Gen Rosso 2012

‘We’re sending you a handful of comments about our trip to Sardinia at the end of 2011,’ Tomek  Mikusiński has written to www.focolar.org, wishing us a year: ‘fruitful and full of good communication’. A year that for the international band is going to be chock-a-block with gigs and new projects.

‘At the moment we’re cutting a CD of new songs that we hope will get to the shops by the end of March in Italy and elsewhere,’ Tomek goes on to say. ‘We hope they’ll be on sale at the same time as our tour with the live concert: Indelible Dimension, which is now revised and improved from an artistic point of view.’

‘sneak previews’: ‘In parallel we’re finishing off a new musical and we hope that this too will be on release by the end of 2012 or the beginning of 2013…’

After 14 March when this period of what Gen Rosso calls ‘working from home’ comes to an end, the band will leave for Spain, for a full two months, after which they will go on tours of different lengths in three continents: Europe (with concerts in the Czech Republic, Belgium and Germany), China and Australia.

But now let’s take a step back in time to the final concert last year. It was  at Villacidro (50 km from Cagliari in Sardinia). Here on 29 December 2011 Gen Rosso presented their concert Indelible Dimension. It was during the XXVth March for Peace, which took place in the light of recent troubles in Nigeria and Syria, events that show how much the search for peace needs a powerful helping hand.

The theme of the march was Educating Young people in Justice and Peace, given by Benedict XVI to the World Day of Peace on 1 January 2012. Two thousand people were at the concert, in a wholesale warehouse, which concluded the march. ‘The scene was pretty unusual because of the artist performance (and not a few technical problems),’ Gen Rosso said, ‘but the warmth and enthusiasm of the young Sardinians made us forget any difficulties straight away.’

‘A different world is possible, a different humanity already exists… THANKS with all my heart!’ wrote one person after the concert.

In the town’s industrial zone on the following day, 30 December, there was a day of reflection and commitment for Sardinian young people. Youth for a United World led it together with Gen Rosso who ran workshops with people from every part of  Sardinia.

‘Thank you Gen Rosso – thank you guys!!! Amazing concert….. a big thank you on behalf of all the Sardinian people…. a thank you that goes on forever!!!!!!!’