Rome · 2002 – 2007
Five friends, three self-produced demos, a point-and-click adventure and a website full of nonsense. It's all still here.
Welcome to the official web site of Bench! Here it is possible to read the latest news of our band, and the particulars of the members, to download mp3 and read lyrics, to download our funny photos, or download our graphic adventure.
The original site went online in February 2005 and stayed up until the bench.it domain was closed. This is the very same thing, rebuilt: same words, same images, same files.
The Bench project was born in 2002 after the joining of two previous band Walhalla ( where Leonardo Luciani and Lantini brothers had a hand in ) and Isteria ( where Marco Iecher and Gabriele Alegria played) . At once the new band found its own direction and identity through the accomplishment of own productions, which you can find in the section “Discography”.
Below informations about members of the band are related. Click on the photos in order to see our particulars.
Everything plays right here. Every track can also be downloaded, and almost all of them come with lyrics and credits for who played what.
Released in March 2003, this is our first demo! Little more than a year after the band came together, this first effort reflects the heterogeneity typical of Bench's early repertoire. It ranges from the light-heartedness of the hit "Cecily" to the romanticism of "Fool for you" and "Bound in Me", from the measured "I'm safe" to the reflective, melancholy "Off the wall". The recordings were made at the Benchwarmers' studio, in operation for the first time, except for the drums, which were done at the Elefante Bianco. The mixing was handled personally by Bench. The record features a professional keyboard player, Sergio Orso, who for some obscure reason found himself entangled, out of friendship, in this production. As the celebrated critic V. Stigliano put it at the time: "Bench [...] from failure at the school desk to success at the market stall".
Thanks to: the Luciani Family and the whole restaurant of the same name for the provisions, Goran, Michele for the technical support he gave us, Sergio Orso, the Lantini Family for introducing him to us, Mago Mackis, Tiziana (you know why...), Francesca, Cesare Scapolatiello for buying me my first guitar, and therefore the Scapolatiello Family too, Stefano Martello, Gip, Stefano, Giorgio, Antonio, Il Sire, uncle Franco, the members of ACGL(M), Luca Passerini on Cecily, L'Arrotino, Lidy, Nipo, Alessandra (Giorgia), Nico il fico, il Bove, Tope, il Conte, Nina for putting up with me, Simona for the photo shoot and the cover, Paola, Ripley, Raimondo-Massimo and the whole Elefante Bianco Crew, Gigi Sparano, Paolo Grillo, Adriano Martino, Alessandro Amato, and most especially Gianna and Carlo for the Saintly Patience shown over these months and for supporting us!
A collection of three short jingles, made for a well-known satellite television channel (guess which, using the clues on this page!) to be used as background music for some advertisements. Although recorded at the Benchwarmers' studio as usual, apart from the drums which were done at the Gotico, this time Bench entrusted the mixing to Carlos Zarattini, sound engineer of the aforementioned (?) channel.
This is our second project, released on 13 December 2004, after eight months (!) of work between recording and mixing. The drums were recorded at the Studio del Gotico and the rest of the instruments, vocals included, at the Benchwarmers' studio. The mixes were handled by Bench, as of course was the writing of music and lyrics. Compared with the previous demo ("Bench", 2003) this is a more elegant work, more intimate but equally engaging, in our humble judgement. We consider there to be an appreciable technical improvement on our earlier efforts, as well as a widening of the range of sounds employed, since it moves from distorted electric guitar to the far sweeter violin. In short, as the noted critic V. Stigliano puts it: "Bench [...] soon from the local market to the global market".
Greetings and thanks to: the Luciani family for their constant support and understanding, Tiziana for the inspiration and the patience, Franco Gentili for the orchestral consultancy, Giulia, Valerio for the golf clubs, Ox for the crucial technical help, Francesca and family, mr. Pip, il Conte, Carlos, il Gotico, dad, mum, Mackis and everyone who is fond of us.
Cover :
Lunchtime atop a skyscraper, anonymous (1932)
A freeware graphic adventure made in AGS by Mak & Lex. AGS was created by Chris Jones. The game uses the AllegroOGG plugin, created by Javier Gonzalez.
You can play it straight from this page, with nothing to install. Or you can still download our little game: the file is about 45 MB, and once installed it will gobble up 66.1 MB (69,357,524 bytes, to be precise) of your hard disk.
It is a game from 2006, and the requirements were those of the time: a Pentium 3 with Windows 98 should do as a minimum, though we recommended a P4 (or AMD equivalent) with Windows XP, since that is the setup we built it on.
