Fact #176224

Claudio Trotta (concert promoter) : I have always loved Stevie Wonder. he’s among my all-time Top 5 artists, but he arrived in Milan with a large band, a horrible production, and a studio sound engineer who had no experience of doing live shows. He brought something like 48 pieces of luggage and he had a huge entourage of people travelling with him, and he didn’t even do one single day of rehearsal. He also asked for an orchestra, and it was a horrible show. People were demanding to have their money refunded and, the following day I placed an advert into the local newspapers explaining that it was not my fault.

The second show, in Rome, was a bit better, but still not great. And, after that show, he was left alone in his room, naked with no-one to help him. He had to get my tour manager to go out and buy some clothes for him.
(Source : interview with Johnny Black for Audience magazine, Feb 2019)

Claudio Trotta (concert promoter) : Stevie was for me a musician of reverence. When I think about music he is one of the first artists my mind thinks of, his albums are extraordinary and often entirely played by him.

I was ecstatic at the idea to organise a concert in Italy for him and in 1992 I booked a date in Milan and a further one in Rome.

Unfortunately, we had a variety of problems right from the start, the pre-sales were not going as planned. Also, Stevie came with a sound engineer not prepared to work for live performances and the stage he chose was pretty much awful.

As if this was not enough, Stevie also requested a symphony orchestra and, as a result, the concert had a disastrous sound.

Rome went a little better, but I still experienced a loss.
(Source : the book No Pasta No Show by Claudio Trotta)