The long story of New Trolls started in 1966 in Genova, where a musical critic wanted to line-up the best musicians playing in his town's night clubs. He thought that Nico Di Palo and Vittorio De Scalzi (guitars), Gianni Belleno (drums), Giorgio D'Adamo (bass) and Mauro Chiarugi (Keybosrds) where the best ones: at the end, the same musicians decided to form a group. Five different musicians for a special sound in the history of Italian music: lots of people think of them like "the most beautiful voices in Italy" and the French periodist Francois Bonnier call them as supporters for the Rolling Stones Italian tour, in 1967. This is but the first step towards the success, followed by their partecipations at the "Festival di Rieti" in 1967, where the song "Sensazioni" has very good reviews. The preparation of the band allows them to rielaborate and mix the formulas of folk music, the guitars of Jimi Hendrix, Neil Young and Dave Davies: Nico Di Palo is quoted by "Melody Maker"as one of the best guitarists in the world; Vittorio De Scalzi plays his flute with the same skill of Ian Anderson of the Jethro Tull, above all in "Concerto Grosso n°1"; the accurate drumming of Gianni Belleno is considered one of the best in Italy. Everything allows them a rapid success for the following years.
1968 was a revolution even for music and the energy of renewal was concealed in every note, ready for the explosion in words and music: New Trolls were over every music genre, searching their identity as a band in the riealboration of hard rock, folk, lyric and ballad: the result of their work was the first concept album in Italy, "Senza orario, senza bandiera", with the collaboration of Fabrizio De André, the poet Riccardo Mannerini and Giampiero Reverberi. Nico Di Palo defines the album as "one of the most beautiful and important in our career of musicians: our meeting with De André and Reverberi has made us ready for Concerto Grosso".
The first concept album in Italy was published by New Trolls exactly one year after "Days of future passed", by The Moody Blues, and one year befor the rock-opera "Tommy", by The Who.
1969 is the year of "Una miniera", one of the hits of the band, and of several other singles, which were collected in the LP "New Trolls" (1971). In the meanwhile, the keyboard-player Mauro Chiarugi had left the group and New Trolls were ready for their masterpiece: "Concerto Grosso".
A Concerto Grosso is a baroque composition, where a big orchestra (concerto grosso) and a small one (concertino) alternate themselves in playing: Luis Enriquez Bacalov (Oscar Prize for "Il postino" 's theme) decides to call New Trolls for the part of "concertino", answering the main theme of the baroque orchestra. The words of Shakespeare's "Hamlet" ("To die, to sleep, maybe to dream") cross the parts of "Allegro", "Adagio", "Cadenza - Andante con moto" and "Shadows", a tribute to Jimi Hendrix.
With "Concerto Grosso" New Trolls are popular in Europe too, with 700.000 copies of the LP and more than 250 live concerts. The "Adagio" ("To die, to sleep, may be to dream") is the theme of the film "La vittima designata", by Maurizio Lucidi.
The side B of the LP contains a long track where New Trolls feel themselves free to play what they like more, like an improvisation.
Anyway, New Trolls were near to split for a series of difficulties: however, in 1972 they realized an album thought for the Anglo-Saxon public: "Searching for a land", and "Ut". In "Searching for a land "the Italian-Canadian bass player Frank Laugelli had taken the place of Giorgio D'Adamo, who was in the army. The album mixes the sonorities of hard rock, gregorian music, progressive: biblical references are present in a song like "In St. Peter's day", and long instrumental parts show the high skill of each musician, who took inspiration from the Colosseum, Deep Purple, Led Zeppelin.
The different opinions of Vittorio De Scalzi, who was for a mor classical line for the band, and Nico Di Palo, who was for a rock line, made the group split in 1973 and different bands were formed by the musicians: "Nico, Gianni, Frank and Maurizio" with the LP "Canti d'innocenza, canti d'esperienza"; Vittorio and Giorgio D'Adamo formed the group "N.T. Atomic System" and realized the jazz LP "Tempi dispari" with Giorgio Baiocco (sax), Tullio De Piscopo (drums) and Renato Rosset (keyboards). Then Gianni Belleno left the group of Nico Di Palo and formed a new one: "The Tritons", with Ricky Belloni (guitars); like "Johnny of the Tritons" Gianni Belleno published several covers such as "Twist and shout" and "Satisfaction".
Nico forms another group, the "Ibis", a heavy rock band with Maurizio Salvi (keyboards)and Rick "Spider" Parnell, ex Atomic Roosters (keyboards) and Frank Laugelli (bass): the group realized two LP: "Sun supreme" and "Ibis" in 1974.
