Kalemegdan Disk - ROCK FROM EASTERN EUROPE

Croatia Records Release Information

YU Grupa (YU Group) is an indispensable name when we talk about rock music from Yugoslavia. The band was founded in 1970 by the brothers Dragi and Žika Jelić. They wrote some of the most important pages of the domestic rock anthology, and their debut album “YU Grupa” will remain written in golden letters in the history of the discography of Yugoslavian popular music.

50 years after the release of the cult album, Croatia Records is proud to present a richly equipped vinyl reissue with exclusive photos, lyrics and remastered recordings on 180-gram vinyl. Time will tell how the songs released on the debut album became some of the biggest hits of YU Grupa. “Trka” (Race), “Čudna šuma” (Strange Forest), “Crni leptir” (Black Butterfly), and “More” (Sea) are well-known titles with which countless fans grew up, and which are still sung out loud by members of the older and younger generations at the concerts of the legendary rockers.

In the premises of Radio Belgrade, a large exhibition of photos was held on the occasion of the band’s 50 years of activity, in cooperation with record companies Croatia Records, PGP RTS and RTV Ljubljana, a CD box set with all their songs was published, and a documentary film was also filmed, which received great reactions from the audience.

On 10 September 2022, on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of YU Grupa, a big concert was held in Tašmajdan, where the band was joined by fellow musicians, including Vlatko Stefanovski, Dejan Cukić, Tihomir Pop Asanović, Dado Topić, Sead “Zele” Lipovača, Bruno Langer and numerous others.

Kalemegdan Disk additions

At 7 April 1988 in the record shop Plaatboef in Rotterdam/Netherlands five strange Yugoslavian second-hand records stood together in one shelf:

Korni Grupa: Korni Grupa and Time: Time from 1972 and Pop Mašina: Kiselina, YU Grupa: YU Grupa and the Boom Pop Festival from 1973 where the titles. I bought them and at home I enjoyed all five LPs, but on me the YU Grupa album left the strongest impression.

Dragi Jelić (guitar, vocals), Žika Jelić (bas guitar, vocals on “Crni leptir”) and Raša Đelmaš (drums) played excellent guitar based rock, partly heavy, partly more peaceful, and partly with unusual melodies and rhythms. And this was also the first time in my life that I listened to Serbocroatian lyrics.

I doubt anyone familiar with East European rock music from the early Seventies will be surpised that this became the starting point of my interest first in Yugoslavian and later in East European rock music at the age of 22, when I wanted to find out what else was released in Yugoslavia on vinyl. In the same year I started to travel to Yugoslavia, where I met many people, collected thousands of records and enjoyed the country.

Full album: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLdgFk-dTMiRhXPlvpnaiN2rnl44uTwfwE

Live at Tašmajdan, 10.09.2022, part 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S5GICXzGCUU

Live at Tašmajdan, 10,09.2022, part 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5qhcj2fiyyU

Tracklist

Side A

1. Trka 4:31
2. Noć je moja 5:39
3. Čovek i marsovac 3:28
4. Čudna šuma 3:40

Side B

1. Trenutak sna 4:18
2. Devojko mala podigni glavu 3:51
3. Crni leptir 3:49
4. More 5:39