Lito
Born Emanuel Micallef 1st February 1969 at St Lukes Hospital Pieta.
Residing in Birgu since his birth. Given the nickname Lito at the early stage of Primary School by one of his class mates.
His first experience in music was through his elder brothers Pawlu Micallef and Horace Micallef along with their friends from Birgu and the surrounding area.
At the age of 13 (1982), he first appeared on stage as a member of the cast of the Vittoriosa Rock Opera Group directed and choreographed by his brother Horace Micallef.
February 14th 1984, Lito auditions as a singer with Trash, a Cospicuan band influenced by Black Sabbath MKI.
He works with the band as a roadie instead and eventually takes interest in his local band Purple Haze lead by guitarist Steve 'l-Impejst'. With Purple Haze, Lito was their official lyric writer which lead him to write a Rock Mass at St Lawrence Church in Birgu, a tribute to Lito's father known as Il-Mike, much loved by the soccer enthusiasts.
The Bormla band Trash and the Birgu band Purple Haze joined for a short time as Dark Medallion of which Lito was their roadie.
Lito co-founded the band Avalanche as The Vittoriosa Rock Opera Group had obtained a section from fort St Angelo in Birgu for their acitivities. Purple Haze and Stratkast MKII had also their own studios.
Lito leaves Avalanche and was replaced by Frankie Tanti doing only one gig at Cafe Riche in Birgu.
Lito joins Exorcist for a short while without any gigs.
1985 Joining Ivory Cross rehearsing at Zejtun, with his only live appearence at the Rock Pak concert (1986) at the Floriana Catholic Institute.
1986 Lito leaves Ivory Cross to replace Ivan Grech (presently Winter Moods) with Lords Of Misrule, Lito sang at Maltasajf's yearly concert at Pembroke shooting range two times. He was replaced by Daryl Ebejer, ex Entracht, later Purple Haze and Kartidge.
Meanwhile Lito teamed up with Ivan Filletti to form Filletti & Friends as a side project supporting headlining bands.
This Filletti & Friends line up was a resident band at the Rock A Buzz 1986/87/88(citation needed) in Kennedy Grove and The Splash And Fun.
Was also involved as a music journalist, with his views on Far Out, Il-Mument and It-Torca.
Co-founded The Moviment Muzika Rok movement which had a very short lifetime.
1987 partecipated as a minor part actor/singer in the Iskra musical.
After a hiatus of some years, Lito replaced Mark Storm with Brainstorm, a leading Heavy Metal band in the live gig era of The Alley Paceville. Brainstorm with Lito on vocals subsequently recorded the Watching The Music compilation in 1992/3 which included 2 tracks of 5 bands commissioned by Radio 101 in the occasion of the station's first anniversary. The project was launched live and on radio in the Palladium at the Bajja ta' San Gorg San Giljan.
Early 1990's, Lito took a major part on the live musical Living Legends at Dar Il-Mediterran Valletta as Hasan (The actor/singer part).
Lito's first trial of being a radio dj was with the then illegal station of the AD political party at the verge of the much heated elections of 1987.
As AD where given a Valletta local broadcasting licence, he aired rock/blues shows such as Rock On and The Blues Connection.
1997 Lito co-founds Mediacoop that gave birth to Capital Radio 88.7FM airing its first Rock Show called Radio Lito in the first Saturday of July 1998.
2000 A new radio schedule for Capital Radio includes the rock show System Ovderload and the Sunday soft rock/power ballad program Slow An' Easy later Easy on Sunday.
2002 Lito starts updating the live upcoming gigs on geocities.
2009 1st April, Capital Radio stops airing. Lito Joins Noel Mifsud on (Super) One Radio 92.7FM replacing Joe Tanti on Rock Moods. Also airs The Cottonera Rock Show at Kottoner 98FM transmitting from Bormla. Lito starts his own web site Litorocks.com replacing the geocities page.
2010 Lito takes part in the M3P project updating the live upcoming events