Messina CDs now available

The Messina CD is now on sale

If you want to get your hands on the new Messina CD it can be yours for £5.00 including UK shipping, or £7.00 for Worldwide shipping just select either UK or worldwide from the drop down menu and then click the paypal button below. Please ensure you tell us your address

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T-shirt and CD

If you would like to buy a Messina t-shirt and a CD it can be yours for £10 including UK shipping or £12 for Worldwide shipping just click the paypal button below

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Split Your Heart With an Arrow

As some of you may know, we recently spent three days in the studio recording our forthcoming single 'Split Your Heart With an Arrow', along with it's two supporting songs. We are back in the studio on 14th March to finish the mix, with a view to releasing the single early April. We have commissioned the amazing design studio 'DTAM' to design the artwork. We're really excited about this as DTAM are responsible for some jaw-dropping work and we know this will be something really special. Check out the link for more details of their work. Catch you soon!

www.dtam.co.uk

Messsina

The Concept

Hello Everyone

It has been a long time since we updated this so I thought I'd let you know what we are all about and recent developments. We played our first gig on November the 24th which could not have gone better. I would like to thank you all for getting involved and making the gig really easy and enjoyable for us.

We have been working on 'Opora' for almost a year now and I thought I would let you know how it all came about. Messina formed from the remnants of Calcutecs who sadly fell to pieces in early 2007. Calcutecs were also working with the songs for Opora and some songs remain in the Messina set almost unchanged in arrangement. I had written the bare bones for Opora before Calcutecs split and I felt they needed to be heard and Carducci's story told. I reconvined with Ray and Alv and we started playing around with the songs and the concept again. Ian joined later and the group immediatley became something magical to me. After Led Zeppelin's 1970 gig at the Royal Albert Hall Robert Plant said he was surrounded by the greatest musicians on the planet and that's how I felt then and feel to this day.

Led Zeppelin are obviously a massive influence to Messina. The premise of my early songs was a mixture of Achillies Last Stand, Close To The Edge by Yes and With God On Our Side by Bob Dylan. All bases covered I thought. I think traces of that can be found but I genuinely believe that I have never written better and the songs come easier then ever before.

After I had written the Dugong album 'Hat Danko' I felt I had shown alittle bit too much of myself and I struggle to listen to that album now finding the subject matter too personal, self indulgent even. In the same year as Hat Danko's release Neil Young released 'Greendale'. 'Greendale' is a concept record that is based on an imaginary town of the same name and the characters within it. 'Greendale' changed the way I wrote songs. After releasing four very personal records (two with Dugong and two with Nathaniel Green) I thought of nothing better then writing fiction after all who wants to know about me?!

Dugong released 'Quick To The City' in early 2005 and this was my first attempt at a 'concept' record. The Who's Pete Townsend once described 'A Quick One Whilst He's Away' as his mini Opera and that's how I feel about 'Quick To The City'. 'Opora' will go on to be my 'Tommy'. Although 'Quick To The City' was rushed I found writing it alot easier as I had a very structured story to stick to and there could still be a human sentiment throughout.

The story for Opora came to me after watching Guillermo Del Toro's 'Pan's Labyrinth'. The two stories have similar settings and themes and it just blew my mind. I started to research my plot and decided to base the story around Messina and our protagonist Carducci. Messina is steeped in history and perhaps somewhat cursed. Known as 'The Port Of The Crusaders' Messina was most likely the harbour at which the Black Death entered Europe: the plague was brought by Genoese ships coming from Jaffa in Palestine. The perfect setting for a story of sadness but it also has a huge amount of fight and hope.

The Protagonist Carducci is an avid follower of the socialist politican Giacomo Matteotti but Opora is NOT a political story. Much like 'Pan's Labyrinth' it has a very political setting but it is merely a backdrop to the mysticism and fairytale. Carducci is 27 just like me and some of me is definitely there but I can hide it in him.

Anyway, I could talk all day. I hope you now have some insight into Messina and why it means so much to me. We are looking for more gigs all the time so please contact us if you want us to play. We also have very smart Tees available so again please check them out on the Myspace page.

Hope to see you soon

Matt

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Opora by Messina

In 1924 the Fascists had won a great electoral victory, but opposition was far from dead. The Chamber of Deputies still contained a number of critics, including forty-six socialists, thirty-nine popolari, and even nineteen communists. One of the most vociferous members of this group was the leader of the reformist socialists, Giacomo Matteotti. On May 30^th he gave a speech in the chamber that bitterly denounced the elections as having been based on fraud and violence. He declared that the fascists did not have the support of the Italian people and tried to have the elections declared invalid. A few days later, while walking along the banks of the Tiber in Rome, he was attacked and forced into a car, which sped off in a northerly direction. His body, with a knife still stuck in the chest was not found until several weeks later.” (Eatwell, p65)

Opora is the fictional story of ‘Carducci’ a loyal subject of Matteotti’s. It is his journey from Barga to L’Aquila. It is a story of sadness and revenge.