Bolo nás jedenásť
"Do batôžka si nalož pretvárku lož a faloš“ (loosely translated as Put pretence and falseness into your bag) – this song was one of the anthems of the Velvet Revolution. According to Milan Lasica, it’s too pathetic, but we disagree. After all, it’s known that the album Bolo nás jedenásť is stored in a display case in the music section of the Paris International Bureau of Weights and Measures as a basic unit of artistic perspective. Even though Lasica and Satinský are considered to be theatrical performers, they managed to record the best album of our history (according to many people) – Bolo nás jedenásť – thanks to their collaboration with brilliant Jaro Filip.
25. April 2019
Their singing qualities were brought to the fore by the totalitarian regime – when they were forbidden to make their own theatre, the theatre Nová Scéna (New Scene) took them under their wings. They still encountered bans, but a number of their dialogues came out on LPs and some were filmed by television. "If the Communists were lacking something (as it is, in fact, with most of the top politicians until now), it’s staying on top of things and having sense of humour. It’s humour that becomes a wonderful weapon and Lasica and Satinský could use it really masterfully. Maybe I’ll sound pathetic now, but the work of Milan and Julo – we all kind of appropriated them – notably helped to bear the grievances of the regime with a smile, though often only internal,” said Michal Kaščák.
Album Bolo nás jedenásť was presented live for the first time in history at Pohoda 2017. Since then it has been played in studio L + S at sold out concerts every time. After one of them, Milan Lasica had a slip of the tongue before the encore – the perfect candidate for a possible new Slovak anthem, the song "My" (Us) – when he told the audience that more encores would be presented at Pohoda. It is true – in addition to the songs from the album Bolo nás jedenásť, many more from the following ones will be performed. Milan Lasica will sing Lasica, Dorota Nvotová will sing her father Jaro Filip’s part and several famous personalities will alternate Julo Satinský.
The brass instruments will be played by Michal Žáček, Martin Valihora and Marek Minárik (exLucie) will take up the rhythm section, Dano Salontay (Longital) will play the guitar and Andrej Jarolín will play the cimbalom. The band is expanded with a string quartet (Gabriela Rybárová, Milan Adamec, Slavo Solovic, Peter Kaščák) and Julo Satinský's parts will be shared by Braňo Jobus, Martin Višňovský (Chiki liki tu-a), Juraj Podmanický (Billy Barman), Tomáš Šedivý „Lasky "(Para) and Michal Kaščák. The “traditional singing line-up” at Pohoda will be joined by Peter Lipa (who else should sing Valutový cudzinec? (The Currency Stranger)), Juraj Benetin (who else should sing "Chcel by som byť taký báči, čo sa všetkým ženám páči“ (I’d like to besuch a man that all women like)), Vec (who else should rap one of the first Slovak raps "Rodinné záležitosti” (Family Affairs)). The icing on the cake will be the song “Čerešne” (Cherries) sung by Zuzana Kronerová and Yael Shoshana Cohen, the singer of Lola Marsh. Jan Šicko and his students Šimon Chovan and Barbora Bohušová will take care of the projection.
The concert Bolo nás jedenásť will also be dedicated to Jaro Philip, who turns seventy up in the heaven in June. “Jaro Filip played at the second edition of Pohoda. It was the year of elections, under the governance of the Prime Minister Mečiar. He had a great speech on the subject. It was very powerful, he achieved an absolute success with it. He was then travelling Slovakia with humourists and agitated,”recalls Michal Kaščák in an interview for Denník N. Filip had an invitation to Pohoda 99 as well, but got into a car crash. In summer of 2000 his music was played only by his bandmates and friends at the festival. He died of a heart attack on July 11, and in a few days the first commemoration was held at Pohoda. Now there will be another, already the third one in a row, as part of the celebration of the thirtieth anniversary of the Velvet Revolution at our festival.