Artist

PING PONG
BULLDOG

PING PONG
1971:
Mauro Falzoni (guitar, vocals)
Celso Valli (keyboards)
Paride Sforza (sax, flute, clarinet)
Alan Taylor (bass, vocals)
Vittorio Volpe (drums)

1973:
enters
Giorgio Bertolani (vocals)

BULLDOG
Giorgio Bertolani (vocals)
Mauro Falzoni (giutar)
Celso Valli (keyboards)
Paride Sforza (horns)
Alan Taylor (bass, vocals)
Roberto Poli (drums)

A group from Emilia, Ping Pong released two albums and a couple of singles with this name, and others in later years as Bulldog. Both LP's don't contain any information on the band and is likely that the record companies wanted to promote them as a foreign band as it was common practice then, to give the groups a wider audience. The only foreign member was in fact English bassist Taylor, who had come to Italy with the beat band The Casuals during the 60's, the others were from Bologna and Modena. At the beginning of their career, around 1970-71, the group went to play in Greece under the name The Eden Rocs, recording some tracks that were only issued in 1979 on three separate LP's.
Their first album as Ping Pong, About time, contains 10 tracks, all sung in English and with good use of flute and guitar. The sound is not particularly original and owes much to English bands. There are some jazzy influences here and there, like in the last track, Funny wife, that's totally instrumental and contains a long drum solo. Sax player Alan King, who collaborated with many Italian artists including Banco del Mutuo Soccorso (in their ...di terra LP) makes a guest appearance in the album.

The second, Ping Pong, came a couple of years later on Spark label, and contained a mix of commercial songs and more original tracks, this time entirely sung in Italian and with the strong presence of new vocalist Giorgio Bertolani.
Tracks like Il miracolo, Caro Giuda (Italian version of Blue Mink's single Time for winning), both also released on singles, or Cresciuta in un paese with orchestral arrangement, fall in the typical mainstream pop Italian style of the era, while Il castello or the long jazzier Suite in 4 tempi are among the best moments, very well composed. Musically well played, the album contains nice keyboard and sax parts, demonstrating the very good quality of the musicians involved.

Like many other bands examined here (Exploit, Flashmen, Fili d'Erba) Ping Pong mixed together totally different styles, alternating between commercial songs and more original tunes, in this case jazz-oriented. The result is, unfortunately, rather disjointed and not particularly satisfying.

The band reappeared in 1975 as Bulldog with a new drummer (Roberto Poli), producing two albums and lots of singles all sung in English and keeping their habit of mixing rock and commercial pop songs. To avoid confusion with other groups called Bulldog, they were launched in the UK as New Wine, with a double 7” single, Introducing New Wine, released by Spark in 1976 that had no success.

The group's keyboardist, Celso Valli, had an important career as arranger and producer, which still lasts today.
Bass player Alan Taylor, released a solo pop single on Blue Jean (BJ 614), Song for Magdalena, in 1977, and produced, between 1978 and 1980 the first three album by the popular rockstar Vasco Rossi. Taylor, still living in Italy, sadly passed away in 2011.

PING PONG LP
About time	Emiliana (LP 5022)	1971	single cover
	Cinedelic (CNPL 807)	2021	reissue of the 1971 album - 400 copies on black vinyl and 100 with multicoloured blue/red vinyl
Ping Pong	Spark (SRLP 246)	1974	single cover
CD
Ping Pong	Mellow (MMP 200)	1995	reissue of 1973 album
SINGLES (with picture sleeve)
Caro Giuda Il castello	Spark (SR 814)	1973	both tracks from Ping Pong
Il miracolo Plastica e petrolio	Spark (SR 819)	1974	both tracks from Ping Pong
PROMOTIONAL AND JUKEBOX SINGLES (with blank sleeve)
Funny wife	Emiliana (EM 247)	1971	juke box single taken from About time - backed with Silvano Silvi/Flash back

Both Ping Pong albums are rare, especially the first that was issued by a small label. No counterfeits exist nor foreign issues.
About time was also issued on 8-track cartridge (and probably on cassette as well) with different cover design.
Second album Ping Pong, generally considered as from 1973, year of release of the first single taken from it, was in fact issued at the beginning of 1974. This is demonstrated by the year printed of the label and the date written on the run-off groove (7/1/74).

The entire Bulldog production is rather easy to find and cheap. Their UK double single appeared under the name New Wine to avoid confusion with other groups named Bulldog and contained two tracks already issued in Italy (In my dreams and Jennifer) and two unreleased ones (Pasta & fagioli and Life’s been good to me).
The group released three LP's with the name The Eden Rocs, issued in Greece in 1979 by the Vip label but recorded many years before: Reggae and hard rock (VIP 501), Smash Hits-Songs of Creedence Clearwater Revival (VIP 502) and Sing-sing-sing (VIP 503), that include mostly cover versions.

About time - LP
About time - LP label
About time - 8-track cartridge
Ping Pong - LP
Ping Pong - LP label
Caro Giuda - 7" single cover	Il miracolo - 7" single cover
Bulldog / Doggy doggy - LP
Bulldog / Explosive Bulldog- LP
New Wine (Bulldog) / Introducing New Wine - double 7" single (UK)

Thanks to Gary Lapworth, Giacomo Beatrici, Mike Clark, Mauro Degrassi, for information about Ping Pong and Bulldog.

A big thank you to guitarist Mauro Falzoni, who supplied information on the group elusive line-up. His own website is www.chitauro.it