THE MYTH OF FRANK ZAPPA RETURNS

It is ironically entitled 'Zappa plays Zappa-Tour de Frank!', the festival in honour of Frank Zappa organised and held by the close heirs of the brilliant Californian musician who died in 1993 at the age of 53: his sons Dweezil and Ahmet and his widow Gail.

The tour will start on 25 October at the Olympic Pavillion in Barcelona and will stop in Italy in Milan and Rome, respectively, on 27 October (at the Forum di Assago) and 28 October (Palalottomatica). The tour promises Zappa-style surprises, 'world's most spectacular entertainment trappings', 'thrills of mysterious delights'.

Ahmet Zappa, author of TV programmes and dramas, wrestling expert and member of Z, the band he formed with his brother Dweezil, already worked during the last years of his father's life. 'The first music I listened to was my father's,' he explained, 'I would often fall asleep in his studio, the Utility Muffin Research Kitchen, so I could spend more time near him while he worked at night. There are a lot of people who don't know what my father's music was like and still is: he was a musical genius and I think it's important to bring Frank's message to the younger generation.

'We don't like the way my father's music is misunderstood and misrepresented in the newspapers today,' Dweezil added. 'The newspapers continue to perpetuate the image of Zappa with a joint, but it was well known that Frank was against drugs. Rather than continue to send out false, offensive and irresponsible images, we prefer that people really know who my father was through his music'. His opinion is in line, moreover, with that of his father who said that 'music journalism is done by a series of people who can't write, who interview a series of people who can't speak, for a series of people who can't read. Writing about music is like dancing about architecture'.

"We don't think of the tour as a family affair," said Frank's widow, Gail, "The only family affair we're interested in is choosing freedom, investing in ourselves, in the things we consider talents and gifts. If Frank were here, he would be sorry: because he would want to do this tour. Perhaps, had he been here, he would have apostrophised the fans of the 'Zappa plays Zappa', who will come to applaud his music, with one of the phrases he used during a concert when he saw the boys clapping their hands in time: 'Do you have any idea how stupid you look when you're doing this?