Ipe Ivandić

Goran "Ipe" Ivandić (born December 10, 1955 in Vareš, Bosnia-Herzegovina, FPR Yugoslavia — died January 13, 1994 in Belgrade, Serbia, FR Yugoslavia) was a rock drummer famous for his work with Bijelo dugme.

Born in the central Bosnian town of Vareš, he moved to Sarajevo as a young boy. While in elementary school, Ivandić also attended violin classes on the side, but after final exam abruptly decided he didn't want to "bother with the instrument any longer".

Career

Early years

His next musical engagement of note came in 1970 when, along with some friends, Ipe founded a music section within the Boško Buha youth centre simply because it was willing to provide free instruments. They named their band Crossroads with Ipe playing the drums. With the band taking most of his free time, he started neglecting school and as a result flunked the second grade of gymnasium and had to repeat it. He soon switched to part-time secondary education (vanredno obrazovanje).

In June 1972, Ipe went on a three-month summer gig in Trpanj as part of a band called Moby Dick.

Once he got back to Sarajevo, Ipe had plenty of invites from groups looking for a drummer and decided to join a band called Rock. They also featured organist Gabor Lenđel who would later in 1974 found Teška industrija on the ashes of Rock.

Jutro / Bijelo dugme

Ipe was still drumming in Rock when Goran Bregović became aware of him during late summer 1973. Seeking a replacement for Šento Borovčanin, Bregović immediately invited Ipe to join his band Jutro, which Ipe accepted.

Ivandić thus began the first of his three stints with what would soon become the most popular band in SFR Yugoslavia. Several months later, on New Year's Eve 1974, Jutro changed its name to Bijelo dugme.

After recording two hugely successful albums "Kad bi' bio bijelo dugme" and "Šta bi dao da si na mom mjestu", as well as playing the accompanying tours, Ivandić received an early call up to serve the mandatory Yugoslav People's Army stint in October 1976. The call up came at the most inopportune time as the band was getting ready to start recording their third album, but Ivandić had to go nonetheless. Still 20 years old at the time, he was assigned to a unit stationed in capital city Belgrade. His replacement in the band was Bregović's old companion Milić Vukašinović. Vukašinović didn't last long, and Ipe rejoined the band after getting back from the army in mid 1977.

Parallel with their duties in Bijelo dugme, Ipe and Dugme keyboardist Laza Ristovski started their own project called "Stižemo". Encouraged by the initial success, the two abandoned Bijelo dugme during mid 1978 in order to fully commit to their new project. On September 19, 1978, 22-year-old Ipe was arrested for possession of hashish and sentenced to 3 years in prison. He began serving his sentence at a correctional facility in Foča on February 17, 1981 and was pardoned some one and a half years later for Republic Day 1982 (November 29). After being freed, he rejoined Bijelo dugme in late December 1982 thus beginning his third stint with the band that lasted until 1989, when the band dissolved.

During mid 1980s he also recorded two albums with his long-time girlfriend Amila Sulejmanović. After two commercially unsuccessful albums ("Kakav divan dan" and "Igre slobode") Amila moved to London while Ipe stopped all side projects and devoted fully to Bijelo dugme.

It is unclear where he lived after the war started. Most say that he lived in Belgrade but in a 1994 interview for Croatian weekly "Globus" (conducted days after Ivandić's death), Željko Bebek states Ivandić lived in Vienna, at least at the time they last talked. [http://milosm.coolfreepage.com/Intervju%20Bebek.html]

On January 13 1994, Ivandić fell from the 6th floor of Belgrade's Metropol Hotel and died. It is generally believed that it was a suicide, but Bebek in the same interview says he has trouble believing it based on his prior knowledge of Ivandić and his habits.