Oliver, 1972–1975 Between 1972 and 1973,
Claudio Simonetti (keyboards) and
Massimo Morante (guitars), aided by
Fabio Pignatelli (bass guitar) and Walter Martino (drums), recorded some demo tapes using the name Oliver. On a trip to London, while looking for contacts, the band bumped into
Eddy Offord, then producer of
Yes. After listening to a demo tape, the tycoon producer expressed interest and asked them to move to England. By then, Fabio Pignatelli had become a steady member, and the band found a regular drummer,
Carlo Bordini, and an English lead vocalist (
Clive Haynes). After many months of rehearsing, they returned to London while Offord was on tour with Yes in the US; after many performances and various attempts at striking deals with record houses, they were forced to go back to Italy, due to lack of funds.
Cherry Five Back home, they signed with
Cinevox, and Clive Haynes was replaced by
Tony Tartarini who had previously recorded with L'Uovo Di Colombo under the name Toni Gionta. The band's name was changed to Cherry Five by the label, and according to Claudio Simonetti for no apparent reason, as the members themselves had intended to continue as "Oliver." Whatever debate about the band's name there may have existed, their first LP was titled
Cherry Five. Cinevox Records was active mainly in soundtrack publishing. Due to the band's peculiar sound, the band was frequently called to perform and arrange famous musicians' compositions. This helped them better understand the world of soundtracks and the particular techniques required. Their final act as Cherry Five was to drop new drummer Carlo Bordini and bring back Walter Martino on drums.
Success and film scores, 1975–1978 At the beginning of 1975, the band began a cooperation with Giorgio Gaslini on the
Profondo rosso film project. The band replaced Martino (who went on to join the band Libra) with
Agostino Marangolo (of the band Flea on the Honey/Flea/Etna) during this period. Martino recorded on all but two cuts of
Profondo rosso. By chance, after three or four days of recording, Gaslini left the film after a conflict with
Dario Argento, so Argento decided to try the band's hand at composing, giving them one night to write a score, and one day to record it. To distinguish this new release from their first LP which was just about to be marketed, the band changed their name again, this time to
Goblin. Their success exceeded all expectations: more than one million copies sold, enjoying 52 weeks on the Italian hit charts and ranking first in both the singles and LP categories. It launched a highly successful period for the band, which came to an end in 1978 when the band split after the recording of Dario Argento's cut of George Romero's
Zombi (also known as
Dawn of the Dead). (On the score for the European version of the soundtrack, they were credited as "The Goblins.") In 1976, they collaborated with Willy Brezza to compose the score to
Perché si uccidono (the film was released in the US as "Percy is Killed", but this was a mis-translation and there is no character even called Percy in the film). For the only time, Goblin used the name
Il Reale Impero Britannico due to the controversial subject matter of the movie (drug abuse and addiction).
Willy Brezza wrote the original score, and the remaining tracks were written by the band together with
Fabio Frizzi. The following year they scored the Italian crime film
The Heroin Busters (
La via della droga), directed by
Enzo G. Castellari, and starring
Fabio Testi and
David Hemmings.
Fragmentation, 1978–1985 Between 1978 and 1979, the band's core musicians recruited many new members consecutively. Fabio Pignatelli, Agostino Marangolo, his brother
Antonio Marangolo (a saxophonist who contributed to several albums) and nephew
Carlo Pennisi (a session man who often played in place of Massimo Morante when he was absent) all worked together from 1980 to 1982 in the band, Flea on the Honey, which managed to record several LPs. Pignatelli took part in all the recordings, with Agostino Marangolo ranking lead for number of performances. The remaining members continued to work on further scores, and there was a partial reunification for Argento's
Tenebrae (1982) (although each member of the band was credited separately, not as Goblin). Over time, it was three of the "founding fathers" (Pignatelli, Simonetti and Morante), plus Marongolo, who became synonymous with the name Goblin.
Reunion for Sleepless score, 2000 After 22 years of hiatus, in 2000, the group reformed to score the Dario Argento thriller
Non ho sonno (
Sleepless). The score was a great success and showed the group could still make great music, much to their fans' delight. The group were scheduled to perform in
Tarrytown, New York for the infamous Cult-Con, but failed to appear. Simonetti did however appear at the show and informed fans that old wounds resurfaced during their brief reunion. With his horror theme tribute band, Daemonia (formed by Titta Tani, Bruno Previtali, Federico Amorosi, and Simonetti himself), he performed a nine-song set from the films of Dario Argento, and Goblin later officially disbanded.
Back To The Goblin, 2005–2009 BackToTheGoblin2005 Nevertheless, in 2005, with the release of Giovanni Aloisio's official Goblin biography and the opening of their official website, Morante and Pignatelli reformed the group once again and with Marangolo and Guarini recorded the album
BackToTheGoblin2005 under the independent label BackToTheFudda. The album was available only through the official site and was not distributed in regular stores. It is also available on iTunes.
2009 reunion tour In 2009, Goblin, now
Back To The Goblin, made their first live concert appearance in 32 years. Keyboardist
Aidan Zammit has joined the band for their live performances. Excluding Simonetti, this is basically the "classic" line-up, with Maurizio Guarini contributing keyboard work to most of their original albums, playing on
Roller,
Chi?,
Suspiria,
Buio Omega, Patrick, Contamination, St. Helens, Notturno, Volo, BackToTheGoblin and more. The five members (Morante, Guarini, Pignatelli, Marangolo, and Aidan Zammit) performed a few concerts around Europe in 2009: •
Donaufestival in Krems,
Austria on 23 April 2009 •
La villette sonique in Paris - 29 May •
Dancity Festival at the Auditorium San Domenico - Foligno - 25 June •
Supersonic Festival in Birmingham, UK - 26 July •
Scala, London - 27 July In December 2009, Back to the Goblin once again announced their dissolution due to internal conflict. The remaining scheduled concerts into 2010 were then canceled.
