First album "Partybreakers" it is a mythical record from which real rock and roll life in our region begins to be counted. When it appeared, exactly 40 years ago, a foundation was laid that is still undeniably standing. Anyone who is capable of it can still build their home on that foundation - all over the Yugoslav regions - because this album has been a model and a lesson for decades on how one of our rock bands should sound, behave and look. It can rightly be said that it is one of the most exciting and influential record in the local cultural history.
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The other day, the album Party breakers it was reissued in a specially made expanded cover - thanks to the efforts of the group members and the house "Croatia Records" (former "Jugoton", design by Darko Kujundžić). The first edition was sold out practically immediately, which speaks volumes about how in this case no eulogy is superfluous - it is a true masterpiece that every honest rock and roll house wants to have. That was also a concrete reason to meet with the main creators Zoran Kostić Canet and Nebojš Antonijević Anton, we will talk about how and under what circumstances one of the most important rock albums of all time was created in this area. Today, he is both a living testimony of an age and a moral lesson for generations yet to come.
"WEATHER" What are your memories of the time when you were making the songs for the first album?
DOG: When "Workers' Control" broke up, since I knew Manzanera, he said to me: "Hey, I'm making a group, I have two, and you should sing." And since Manza, in addition to Đilet Marković, had a very big influence on me - I just said to him: "Okay, what, how is that?". Then we went to his crate, to feel free there, for him to turn on his Torrens or Technics record player, I'll fool you, and then the big banter started... He had a record Gravest Hits, an edition with five things from "The Cramps" - so he was explaining something to us, talking and then we all met together in the park on Tašmajdan. It was like we met there - I had only seen Anton twice until then, I had never seen Ljuba at all, but I immediately told him that he looked like Jaya (laughs). And then we sat and chatted on a bench in the park, so Manza gave the band the name "Partibrejkers", there were rehearsals at his place in Blok 45, Dr. Ivan Ribara 183, and that's how things started. Sloppy, but - towards something.
ANTON: The most important thing was the sound. Everyone brought with them something they loved. "Dr Feelgood", "Flamin' Groovies", "The Gun Club". All that happens on some unconscious level, because of that love for music.
DOG: According to the excitement and happening of that moment - since the whole scene roared and didn't really exist anymore. We got together somewhere in August 1982. Was it a deserted city - probably. He was just one who had nowhere to go. Let's play that Little Richard, there's that phenomenal drummer of his. And then all those pictures on the B side Gravest Hits where there's total fuss, there's only Poison Ivy, and you start tripping through it all. Or the photo of Iggy Pop in Cincinnati, when he walks over the heads of the audience and points his hand somewhere ahead. You get it, parts of your rock and roll performances are coming out, from your insides. You say to yourself: "Let's do something like that, let's be - dangerous".
ANTON: Let's be different from anything. That was actually the idea.
DOG: Actually, let's be us, because we were different. No one played like that, and we didn't have a bass guitar, because there was no bassist who would play with us.
ANTON: And we didn't even need it - there are four of us, like a flower shop, since we all slept on Alan Ford (laughter)
What was your first impression of Anton??
DOG: I have no idea, it's as if you see another thousand people passing by, and then we went to his place for a crate, since he had a "TEAC" tape recorder, he had some of his own things, so we kind of recorded something there. The main thing was that Manza and I were sitting and tripping for ourselves, and Anton and Ljuba were tripping in Kapetan Mišina on Dorćol. I mean, that – Simplicissimus, Castaneda, Goats Head Soup Stones, a record that always skips in the same place, and stories like that.
ANTON: What a memory!
DOG: I was like: who are these guys?!
And which one is it?, Antone, What was your first impression of Canet??
ANTON: Some kid, I met him in the park near "Pevac".
DOG: But it's all happening fast. I was only 17-18 years old at the time. They were born in 1959, Anton in 1961, and I in 1964. Fuck it, I already have the song "Boredom" with "Radnička kontrola", I have a performance at the ABRS festival.
ANTON: At that time, three years apart, that's a lot.
DOG: But everyone has their own style and that's the way it is - horns in a bag.
Captain Misina, a?
ANTON: Oh, that's where Ljuba lived. Well, you know the thing, when you go out into the city, where you will return every hour to Lyon, where I lived then. You wander around the city all day and, among other things, stop by your friend's house.
photo: marija janković...
So hippies and a record collection?
ANTON: Well said, hippies, blues and all. Actually, we listened to Marley a lot, the albums Natty dread i Kaya. These are all pebbles that are somehow woven into us.
