BELLADONNA IN L.A.: real-time pic journal on TWITTER!!...

WE have just landed in L.A. where next week we'll perform at music event Hitweek (www.hitweek.it)! We have already started chronocling our California adventures with a real-time pic journal that we are publishing exclusively on TWITTER!!...

BELLADONNA in the USA - ALEX's photo report!!...

As all of you Belladonna-freaks know by now, in October we'll take part to Hitweek in Los Angeles (USA), a one-week-long event dedicated to the best Italian new music.

So right on the eve of this new upcoming American adventure we feel it's the right time to publish a photo report of our March 2009 one, when we played SXSW on Austin and the Key Club in L.A. with the almighty Steel Panther!!

All pics and words by Alex, who besides being Belladonna's drummer and rhythmical heart, is also our very own official photographer (even the pics where Alex himself appears where taken by him with a self-timer) and diarist!!




Luana with the Steel Panther dudes: where Noir and Glitter unite!
We’ve met these crazy, crazy, crazy, crazy guys twice: in Austin and in Los Angeles, where we played before them at one of their legendary Monday club nights at the Key Club.
Their live shows were the funniest that I’ve EVER seen! ... DEATH TO ALL BUT METAAAAAL!!!!...





My favourite Bible verse! I'm sure you know what I mean!!





The sun always shines on... The Key Club! On Sunset Boulevard, of course!
We were so happy and excited to play there! A rock'n'roller's dream come true.





Soundcheck at the Key Club in LA: Dani and his glitter guitar!
Trying to out-SteelPanther Steel Panther?...





Soundcheck at the Key Club in LA.
“No Stage Diving”? Tam looks disappointed!





Dani in the bus/dressing room at the Key Club in LA.
You could spend hours reading all those graffitis and stickers inside it - and we did!





Dressing up to kill: Luana, just a few minutes before the show at the Key Club in LA.
Rock Noir is about to invade Hollywood.





Me and Dani with Alex Elena: one of the best persons and drummers I’ve ever met!
Italy was too small for him!






Houston, we have no problems!... Belladonna has landed!...
Here we are pictured just arrived from L.A, in the Houston airport seemingly endless corridors, not a soul in sight: spooky!...
Within minutes we'll be on another plane, on our way to Austin..






Austin, SXSW. Where there's a piano, there is Alice.
All the world’s turning, but her thoughts are standing still, lost in reflection.






The SXSW Artists Check-In!





Luana and Tori Amos: My Known Universe's 2 sexiest vocalists finally in the same picture!
Tori’s played an amazing and emotional concert at “La Zona Rosa” in Austin during SXSW.





Five very noir musicians in a too-early-in-the-morning pose in an all-too-bright Austin hotel! Living the Noirlife 24/7!





Dani & Alex “Brothers in Beer” at the SXSW SPV Party in Austin, at 2 p.m.!
A great way to start the day! While the Belladonna-boys hit the bar, the Belladonna-girls hit the grill instead, and took advantage of the splendid barbecue on offer!…





Luana with Justin Hawkins! He was the unexpected extra special guest at Steel Panther's SXSW show, singing a great version of The Darkness' “I Believe in a Thing Called Love”!





Very late at night - or rather very early in the morning! - at Austin Airport, once again with not a soul in sight!
Dawn is for vampires (bedtime for them!) and Belladonna (plane-for-Italy-time for us)!
Bye-bye SXSW, bye-bye USA - c u soon!

"The Noir Album" to be released in the UK!!...

AWESOME NEWS!!!...

Belladonna's 2nd CD "The Noir Album" will be released in the UK on the 5th of Oct!!!...

It will be available in all UK record stores in true-DIY-style, through our own label Belladonna Records, with (more than) a little help of awesome rockn'n'roll distributor Code7/PlasticHead!!...

To support this release we will play a live showcase at London's legendary The Garage on November the 26th. Tickets for this show are selling fast, so click here to book yours now!!...


"The Noir Album"'s front cover

BELLADONNA new noir'n'sexy pics on Twitter!!...

TWITTER EXCLUSIVE!!!: we have just uploaded the first of a series of BELLADONNA noir'n'VERYsexy brand new pics on our Twitter page!!...

Click here to reach the BELLADONNA Twitter page and watch them!!...

