This is my fourth conversation with Armando Gallo. It took place on 2/17/22 from his home in California.
Armando Gallo was born in Oriago, Italy, an ancient village a few miles from Venice. He has been a photo journalist since 1967, when he was lucky enough to make his way to the listening party of The Beatles “Sgt Pepper Lonely Heart Club Band”. His article was published as an Italian exclusive in the weekly magazine, “BIG”. Inspired by this experience he soon left his career as an architectural designer to become the London correspondent for the Italian rock weekly “CIAO 2001”, the rock bible for the young Italian generation of the late ’60s and ’70s. covering the extraordinary swinging London and the changing British pop scene.
He left London in the Spring of 1975 to take a position in Los Angeles as a correspondent for the the top weekly “TV Sorrisis e Canzoni” covering the Hollywood scene, interviewing John Wayne and Henry Fonda and a young Steven Spielberg. When he heard the news from London that Peter Gabriel had left Genesis, one of his favorite British band, he decided to write a book about them, “otherwise a beautiful story would be lost forever” he said. Peter had found difficulties to jump-start his solo career. Music publishers and record companies seamed unsure of his songwriting talent, as Genesis, with drummer Phil Collins taking over as lead singer, went on to be more successful then ever. For Armando the book was meant to set the real story of Genesis and Peter strong contribution during their first formative years, and also a way to document the late ’60s and early ’70s, an era that he witnessed and remembered with passion. Genesis The Evolution of a Rock Band was published by Sidgwick and Jackson of London in June 1978 to coincide with Genesis headlining the Knebworth rock festival.
The book was published in USA as I Know What I Like in April 1980 by Armando’s own imprint, DIY Books, a company inspired by Peter Gabriel’s song DIY - “if you want to keep it under control/ keep it small, do it yourself/ DIY DIY…” The book went on to three reprints, but a limited national distribution. It was sold mostly in record stores, a pioneering and successful experiment. In Britain Sidgwick and Jackson became the distributor of the new book.
In 1982, he formed DIY Books Europe in order to publish an Italian, French and German version of the Genesis book and the following year, with his brother Claudio on board, he changed the name to Fratelli Gallo Editori, an Italian publishing company, producing and publishing over 40 rock books and the monthly magazine PIX Photorock that featured the artists of the month thro’ the eyes of their personal photographers and the best Italian journalists. The magazine had no advert, but a higher cover price that the fans kept alive for 2 years.
In October 1986, following the inspiring Amnesty International’s Conspiracy of Hope tour, he self-published a special book that he had been working on with Peter Gabriel. This is not a biography; he wrote in the introduction. The text was from a series of late-night conversations with Peter and it was laid-out around photos of Peter’s solo tours. I Know What I Like, and Peter Gabriel are still now among the most widely sought-after memorabilia for fans of Genesis and Gabriel fans worldwide.
In September 2014 Armando released an App of his 1980 Genesis book. The project was wanted and financed by Genesis fans from all over the world with a Kickstarter campaign headed by Gabriel Foux who co-directed the project with Armando and Zentric of Buenos Aires.