Daltoni

Daltoni (Serbian Cyrillic: Далтони; translation: The Daltons) was a Serbian and former Yugoslav rock band from Niš, notable for being one of the pioneers of the former Yugoslav rock scene.

Band history

1963 - 1970

The band was formed in August, 1963 by Branislav Cvetković (who at first took up guitar but soon switched to bass guitar) Žarko Stanković (guitar), Rista Trajković (rhythm guitar) and Nebojša Stojanović (drums). At first the band mostly performed cover versions of Hank Marvin and The Shadows instrumentals, but for their first public appearance, at the Gimnazijada festival in Skopje, the band was joined by vocalist Miodrag Rašić. The band had their first public appearances in Niš in 1965, at the cult club Index, where vocal duties were given to Dušan Mitrović and Miša "Šolja" Tašić, and Mihajlo "Mika" Paligrdić was temporarily the band's drummer. The band was soon joined by keyboardist Miodrag "Miško" Stojanović.

In 1966 Rašić officially left the band, and was replaced by Goce Nikolovski from the rival group Rubinsi. The new lineup presented themselves for the first time at the Faculty of Technical Science in Niš on November 29, 1966, which presented the band to a wider audience and contributed the band's growing popularity.

In January 1967 Daltoni won the first place at Belgrade's second Guitar festival. On May, the band performed at the Zagreb VIS competition, where, among the most popular bands at the time, won the first place. On September of the same year they won the first place at the first Niš Guitar festival. On October 30, the band organized their first concert in Belgrade, performing cover versions of The Beatles' songs, including most of the tracks from the, at the time popular, album Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.

By the end of 1967, the band had already changed the lineup with Trajković and Cvetković being replaced by Žarko Bajagić (bass guitar) and Dragan Nikolić (rhythm guitar), both former members of Rubinsi. The following year, the band performed at the Sajmište in Skopje and prepared their EP Ruka od sna, released by Jugoton. The EP featured four tracks: "Petak", "Vraćam se ponekad u prošlost", "Volim našu istinu" and the title track, which saw some radio success. At the time, the band had been working with Laza "Baron" Stanković, who became their manager.

Having released the EP, the band went on a Serbian tour, performing first in Niš, on December 1968, at the Park cinema, and a few days later, on December 25, at the Golden Guitar festival in Belgrade, ending up at the fourth place. At this performance, keyboardist Rade Radivojević performed with the band for the first time.

During the summer of the following year, the band's new manager Zoran Pešić organized an Adriatic seaside resorts tour including the MOC festival in Bečići. On their return, the band held a concert at the JNA Dome, and on March 8, the band organized a marathon concert on which they performed for twenty-eight hours, beating the record held by the band Čičak for about two hours. During the concert Daltoni performed over three hundred songs.

During the same year, the band moved to Belgrade and on May performed at the Pop zvezde '70 festival. With the new keyboardist Josip Kolbert, the band performed at various venues including the Euridika club or the Belgrade's Dom Omladine, expanding their repertoire with the up-to-date hits, thus changing the musical style. At the time, central part of the band's performance were cover versions of bands such as Jethro Tull, Family, Blood, Sweat & Tears and Sly and the Family Stone.

In mid-1970, Radivojević returned to the band and drummer Stojanović went to serve the army, being replaced by Mika Paligorić. This lineup performed on Faculty of Civil Engineering and prepared new material, which was recorded at the studio of Niš Radio, but the material was not released. In the meantime, on May, the band went on a tour to Istria performing in Pula and Savudrija, and returning to Niš in October, when the band officially disbanded, although during the 1970s some of the members performed under the name Daltoni.

Post-disbandment reunions and releases

In 1994, the band reunited to perform, alongside Dejan Cukić, YU grupa, Generacija 5, Bjesovi, Galija, Ekatarina Velika, Partibrejkers, Električni Orgazam, Van Gogh, Leb i Sol, Kerber, Zabranjeno Pušenje, Riblja Čorba, Toni Montano, Rambo Amadeus, Babe, and others, on Rock 'n' Roll zauvek (Rock 'n' Roll Forever) concert held at Belgrade Fair - Hall 1.

The unreleased recorded material, along with a part of Faculty of Civil Engineering performance and the first EP was released on the band's self-released compilation Anthology released in 1999. In 2005, the song "Ruka od sna" appeared on the various artists Croatia Records box set Kad je rock bio mlad featuring recordings of the pioneer bands of Yugoslav rock.^[1]

In June 2016, the band reunited to perform on the concert which was a part of Rok muzej uživo (Rock Museum Live) exhibit in Niš.^[2]

Discography

EPs

• Ruka od sna (1968)

Compilations

• Anthology (1999)

Singles

• "Ruka od sna" (2005)

References

1. ↑ Daltoni at rateyourmusic.com
2. ↑ ""Rok muzej" u Nišu kao dokaz da je rok kultura još živa", juznevesti.com

• EX YU ROCK enciklopedija 1960-2006, Janjatović Petar; ISBN 978-86-905317-1-4
• Enciklopedija niškog Rock 'n' Rolla 1962 - 2000, Stanojević Vladan; ISBN 86-902517-1-5
• Who Knows 2001, Živko Ivković; Kulturni centar - Šabac ISBN 86-902737-1-9

External links

• Daltoni at Discogs