In the summer of 2003 my world music explorations landed me on a real live one. I found myself on a stage with twenty raging brigands locked in a strange ritual with 40,000 whirling tribes people surrounding us dancing and singing with frenzied abandon.

The Night of the Tarantula originates in an ancient dance festival in southern Italy. The songs, which are specific to this event, have been passed down through centuries. The music, known as the Pizzica (a close relative of the Tarantella) is flamboyantly rhythmic with soaring melodies driven by raging drums. In the lost valley of Salentino the humble tambourine has evolved into a family of instruments, including some that are monstrous.

The result is an extremely robust form of folk music. The young studs of the region impress the girls with their tambourines rather than with guitars.
The local legend is that the Pizzica dance was the best remedy for the bite of the tarantula. Strange pagan rituals whisper of women dancing in venom induced hallucinogenic frenzy. In recent centuries the pagan songs have been Christianized but still retain a ritualistic Dionysian flavour.

In modern times 40,000 people annually congregate on The Night of the Tarantula in Melpignano. Next to the ancient monastery a giant stage is erected and the city streets swell with revellers dancing to the music of the twenty piece orchestra playing an assortment of bazookis, bagpipes, accordions, guitars, drums and tambourines.

Along for the ride with this crew, is me on drums, hanging on for dear life and surfing the surge of energy that this music creates.
Lit up by the joy of this local event I joined with the City of Melpignano to take the show on the road around Italy and Greece. The success was phenomenal, even with audiences that were unfamiliar with the material.

There is a reason why this music has survived the ages and why The Night of the Tarantula draws such multitudes to this day. The songs are eternally charismatic, the rhythms are elementally persuasive and the energy is wildly infectious.

STEWART COPELAND