Czerwone Gitary

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Czerwone Gitary
Czerwone Gitary in 2006
Czerwone Gitary in 2006
Background information
Origin Gdańsk
Genre(s) Pop rock
Years active January 1965 - present
Website Official Site
Members
Jerzy Skrzypczyk
Jerzy Kossela
Henryk Zomerski
Mieczysław Wądołowski
Marek Kisieliński
Arkadiusz Wiśniewski
Former members
Henryk Zomerski
Bernard Dornowski
Krzysztof Klenczon
Seweryn Krajewski
Dominik Kuta
Ryszard Kaczmarek
Jan Pospieszalski
Wojciech Hoffman
Arkadiusz Malinowski

Czerwone Gitary (The Red Guitars) was one of the most popular rock bands in the history of Polish popular music. The band formed in 1965 and achieved its greatest success from 1965 to 1970. Often considered the Polish equivalent of the Beatles, many of their hits are now classics in Poland. The group toured extensively outside Poland (in Czechoslovakia, Hungary, USA, Germany and Soviet Union) but had mostly disappeared from the Polish scene by the 1980s. The band reformed in the 1990s.

Contents

[edit] History

The Czerwone Gitary were founded by guitarist Jerzy Kossela and drummer Henryk Zomerski on 3 January 1965 in Gdańsk. Initial members included Bernard Dornowski (guitar), Krzysztof Klenczon (bass) and Jerzy Skrzypczyk (drums); four members (Dornowski, Klenczon, Kossela and Zomerski) had played previously in another notable Polish band, the Niebiesko-Czarni (The Blue-Blacks). In Autumn 1965 Zomerski was replaced by Seweryn Krajewski; around that time the band also launched their first tour in Poland under the slogan "We play and sing the loudest in Poland".

Cover of the debut album of Czerwone Gitary - To właśnie my (It is us) from 1966
Cover of the debut album of Czerwone Gitary - To właśnie my (It is us) from 1966

Their 1966 debut album To właśnie my (It's us) sold 160,000 copies, and their May 1967 follow up, Czerwone Gitary 2, sold a then-record (for Poland) 240,000. In the same year Krajewski received a special award at the National Festival of Polish Song in Opole (Krajowy Festiwal Piosenki Polskiej w Opolu). In 1967 Kossela left the band. The band's 1968 third album sold 220,000 copies, and the group received an award in Opole for their song Takie ładne oczy (Such Pretty Eyes). In 1969 the band received a MIDEM award in Cannes for the largest number of discs sold in Poland up to that date; this was the same year that the Beatles received this award. Thereafter the Czerwone Gitary would be known as the Polish Beatles (see also Beatlesque).[1] The same year the group received a special award from Billboard magazine, and in Poland, another award from Opole festival for Biały krzyż (White cross).

Klenczon left in 1970, the year of the band's acclaimed LP Na fujarce (On the flute). Krajewski then took lead as the group turned to mainstream folk-tinged pop in the 1970s.

After a hiatus the Czerwone Gitary returned in the early 1990s with Kossela, Dornowski and Skrzypczyk resurrecting the group. Krajeski refused to participate and even released a solo album credited to Czerwone Gitary by Seweryn Krajewski called Koniec (The End). Initially the new lineup played the old hits; its first new album since the 1970s was the ...jeszcze gra muzyka (...still the music plays) in 1998. In a 2000 poll for the Polish magazine Polityka, Czerwone Gitary were selected as "One of the Best Polish Bands of the 20th Century". In 2005 a new song Senny szept (Sleepy whisper) took fourth place in the Sopot International Song Festival.

[edit] Members

  • Jerzy Kossela (guitar, vocal, founder, leader, left in 1967, returned in 1991, still in the band as of 2007)
  • Henryk Zomerski (drums, founder, left the band soon after it was founded, in late 1965)
  • Bernard Dornowski (guitar, one of the original members, left in 1999)
  • Jerzy Skrzypczyk (drums, one of the original members, still in the band as of 2007)
  • Krzysztof Klenczon (bass, one of the original members; left in 1970)
  • Seweryn Krajewski (guitar, replaced Zomerski in December 1965; left in 1997)
  • Dominik Kuta (briefly in 1970)
  • Ryszard Kaczmarek (1970?-?)
  • Jan Pospieszalski (guitar, 1976-1980?)
  • Wojciech Hoffman (guitar, 1997-2000)
  • Arkadiusz Malinowski (guitar, bass, 1999-2000)
  • Dariusz Olszewski (2000-still?)
  • Mieczysław Wądołowski (guitar, vocal, joined 1997, still in the band as of 2007)
  • Marek Kisieliński (guitar, joined ?, still in the band as of 2007)
  • Arkadiusz Wiśniewski (guitar, bass, vocal, joined in 2002, still in the band as of 2007)

[edit] Hits

In 2007
In 2007
  • Nie mów nic (Don’t Say Anything)
  • Historia jednej znajomosci (Story Of One Relationship)
  • Nie zadzieraj nosa (Don’t Turn Up Your Nose)
  • Co za dziewczyna (What A Girl)
  • Stracić kogoś (To Lose Somebody)
  • Takie ładne oczy (Such Pretty Eyes)
  • Dozwolone do lat 18tu (Permitted to Age 18)
  • Kwiaty we włosach (Flowers in the hair)

[edit] Albums

Czerwone Gitary have released 82 albums. Among them are:

  • To właśnie my (1966)
  • Czerwone Gitary 2 (1967)
  • Czerwone Gitary 3 (1968)
  • Na fujarce (1970)
  • Spokój serca (1971)
  • Consuela (in German, 1971)
  • Rytm Ziemi (1974)
  • Dzień jeden w roku (1976)
  • Port piratów (1976)
  • Rote Gitarren (in German, 1978)
  • ...jeszcze gra muzyka (1998)
  • OK (2005)
  • Historia jednej znajomości... (2007)

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ SIXTIES MUSIC. Rock & Rollski Troubadours: Would you believe the Polish Rock & Roll scene?, Warsaw Voice, April 5, 1998 No. 14 (493)

[edit] References

[edit] Further reading

  • Marek Gaszyński "Czerwone Gitary. Nie spoczniemy...", Prószyński i S-ka, Warszawa

[edit] External links

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