In the next few days we'll upload many new noir'n'sexy BELLADONNA pics on our Twitter page so click on 'Follow' not to be left out of what's going on in our pyromantic, mysterotique, visionoir world!!!

BELLADONNA on Twitter!!...


BELLADONNA are now on Twitter!!

By following us on Twitter you will get EXCLUSIVE (NOT available on Facebook or here on MySpace or anywhere else!!) real-time updates on the everyday (and everynight!!) life of BELLADONNA!!...

Get the inside stories, thoughts, dreams and visions of the noirest band in the world and experience BELLADONNA up close and personal!!!...

Click here to reach the BELLADONNA Twitter page, click on 'Follow' and join our pyromantic, mysterotique, visionoir world!!!

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BELLADONNA: recording 'The Noir Album' video!!...


Another great exclusive for all Belladonna friends'n'fans out there: a behind-the-scenes video of our band in Sylvia Massy's studio RadioStar in the USA, recording our second CD "The Noir Album"!!...

Watch Luana lay down her vocals of "Till Death Do Us Part" in the studio booth while Dani listens on, Dani playing through "A Manhattan Tale", riffing on "Love Me Till I Die" and slide-soloing on "Pure Belladonna", Alice recording her piano part on "Holy Flame" and Alex playing his now famous signature fills in "Till Death Do Us Part"!!...

The video was - in true Belladonna DIY-style! - shot and edited by our very own Alex!...


BELLADONNA: recording "The Noir Album"

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A MANHATTAN TALE: A Tale of Revenge


The latest single off the new Belladonna CD "The Noir Album" - "A Manhattan Tale" - has recently been added tp the playlists of two of Italy's biggest radio stations, Radio Rai 1 and Virgin Radio - with a grand total of over 10 million daily listeners between them - and we feel that the right thing to do is to now make it fully available in streaming here on MySpace for all Belladonna Friends & fans all over the world!!

A Tale of Revenge, "A Manhattan Tale" is a quintessential noir song, a short thriller story with a definite plot that develops to its surprise ending... but we'll add nothing more so not to spoil it for you! You'll find the full lyrics below!!...

And below you'll also find a short dark mystery strip created by Italian artist Marco Vignati and based on "A Manhattan Tale": we found it totally captured the vibe and feel of the key moments of the song's plot that we simply HAD to include it - with the artist's permission - on this Blog post for all of you to watch!!...
Marco Vignati can be contacted clicking here.

"A Manhattan Tale" is available now on our MySpace music player: play it at a neighbour-unfriendly volume, add it to your own profiles and don't forget to send in your comments!!...


Marco Vignati's strip based on "A Manhattan Tale"

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BELLADONNA on CD Baby!!... a VERY SPECIAL for-3-days-only offer!!!!...


BELLADONNA's second CD "The Noir Album" is now available as a mp3 download on the leading indie US online store CD Baby!!...

In order to properly welcome and celebrate the addition of our record to CD Baby's very distinguished catalog we are doing a VERY SPECIAL offer: for 3 days only you'll be able to download the whole "The Noir Album" in mp3 for ONLY $4,99!!!!...

Click here to go to "The Noir Album" CD Baby page and take advantage of this awesome offer NOW while it lasts!!!...


BELLADONNA's "The Noir Album" front cover

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BELLADONNA's "A Manhattan Tale" on RADIO RAI 1!!!...


We have just come back home from 2 incredibly exciting shows with legendary artists like Nine Inch Nails, Korn, Mars Volta and Duff McKagan's Loaded to discover to our utter disbelief that "A Manhattan Tale" a murder song off our latest CD "The Noir Album" has been added to the playlist of Italy's biggest radio station, Radio Rai 1!!!...

With a certified 7.000.000 (yes, an amazing 7 million!!) daily listeners, Radio Rai 1 is by far Italy's most popular radio station, and Belladonna is the first unsigned, DIY and self-produced band ever to be added to its official playlist!

An unbelievable honor for us, and once again the proof that there's still people out there - even in massive media outlets like Radio Rai 1 - that choose to refuse to blindly appease major record labels and that are not afraid to take the mad chance of supporting a band like Belladonna, a band that thrives exclusively on the sheer support, love and word-of-mouth of its friends and fans, a band without any corporate financial backing or high-level connections in the music industry.

