Some weeks ago, melodija.eu featured a couple of articles highlighting the illustrious career of Toni Sant and his numerous accomplishments over the years. One of his most significant and enduring achievements is the television program Mill-Garaxx. The following article is derived from a piece written by Toni Sant himself in 2020, reflecting on this groundbreaking program.
During the 1980s, live music was a rarity on the sole Maltese television station, Television Malta. While orchestral performances or solo acts accompanied by a piano were common, rock bands performing live were almost nonexistent. Instead, bands would mime their performances to pre-recorded tracks on popular shows like TeleDisco, Sibtijiet Flimkien, Bonġu Malta, and Arzella.
When Toni Sant began working at Xandir Malta and producing programs regularly for Radju Malta, he frequently discussed with his friend Mario Ellul the possibility of introducing live rock music to Television Malta studios. Sant and Ellul had known each other since their days at the New Lyceum, where they both studied Maltese, English, and Philosophy. Mario Ellul had joined TeleMalta before Sant with an aim to work with Television Malta where he eventually became a director and producer of various programs. Ellul was also the lead singer of Fog, a popular band among university students. Sant, too, was active in the music scene, performing with bands like Structure and Artwork in the 1980s. He later joined what remained of Fog in the early 1990s, primarily for theatrical productions by the MADC.
Together with colleagues Ray Bajada and Alfie Fabri, Sant and Ellul began designing a television series named Mill-Garaxx. However, shortly after commencing work on the series, Bajada and Fabri were suspended from all Xandir Malta programs due to a controversial radio program they produced that discussed personal cannabis use with language deemed inappropriate for broadcasting at the time.
Despite this setback, Sant and Ellul, as regular employees of Xandir Malta, continued developing the Mill-Garaxx program with a different team. They privately supported Bajada and Fabri, despite the taboo nature of the subject at the time. The leaders of Maltese society were far more hypocritical back then, and censorship was much stronger, even though there was a push towards modernity and progressiveness in certain aspects.
The primary goal of Mill-Garaxx was to feature musicians playing rock live in the Television Malta studio in Gwardamangia. However, the program also incorporated regular discussions about societal issues in Malta. These discussions, necessary in a politically charged environment, were conducted with great seriousness and balance by Joseph Debono, who later gained fame as a comic and satirical character on Xarabank. Thanks to Debono's handling, the program avoided trouble despite its controversial topics.
Mill-Garaxx lasted only about three months. A year later, Sant and his team produced another series, Mill-Garaxx 2, which revisited the musicians from the first series to see their progress. Bands featured in the Mill-Garaxx series included Acid, Big Foot, Ivory Cross, Freeway, The Ophidian Twin, Men and White, Flying Alligators, Catch 22, Fallout, and Winter Moods with Mark Doneo as the singer. Aidan Zammit Lupi also performed live solo, and Sant himself sang live with a group of musicians including Antoine Bonnici Soler (piano), Philip Fenech (guitar), Joe Carr (percussion and vocals), Walter Vella (saxophone), Gino Mifsud (electric bass), and Louis Naudi (drums). Tragically, Mifsud, Naudi, and Ellul passed away at a young age, and Sant fondly remembers them regularly.
Reflecting on the program, Sant acknowledges that much of the material was relatively ordinary in quality. Nostalgia often enhances the perception of their work, making it seem better than it might have been at the time. However, what Sant cherishes most from the Mill-Garaxx series is not the live music but the opening theme music by Charles Dalli and the digital graphics created with Chris Agius and Mike Rizzo. In one of the earliest attempts at Maltese rap, Charlie Dalli penned a verse that Sant considers one of the most beautiful in Maltese popular music: "How beautiful is that dream of one day touching the stars, but all value disappears if everything I touch turns to gold."
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