25 years after its publication, El Topo Grand Hotel of TIMORIA returns with a new edition on CD and vinyl, enriched by a booklet with photographs and comics.
Released in February 2001, the album represented an important step in the history of the Brescia band, called to reinvent itself after the exit of Francesco Renga. A work rich in musical, cinematographic and literary suggestions, which today is also proposed through a celebratory concert.
We talked about it with OMAR PEDRINI, who told us in this interview the genesis of the album, the meetings that accompanied its creation and previewed the news on the show (which we will tell) scheduled for November 11th at Alcatraz in Milan.
Let’s start from the genesis of El Topo Grand Hotel. After Francesco Renga’s exit you found yourself facing an important change.
Yes, it was a special moment. We had lost Francesco’s voice and everyone was wondering what would happen to Timoria: the record company, the journalists, the fans… everyone was wondering if we would be able to carry on and, above all, if we would still be the same band.
I decided not to replace Francesco. I didn’t want to look for another singer with those characteristics, also because Renga had an extraordinary voice, with a range of three and a half octaves. I wrote the songs imagining that he would sing them. At that point I also had to reinvent myself as a composer.
So we said to ourselves: why don’t we all try to sing? It was a sort of restart. Sascha had arrived, who was first of all a good guitarist, but had already sung on a previous album. We knew him, he was part of our crew. Thus was born a record which, at least as I experienced it, brought Timoria back towards the song form of the first albums.
The title recalls the film by Alejandro Jodorowsky and continues Joe’s story, which began with Windless journey.
Exact. It’s as if it were the second half of a great film. In Windless journey we get to know Joe, while in El Topo Grand Hotel we tell the story of the end of his journey, which takes him into space, to a habitable planet.
The title comes from Jodorowsky’s film, but there is also a linguistic game: in Spanish El Topo does not mean the mouse, but the mole. I was struck by the image of this animal that lives underground, in the dark, and continually searches for light. When he finally manages to go out, however, he risks being blinded by the sun.
It seemed like a nice metaphor to describe our moment. We too were going through an underground phase of change and research.
The cover and the visual imagery of the album are also very particular.
Yes, there are the signatures of the late Matteo Guarnaccia and Sergio Papalettera. They built a visual world that perfectly mirrored the musical one. Also the video of Sun off it was going in that direction: I wanted it to feel like a film from the seventies, in particular a police drama.
We shot in an old Milanese place, still furnished as it was then, complete with a police Alfa Romeo Giulia. I played a criminal and there was also a French actress. We had a lot of fun. The video was so particular that, some time later, MTV began to program it alongside American productions. It had a very international image, but it also spoke of a Milan that no longer existed.
Listening to it again today, the musical variety is striking: rock (author’s), soul, punk, rap, psychedelia and even jazz.
It’s true, there’s a bit of everything inside. At that moment we needed to change direction. No longer having Francesco’s melodic and powerful voice, we could explore territories that we had previously frequented less: funk, soul, rhythm and blues.
Maybe the record wasn’t fully understood at the time. It went gold, but I think part of its success is mainly linked to Sun off. Today, however, listening to it again, I appreciate much more some songs that had remained a bit in the shadows at the time. Time, in this sense, has done him good.
The album also features a collaboration with Articolo 31.
Yes, in that period rap was becoming more and more important and Articolo 31 were certainly its main representatives in Italy. It seemed natural to involve them. Listening to J-Ax’s lyrics again today, I realized that it was much more current than I thought at the time. There were already themes such as ecology and man’s relationship with the planet.
The album arrives in the years of the G8 in Genoa, of the protests and the first major battles against multinationals. How much did it reflect that climate?
It was a period of great turmoil. There were many social tensions, we began to talk forcefully about the environment, economic power and multinationals. Today, 25 years later, I see some of those same instances return.
I’m happy to see young people taking to the streets again and starting to take an interest in politics again. At concerts the young audience is not yet in the majority, but it is there. I hope these guys can find something even in a record like El Topo Grand Hotelwhich is a free, somewhat anarchic album, with a strong ecological sensitivity.
After 25 years, what do you feel has aged the most? El Topo Grand Hotel?
Probably the structure of the concept album. Today, explaining to a kid that he has to listen to a seventy-minute record from start to finish is not so simple. I also had to explain to my daughter that that little square she sees on Spotify is the album cover! For us coming from an era where covers were an integral part of the musical experience, it’s a huge change.
