BLURAY: FRANK ZAPPA SUMMER ’82 – When Zappa Came To Sicily

Shane | 29 August 2018 | Reply

BLURAY: FRANK ZAPPA SUMMER ’82 – When Zappa Came To Sicily
MVD Visual
December, 2017
Reviewed by Shane Pinnegar
8/10

Fans of the late, great Frank Zappa will know that in 1982 a concert in a soccer stadium in Palermo, Sicily was disrupted by fans rioting against heavy handed armed police present, and the concert was abandoned amid tear gas and violence. Indeed, several tracks from this concert are presented on Zappa’s You Can’t Do That On Stage Any More releases, including him attempting to get the crowd under control.

Fast forward thirty years and Salvo Cuccia’s documentary assembles an array of fans who were at the show, presents footage of the disaster as it slowly unfolds, and discusses what caused him to miss the show on his birthday, and what that meant not just for him, but also for Zappa and his family.

Enlisting three of Zappa’s children – Moon, Dweezil and Diva, and his widow Gail – they discuss the importance of Palermo for Frank, who actually visited the birthplace of his father and grandfather near Palermo on that visit. In a touching sequence the surviving Zappas meet their relatives for the very first time and enjoy a celebratory meal in honour of their dearly departed father and husband.

Cuccia’s film is part concert movie, part historical analysis, and part treatise on the importance of and bond between family. That the Zappa family fragmented so spectacularly after the death of Gail makes the movie even more touching.