KULTURA / CULTURE 42 | Muzika » Music Đoser, kako smo svi zvali Serđa Blažića, silno mi nedostaje kao prijatelj i kao muzičar I really miss Đoser, as we all called Serđo Blažić, both as a friend and as a musician certs in the best way.” Do you ever see the ghost of Serđo Blažić on stage? How much do you miss him? “I really miss Đoser, as we all called him, both as a friend and as a musician, as a member of the band and as a great battler who fought a vicious disease for 15 years, even though doctors only gave him a year to live when he first fell ill back in 1971, when he was in his twenties.Throughout his entire career, there wasn’t a single tour or album recording that didn’t coincide with himhaving to visit the Oncology Institute in Ljubljana for chemotherapy or radiation. He was a medical phenomenon, thanks to his strong love for rock ‘n’roll and his desire for life.” You also certainly miss Boško Obradović, and the song lyrics that you wrote together are today more relevant than ever? “The poet BoškoObradović was the intellectual creator of Atomsko Sklonište, who united us rockers, who had played around the city for years, and convinced us that we could compose music to his socially engaged lyrics, which, as you say, are still relevant today. In the song Oni što dolaze za nama [Those Who Come After Us] (1977), which the latest live album is named after, he prophetically predicted the emergence of social networks: Those who come after us will also have a television even in the toilet, will make friends via their home computer...” Boško is also “to blame” for the band’s name ... Remind us of that story ... “After the first rehearsals, Bole called me on the phone and said: It’s time for us to give the band a name, and started with suggestions: Same Childhood, I said: ‘forget that’. Express Elevator - ‘not even in lunacy’, the third suggestion was: Nine per Mercalli - my answer was no, and the fourth suggestion was: Atomic Shelter - to which I shouted: ‘that!’ Then he told me: “Listen, colleague, that name is fine, but then I will have to plagiarise myself and my theatre play called Atomic Shelter, which was performed in the mid-1960s at the Istrian National Theatre in Pula.” After that we became a multimedia rock band that collaborated with other branches of art, such as painters, poets, art photography maestros, set designers etc.” Do the Atoms have successors in this area, do you see some younger Langer? “During all of my travels and performances I’ve met extremely talented young rockers, whose bands don’t have adequate media chances like my generation had during the golden age of Yugoslav rock in the 1970s and ‘80s. Rock was then the leading genre and it burned and smouldered in concert halls and stadiums. That’s why I support young bands, because rock will disappear from this area without them.” How do you live when there are no concerts? Are you ready to tour when the pandemic passes or are you considering that it’s time to retire? Do rockers ever retire? “I’m not considering retirement; I’m one of those who will play rock until the last breath.”
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