But my ideal listener remains the one who puts on headphones and listens to the entire album in sequence, just as it was intended.
Joe’s story, which we left in space, perhaps lacks a conclusion, a return or a definitive farewell. Can a third episode arrive now that concludes the journey in a trilogy?
I would really like to do it, but this thing should be by Timoria, therefore with Francesco. Every two years I try to involve Renga, but mutual commitments have not yet allowed us to do so, especially hers. He’s the one who does one Sanremo every two (Laughs ed.). Last time I told him stay home one winter while we make this record. Jokes aside, I tried a couple of times, doing things right, involving lawyers and managers. But for now we haven’t succeeded yet.
On November 11, 2026 at Alcatraz in Milan you will bring the album back live with a celebratory concert, which will also be an opportunity to rediscover a more rock dimension. How did you think about the show?
It will be a special show, with a theatrical part and a story that will accompany the songs. There will be an actor who will tell Joe’s story while we play. At the end, several musicians will arrive who have shared this adventure with me.
And then there’s some personal news: after three and a half years spent mainly with the acoustic guitar, I’m picking up the electric one again. I picked up my Gibson again and started working on the guitar parts again. I missed it.
In the setlist there will be all the songs of El Topo Grand Hotel?
The structure of the concert includes a theatrical part, not song-theatre, but rock theatre. The Gipeto actor Marco Brancati will take the stage to introduce the show, accompanied by the trumpet of Raffaele Kohler. During the concert there will also be incursions by our Mimmo Fiore, who will return to take on the role of mime.
As for the music, we chose ten songs from the album, placing them alongside five or six songs by Windless journeybecause we also need to tell in theatrical form where Joe comes from. If we had put everything in, it would have been a three and a half hour concert! We preferred to stay around two hours, which today is no small thing, given that short concerts are fashionable.
Davide Apollo will also be there, who has been singing with the Omar Pedrini Band for years. I met him when he was the singer of Precious Time, the Official Timoria Tribute Band, whose name recalled the original name of the group that later became Timoria. He is very good at interpreting Francesco’s vocal parts and so he will take care of those songs, while I will sing with my voice.
You have often spoken about the difficulties emerging groups encounter today. What is the main problem?
The problem is that there are no more places to play. Once upon a time you started a band and found a venue, a pub, a small club. Today many of those places have become pizzerias or restaurants. So where do the kids go to play?
The bands are still there, as are the young people who want to learn to play. But we need to give them space. In England, for example, even in small venues it is taken for granted that a group plays its own music. Here, however, we often end up favoring covers and tribute bands.
I was lucky enough to grow up in a period in which events like Rock Targato Italia existed, there were many clubs and record companies paid attention to new groups. Today, public intervention is needed to create places where music can be born and grow. I also say this thinking about Milan, a city that I love and which has always had a fundamental role in Italian music.
Then there is the issue of the cost of concerts, which is becoming increasingly important.
It’s a huge problem. We cannot continue to think that to see an artist we have to spend increasingly higher amounts. We musicians can do something too: it’s not always the fault of managers or record companies. Sometimes even the artist can give up a part of the profit.
For the concert at Alcatraz I chose a price of 35 euros. I believe you can do live music without asking exaggerated prices. And then we need to go back to supporting small venues: that’s where the next generation of musicians can be born.
For me music can really save a boy’s life. I come from a difficult neighborhood in Brescia and I have lost many friends on the street. A rehearsal room can become an alternative, a place where you can find a different path.
For you, personally, what does it mean to return to a rock stage after a different period?
It’s a great emotion. For years, due to medical regulations, I had no longer done rock concerts, but only acoustic and theater shows. I’m happy to return to that formula and rediscover the electric guitar, also rediscovering the guitarist that I had somewhat neglected in recent years. I’m not afraid of the concert, on the contrary, I experience it as a special evening.
Of course I have to pay attention to my health and wait for the checks before thinking about a possible tour. I would really like to go back to rock continuously, but today I can’t make plans. If conditions allow me, I will gladly do it.
Let’s say that in the comedy of my life, which is more comedy than tragedy, I hope there is still room for a bit of rock!
Interview by Marco Rumori for musicadalpalco.com (Click to read the entire article)
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November 11, 2026 – Alcatraz, Milan
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