Bajče was the soul of the party at school this week. He first played the same trick at physic and art classes, piling a few books under his feet and then asking the professor whether they notice how he grew up. He was one of the three younger ones in the class (the other two are Staša and Tejka), but the only one who didn't grow as fast, so he didn't level up until the last year. Was often called "the little one". He also managed to replace a chair behind Slavka's back so that she didn't notice anything, and while she was coming down to sit everyone was laughing and she looked around asking "whom did you fuck up now?". Only when her back didn't connect to the back of the chair, as there was none, she got it that it was her. The chairs and benches were in quite of a disrepair, and the floor was crumbling in places. We had a floor of hardwood slats, a parquet that is (first floor - the ground floor had solid old planks), and the concrete beneath it began crumbling. There was a nasty hole in the floor between Tejka and me, which only grew over the year, with more and more crumbs being dislodged, and then also the slats which were on top of that. The whole building will be overhauled in the summer, so nothing much was done now, and all such small fixes won't be done at all - in a year from now it will all be made new anyway.
Bajče managed to catch a bee during the russian class. He passed it to his deskmate, Zova, and just when Troskok got him up to answer the question "if you met a Russian now, what would you say to him?", he got stung. He just said a wee "ouch" and "excuse me, may I go out to cool my finger, it's already swelling".
These days, as we are always in the afternoon shift, will be until the winter break, I usually have the choice between bus and walk (about 2,2 km). I usually prefer to go by bus just because of that cute neighbor, 2nd house behind us, one year younger, cute blonde with long hair. I wouldn't even think of approaching her, let alone asking her, it's too close to home. Even if it worked, what if we end up badly and yet have to live so near for who knows how many more years? I guess I already guessed the common wisdom of šećerana - if it's less then 5km, don't. When are you going to think it over, if not when you walk home alone? But that wisdom hit me some two years later, at this time it was just a hunch.
The alternative to bus was staying a while on the korzo, which was a lottery, or I was ahead of time - there would usually be nobody I knew. Being solo on the korzo is a bad down, you feel like shit, unless you can demonstrate that you accidentally came first, while the others from your gang are probably only two corners away. I didn't get to that level yet, couldn't act it out, so screw that, I'll take the bus.
The Status Quo concert happened this evening, and I was there, sitting among the speakerboxes on the left side, watching the stage from the side, first row.
A couple of guys, whom I know from obdanište and šećerana, tried to extort some money from me, but AFAIR I talked my way out of it. Got the tickets, snuck to sit between the left battery of speakers. They were on three tables, third on top the first two, two speakers on top, two arround, and me under that top table. Got a thousand hertz in my ears all the way to home.
The show started off an hour late. I was mad about it, not knowing that it's the tradition. A rock concert which begins on time is a bad sign. There were cops around, gypsies selling roasted sunflower, tough guys flashing ready brass knuckles, just about everybody that would gather around any major fair.
The stage was in the middle of the playground, and again turned to the right, not towards the seats (why did these guys always do it that way?), so they were facing the right corner. The awkwardness was resolved by a bunch of guys coming down from the bleachers and dancing in that corner, close to the stage. At some point the shirts were off and waved in the air. Someone got hit by one, or tread on, so the guys got into a fight, which was immediately taken outside. Probably the same guys who helped carry the boxes, there were many volunteers, as the band came in just one truck, without too many stage hands. Later, the local newspaper ranted against "unwanted scenes" and "behavior", as expected.
Still unexplained how it happened that they made a concert here, as they had "In my chair" on the top 30 at the time. The only other concert they had in the area was in Belgrade, the day before or after.
I completely forgot that I was in company of Veca and Sneca. Well, unremarkable it was, but at least I wasn't alone. This explains why I wrote "got the tickets" in plural.