Hats off and a big, big, BIG thank you to all the Radio Rai 1 people that made this possible!!...

And, once again a MASSIVE THANK YOU to all the Belladonna friends, fans and Family out there: without you all this would have never happened and - even if it did - it would have meant nothing. THANK YOU!!!!...



BELLADONNA's "A Manhattan Tale" on the Radio Rai 1 playlist

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BELLADONNA live with DUFF McKAGAN's LOADED, MARS VOLTA, KORN & NIN: a road report!!...

Two days ago - Thursday the 25th of June - we all got in our band van very early in the morning. Our destination was the infamous rock club RockPlanet, close to Rimini on the Northwest coast of Italy, right by the sea. We were booked to play a show as Special Guests to the legendary Guns n'Roses/Velvet Revolver bass player Duff McKagan's band Loaded and our spirits were really high when while we were driving on the highway our Dani received a call on his cellphone.

We turned the car stereo right down (we were listening to our own CD "The Noir Album" incidentally!) and listened to Dani going "WHAT??? Are you kidding me?? I don't believe it!!! Yes, yes!! Ok!! Great!!!"... it was our awesome booking agent Livio, he was in a car too with Duff and his band driving to the venue, and he had just received a call from his agency's office: a band (Killswitch Engage, it then turned out) could not make it to the next day's open air show on Milan with Duff McKagan's Loaded, Mars Volta, Korn and Nine Inch Nails... ...and Belladonna had been chosen as substitutes and added to the bill!!... :-O

It is utterly impossible to now convey on the written page the awesome thrill we've felt when it eventually sank in that we were going to play in such a big event with such legendary bands... Our thoughts went of course to all our Friends and fans that in these crazy 3 years since we've opened our MySpace profile have been supporting our quest to keep Belladonna free, unsigned and self-produced so that our music could stay totally free from any corporate, record company, commercial pressure.

Yesterday we really felt you were all on that open-air show stage with us: our band is your band, our songs are your songs, and when we started playing we just knew we were not alone!!... And when we closed the show and we felt the crowd roar we were just so filled with total gratitude towards you that made it all possible: THANK YOU SO MUCH WITH ALL OUR HEARTS FOR EVERYTHING!!!!...

Click here to see a slideshow of some GREAT pics of Belladonna, Loaded, Mars Volta, Korn and Nine Inch Nails by the awesome Luigi Bagatella!!


LUANA, singing in yesterday's open air show in Milan with Mars Volta, Korn and NIN
Pic taken Luigi Bagatella (c) all rights reserved.

TAM and ALEX, noir-rocking away in yesterday's open air show in Milan with Mars Volta, Korn and NIN
Pic by Luigi Bagatella (c) all rights reserved.

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BELLADONNA live with DUFF McKAGAN's LOADED!!...


After having played last Monday with US million-selling band STAIND, next week BELLADONNA will share the stage with another major US rock act, DUFF McKAGAN's LOADED, the band put together by Guns'n'Roses and Velvet Revolver bassist Duff McKagan!!...

We've just been confirmed as their Special Guest in their 25th of June show at RockPlanet, a major rock club in Pinarella di Cervia, Italy.

Duff is a true rock hero and absolute legend so it goes without saying that it's a real thrill and honor for us to be featured in the same show as his band!!...

For all the details on this show, click here!


Duff McKagan's Loaded

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BELLADONNA back in the USA!!... Live in L.A. in October!!...

We are proud to announce that Belladonna has been added to the line up of major music event Hitweek, a showcase of the best new Italian music that will take place in Los Angeles in October!!!

It will be our return as a live band in the USA after our showcases at L.A.'s Key Club and at Austin's SXSW and we truly cannot wait!!...

We are in the Hitweek line-up with fellow Italian bands like Negrita, Le Vibrazioni, Piero Pelù, Afterhours, all names that won't mean anything to a non-Italian rock fan, but they are all major league and major label's artists here in Italy, so please believe us when we say that it's a real thrill for an UBC (Unsigned By Choice!), DIY, self-produced and new band like Belladonna to be featured alongside those long-established and successful Italian acts!...