I wanted to say that the important thing is that I bought a "TASCAM TEAC" four-channel tape recorder - it was the first in town. I've never owned anything, but I was barking and completely by chance ran into this guy who was in style - here I am. I said, wait until I see – and buy it. On an ordinary cassette, he recorded two channels on one side, and two channels on the other side. He couldn't shoot four together, but two by two, and ping pong. Ping pong is a technique where you record two channels and then two more channels, so you have a stereo image. Then you move the whole stereo image further and add singing. That's how it was done in the early sixties.
And then that summer I switched day for night, I just sat, played, listened and sharpened that feeling of how to make a different sound. Then there was that first gig in "Dadov" - until then we practiced in a room, only one amplifier, Cane sings something, we have a real drum, but you don't hear the actual sound, although you feel the energy. And when we went on stage in "Dadovo", only then did I realize - man, this is a band, a dangerous band. I really felt how we were all as one, as if we existed for I don't know how long.
DOG: The concert was on October 4, 1982.
ANTON: And then we recorded Radio Utopia in SKC, down in the basement, where we practiced.
DOG: And we were there from 9 in the morning.
How did you manage to play so early in the morning??
DOG: Well, we had to, because all the other bands had some normal dates. And we like the last hole in the pipe, the thirteenth pig, so we go in and do something. But the main thing is that no one had such things as Anton brought: "Tonight", "If you are", "He came with the wind". Then we made things as a group: "1000 years", "Street walker".
ANTON: Well, that was the best!
DOG: That's where we made things, fuck it, all of us together. The most important thing is that we were the first band to improvise. It was not known where the end was - "1000 years" or "Ulčni hodač" lasted five or six minutes each - and at that time songs last two and a half to three minutes.
ANTON: There was another thing - no one there had much experience. Well, I did, as well as Cane, he's played in front of people before, and I've had bands behind me. Manza previously had only one band, Ljuba none - we went together and bought him a guitar that we tuned, he knew the chords and that was it. But it was Ljuba who came up with the opening riff for "1000 years". Everyone brought the best that they had in themselves.
DOG: And the best, and the only thing he knew. Manzanera's gig at "1000 years" - there is no such thing before him at all, it does not exist.
ANTON: Well, that was very interesting: that song was created in ten minutes, like all the best songs we made in our life. So, that's it (snaps his fingers) – when that moment happens. When it comes down, pure euphoria, you know right away that this is it. It was a seal.
And how the audience reacted at the first concert in "Dad's", when did you show up?
ANTON: That was madness.
DOG: The first three rows were my partners. We were the opening act for the "Fifties" group. And while we were playing, everyone tore something, I was jumping into the audience, you have to make a fuss - because everything is a little shaky, but there is a great desire, a great drive. We finish our set, the group "Fifties" comes out and the whole crew starts shouting: "Uuuuu, Kićo Slabinac". They wanted more, because ours had never been seen before. But the biggest draw in all of this was our poster, which was visible when approaching "Dadov" from the upper left side. Since the posters were expertly glued for us by Đole Noga, a friend who was engaged in painting - he stood, I think, brother-brother for fifteen years. Many generations, people who were later in various groups, passed by that first poster as if by something important. I know that from their story. I didn't see it that way - one poster after another, I pass by and see it - but it was there for a long time, sheltered from all weather conditions, it didn't fail because of the weather.
In those early days, there was a team of Belgrade freaks around you who supported you, characters who lived around music, in music and who were in it with their hearts.
DOG: We went to Đolet Kostić Noga's house in Cersk, listened to music, he was also with us in Zagreb, and we gave the first interview to Koji in "Polet". How can I explain - there was always someone there, although people didn't go out of their way to help us when we showed up. The main guy for all that was Manzanera. He was the one who gave the atmosphere, what it was going to be and how it was going to be. Anton knew how to play the guitar. Ljuba was left-right, I was left-right, and Manza was the best. We have made all our shortcomings our identifying mark.
ANTON: I would always bring some basis for the song, and everything else we did together.
DOG: Let's say, the song "Stop, Johnny" was taken from "Radnička Kontrola". It's actually Tony Sovil's song, and there's a prologue of mine: "Do you hear me?". And then we had a few more songs - so we made a demo in "Dadovo". "Radio Utopia" appeared thanks to Zoran Modli on the compilation of the radio show "Ventilator 202", that is March 1983 - and already in April we have five performances in three days in Zagreb, the whole page appeared in "Start", in "Polet" my picture was on the cover. On top of all that came a guest appearance in a show, again at 9 o'clock in the morning.
ANTON: I was lucky to be in the army (laughs).
DOG: And there appears a legend named Tomislav Ivčić. He was like a Dalmatian pop singer - he had a moustache. We played "Večeras", where he approached us and said: "You have a nice song". That was just a surprise for us. Although already in 1983, we were declared the "hope of the year" in a contest and received a plastic star, which stood somewhere near Manzanera.