In 2006 The Games Machine gave it 75% and put it on the April DVD, in the Talent Zone section. Today you can play it right here in your browser, with nothing to download: the AGS engine has been recompiled to WebAssembly. The original Windows installer is still available for anyone who prefers it.
The download is in Italian only. To play in another language, use the browser version.
The game is entirely freeware and may be freely distributed, provided it is not tampered with or faked! The software is provided "as is" and we accept no responsibility for any catastrophes that may follow from running it.
You play with the mouse! The interface is very simple. There are two commands, look (the pointer turns into a pair of eyes) and interact (the pointer turns into a hand). To switch between them just press the right mouse button. When you move the mouse over a «sensitive» object the pointer changes shape and, pressing the left button, you get the effect you want. With the eyes selected you get a description of the object (e.g.: «that's a very nice guitar»); with the hand selected you interact with it: if it is something you can pick up it will be picked up, if it can be opened it will be opened, if it is a person you will talk to them... and if there is nothing to be done you get a discouraging message (e.g.: «not a great idea»). To make it clear what you are pointing at, a bar at the bottom centre of the screen shows the name of the object under the pointer (e.g. «guitar»).
When you talk to a character, the lines you can say appear at the bottom of the screen. Pick the one that seems most appropriate by clicking it with the left button.
As you move the pointer around the screen it may turn into an arrow — over a door, for instance: click the left button in that state and you change location, moving to the room next door.
There is also a small map icon in the bottom left corner: click it and a map of the available locations appears, so you can travel straight to the one you want.
In the bottom right corner there are two icons. One is a backpack — the inventory, everything you have collected. The other is a floppy disk, for saving the game, loading a save or quitting back to Windows.
As for the inventory: select the backpack and a panel appears with everything you have picked up. You can look at the items (using the eyes) or take one in hand (clicking it with the arrow). Once an item is in hand the pointer takes its shape. At that point you can leave the inventory with the OK button and use the item wherever you see fit (e.g. use the key on the door). To turn the pointer back into eyes or hand, just press the right button. You can also combine inventory items with each other (e.g. put the battery in the remote control).
If all this sounds complicated (don't worry, it's easy!) there is a tutorial in the main menu where you can practise with the controls.
Ours is a graphic adventure where you can never die and never get stuck. So if you don't know what to do, it is entirely and exclusively your own fault! :)
Look around, talk to the characters, hunt for objects, pick them up and try them on everything! An experienced player should finish the game in two or three hours — we think we made the puzzles fairly easy....
But if you really cannot get any further, you can always consult the walkthrough!
In this page there are funny photos of the members of the band.
The band's news exactly as it was published, from the most recent back to the first.
Bench hereby announce that they have just completed a complex experimental work of metaphysical and palingenetic music entitled "Silenzio".
The title track can be downloaded from this site by clicking here.
Bench are now firmly in the running for the 2007 Stockhausen Prize.
We hereby inform the gentle public that this day our valiant vocalist Fabrizio has obtained his much-coveted degree! All interested parties are invited to congratulate him since, in the euphoria of the moment, he may well hand out invitations to lavish banquets. Congratulations Fabbrì!
In the photograph one may appreciate the astonishment mixed with disbelief on Our Man's face at the moment of proclamation.
We hereby inform the gentle visitors of this site that the most celebrated magazine The Games Machine, in its April issue, carries a review of our game on page 136 and moreover includes it in the "Talent Zone" section on side B of its DVD!
While thanking the TGM staff who agreed to publish it, we greet those visitors who have landed on our site after reading the address in the magazine.
For anyone stuck on some treacherous puzzle (come now, it's all easy!!) and looking for the walkthrough, it is at the bottom of the "the game" page, reachable from the link above, or by clicking here.
(ps. the cover here on the right with the word "Bench" on it is obviously a complete fake! Please don't sue us! :)
** Off-topic update, 3 April: your favourite (?) bass player and webmaster has just graduated in law, and goes officially from "student" to "unemployed"! Hurrah, hurrah! :)
Friends of Bench, we are delighted to tell you that our recent little game has been reviewed on the celebrated site of The Games Machine, TGM Online, at www.tgmonline.it/talentzone! Our cheerful little adventure landed a resounding 75%: a flattering score, especially considering that none of us is a programmer! :)
We greet and thank Gianluca Masina, author of the article and a contributor not only to TGM but also to the site Game Programming Italia. (www.gameprog.it).
Given the scarcity of site updates of late, some may have wondered what became of us. Well, we were shut in the proverbial lone programmer's garage, labouring briskly on a top-secret project: Bench - the quest for fame, our graphic adventure for PC, is now finally available to download!
