Pankrti

Infobox Musical artist
Name = Pankrti


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Origin = Ljubljana, Slovenia
Genre = punk rock
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Years_active = 1977-1987, 2007-today
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Pankrti ("Bastards" in Slovenian) were a punk rock band from Ljubljana, Slovenia, active in the late 1970s and during the 1980s. They were known for provocative and politically engaged songs and billed themselves "The First Punk Band Behind The Iron Curtain" (though actually the non-aligned Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia was not behind the Iron Curtain). They are one of the most important former Yugoslav Punk groups and one of the first punk rock bands ever formed in a socialist state.

Biography

Peter Lovšin and Gregor Tomc, two youths from Kodeljevo, a suburb of Ljubljana came to an idea of forming a band in 1977. The band, from its beginnings, was under heavy influence of the UK punk scene. Tomc and Lovšin were the primary song writers. Lovšin was the singer of the band, while Tomc came up with the band name and was the band's manager.

The band started playing in fall of 1977, practicing in the basement of Kodeljevo's music school, and held the first concert in Moste High School. Initially they played covers of established punk bands including Sex Pistols, The Clash and New York Dolls. Some of their first songs that became popular were "Za železno zaveso" (Behind The Iron Curtain), "Anarhist" (Anarchist) and "Lublana je bulana". They were included in the "Novi Punk Val" compilation album. They released their first album "Dolgcajt" in 1980 and gained a status of a cult band all over former Yugoslavia.

In 1984 they released their third "Rdeči album". Its title, meaning in Slovenian: "Red Album", is an obvious pun on the famous album by The Beatles and the red color as a symbol of communism. The album featured a cover version of the famous Italian communist revolutionary song "Bandiera Rossa" ("Red Flag"), which is one of their most famous tracks.

One of their last concerts was in Tivoli Hall in Ljubljana in 1987, named Zadnji pogo (The Last Pogo).

In 1996 the group temporarily reformed to perform as a support act for the Sex Pistols concert in Ljubljana during their Filthy Lucre Tour. In 2003, Pankrti were included in the 2003 Yugonostalgic Croatian rockumentary Sretno dijete, which deals with the former Yugoslav Punk and New Wave scene of the late 1970s and early 1980s.

Reunion

The band's founding members, Gregor Tomc and Peter Lovšin, who is now a great solo artist backed by the band "Španski borci" ("Spanish Civil War fighters"), announced Pankrti's reunion concert in immediately sold out Hall Tivoli for December 1, 2007 as a celebration of their 30th anniversary. [http://www.pero-lovsin.com/index2.htm] [http://www.rtvpink.com/vesti/vest.php?id=10816] [http://www.popboks.com/vest.php?ID=6125] . This act were followed by performances in Serbia and Croatia. These events coincide with the 2007 Sex Pistols reunion for the 30th anniversary of "Never Mind The Bollocks". This also points that the Pankrti and the Pistols were starting thei career almost at the same time and both were the most influental bands in region. [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/7000180.stm] [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/7086558.stm]

Popular references

* A movie was made about their first album Dolgcajt (Boredom).
* Another movie called by one of their greatest song Totalna revolucija(Total revolution), that talked about Pankrti, has been seen in cinema, and it talked about appearance of punk- rock in Slovenia (Yug) by the Pankrti.
* In third, Croatian production movie Sretno dijete (Happy child)they had also a very important role, as a starters of a new scene in Yugoslavia.
* The exibithion of their photos was taken in Modern culture museum in Slovenia.
*Rock band Azra mentions Pankrti in its song "Balkan"::"Brijem bradu, brkove, da ličim na Pankrte":Translation: "I shave my beard, mustache to resemble Pankrti" (regarding Azra's frontman Johnny Štulić's transition from hippie to New Wave).
*In the Slovenian film "Outsider", some of the soundtrack is original Pankrti's music.And most of the caracters held the names of their songs.
*Slovenian punk band Racija has a song "To ni bla Metka" (That was not Metka), apparently parodying Pankrti's song "Metka". That Pankrti's song was included in the Yugoslav New Wave-related movie "Dečko koji obećava" in the scene in the student campus restaurant.
* Legendary dj of the BBC John Peel introduced them to the audience in Great Britany.
* NME wrote an artical about them

Members

*Peter Lovšin (singer)
*Gregor Tomc (songwriter/manager)
*Bogo Pretnar (guitar)
*Dušan Žiberna (guitar)
*Marc Kavaš (guitar)
*Boris Kramberger (bass)
*Slavc Colnarič (drums)

Discography

*Lublana je bulana (1978, SKUC)
*Dolgcajt (1980, ZKP RTLJ)
*Novi Punk Val (1981)
*Namesto tebe (1981, ZKP RTLJ)
*Državni ljubimci (1982, ZKP RTLJ)
*Svoboda (1982, ZKP RTLJ)
*Rdeči album (1984, ZKP RTLJ)
*Pesmi sprave (1985, ZKP RTLJ)
*Slovan (1985, Slovan)
*Sexpok (1987, ZKP RTVLJ)

ee also

*Punk in Yugoslavia

External links

* [http://members.tripod.com/pankrti Fan site, in English and Slovene]