We are scheduled to play several shows during Hitweek's week - the main one will be at the legendary Fonda Theater - and as soon as we'll have the confirmed details we'll publish them here, so stay tuned and keep the Rock Noir volume loud!!...


BELLADONNA in tour in the USA, March 2009: in some airport somewhere in Texas.
Pic taken by our Alex with his camera's self timer!
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Per i nostri amici e fans italiani!!...


ITALIANO
Un breve messaggio per tutti i nostri amici e fans italiani: ci sono arrivate molte vostre mail che ci chiedono se è possibile trovare il nostro ultimo CD "The Noir Album" nei negozi di dischi italiani.

La risposta è SI, "The Noir Album" è distribuito in TUTTI i negozi di dischi italiani, da Feltrinelli, Messaggerie, FNAC fino al vostro negozio alt-rock di fiducia!

Se il CD non fosse disponibile in un certo negozio perchè esaurito (sappiamo che già è andato esaurito in molti negozi) potete facilmente ordinarlo dando al negoziante nome della band, del CD e del distributore, che nel caso del "The Noir Album" è la Venus. Il negoziante provvederà senz'altro a ordinarlo e a farvelo trovare in negozio nel giro di pochi giorni!!

E cogliamo quest'occasione per ringraziarvi di tutto cuore per l'ENORME supporto che ci state continuando a dare e per l'entusiasmo con il quale avete voluto accogliere questo nostro nuovo album!! ... GRAZIE!!!!!... :-)))

La copertina di "The Noir Album"


ENGLISH
A brief message for all our Friends and fans that live in Italy: we've received lots of e-mails asking us if our latest CD "The Noir Album" is available in Italian record stores.

The answer is YES, "The Noir Album" is distributed in ALL Italian record stores, from the biggest mega-stores to your smallest fave local alt-rock record store!

If the CD is sold out in any given shop (we know it's happened in many stores already) you can easily order it telling the store the band's name, the album's title and the distributor's name, which in "The Noir Album"'s case is Venus. The store will order it and it'll available for you within a few days.

And, while we are here, we'd like to extend you our most heartfelt thanks for the truly AWESOME love & support you are keeping on giving us, and for the enthusiasm with which you have received this latest collection of songs of ours!!... THANK YOU!!!!... :-)))

The "The Noir Album" front cover


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LACUNA COIL and BELLADONNA on the cover of MUEN Magazine... and backstage!!...

Belladonna has just been given the awesome honor of being featured the front cover of US alt-rock mag MUEN Magazine alongside Italy's biggest rock band ever, Lacuna Coil!!...

The MUEN Magazine front cover - May 2009

We've always rated Lacuna Coil very, very highly (need proof? click here and read the Blog post our Dani wrote about them back in September 2006) so this was a real thrill for us - but it was a much bigger thrill when Lacuna Coil's frontman Andrea Ferro turned up backstage at our recent club show in his hometown, Milan!!...

A very down-to-earth, mega-cool and absolutely super-lovely rock'n'roller, Andrea spent some time with us before our show, enthralling our band with his self-effacing attitude and awesome road stories!... It's often been said that a true star shines for his/her human qualities, not for any silly'n'fake "rockstar" stance, and Andrea is a living proof of this: a real diamond guy!!...

We're now totally looking forward to seeing him again and to keeping on seeing his awesome band rise to new r'n'r heights!!... :-))


Luana and Andrea backstage - Milan, 1st of June 2009


Belladonna and Andrea backstage - Milan, 1st of June 2009


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"Till Death Do Us Part" enters the Virgin Radio chart!!...

Belladonna's "Till Death Do Us Part" has entered the Virgin Radio chart!!...

The song is currently at n°19 - the only song in the chart from an Italian band - aside from Lacuna Coil's great new single "Spellbound"!

"Till Death Do Us Part" is the first single off Belladonna's second CD "The Noir Album", and it has been already been featured as Single Of The Week on Virgin Radio, an unprecedented honor for and unsigned, self-produced, DIY band like Belladonna!

Virgin Radio is Italy's most popular Italian rock'n'roll radio station, with almost 2 million daily listeners.

"Till Death Do Us Part" is now available on iTunes: click here for its iTunes page!


"Till Death Do Us Part" in the Virgin Radio Chart

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