Pa šta onda
(Band, Yugoslavia)
The other great band in town, with maybe stronger players, and more prone to having fun and experimenting. That year, 1972, I was some kind of court photographer for them, kept bringing them mom's funny hat to don at times while playing, at times had some wine with them behind the curtain, and often made prints for them, specially for Mile Džeger (well, Jagger), their singer.
The lineup... well, Voja and Deja on guitars. Voja also sang well, he was the backing or backup vocal, specially noted for high pitch needed for the „Heaven's gift“ by Had[es], which was really popular (and who said that city bands alwayys played only foreign cover stuff). Voja I later saw working in the bank; of Deja I lost trace. On bass [there] was Žika Glavonja (bighead). The nickname didn't do him justice, his head wasn't actually big at all, it's just the hairstyle, he came across as rounded. The deejay once parked the oil projector, without the oils disk, so that it shone around his head and cast a shadow on the big side wall - the shadow was some two meters tall and fisix wide, whoever got the joke got it, who runs doesn't see. If Deja forever complained that his guitar jack was flimsy and turned to the amps to set it right but actually turned his back on the others and plucked the strings with door keys, Žika would have a three inch nail for that. In some passage elsewhere in Dom there was one of the first color teevees, they were showing „Battle on Neretva“, and whenever Žika hit the thickest string, Orson Welles would lose color... Kept the rhythm well.
The drummer, Cuka Šahović, was a tale apart. He'd often drink during the gig, there was often a bottle of wine behind the scene (banatski rizling, wine for the poor and špricer), and would play an endless solo when they played „Suzie Q“. There's a story around here, how they already unplugged and packed everything, instruments, cables and amps, emptied the stage, took away half of his drums, and he was still hitting it. I have a shot, it's just that I came too close so the emptiness around him is not too obvious.
Voja the organist was in the band for a while, then vanished. An interesting character, somehow resembling tha banatski version of Emerson, just with longer hair, and was always fumbling something with his mouth while playing, as if turning a chewing gum between his front teeth. He had a real hammond hog, the one in a wooden box, with two keyboards and two hundred levers.
Mile Džeger was an educated musician, after the band he went on to teach music in, I'd say, a high school in Pančevo. Around 2003 I remembered to look him up on the web, and there he was, on Tenerife, riding the hotel wave for good dough. Too bad he never did what I thought I talked him into, to sing, play violin and mouth organ in one song, just like the guitar accoustic guys often do.
The name of the band (means „and so what“, actual wording is „so what then“ but let's translate a phrase with a phrase) is not totally original, there was a „No to co“ band in Poland, a sample of their music was on „Evening by the radio“, Nikola Karaklajić played it a year or two before (and I later acquired a file with their album, not bad). Of course the frequent appearance of the phrase in common language was used to make a joke. Someone would say something, someone would reply with „and so what“, and get „play on tuesday“ back. They alternated with Omege, one band would play tuesday, thursday, saturday, the other wensday, friday, sunday.
Mentions: 01-VII-1972., 18-VII-1972., Finally, 06-IX-1972., Počinje škola, šišanje, 12-IX-1972., 21-IX-1972., 29-IX-1972., 08-X-1972., 17-XI-1972., 20-I-1973., 11-II-1973., 08-III-1973., Two classes show, 23-III-1973., 01-IV-1973., Work action in Naftagas, 16-IV-1973., 06-V-1973., 05-VI-1973., 05-VIII-1973., Back together, 01-XI-1973., 31-XII-1973., Doček at Mariška's, 27-I-1974., 08-IX-1977., 13-XII-2010., 16-I-2023., 05-I-2025., 10-III-2026., Dom omladine, Omege, špricer, in serbian
3-I-2025 - 15-IV-2026