Mangora, Giorgio (Comet Records) (February 2002)

Interview With Giorgio Mangora Of Comet Records

MuzikMan: Giorgio, thank you for taking the time to talk to me. I am sure your story is very interesting. First of all I would like to ask how your label began and why did you decide to specialize in vinyl? What did you and your brother Enrico do before you got into music? What people in your lives motivated you and influenced you to be who you are today?

Giorgio Mangora: Our story in the record business started in the late 70s. We then had a small mail order service, backed up by a small wholesaler. We imported from the US and it all was very small. I was 25 and my brother was 17, and we still went to high school. Not everything was easy and straight away even then, but our passion for music always kept us going, just like now. However our business kept growing year after year and in the middle 80s we managed to start a small record company of our own, Cobra Records, that did about 25 titles of Italian rock, psych, and rock-blues.

Italy was and still is a very difficult market and unless you can boast some high-placed acquaintance, whatever production you may finance is bound to remain more or less obscure and unsuccessful. They sold some, but not too much. However our plan is to re-exploit them in a very near future. But my brother and I also ran a local radio station called "Radio Spezia Sound," which specialized in rock music from abroad.

We then decided to open a couple of stores in town. And although all of this allowed us to live quite well, it all was also routine and boring. What I really wanted to do was to be a producer. This brings us to the end of last century when we changed the kind of business we were doing from just selling records to pressing records, and rediscovering old rock albums both in CD and vinyl format. That's how Comet was born in 1997, and the choice of dealing with vinyl also came from the fact that it came to our attention that for most titles there is also a good market for the old dear LP format.

As for the people who led us on to music, I should mention my father, an excellent accordion player and collector of soundtracks. He bought my first drum set, which I used to practice on a lot. A musician who inspired me to my life's soundtrack was Jimi Hendrix.

MM: You have been providing some great music for the MuzikMan to review for some time now and it's always appreciated. How do you find all of this obscure music that most people have never heard of? Is it a long process locating band members and master tapes? Do you actually transfer some of the original recordings from vinyl to master tape because it's the only thing left in existence to access?

GM: Our goal has always been to make those wonderful albums again available to the public with a restored sound and a nice artwork and at an affordable price. Many of our reissues had and have cult artwork actually. Since the very beginning of this new activity we had rave reviews and appreciations everywhere on magazines, newspapers and on the Internet. But I should also say that our work is sometimes quite hard to bring on. We often can't find the original tapes or masters and we then have to use an old vinyl as a source; and then again it's sometimes very very hard to find one in acceptable condition, although we can today count on specialized studios that make perfect transpositions from the LP to a digital master, cleaning the sound and assuring a better quality. As for the people doing everything here inside, I personally come up with research, and investigate for titles to reissue. I also used to be a collector. Guglielmo [Pizzinelli] then looks for and contacts the owners of tapes and rights around the world. Thanks to his experience with big and small record companies, and he also consults for the jazz repertoires of which he's an expert. He's also our Vanguard license manager. Stefano [Bardo] is in charge of finding notes, bios and of revising the artwork and any post-production. He's also a living encyclopedia of rock and prog music. What I don't know, he does. Sarah, my daughter, is our internal graphic designer and Enrico is in charge of the accounting department.

MM: Has your business been getting better with each passing year?

GM: Yes of course. And it's all still growing.

MM: Has it been somewhat of a surprise to you both how much success you have enjoyed?

GM: Well, yes and no. What probably surprised us was rather the velocity with which our name and success became widespread.

MM: Do orders come in from all over the world off of your site?

GM: Yes, definitely, you name a country and we can tell you a client there.

MM: What are some of the more remote locations that people have ordered music from?

GM: Oceania, Japan, Alaska...

MM: What country seems to be the most active in ordering music on your site?

GM: Definitely the US, and of course Italy.

MM: Have you thought about signing on any major acts? Or would you prefer to keep doing things like you are now? Scott Finch is probably your most popular modern act, correct?

GM: Well, when it comes to talking about new productions and not just reissues, you have to consider that my old project of turning also into a producer came to be not quite two years ago when we came across Scott Finch. He's an incredible guitarist and a fine person also. He also knows some modern acts that we are further going to sign on. But this is something we'll have to talk about in a few months...

MM: What are some of your plans over the next few years? Do you plan on adding more labels of your own or adding more affiliates like Gear Fab?

GM: Well there still is so much to bring up from the depths of oblivion from the past. And we have just started a new label called Metal Legions, devoted to heavy Metal recordings and reissues.

MM: What are your top five selling LPs from the group of 60's psychedelic acts that you carry?

GM: I'd say:
· Le Stelle Di Mario Schifano - Italy '68 - a pysch rock like the Velvet Groove
· Dark - Round The Edge - UK '71 Progressive
· Damnation Of Adam Blessing - Damnation To Salvation - 3CD box set, '70S hard psych from the US
· Hunger - Strictly From Hunger - 2LP, USA, '60s Psych/Garage
· Toad - 3 CD Box, Switzerland, hard blues from the '70s

MM: Who are your personal favorites of the 60's groups?

GM: Scott Finch, Toad, Morly Grey, The Ultimate Spinach, and Country Joe [McDonald] in the Live At Fillmore '69 [album].

MM: In your opinion who do you feel are your closest competitors in the market you're in?

GM: Oh, they are all very good, actually. And I particularly like what Sundazed is doing. They are very good.

MM: Do you feel the Internet has been the key to your success?

GM: If you mean selling records direct, yes, our website has lots of hits and we get many orders for our mail order service.

This interview was conducted January 28, 2002 by MuzikMan. Published with the permission of Comet Records and Giorgio Mangora.

[Update: this label (and it's sublabels) seem to have dissolved -ed.]

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