It is a cheerful little game in which you are required to complete a dangerous mission concerning us of Bench! It is not an action game, being as it is a graphic adventure: you must interact with the characters, wander the rooms, collect objects, solve puzzles and carry through fiendishly complicated reasoning worthy of a Nobel Prize!
We invite anyone interested to download it from the relevant page, reachable from the menu above or by clicking here.
Naturally, while you play, you will be treated to our songs in instrumental versions... we are a band, after all!
As today marks the twenty-seventh anniversary of the birth of our indestructible singer, Benchwarmers' Productions Ltd has unanimously resolved to use this site to wish Mr Fabrizio a happy birthday: many happy returns, Fabbrì!
We further announce that Bench, though musically at a standstill for the moment owing to work and study commitments, will shortly complete a currently top-secret multimedia project which will be available, barring mishaps, to download from this site in about a month. More information soon. Heh heh heh heh.
Rejoice, visitors of this site: our distinguished guitarist Leonardo has today graduated in Humanities with a result of 110 out of 110 with honours! Blimey! We therefore offer our warmest wishes to Doctor Luciani and to his fair maiden Tiziana, who also graduated today with the very same result. Felicitations!
ps. what a pair of swots!!!
Well I never! It may seem a trifling matter to you all, but Google has finally added us to its abominable database! Besides raising a happy toast (at Leonardo's expense, naturally) we take the opportunity to greet everyone who has ended up on our site thanks to a search engine.... what were you actually looking for? :)
Although the site has not been updated for two weeks, we inform our countless fans that all of Bench are still alive and in good health! The fact is that, owing to various university commitments for those members still devoted to their studies (Leo, Fabrizio, Marco), the band has temporarily de-intensified its rehearsal schedule, so there was very little to report in this news section.
We take the opportunity of this update to inform the entire world that today is Uncle Lex's birthday, and therefore we advise anyone who meets him today that our guitarist may be in the mood to buy dinner. Carpe diem.
Last night a live Bench concert took place before a copious and applauding crowd! The performance seems to have gone down well, even though the band was in a reshuffled line-up owing to an arm problem afflicting Gabriele, who was unable to appear on stage, leaving Fabrizio to cover second guitar on an interim basis. We thank everyone who was present for their attendance, and renew the invitation for the next gig (whenever that may be)! We have added a couple of pictures from last night to the photo section. Thanks to Tiziana for the photography.
Bench will be playing at the Music Festival organised by Luiss University on 6 May 2005 at the Dune, in Piazza SS. Apostoli 52 (near Piazza Venezia). Three bands are playing that evening, but we don't yet know the order and therefore what time we go on. The festival officially begins at 10 pm. Entry is free if you arrive before midnight (though by then the live sets will be over and the club night will have started!). For anyone who would also like to come for a free feed, we can report that there is a buffet at 8.30 pm. In light of this last piece of news, we expect Ox to attend.
Bench will shortly be taking part in a university music event. Nothing much, but we have to start playing live again somewhere! As soon as we know where and when the evening will be held, we shall not fail to keep You informed.
Still on the subject of updates, a few photos have been added to the section of the same name.
Internal communication.
In the name of freedom of expression we have decided to reopen the guestbook -while keeping the forum- so as not to intimidate occasional guests.
We invite our gentle visitors to make use of whichever method they deem most suitable for interacting with the site.
Kind regards
Benchwarmers Productions Ltd - Complaints Department
Benchwarmers Communications Ltd informs the gentle visitors of this site of the opening, currently on a trial basis, of a forum to replace the now obsolete guestbook.
We invite all our visitors to register (the procedure is quite simple!) in order to populate the new space. We thank you in advance for taking part.
Benchwarmers Productions Ltd announces that the ceremony awarding the prize of the Secret Competition, which would have granted the five-hundredth visitor a genuine vintage Fiat 500 of inestimable value, will not take place, in that the five-hundredth visitor happened to be Mr M. I., webmaster of the site and member of the Board of Directors of Benchwarmers Productions Ltd itself.
It is further announced that no other secret competitions are planned. We apologise.
Benchwarmers Productions Ltd wishes the visitors of this site a happy Easter and good digestion of the ritual roast lamb.
We further announce that once the holidays are over, Bench will be visiting a venue (whose name is classified) together with another up-and-coming band (also classified) with a view to securing a joint live evening shortly and returning -barring mishaps- to the stage. We shall keep you informed.
Did you think we had been abducted by aliens? Well, no! In recent days, besides continuing to prepare the live repertoire, we have begun devoting ourselves to a little multimedia project intended to secure us undying glory and to increase site traffic by (at least) 25,000%! Its completion date, however, is some way off given the complexity of the work, and indeed a successful outcome is not even guaranteed, so it is best not to dwell on details and risk embarrassment. In any case we are working on it, and as soon as there is further news we shall not fail to inform You.
