Name:  Nicola Balestri

Nickname:  Ballo (short for his surname - Balestri)

Date of Birth:  20th of June, 1982

Birthplace:  Bologna, Italy

Star Sign:  Gemini

Extra info:

Ballo is the bassist for Lùnapop, he is also the youngest member of Lùnapop.

Ballo, unlike other Bolognese, does not have a passion for soccer or basketball. He prefers more extreme sports like skating, surfing and rafting, but he doesn't skate anymore, due to a serious injury to his tibia.

He has travelled to nearly everywhere in the world. From New York to Kenya, London to Mexico. Out of all the Lùnapoppers , Ballo has travelled the most.

Ballo has not yet found the girl of his dreams, because he's really shy.
(How could you find the girl/guy of your dreams at such a young age anyway?)

His favourite genre of music are dance and heavy metal. His fave artists are Nirvana, Primus and Residence.

When he felt he was ready, Ballo formed a band with his friend Francesco called 20 Barrato (20 Slash- the name of the bus Ballo and his mates took to avoid getting parking tickets)

Nicola has failed his school exams twice as he was torn between Lùnapop and school, and of course, the band won.

Ballo loves buying junk from service stations. So far, he has bought stuff such as a Luke Skywalker sword, plastic saxophone, pistols and rubber balls to mess around with in the car, pogo stick and ball, cow with sweets inside, hippopotamus with chocolates inside, glasses with windscreen wipers, the complete discography of the BSB, soap bubble gun, a reindeer that sings Merry Christmas, football match horn, set of kitchen knives...

Nicola bought his first bass for 170,000 Lire - probably $80 US Dollars, and about $156 Aussie dollars if the current exchange rates between Australia and US is $1 AUD= $0.51 USD.

What fellow Lùnapoppers say about Ballo:

Mike: "When we left for a cruise in the Caribbean in June 2000, Ballo found out we could order anything we wanted from the Open Bar and got totally drunk bar. We kept seeing him walk from one side of the boat and every time he passed he had a glass of something different in his hand. We knew though that that was the last holiday we would have before we got down to a period of intense work, so everyone was really just letting themselves go a bit."

     "In the summer of '99 I used to hang out in a pub called La Frasca where I knew just about everyone. Nicola Balestri, or Ballo, used to come in there too. When we played the 50 Special concert for Radio Bruno in the main square in Bologna he climbed up one of the towers and waved at me while I was playing. He was just happy that we'd made it that far and were on stage. We used to jam together occasionally too."

     "In August '99 we played at Aquafan. Balestri came too even if he played on stage for the first time with us in Belluno. We hadn't come to a definite agreement yet but I did everything I could to bring him into the band. That's why he left home to come to the Riccione gig without saying anything to his parents."

     "When we play "Walter ogni sabato è in trip" (Walter goes tripping every Saturday night), Ballo acts like a retard and spins round and round to the rhythm of the waltz, prancing like a ballerina, which is something he definitely is not."

     "When Ballo became a member of the band officially, he began to take a leading role and I was proud of him. We often met to shoot the shit away from the band, to mess around, because that's what we'd always done. When we were away from Bologna playing concerts or whatever we always shared a room and in a matter of minutes it would look such a mess that it could have been a swamp with snakes and crocodiles crawling around in it. I suppose you could say we refurnished hotel rooms to suit our own tastes."

Lillo: "I met Ballo for the first time when we played in Belluno. He almost ran away from home to play with us."

Cesare: "The first time Ballo played on a TV show with us I tried to keep an eye on him but he kept flying from one end of the TV studio to the other."

     "Ballo is a mini genius. He's also totally off his head, psychologically unhinged, no doubt about it. Since I've known him he's taught me all kinds of things. It's impossible not to like him, he's a guy that it's just too easy to get along with. He's really modest too which is cool. He knows who he is and that's important. Ballo is definitely the second centre of attraction in Lùnapop."

     "People like Ballo or Mike, in my opinion, deserve a love story, because underneath they're very sensitive people. But no dice. Maybe because they don't think in these terms... I think the word love means something to Ballo that is light years away from what it means to the rest of the human race."

Gabriele: "To begin with I couldn't make Ballo out. The first time he came out with us he asked me to put a record by Pantera on. I knew who he was because I'd heard him play with his band "20 Barrato" at the Covo club. He was pretty friendly but totally different from me. It took quite a long time for us to become close friends but it didn't take much to realize just how eclectic Ballo is."