci" and "Signorina mani avanti", Ama il prossimo tuo come te stesso was released on September 30, 2022, the first album recorded by Manuel Agnelli without Afterhours. It's a work that continues directly from what he recorded with the main band, without presenting any particular revolution in his songwriting process. Just note how close the opening track, "Tra mille anni mille anni fa", comes to certain piano-based solutions devised for Folfiri o Folfox, how "Signorina mani avanti" contains seeds of Ballate per piccole iene, how "Proci" seems like an outtake from Padania, how the riff of the hard-hitting "Severodonetsk" comes across as a tribute to "Male di miele", and how the fun "Lo sposo sulla torta" follows in the footsteps of the Milanese band's more lighthearted episodes.

The rest is masterfully arranged, between guitar-driven assaults (the cynical "Guerra e pop corn") and refined piano-based delicacy, among which special mention must go to the convincing "Milano con la peste", a snapshot of love in the time of the pandemic, and the achingly sweet title track, placed at the very end. Manuel puts his face on the line this time, and his name too, both to mark a clear break from the past and because the record was conceived in complete solitude, with him playing whatever came within reach, from traditional instruments to household objects. Only in the finishing stages did contributions from a few friends come in, including Rodrigo D'Erasmo, Fabio Rondanini, Tommaso Colliva and Little Pieces Of Marmelade. The result - even his fiercest detractors will have to admit it - is a record out of step with any commercial logic, an oblique work, written out of a desire to express one's own freedom and shout it to the world with force, certainly not to aim for the top of the charts. After 35 years of activity, full of defeats and comebacks, of hardships and extraordinary successes, that was far from a given.

Contributions by Antonio Ciarletta ("Ballate per piccole iene") and Gianni Candellari ("The Milanese kill off Saturday night")

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