You had more of your own things that you made, which were not included in the first album - how did you come to that selection of songs for the record?
DOG: We didn't have many other songs - only "Tkiva" and "Osamnaest godina" did not enter.
ANTON: There are twelve things on the first record - so that's a lot. But there is another important story about how it appeared - Johnny Stulić is important for that.
He used to come to those concerts of yours in Zagreb?
DOG: Out of five, he was on three, and the sound was working on the last one.
ANTON: A very strange thing. Something that needs to happen - it does, if you want it enough. We had comrade Duja. While we were rehearsing at Club 22 in Block 37 - and he lived around there, where Kele (drummer of "Discipline Spine") was - they would both come to rehearsals, hang out with us. Well, Duje had a sister in Zagreb, whose name was Nelica and she was a professor of the Croatian-Serbian language, and her husband was a painter. They lived next to "Lapidarij" (a club in Zagreb), had a house with a yard - and that was the center where the whole team of older Zagreb freaks gathered. It turns out that Nelica knows Johnny and - probably because we sent our tape - he and Nelica come together to our first concert in Zagreb and then enter our dressing room. He was a gentleman, he tells us: "You guys are great, really".
DOG: And we were in a "li-pa" style. We really didn't like those student styles, some gum that you don't understand, but somehow you instinctively push it "my, bro".
ANTON: Circuses, undressed after the concert. And now Ljuba says to him: "Man, we don't like 'Azra'". To which Johnny says: "Well, I don't like her either" (laughs).
DOG: We played in a row: "Jabuka", then "Saloon", which was an ultra-makeup place. "Cibone" basketball players, Sven Ušić and others used to come there, and at that time I liked to spray the audience with beer. And then the next day, our concert there was canceled - the boss was in a mood: fire it up. The fifth concert was at the "Moshe Pijade" club, where Johnny did the sound. People even thought that "Stop, Johnny" was dedicated to him, but it doesn't matter.
ANTON: I later traveled to Zagreb, as Johnny invited me to come and bring demos for Siniša Škarica, the editor of "Jugoton". And really, Škarica invited us to dinner in that huge apartment of hers. At the time, Johnny sold I don't know how many thousands of records, was at the top and, of course, Škarica talks to Johnny about the plans regarding "Azra" - and Johnny says to him: well, I have something here, and he takes out the cassette - we brought it for you to hear, an excellent band, "Partibrejkers". Let's play, Škarica overheard, there was some comment - it's good, but there's still work to be done... classics. It's been a long time, I practically forgot about it. However, since we released the single "1000 years" for "Jugoton", which was played everywhere, one day my phone rang. When that Škarica who says: "Well, I think we should release a record".
DOG: We gave those demo recordings to be played on radio stations, say Studio B, at Slobo Konjović's. Not only for the first album, but also for the second one. But Belgrade did not want to hear about us. Even though we had full concerts in Belgrade, I have to say that Zagreb stood out more. So, everything they lacked, we brought them. And then there was a counter thing: all the bands from Zagreb had a great time in Belgrade, filling the halls - for example "Pinki", so "Kazalište" and "Haustor" play together, and they have as many as two or three thousand people. Unbelievable.
There was another city - Novi Sad. And we always had a great time there, we had our own team. We didn't play in Serbia at all, except in Niš. Not to forget Pancevo, our second or third concert was there.
As for money, we have always been sensitive. We were not in favor of playing for nothing. Manzanera as the boss led us so that we got some money everywhere - we never went somewhere to pay to play, we never even did Youth Work Actions. But we went to play at Radio Belgrade 202's "Hit of the Month" - where we won - because some people, like Vlada Dzet, recognized it. And then later, the first to say that we are a great band was Zika Jelić. In 1985, "Fish Stew" was in bad shape, so we played in front of them so that 500-600 of our people would come and their concert would look good. We also played in front of the "YU Group" in the Hall of Sports. We were always there somewhere and someone would remember us... But, PGP RTB - never. We never existed for them. Even when the first record came out - a man whose name I will not mention - wrote that it was a record of "unclear orientation". And we play rock and roll. It says: "Brothers of the duo 'Spine Discipline'". And we later put that criticism on the CD cover.
photo: marija janković...
What did the people who made the decisions in Belgrade not like about you??
ANTON: It was a very sad time, everything was falling apart. I was going to take the second album to PGP, I was called by Peca Popović, who was an editor there for a very short time, and he was in the mood for our second album to be released with them, we even shook hands. And then you see those people, some from party circles, who just come to film what is being done and drink a coffee. Of course, there was none of that.
