Goblin vs. Claudio Simonetti's Goblin: both bands touring North America, Simonetti playing 'Dawn of the Dead' (dates)

Claudio Simonetti's Goblin

Italian prog rock band and soundtrack masters Goblin have gone through a bunch of line-up changes over the years, playing shows under a variety of names. Last summer, a version of the band — featuring original members Claudio Simonetti, Maurizio Guarini and Massimo Morante — toured around the Housecore Horror Festival and played NYC.

After that Simonetti split from Goblin, whose line-up became 4/5s of the one that made the classic Suspiria soundtrack: Fabio Pignatelli (bass), Agostino Marangolo (drums), Massimo Morante (guitar) and Maurizio Guarini (keyboards). That’s the one that toured last year, including NYC shows. That line-up toured North America in December.

Now Simonetti is now touring his version of the band as Claudio Simonetti’s Goblin with members of other incarnations of the band from over the years. That group is touring North American this year, playing the score to Dawn of the Dead in full, and that tour hits NYC on July 15 at Irving Plaza. Tickets for that show go on sale Friday (4/4) at 10 AM. All Claudio Simonetti’s Goblin dates are listed below

If you’re still confused as to who is playing with which version of Goblin, Simonetti does a pretty good job explaining the ups and downs of the group which you can read — and check out tour schedules for both Goblins (and stream the Dawn of the Dead soundtrack) — below…


Goblin’s life has been full of separations, reunions and various line- ups that have characterized the tortuous history of this group over the past almost 40 years.

The band was originally formed by myself and Massimo Morante, born from the ashes of Cherry Five (Oliver), thanks to my father Enrico who brought us to the Cinevox Record label in 1974.

From the first historical line-up of Claudio Simonetti: keyboards, Walter Martino: drums, Fabio Pigntelli: bass and Massimo Morante: guitar, that composed the soundtrack of Profondo Rosso/Deep Red, there have been several changes within the band. Starting with the replacement of Walter Martino with Agostino Marangolo on drums, which lasted until 1978, the date of final separation of the “first Goblin republic”, and the participation of keyboardist Maurizio Guarini on the album Roller in 1976.

After the separation in 1978, the band continued to exist with another line-up, led by Fabio Pignatelli, and that’s why we used three names (Simonetti-Morante-Pignatelli) for Tenebre instead of the name Goblin, and were accompanied by other musicians from the Cinevox Record label.

In 1984 the band was reduced to two members, me and Fabio Pignatelli, and we recorded some songs for Dario Argento’s Phenomena (excluding the main theme Phenomena, which was my own composition). Morante and Marangolo had not done anything with Goblin from 1978 to 2000 when I proposed to Argento that we reunite the band for the soundtrack of his film Non Ho Sonno/Sleepless, but sadly the brief reunion ended just after we finished recording the soundtrack.

Many other bands were formed in the following years inspired by the original Goblin: Daemonia, BacktotheGoblin, Goblin Rebirth and New Goblin, all with original members of the band in one combination or another.

Now, with two members of New Goblin, Titta Tani on drums and Bruno Previtali on guitar, and Federico Amorosi (original Daemonia member) on the bass, I formed my own version of the band named Claudio Simonetti ‘s Goblin:

Claudio Simonetti: keyboards
Bruno Previtali: guitars
Federico Amorosi: bass
Titta Tani: drums

Claudio Simonetti’s Goblin – 2014 Tour Dates
April, 5 – BELFAST FILM FESTIVAL – Waterfront Hall – DAWN OF THE DEAD
April, 11 – ROADBURN FESTIVAL 2014 – Tilburg – The Netherlands
April, 12 – BLÅ | LØRDAG – Oslo – Norway (special guest: Virus)
April, 14 – AMAGER BIO -Øresundsvej 6, 2300 Copenhagen, Denmark
Ääniwalli – Pälkäneentie 13- Helsinki – Finland
June 13 – FIGHT THE NIGHT 2 FESTIVAL – Nightmare City
May, 1 – Minneapolis – Skyway Theatre – SUSPIRIA
May, 2 – THE MASQUERADE, Atlanta, GA – DAWN OF THE DEAD
May, 3 – Chicago – METRO – CIMM Festival – SUSPIRIA
May, 29 – VÄRLDENS STARKASTE FESTIVAL: MUSKELROCK – Tyrolen Blädinge, 342 91 Alvesta, Kronoberg, Sweden
June,13 – FIGHT THE NIGHT 2 FESTIVAL – Nightmare City – Ääniwalli – Pälkäneentie 13- Helsinki – Finland
July, 15 – New York, NY – Irving Plaza – DAWN OF THE DEAD
July, 17 – Montreal, Canada – Le National – DAWN OF THE DEAD
July, 18 – Toronto, Canada – Virgin Mobile Mod Club – DAWN OF THE DEAD
July, 19 – Pontiac, MI – The Crofoot Ballroom – DAWN OF THE DEAD
July, 21 – Lawrence, KA – The Granada Theatre – DAWN OF THE DEAD
July, 22 – Denver, CO – Bluebird Theater – DAWN OF THE DEAD
July, 24 – Los Angeles, CA – Roxy Theatre – DAWN OF THE DEAD
July, 25 – San Francisco, CA – Regency Ballroom – DAWN OF THE DEAD

Goblin – 2014 Tour Dates
April 24 State Theater St. Petersburg, FL
April 25 Grand Central Miami, FL
April 27 Texas Theater Dallas, TX
April 28 House of Blues Houston, TX
April 29 Mohawk Austin, TX
May 1 Marquee Phoenix, AZ
May 2 House of Blues San Diego, CA
May 3 Henry Fonda Theater Los Angeles, CA
May 4 Oakland Metro Oakland, CA