Artist

FLEA ON THE HONEY / FLEA / ETNA

Antonio Marangolo (vocals, keyboards, flute, harp)
Carlo Pennisi (guitar, mandolin, vocals)
Elio Volpini (bass, vocals)
Agostino Marangolo (drums, percussion)

This band released in fact three albums with different names, the first as Flea in the Honey, with the members only identified with English nicknames, then as Flea, and later as Etna.
A group from Sicily, they moved to Rome being of many bands taking part in the very influential (and often mentioned in these pages) Viareggio 1971 Pop festival, and in the same year their first album was released by RCA subsidiary Delta, with short songs, a style influenced by hard rock and totally sung in English. 
Band members were hidden under nicknames (Tony, Charlie, Nigel, Dustin) and the label probably wanted to promote them as one of the many English bands coming to Italy in search of success. There are some good thing, though, like Mother Mary that was also released as a single with Louise (my little ship) (a song that was also recorded by Cyan and Middle of the Road), but generally the album still shows a lack of personality. The original bass player, only remembered as Nigel, was replaced by Elio Volpini after the LP release.

After some more live appearences (like in the Rome Villa Pamphili festival) the band shortened its name to Flea and released their second album on Fonit, moving towards a progressive sound. 
Topi o uomini is a more mature and much better work than the previous one, with side A comprising the 20 minutes long title-track and three shorter tracks on side B.
The band's sound was much more original here, with good Italian-sung vocals and long instrumental parts, mainly dominated by guitar.

After Topi o uomini, Elio Volpini left to join L'Uovo di Colombo, and was replaced by Fabio Pignatelli (from the Rome group Le Rivelazioni), who played with Flea on two tours but left to form Cherry Five and then Goblin.

With the return of Volpini, the quartet reformed in 1975 as Etna, releasing an eponymous album with another radical change of style. 
Etna is a good jazz-rock inspired work, with seven all instrumental tracks, showing strong influences by the likes of Mahavishnu Orchestra and coming close to the work of similar Italian bands like Nova or Il Baricentro.

Soon after the album, drummer Agostino Marangolo joined Goblin and had a successful later career as sessionman, Pennisi briefly played with Mediterraneo.
Elio Volpini formed in 2017 a group called Flea on the Etna, dedicated to the music of Flea and Etna, in which he plays guitar.

All the albums are now rare, especially Topi o uomini on the elusive Fonit LPQ series. No counterfeits exist nor foreign vinyl issues.

Flea on the Honey, on Delta (as usual with RCA, many copies around were white label promos), has a thin delicate gatefold cover with the record inserted from the center, on the left side of the cover. It's difficult to find good copies with an intact cover.
Topi o uomini has a single cover, fully laminated.
Etna had a single cover, and was released on the small Fonit-distributed Catoca label.

The first two albums have been reissued on CD in 2004, both with mini-LP gatefold covers. Topi o uomini, whose vinyl original issue had a single cover, also includes the lyrics in the inner gatefold.
Etna was also issued on CD in Japan in 2010 (Belle Antique BELLE 101666) with mini-LP cover.

Flea on the Honey - gatefold cover
Flea on the Honey - inner gatefold
Flea on the Honey - LP label, standard and promo
Louise - 7" single cover
Topi o uomini - front and back cover
Etna - LP

Drummer Agostino Marangolo has his own website at http://www.baroneago.it 

Thanks to Zeev Barkai and Nicola for some of the scans in this page. Thanks to Gianluca Livi that helped, with an interview with Elio Volpini published on the Artists and Bands site, to shed light on the story of these bands.