In order to raise the technical standard of Bench, Benchwarmers Productions has recently resolved to sign a celebrated foreign professional backing vocalist who will doubtless enrich the band's already full sound with his most distinctive voice.
The band is satisfied, and has declared that thanks to this new signing the group will doubtless command greater respect from venue managers and will at last be feared by rival bands.
Since we of Bench are a bunch of chanc... ahem, of gentlemen, we cannot refrain from offering, given today's occasion, our warmest wishes to all the maidens visiting this site! (blimey, the things we have to do...)
After this act of wretched toadying, on to a situation update: the site is almost entirely online, a couple of trifles are still missing but we are getting to it! Our heroes meanwhile are pressing briskly on with preparing the repertoire ahead of the resumption of live activity. As soon as we fix a date for a concert we shall not fail to report it on this page (which is, after all, precisely why we created the news section!). Stay tuned!
Friends of Bench, this day we celebrate our hundredth visitor!! We are aware that important sites get a hundred hits in under a minute and that it has taken us several days, but grant us our five minutes of glory: hurrah for Bench!
We take advantage of the occasion to share with you the latest improvement to the site, namely the possibility, for those using a resolution of 800x600, of obtaining (by clicking the link at the top left) a "reduced" version of the page allowing optimal browsing for them too, without risk of seasickness brought on by excessive scrolling. Bench care about the health of their visitors!
Post scriptum:
We have learned from ANSA sources of the presence at the Sanremo Festival of a well-known singer-songwriter from Capri, beloved of our grandmothers, who has titled his latest creation "La panchina" (The Bench). We firmly dissociate ourselves from any reference whatsoever (even accidental) and warn the singer-songwriter in question against undertaking any further initiative that might involve our trademark.
Signed: Benchwarmers Ltd, Legal Department
Following the expansion plan whose ultimate aim is - naturally - the conquest of the entire terraqueous globe, Bench have just now prepared the English version of this site! The link above, which everyone had wondered about since it didn't work, is now operational and opens our site in the language of Prince Charles. The translation was carried out by the eminent linguist Prof. Fabrizio Lantini. Following the operation, shares in Bench PLC were temporarily suspended from trading for excessive gains.
Good grief! Today we realised that the photos and mp3s to download were in fact a touch too heavy for anyone with an ordinary 56k modem. And so, the photos have been reduced in resolution and compressed more heavily, while as for the songs we have added the option of downloading them in mp3pro format (which "weighs" less) with all the references to the various plugins needed to listen to them. Bench are attentive to Your need to economise! (applause)
What's more, we have finally added a visitor counter at the bottom of this page! Yeeeah! It currently reads "1" but there is every hope the figure will grow in future! Fear not!!! (Bench are an optimistic bunch!)
Since we of Bench are thoroughly democratic little people, we are optimising the site with the needs of minorities in mind! In short, yesterday I installed Firefox and... aaargh!! In this browser all the site's type was the wrong size!! Well, the problem should now be fixed and users of this program too will be able to see everything as it should be. Hurrah, hurrah! We have also opened our personal mailboxes, so if you wish to send insults for our attention, new tools are now available for doing so. Now that is progress!
ps. we have changed the guestbook, the previous one was a horror full of pop-ups and spam! Now you can sign it in peace if you like! :)
Good evening, friends of Bench! Would you believe it, Ox had told me that opening a domain took a month and this time they did it in 3 days!!! And there we were taking our time!! Blast! The site you see is not the final one, but we shall do our utmost to plug the gaps within a few days! (sigh, and to think I wanted to rest at the weekend!) We apologise on bended knee for the inconvenience, but have faith, we shall sort everything out! Aloha!
As reported on the front pages of all the major newspapers, Chicco, drummer of Bench, has decided to join the crew that will carry out NASA's space plan to conquer the planet Saturn. It appears that Chicco and the dog Goran (the second dog in space after Laika) are about to depart aboard a shuttle designed by Eng. Gabriele Allegria which will reach the distant ringed planet. The mission has been financed by Benchwarmers' Productions (by means of expired Argentine bonds of doubtful solvency) under the patronage and sponsorship of the Luciani Restaurant. Moreover, for the first time in history, a dish of cannelloni al ragù will be cooked in zero gravity.
The 2005 site is still here, untouched: frames, image maps and tables.
Written in 2005 by Mak with FrontPage and Dreamweaver, online until the bench.it domain was closed.
