They kick, to the sound of music, the clichés (also) from a wheelchair and travel all over Italy, continuously for thirty-five years, to propose the positive notes that resonate among diversities and sing a new image of the world of disability. I ladri di carrozzelle, a musical band born in 1989 made up of ten artists, nine with physical and mental disabilities, are landing in Sardinia and will be on stage in Telti tomorrow at 7pm (and on the 19th in Arzachena) with the national premiere of Scuolatour 2024 , project which, since 1992, has involved Italian schools - in this edition, in seven regions - to talk about disability to students in a transversal way with a show of music, words and videos and, in the name of irony, raise awareness towards the other beyond the physical, psychological characteristics, geographical origin, religious or political beliefs.
«In addition to the workhorse themes of our light-hearted repertoire, in this edition, to pay homage to Gallura, Fabrizio De André's adopted land, we will play A judge, a song by the Genoese singer-songwriter which tells the story of a short man derided by everyone", says the guitarist and head of the group, Paolo Falessi, who defines himself as the only able-bodied member of the band but the most played of all.
«The wheelchair thieves was born as an ordinary musical group, in which ten people meet sharing the same passion and nine are in wheelchairs, suffering from muscular dystrophy», says Paolo. «Today there is no longer anyone from the original band - he adds - illness has interrupted their music over the years, the line-up has changed continuously but, since 1995, we have been professional musicians, we have formed the first people's cooperative in Italy with disabilities in the world of entertainment and, since 2010, we have been a group of certified crazy people because we opened the band to people with mental disabilities, and we invented a new musical genre called sbrock ."
Applause for the musicians on stage who, when the curtain falls, are presented to the public: name, surname, nickname and pathology. Pathologies that have never made their story, unique in Italy, out of place, which has seen them tread the stages of the whole peninsula (and not only) and participate in many radio and television programmes, including Domenica in, Maurizio Costanzo Show and Raitre sends me. To date, over a thousand concerts performed in schools, stadiums, theaters and squares, including Piazza San Giovanni in Rome for the traditional May Day concert, reaching the peak audience for the entire afternoon, participation in the Jubilee Concert of 2000 broadcast worldwide, and at the final evening of the Sanremo Festival in 2017 with the song 'Stravedo per la vita', one of the many songs in their record production, twenty albums and singles. Protagonists of three docufictions on Rai3, with excellent ratings, and now on Rai2 in the program 'O even no', every Sunday morning, a reality show set among young people with disabilities and their dreams. The aim of The Carriage Thieves is to be able to have a structure to carry out all their activities and which can respond to the After Us, transforming itself into a residential place.
