Banda Bassotti began on the building sites of Montespaccato, on the western edge of Rome, where a crew of bricklayers and carpenters spent the early 1980s raising money to build schools in Nicaragua and El Salvador. They picked up instruments in 1987, took the Italian name for Disney's Beagle Boys, and pointed a Clash-and-Specials racket at communist and anti-fascist material. Most of them kept the day job, which is why the band folded in 1996: touring and cement did not mix.
Back since 2001 with a horn section added, they are known for "Figli della stessa rabbia", the title track of the 1992 debut, "Ska Against Racism", and a ska reading of "Bella ciao" put out as an EP in 1993. Avanzo de cantiere (1995) was cut in the Basque Country with Kaki Arkarazo of Negu Gorriak, and Avanti uniti (2021) ends on the voices of the GKN factory collective, the workers occupying their plant outside Florence. Founder and guitarist Angelo "Sigaro" Conti died in 2018; Gian Paolo "Picchio" Picchiami still sings, and the band played Bilbao in January 2026.