New Goblin/Goblin Rebirth and the Goblin Keys, 2010–present New Goblin were scheduled to perform at
Unsound Festival Kraków on 23 October 2010, consisting of Claudio Simonetti in the line-up, as well as Morante, Guarini,
Bruno Previtali and
Titta Tani. Essentially, it was three members of the classic lineup and two members of Simonetti's other band, Daemonia (Previtali and Tani being the bassist and drummer, respectively, of that band). Yet another incarnation of the band, formed in December 2010 and called
Goblin Rebirth, includes former
Goblin members Fabio Pignatelli and Agostino Marangolo plus
Giacomo Anselmi on guitars, Aidan Zammit and
Danilo Cherni on keyboards. In 2011, the monumental 450-page book,
Goblin sette note in rosso (
Goblin seven notes in red) was released, written by Fabio Capuzzo. It traces the full history of Goblin from 1973 to 2011 with a detailed analysis of all the albums and movies with music performed by Goblin (including all the works as
session musicians). It also details full biographies, exclusive interviews and contains discographies and filmographies of the Italian composers who created scores for police,
giallo and horror movies, and information about all the Italian rock bands with a role in movie soundtracks. In 2011/2012, New Goblin (Morante, Guarini, Simonetti, Previtali and Tani) had activity around the world, including Japan (twice), Australia (twice) and New Zealand. In April 2012, Claudio Simonetti and now-
Greater Toronto based
Maurizio Guarini performed with drummer
Bob Scott and guitarist
Chris Gartner, in
Shock Stock 2012 on 14 April 2012 as
The Goblin Keys. On 24 June 2013, the New Goblin line-up announced their first-ever North American tour and under their original banner, Goblin, played 17 dates in October 2013, with
Secret Chiefs 3 as the opening act.
Tour and Simonetti's Goblin, 2013–present Simonetti has since formed another incarnation of the band called '''Claudio Simonetti's Goblin'
, which features him and the other members of his horror film theme cover group Daemonia. In February 2014 they began touring and playing complete scores live during screenings of the films Deep Red
, Suspiria
and Dawn of the Dead
. In April 2014, the band was slated to tour, performing the score to Dawn of the Dead'' live throughout North America, but in July the tour was canceled. In June 2014 Claudio Simonetti's Goblin released an album titled
The Murder Collection, consisting of new versions of some of Goblin and Simonetti's most well-known compositions.
4/5 of original Goblin members reunion, live and studio activity, 2013–present Goblin returned for a second US tour leg in December 2013 with Simonetti, Bruno Previtali and Titta Tani being replaced by original members Fabio Pignatelli and Agostino Marangolo and additional keyboard player Aidan Zammit. The reunited band played 13 dates mostly in Midwest US. In April and May 2014, Goblin returned in US for the third time. Aidan Zammit was replaced by Steve Moore of the band Zombi and Goblin played nine dates throughout the southern United States. In October 2014, Massimo Morante, Maurizio Guarini, Fabio Pignatelli and Agostino Marangolo announced that, as Goblin, they released an album of new material titled
Four of a Kind and started a crowdfunding campaign through the website pledgemusic.com to help complete it. In June 2015, Goblin Rebirth released their self-titled debut album and did various live appearances. Also in 2015, Cherry Five reformed with original members Carlo Bordini and Tony Tartarini along with new members Ludovico Piccinini (guitars), Gianluca De Rossi (keyboards) and Pino Sallusti (bass) and released an album titled
Il Pozzo dei Giganti. On 3 April 2017. bassist Pino Sallusti died. In early 2017, Goblin (Morante, Guarini, Pignatelli, Marangolo with Aidan Zammit) resumed live performance with three concerts in Europe: Sweden, Norway and Greece. From 26 October 2017 through 12 November, Goblin toured North America on their 'Sound of Fear' tour with 13 dates in US and 2 in Canada. In October 2017, the US publishing house Ajna published Fabio Capuzzo's
Goblin Seven Notes in Red, the full revised and updated English version of the Italian book
Goblin sette note in rosso. In May 2018, Goblin appeared on the debut full-length Princess album with a new song called "God Save the Goblin" (Pignatelli/Wolf/Guarini/Morante/Marangolo) plus a couple of featuring (one by Fabio Pignatelli and another by Tony Tartarini). Goblin appeared at the Psycho Las Vegas on 19 August 2018. A Goblin album,
Fearless, was released at the end of 2018. Claudio Simonetti's Goblin actively toured Europe and North America from 2019 - 2022 with a break for COVID. Massimo Morante died in June 2022, at the age of 69. In 2023, Giacomo Anselmi former member of Goblin Rebirth joined Goblin on guitar, replacing Massimo. In August 2024, due to internal conflict, both Agostino Marangolo and Fabio Pignatelli have left Goblin. Original Goblin drummer Walter Martino and "Fabio Frizzi Live" bassist Roberto Fasciani have since replaced them both. The band will now be known as
Goblin Legacy. Walter Martino died in
Livorno on 7 March 2026, at the age of 72. ==Style and influences==