In 1975 Fabrizio De André called Gianni Belleno, Ricky Belloni and Giorgio Usai (from the band "Nuova Idea") and Giorgio D'Adamo for his Italian tour: the New Trolls lacking components were only Vittorio and Nico, which were contacted in 1976 and decided to join tha band again. In the same year New Trolls published an anthology of their hits and "Concerto Grosso n°2": Luis Bacalov and Sergio Bardotti proposed to go on with the musical experiment started in 1971 and the success was immediate. Voices and instruments reach the top in "Le Roi Soleil" and the cover "Let it be me" (original by Gilbert Bécaud) is still proposed in the concerts. The collaboration with Ornella Vanoni for the album "Io dentro - io fuori" confirms the success of the band: Nico Di Palo wasn't on tour because of an illness; he joined the band again in 1978 and the song "Musica insieme" remembers his days awhile from the group and the joy of being together again. In the same year the LP "Aldebaran" was recorded in France, in the same studios of David Bowie, Elton John and Bee Gees: the perfect blending of the voices is reached in the song "Dancing", but the most important hit is "Quella carezza della sera", with a version in Spanish: "Aquella caricia de otono".
In the same year New Trolls realize musics for TV shows and the fila "Caro papà", with the actor Vittorio Gassman.
1979 is the year of the LP "New Trolls", which was recorded in Modena, Italy. The singer Lucio Dalla collaborated in the realization fo the song "Domenica di Napoli". At Christmas New Trolls play in a concert from the ship "Andrea Doria".
In 1980 Giorgio D'Adamo left the band for a career as an industrial manager: the band is formed by Nico Di Palo and Ricky Belloni (guitars), Gianni Belleno (drums), Vittorio De Scalzi and Giorgio Usai (keyboards): Beppe Quirici plays bass for the group in their tours and in the LP "F.S." (1981).
"F.S." is a concept album thought by the New Trolls producer Gianfranco Lombardi: the metaphoric image of tha train crosses each song of the LP, presenting several travellers and their stories.In the meanwhile Giorgio Usai had left the group for another band, the "Hydra". In 1983 the band published "America OK", with the important collaboration of Mogol in the realization of the lyrics. In 1985 the band partecipate the Festival of Sanremo with the song "Faccia di cane" (lyrics by Fabrizio De André) and get the Review Prize. 1986 is the year of the live album "New Trolls, Tour", but the LP didn't manage to reach the success of "F.S.". New Trolls partecipate the Festival of Sanremo again in 1988 with "Cielo chiaro", from the album "Amici": the band is formed by Nico Di Palo, Vittorio De Scalzi and Gianni Belleno:
the drummer left the band by the end of 1989 to follow the singer Anna Oxa. The New Trolls supported Anna Oxa during her tour, but Nico Di Palo left the band for a solo career. With Anna Oxa the band realized the album "Tutti i brividi del mondo" (1990).
1992 was the year of a new partecipation at the Festival of Sanremo with the song "Quelli come noi": in the meanwhile Nico had joined the band again, but there is still instability in the group. In 1996 they collaborated with Renato Zero in the realization of the album "Il sale dei New Trolls", and partecipated the Festival of Sanremo with Umberto Bindi, singing "Letti" and the next year "Alianti liberi" with the singer Greta.
In 1998 Nico Di Palo had a bad car accident: he was in a choma for nearly a month and his left side was paralized. The surprising strenght of Nico took him to take his place again in a few months, playing keyboards for the group "Il Mito New trolls": the last split of the band had formed two other groups: one lead by Vittorio De Scalzi, "La storia dei New Trolls", and in 2005 "Il cuore dei New Trolls" by the drummer Gianni Belleno. At the moment these are the bands and their components:
"Il Mito New Trolls" with Nico Di Palo and Giorgio Usai (keyboards), Ricky Belloni (guitar), Andrea Lavelli (bass) and Alex "Polipo" Polifrone (drums).
"Vittorio De Scalzi - La storia dei New Trolls" with Vittorio De Scalzi (keyboards and guitar), Alfio Vitanza (drums), "Andrea Maddaloni (guitar), Mauro Sposito (guitar).
"Gianni Belleno - Il cuore dei New Trolls " with the drummer Gianni Belleno and the group "Tria Corda".
The latest realizations of the bands are the "Concerto Grosso 1 and 2" live in the Italian theatres and live tours.