The No Smoking Orchestra
| Zabranjeno Pušenje | |
|---|---|
| Origin | Sarajevo, SR Bosnia and Herzegovina, SFR Yugoslavia |
| Genres | New Primitivism, rock, punk rock, garage rock, gypsy punk, rock and roll |
| Years active | 1980–1990 (Sarajevo) 1996–present (Zagreb) 1993–present (Belgrade, from 1999 as The No Smoking Orchestra) |
| Website |
[1] Zagreb Group [2] Belgrade Group |
| Members | See Members |
Zabranjeno Pušenje (Bosnian for No Smoking) is a Bosnian rock band from Sarajevo.
The band was formed in 1980 in Sarajevo by a group of friends who worked on the early radio version of Top Lista Nadrealista (The Surrealist Top List). Contrary to the then-prevalent punk rock and new wave, Zabranjeno Pušenje created a distinctive garage rock sound with folk influences, often featuring innovative production and complex story-telling, sometimes even dark premonitions of war. They went on to record four albums and tour the country extensively, occasionally sparking controversy and even getting into trouble with authorities for their (usually mild and sympathetic) criticism of the socialist system, and the habit of making light of issues considered sensitive at the time.
After the band's popularity reached new heights in late 1980s, spurred on by the televised version of Top Lista Nadrealista, the Bosnian War which followed saw the breakup of the band, with one offshoot continuing work in Belgrade initially as Zabranjeno Pušenje, later under the name No Smoking Orchestra, and the other initially in Zagreb then later returning to Sarajevo, using the original name. Nevertheless, many of the songs of Zabranjeno Pušenje have attained an anthemic status and their music remains popular across former Yugoslavia.
What would eventually become Zabranjeno Pušenje was started in 1979 by 16-year-old Nenad Janković (later to become known as dr. Nele Karajlić) and 18-year-old Davor Sučić (later mr. Sejo Sexon), two teenage friends and neighbours who attended Druga Gimnazija secondary school and lived in the same apartment building on Fuad Midžić Street in the Sarajevo neighbourhood of Koševo. Already infatuated with and deeply immersed in rock'n'roll, the two fanatically absorbed various musical influences from Yugoslavia and abroad, all the while desperately trying to achieve a basic level of technical proficiency on their instruments — at this stage Nele played the piano, an instrument he previously studied in music school for a short time before dropping out, while Sejo played the guitar. Both possessing very limited musical knowledge, despite displaying boundless enthusiasm, the duo struggled with everything from simply tuning their instruments to producing the simplest of melodies.
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