It was the early ’80s, the “young” Turin was beginning to take its first timid steps to shake off the grey cloak that the city of industry was spreading everywhere. And in this context the world of music was trying to say its own.
Long time before Mau Mau, Africa Unite and Subsonica, a meteor as fast as lightning illuminated the streets of Turin, bringing their voices throughout Italy and abroad: Stefano Rota and Stefano Righi, aka Michael and Johnson Righeira.
They met at the Einstein High School in Turin, after their first wanderings in the post-punk underground of the late ’70s, Righeira became a pop icon with a song that immediately became a hit “Vamos a la playa“. First in festivals, television and magazines’ charts, not only in Italy. And the first successes were followed by others such as “No tengo dinero” and “L’estate sta finendo“. Winning Festivalbar in 1985 is the latter contributed to launch the two young artists into the orbit of the national show business as popstars. It was the 80’s and the Righeira were confirmed as one of the most important and colorful icons of the decade on the international scene.
But shortly after, the fairytale came to an end. A few unsuccessful songs, youthful tastes that were beginning to change by the end of the ’80s and the two mates who shortly afterwards separated, noting the changed situation.
The return to the news a few years later was unfortunately not for musical reasons. It was 1993 when Johnson Righeira was involved in a maxi-blitz where 40k ecstacy pills were seized and 36 people were arrested. From there, he was imprisoned and charged with possession and distribution of drugs, and a two-year trial which finally established his definitive acquittal. But the wound remained and the recovery was hard and painful.It was only towards the end of the 1990s that the name Righeira began to resurface. A few shows back together, a few TV appearances in the style of an 80s revival and “Vamos a la playa” ringing in the ears of more or less young fans. And since appetite comes with eating, a brand new album “Mondovisione” was released in 2007.