DOG: We were not from that intonation. We looked different, we treated them differently. There is a video of us playing "1000 years" in "Hit of the Month" on RTB - it's a joke, we didn't stand still, we ran around the stage, jumping on each other. Simply, we were not from their in-to-na-ci. How they think a band should be - we were the opposite of all that.
At that moment, you completely hit the Belgrade soul through rock and roll.
DOG: The first plate of "Riblje Chorba" Bone in the throat that's where it's important. Bora was the first to start speaking the language of the street. But it was another team, older than us. We wrote the lyrics as if we were talking to each other. We didn't offer the form, but the essence: "Loser", "Hey you, down in the dark"... Totally different than it was at that time. The music was punk rock, rhythm and blues, hard rock... a mixture in our own way, according to our possibilities.
ANTON: Never hard rock!
DOG: As we talked - so we sang.
Nothing set up., no makeup, but as it is. But it is actually stylized in its own way?
DOG: We were lucky that Stanislav Milojković (author of the photo on the cover of the first album of "Partibrejkers") and Goranka Matić were there to take some amazing shots of us at that moment. Goranka never bothered to come in the morning and take pictures of us, to tell us: come on, do this, do that. Stanislav was just starting out then, Anton brought him from Zvezdara where they both lived, a young man came, full of energy and all that - we were his recording group. He made phenomenal pictures from "Hita mecesa 202", which was held in Dom omladine, and in "Cepelin". That great cover of the first album was done by Anton. Especially the B-side is good, with those songs written like in a maze - you go through it to find your way. Everything was do-it-yourself.
ANTON: You have scissors, you buy colored paper, you cut it, you have photos - and that's how you make it.
DOG: There were no such covers, there you see a guitar, a snare drum and so on.
ANTON: That's Bruce Springsteen's guitar by the way. I cut it out of the press somewhere (laughs).
How the songs on the first album were created? Let's say "Street walker"?
ANTON: I was returning from the "Academy" (Club FLU) to Lyon, slowly at night, on foot. And so, the song was born.
"She lives on a hill."?
DOG: We have always had this loneliness as a phenomenon next to us. We have always believed in love, in a kind of longing, to find someone to give meaning to your life, to give him love. It was all very transparent. Finding someone to love you and be loved by you: that has remained through everything that happens to us.
"Hey you, down in the dark"?
DOG: If the Stones had "Street Fighting Man", then we will have "Hey you, down in the dark".
"Tonight"?
DOG: Anton's poem.
ANTON: It's hard to talk about how a song is created: you're sitting, for example, in a pizzeria and you see a sign there. For example: a piece. And you rework the word and it leads you on its own.
"If you are"?
DOG: Anton again.
You were sitting in the pizzeria again.?
ANTON: No, it certainly didn't originate there (laughs),
DOG: That thing remained in the repertoire, it is my favorite. The second one is at the concert, he gives that input - if you are crazy enough, if you are brave enough - we go and everyone sings, the passage opens to the audience.
"You must be mine."?
DOG: We all did it together. It started as a joke, but in the end it turned out to be a very serious thing.
"He came with the wind."?
ANTON: Talk a little about me, a little about you, a little about everyone... mostly - about the band.
DOG: Fighting loneliness.
"A new day"?
DOG: Pankić one. Is there any fun for you, what's going on? They are telling you something, is it true? What do you think about all this, what is your position?
"Loser"?
DOG: Well, same topic. Serious matter. We lived all the time in a kind of disenfranchisement as a band, nobody counted on us.
"Night"?
DOG: Anton's thing. Also about the band.
ANTON: That's right. Finally, I must mention that Koja, production, Miroslav Cvetković Cvele, recording and Vlada Negovanović, mix were also there.
There is only one more question left - When was the album released?, you are after that at some point - broke up?
ANTON: Those bonds began to loosen.
DOG: If you care and would give everything - it does not necessarily mean that someone else cares as much. Maybe he wants to come, spend some time, fill some of his time. And we had it as a life calling, as something stronger than us. What else to do but be a member of a rock and roll band? But you don't do it to be known, to have fish, but that - I am a witness of my life, a witness of my time, a witness of everything. We are in that phase and bye bye.
The first album "Partybreakers" after 40 years, it is still a monument to rock and roll.
DOG: Yes, for the simple reason that it reminded many who heard that record of what they could do and what direction they should have, in order to be themselves.
ANTON: I'm glad that record did its thing for all this time, and especially then, that it brought a lot of comfort to a lot of people and encouraged them.
DOG: She gave them identification. Because everything that happened until then, it was our second-hand life. And this record was - life at first hand. Themes are loneliness, love, struggle for freedom. Themes that should adorn every rock and roll band. One in relation to all.
ANTON: Each of those topics is an eternal topic.
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