Blogged it on Škrba's blogue on 03-XII-2013.. Here:
Where there's one, there's always room for another... in january 1971 I happened to find myself on another concert of which the web knows zilch*. This time there was no logistics, I simply walked, bought the ticket, saw, walked home. Somehow quite normal, except that shows of this importance happen quite rarely in Zrenjanin. Buffalo Bill didn't come around sice, when was it, 1906... I really could get used to this.
And the Gugao really has no idea of this, even on this list there's a huge gaping hole between 2-II-1971 and 15-III-1971. By my memory, it was the winter break, which stretched all the way to 8th of february that year. Well okay, the net does mention this in two places, but one was written by me, and the other guy knows roughly the year, that's all.
I still can't explain who and how managed to drag Status Quo to Zrenjanin, and that at the time when this song [„in my chair“, the article features a yoochoob video of it] was on the top 20. And this wasn't a part of any longer tour of the country, as it was customary to go Belgrade-Zagreb-Ljubljana plus some random place. No, they played Belgrade and Zrenjanin. I'm not a sufficiently tavern sitting type to know the guys who comprised the then organizer's guild, so I don't even know whom to ask - let the mystery remain unsolved.
The venue was the sports hall, named after our bad custom (sports reporters should be shot every morning) Medison. Perhaps rightly, because the „Madison square garden“ in NYC is neither square nor a garden nor is there any Madison Square. This is at least square and adjacent to Karađorđev park. The stage was built with what they had, I guess the same scaffolding and planks set for holiday shows, when folklore performs, and that wasn't under the left basket, as was their custom, but in the middle of the field, facing the right basket. The crowd was allowed only to the south bleachers, north side was empty. The stage faces east... so before the first song was done, the crowd walks down on the field and fills it. I snuck between the left sound boxes, which were set on three tavern tables - two tables on the bottom, third on top of them, two boxes on each side, two on the top... and I sat under that top table. My ears were bleeping all the way home (eh, the youth, after some later concerts I'd be hearing thousand hertz for a week).
Of lightshow there was nothing. The guys may not even have brought theirs - the concert then weren't the mega shows on fifty trucks. They had their guitars, drums and amps, fits two vans max. Being so close to the stage, I should have seen the dozen guys who'd be there to roll up the cables and pack everything after the show, but don't remember seeing any. There were volunteers in heaps, everyone wanted to be close.
The hall turned on the big ceiling lights so that everything is highly visible and to let the youth know they shouldn't try to perform anything outside of the spirit of sport and entertainment**. We're watching you, comrades!
The guys played in full force, what they do on this video seems quite soft in comparison with the powwow I remember. The atmosphere warmed up, some guys were dancing in front of the stage, with stomping, waving hairs in the air, and pretending trance (did I say it was february and the hall had no heating on?), and some guys tore off their shirts (either t- or athletic, much later called wifebeaters), which the band accepted and tore theirs too, and later the local newspaper wrote, eagerly clutching to this rag of an excuse (and avoiding the effort to invent any), as the concert had „unpleasant scenes“. Perhaps a couple of guys got into a fight, but were spirited out in a minute, before anyone took notice. Surely far less than what was a regular occurrence at the sports „manifestations“ at the time. But so it was, rockenroll was tolerated in media but still decidedly branded as a so-called „negative phenomenon“. The self-managed enterprises (still not oours yet) which made money on it may have not liked it, but they didn't get disgusted at the cash.
The readers who may remember the exact date of this, perhaps at least the Belgrade gig, I beg to chime in. I need to fill a memory hole.
Later in the month I had first contact with Ruška. She came to borrow my atlas, and later returned it with a signature somewhere, so that's how I found out her name. She was the first grade at the time, and extremely pretty (and stayed so for many years), for a pale and dark-haired girlie. Something about the big round upper cheeks, set of eyes, whatever, she soon became quite famous in the school for her beauty. Despite my preference for blondes, well, hat down.
----
* the first one is of 21-VI-1970.
** „time of sport and entertainment“ was the sunday afternoon slot for soccer and other stuff, on First (programme of radio Belgrade).
24-V-2021 - 30-VI-2024