In issue 111 of the Belgrade music magazine "Jubox", published on March 27, 1981 and sold at the price of 30 dinars, it was written about various things that are an unavoidable part of our reality even today, twenty years later. The article about the then seven albums of the Steely Dan group was published, the novelty in audio carriers, unimaginatively named compact disc, was shyly presented, and the central theme of the issue was dedicated to the Belgrade new wave on the occasion of the album's release. Packages arrangement. The record, which (it later turned out) was one of the central events of ex YU rock, was advertised in the same newspaper with pioneering marketing quips:
"So far you've only read, now you can check for yourself." The three groups do different things. The point that unites them is quality. All three are in one place. Packages arrangement presents Idols, Charla the Acrobat and Electric Orgasm for the first time on the record. Musically Packages arrangement is cheaper than all the tourist ones and guarantees a better time for fans of new music."
Of course, the newspapers devoted their front pages to interviews conducted by Momcilo Rajin with the members of all three bands. "Jukebox" was not mentioned at the very beginning of this text without reason. Together with the Zagreb newspaper "Polet", he was the first to provide media support to the trilling of the Belgrade new wave, and with equal enthusiasm they followed the work of the Zagreb new wave quartet consisting of Prljavo kazalište, Azra, Film and Haustor. In the review Packages arrangement in "Jukebox" number 110, Rajin wrote, among other things: "I think that the release of this joint record of new Belgrade groups can be freely compared with the release of the first albums - Group 220, Bijelo Dugmet, Bulldozer, Dirty Theater and Pankrt." At certain moments, these records were the cornerstones of our rock."
And during 1980 it really seemed as if all the pieces of the mosaic had come together. Comrade and Marshal Tito died, politicians got confused and loosened their grip a little, and from Rijeka, Ljubljana, Zagreb, Belgrade and Novi Sad came a wave of new music that the local scene had never had before. The whole punk furka first started from the western parts of the former country. In Ljubljana, Pero Lovšin and Grego Tomc, with the theoretical support of Igor Vidmar, started Pankrte (Bastards), immediately hitting hard and directly politicized texts. Next to them, as a gray eminence, there was Bulldozer led by Boris Bele, the Balkan incarnation of Frank Zappa. Marko Brecelj, the former singer of Bulldozer, is also unmissable, a man who paved the way for punk kids with his stage and life behavior. Brezelj went on stage in a wheelchair, sat on a toilet bowl, set his hair and beard on fire and shot at the audience using, of course, blanks. It is a little known fact that his debut is a solo record Coctail (RTV LJ 1974) was delayed by six months due to typical breccia. When he signed the contract with RTV Ljubljana, he insisted that in one of the clauses it was written: Založba kaset in púč RTV Ljubljana undertakes to pay Marko Brecelj a small rum in Žit (nearby Bircuz). Jure Robežnik, the then editor, didn't even want to hear that, he offered to buy the whole bottle, but not to include such nonsense in the contract. Brecelj was persistent, in the end they had an argument and postponed the whole job for half a year. For this rare story, I have to thank my colleague Anđelko Maletić from Novi Sad, a city that also quickly discovered the new wave through the Colored Program, Grad, Luna and Peking Duck (a punk cartoon). With the pedigree of predecessors like Bretzel and Bulldozer, the new kids started with all their might. At the end of the seventies, Rijeka was represented by punk pioneers Termiti, Paraf and Kaos, and Zagreb and Belgrade by the groups I have already mentioned.
In the post-Titus time of the late spring of 1980, I went to the Palilus Cultural Olympiad to see the concert of the star of the evening, Azra. Before Johnny, groups that entered the finals of the competition were supposed to play. One of them was the group Electric Orgasm, which I met on stage for the first time. After a few minutes of the gig, Gile stopped the performance, cursed the bad sound system and the band left the stage. I couldn't believe it. Furious, I thought who gives these kids the right to shit, and what do they even think they are. It wasn't until later that I realized what a good lesson in not compromising. A few months later, a free concert of new wave rock bands was held in SKC. I naively came to the beginning of the concert and realized that my evening was ruined. The street in front of SKC was jammed with desperate people trying to get in without success. The love at first sight of the Belgrade audience and the new wave trio has already lasted a long time. A similar thing happened in Zagreb. During those months, during each stay, they only asked me about the Belgrade scene. On one occasion, I was sitting outside the Theater Cafe when I was suddenly surrounded by the punk group El. Org. of kids, among whom was a beautiful girl, dressed raggedly, in a mousy T-shirt with the inscription "I love orgasm" and an arrow pointed unequivocally to the place where that experience is best felt. It was Dubravka Marković, Gillet's girlfriend at the time and a regular companion of all their activities.
If you remember, the famous youth festival in Subotica was held every year around May 25, at the time of the so-called Tito's birthday. That year, due to widespread mourning, it was postponed until the fall, which perfectly corresponded to the new wave. That season, the Novi Sad residents Anđelko Maletić, Vita Simurdić and Bogica Mijatović took over the festival and invited the best: Idole, Film, Šarla, Orgazam and Haustor. The film won, Orgasm was disqualified due to Gillette's jumping on stage and breaking the kitsch scenery, Idols won the song award Why su today girls angry, and the rest had a great time and made friendships that still last today (ugh, but this sounds socialist to me). It was then that the idea was born Packages arrangement. The recordings made in the studio Druga maca, produced by Enco Lesić, were ready and the record was supposed to appear before the New Year. But there were shortages even then. There was no granulate for vinyl, so the record was released in early March 1981. And everything was well timed. Directors Boris Miljković and Branko Dimitrijević made the famous New Year's movie for Belgrade television Rock and roller, so it's for songs with Packages arrangement the whole country found out. And they were received until today. There are many reasons and they are all simple.
That record brought a concentration of quality and original songs from groups that were full of ideas, eager to prove themselves and completely indifferent to creative compromises. Electric orgasm is through Crocodiles are coming gave a paranoid picture of vulnerability and a hidden dedication to The Doors, and at the time it was amazing to me that Gile, at only nineteen years old, had made the song a masterpiece. Theirs Golden parrot was a witty punk manifesto addressed to genre dissenters, and the song Vi is a classic punk razor with a clear El. Org. style. Sharlo the acrobat already signaled that there were two strong creatives Milan Mladenović and Koja working in the group. At that stage they still took care to respect the musical form so their songs were a treat for radio programs which cannot be said for the same quality material from the only record. Clearer or duller man widow kad... Mostly, on Packages arrangement is Koji's ultimate Niko kao ja with an irresistible ska rhythm, Milan's literary strength Ona se mind with a beautiful white reggae base, surrealistically hysterical About moje heads and a brilliant miniature Mali man, which only a kid raised in socialism could come up with. With their contribution to the record, the idols confirmed why they became audience favorites overnight. Ska organized Maljchiki they represented the ultimate in political banter and an example of a three-minute hit that instantly becomes evergreen. Plastic was their slightly calculated punk song, but over time, through the covers of others, including Divljan himself with the Old Stars Band, it turned out to contain enough musical meat. America offered the first domestic minimalism and effective use of monotony, and gay Uber Europe is another successful prank by Idol on the subject of other nations and his improvisation of the German language.
Twenty years have passed, and these songs still have the same power and charm as they did in the beginning. Some of them experienced effective covers by bands from the area of former Yugoslavia, but since the enumerations are boring, I will single out only two examples. At the Belgrade concerts last December, Darko Rundek ended the performance with Ona se mind, and recently a disc was released in Poland Yugoton where their bands covered ex YU rock songs. I should not mention that there are also songs from Packages arrangement.
