Goodbye Uncle

Goodbye Uncle is the story of a boy Shiny Kid, who in a dreamlike moment of feverish lucidity, understands something extraordinary... his city is invisibly wrapped in rubber! Shiny Kid sees that the rubber is actually part of a plot, behind which is Uncle, an alien spiritual entity,who wants to subjugate humanity for its evil purposes.
The victims of its plot are the inhabitants of Rubber City, who unwittingly fallen into its deception turn into Rubberons thus becoming his unwitting slaves,enemies of themselves and each other. In fact, initially, the Rubberons were Shiny Kids, but by accepting the Pink Gum Candy, prepared and offered by Uncle by deception, they began to produce the material that Uncle needs to manufacture the rubber. Shiny Kid realizes that understanding what is going on makes him different from the Rubberons and feels he has to tell his fellow citizens about his discovery, destroy the rubber and free them, but he also understands that he must find the other Shiny Kids who like him see Uncle and resist him. In fact, he feels that there is already a connection between them, which in his dreams has the shape of a giant whip top that spins whirlingly radiating light in the center of this world. Uncle knows that if the Shiny Kids unite, they would be able not only to resist him but also to defeat him and he can't let that happen. How will Shiny Kid succeed in his mission, will he get help? Will Uncle be defeated and humanity freed? What is the Spinning Top? could its existence mean that other forces are at stake and that the clash does not only concern humanity and Uncle?

The music

It was only in 2005 that Ana & Roberto, as “The Migrators”, had the idea to put Goodbye Uncle into music and simultaneously into a theater performance. They were sure that the music had to be powerful rock music and its visual form, a real rock opera!
Out of this idea came demo album of 19 songs with music that can suddenly take the listener through the various epoques of the rock`n`roll and soul music, being played on the vintage instruments like Vox Jaguar organs, Rhodes electric piano, Hofner guitar, etc. but enriched with the amazing possibilities of digital editing in making special sounds. The lyrics were literally extracted from the story, influencing both composing, arranging and recording of the songs.

All that was done within a year time in The Migrators` home studio in Rome, but the final mixes showed the need for the bigger and analogue studio. The opportunity wonderfully came up through the meeting, in Belgrade (Serbia), with Vlada Negovanović, one of the main producers of the all former Yugoslavia, whose precious suggestions and friendship led to the decision to finalize the album in his studio “Sky” in summer 2006.

The Premier

It happened that the moment for putting a trial of Goodbye Uncle Rock Opera show came before expected, even before finishing the album.
This opportunity came within the All Saints Anglican Church in Rome, whose chaplain fr. Jonathan Boardman was the most important person to support and encourage the making of Goodbye Uncle, both the music album and the Rock Opera. Putting in his un-hidden theatrical and literary talents, he became the writer of the libretto, the director and actor (Uncle) in the premier performance.

The 50 minutes premier was staged on 19 April 2006 after only a month and a half of production period. It included dancing, acting and live band playing. The original idea was to make the main evening show a climax of a whole day of dress rehearsals open to public.

Its goal was to take the given chances and begin making the Opera step by step, involving the artists, arousing the interest among public and what`s most important make a visual sample – a pilot DVD – to be able to find appropriate sponsors for completing the whole work.

The first performance was a beautiful success, very rich experience, the proof that innovative things, good atmosphere as well as the message still have the power to surprise and attract people even if it is a completely new thing. The highlight of the performance was the multi nationality of the cast and crew, as well as of the audience: Italian, English, Australian, Serbian, Kenyon, Japanese, French,etc.. The first fruit coming out of the performance is the number of people interested in participating in its continuation as well as following its progress.

Goodbye Uncle.. a prophetic opera...

Like various works of art that had more or less voluntarily held the visionary previsions of the future events which at the certain point manifested on the stage of human history, so "Goodbye Uncle", a 70 min. rock opera and 19 song concept album, with the coming of the year 2020/2021 seem to share the same quality.

Written in 1999 and composed in 2005 by two musicians, songwriters, producers and artist sucking from their early teenage on the punk, new way, garage and black soul music and in attitude, the story of Goodbye Uncle came out of the need to dig out and picture the state and origin of darkness in the world we live in, of our self-destructive nature, raising even the question of absolute evil. However, not without hope, never without a hope, that an answer and a guiding light may spring up from a painful human heart and mind.

What Shiny Kid, the protagonist of the rock opera that was created and staged in 2006 in Rome, began saying and warning about, is becoming clearer and more obvious right now. The existence of Rubber City, Rubberons, Uncle and Shiny Kids, we hear about in the rock opera, suddenly becomes something real, evolving on a global scale, in front of our eyes.

How could the Kid foresee it, guess it?
In a painful disturbance of his vital faculties: mind, body and soul, at the crossroad of sense and nonsense, devoured by the inner void caused by the loss of values such as love, trust, and happiness, Shiny Kid experiences the world he and his contemporaries live as if built of rubber. He calls it a Rubber City, the city in which the destiny is one: pain, suffocation, madness and the complete loss of freedom. He sees that Shiny Kids, people who have had big dreams, hopes, youthful innocence and life joy, become Rubberons, corrupted, indifferent people and the very producers of the rubber that causes them all to be at war with each other and suffer constantly.
He had no other choice but try and go straight to the origin of the great illness by naming the pain and its origin through characters, situations and pictures. The more he looks the more the origin of evil takes shape, becoming a one person, a person he can clearly see and that he will eventually be confronted with: the enemy, the arch-enemy, the Uncle.
The Uncle, the rubber, Rubberons, it all gradually starts making sense and the Kid seems to have understood the plot of destruction of the human race..
As well as a possible way out of it...

In year 2020/2021, the story of GU is becoming more and more relevant. It seems that the Uncle's plot is being boldly, quickly, steadily and relentlessly installed and promoted. The rubber is growing, so the number of Rubberons...

What about Shiny Kids then? Are they still around and if they are, how are they going to re-act?