Story of not the only one band

Let's start in 1982 - that's when I entered high school. In the new school, in the corridors, I recognized faces that were familiar to me from the children's music school and other characters. I don't know exactly how it happened now - I met Maurice. Music enthusiast 3 years older than me, the reason for sighs of many friends, playing the bass guitar Maurycy saw in me a person worthy of being introduced to the elite group of school musicians! It was a real ennoblement for me then. Since then, I have been at every break in the basement of the school building, where the music rehearsals took place - Maurycy, Misiek and others whose names and pseudonyms I do not remember now played there. I met Krzysztof - Bina, Sławek - Gajos and Marcin - Wróbel - with them I founded my first real music band (I think it was called "Geneza" - sic!). And rehearsals in the school basement began. The janitor gave us the keys with the written consent of the Lord of Historia and ... the violinist, and since they were both men of equal importance - we played quite often. The very exciting aspect of our musical activity was of course our beautiful female fans, with whom we had a good time ... Hmm - life had so many colors - and despite that these were the times of quite deep socialism (as it is sometimes referred to) - a year earlier, there was almost an armed uprising (which we know how would end ...), despite the considerable restrictions on freedom that prevailed then ... I felt happy that I can create and play music, Plus with great buddies who thought and felt like me! Everything that was not music fell into the background then. After several months of rehearsals, we felt quite strongly that the technical and acoustic conditions of the school basement were not very suitable for creating art and we started looking for a different place to play. After many adventures, we finally ended up in the Cultural Center at the "Abrasive Shields" in Grodzisk Mazowiecki - the music instructor was then Antoni Kania - "Antek" - a character widely known in the country and appreciated for achievements in the field of musical culture.
And finally that day has come - an annual music review was organized in our House of Culture - one of the most important in our province near Warsaw - a day when we could present ourselves to a slightly wider audience and stand for the prize. We played the composition "Scary Dream" and Darek sang in it as a guest. I don't remember if we won any award, but the event itself was a kind of baptism for us, which we went through quite well. This review had such an important rank that it was even noted by the TV Film Chronicle broadcast on one of the then only two TV programs. I remember later watching a short fragment on a black and white TV screen - it was an unusual feeling to see myself and the whole team on TV.
The whole school year passed - somehow I passed to the next grade - and then studying was of little importance to me - I already knew that I go to this School for music and beautiful friends ... Our team, of course, did not stand still - one day off I organized a rehearsal recording for a reel-to-reel tape recorder. The recording was quite successful - unfortunately, this tape seems to be permanently seeped away ... Once upon a time, Stefan - Bida's classmate joined us as a vocalist - I do not remember now how long he was with us, but I remember that we all had a concert at the school lecture theater and I will never forget the enthusiasm we generated among our fans but also other people from the audience - we felt almost like members of The Beatles ... he he And so our team changed a bit over the last few years - Wróbel left - because he had just graduated - and the brothers appeared: Jurek on electric guitar and Jacek on bass. They both lived in Podkowa Leśna - from time to time they organized underground music events with lots of water, usually lasting until the morning ... well - I think such laws of youth that you have to play and go crazy often to the limit.

Our team ended their activities when Bina and Gajos graduated from school - then I passed to the last 4th high school grade. At that time, I also got into the secondary music school at ul. Miodowa in Warsaw - however, some circumstances meant that, despite the very positive sides, it also had its serious shortcomings and after a year I gave it up. I spent this time in various places - clubs, private rooms, community centers ... one time I came across a rehearsal of the guys from the Joy Band - Wojtek played a solo guitar, Krzysztof on drums and Maciej “Guzu” on bass. Joy Band at that time, as one of the few bands in Poland, released a single in "TonPress" - playing rehearsals with them was an unusual experience for me.

I passed my high school diploma and went with some friends for a vacation to the Krutynia river. Since I was burdened with the specter of compulsory military service, I had a problem with the decision "what next?" I chose the electronic school at ul. Gen. Zajączka in Warsaw. Electronics was one of my greatest passions - at that time, real electronic instruments such as Moog, Roland, etc. were beyond my reach and most of Polish society - I still believed then that I would build an instrument myself (sic!).
At "Zajączek" I met Piotr - just like me - he was interested in electronics, but also played the electric guitar. He showed me bands like United Kingdom. We listened to a lot of music together - Miles Devis, Pat Metheny and other jazz greats, we also tried to construct various electronic contraptions. Of course, we also started playing together - luck would have it that Gajos was among us and Bida. This time, the rehearsals took place in the "Kolejarz Club" in Pruszków - there was a good equipment base - real Goodwin organs with an electromechanical Leslie - something wonderful, but also an analog Arp Omni synthesizer - then still underestimated by me, today often with sentiment I think about him ... Andrzej "Dziejus" joined our "new-old" band - on bass guitar. Dziejus quickly assimilated with the whole band - with this line-up we started working on the repertoire. And everything would be perfect, but we missed vocals - for a long time we could not find anyone despite the different ones fittings. In such a situation, we were found by the Pruszków "Rock Piknik" - we performed a long suite (I do not remember the title) - a joint composition the entire team. The event took place outdoors - on the stairs of the Falcon Palace - I must admit that from the technical side, everything was buttoned up to the last button (which was not and is not the norm in this country!) - the overall power and clarity of the sound was delightful. A photo of our band later appeared in the local press.

Agnieszka (*) - a singer - came to us somehow in the fall. From that moment our band was called "Gabinet Ines" - 5 people altogether. The trials were very fruitful, but soon - as a kind of duty to the socialist homeland - we were ordered to participate in the Soviet Song Festival, whose final took place in Zielona Góra. This event was known to everyone at that time and had a nationwide rank, as evidenced by the fact that it was probably even broadcast on both TV channels! We reached the semi-finals, which took place in Radom - I could watch many professional musicians there, accompanists and composers. All in all, great fun, but everything was set in advance - those were the times.
Ines' office ended in 1988 - I was already studying at the University of Warsaw at that time - studying mathematics absorbed me a lot - this field turned out to be fascinating and beautiful.

It was around that time that I met Marek, who had just come from exile in the USA.
Marek, who was 45 years old at the time, played the guitar and sang American standards - some were very famous hits in their original interpretations. We toured together here and there, gaining stage experience. Since Marek brought a lot of cool equipment, I was able to get to know, for example, Roland D50 synthesizer or Tascam Porta 4 - a tape recorder, thanks to which my eternal dream of multi-track music recording came true. With time, Dziejus on bass joined us - we arranged and recorded a lot of nice songs together ...

Vacation 1989 was approaching - then students were allowed to issue passports (sic!), So I took advantage of it - I went to the Netherlands to make real money and finally buy the instrument I wanted ... And I succeeded - I finally became the happy owner of the Kawai K1 II and Roland D-110 synthesizers - of course, they were not the best delicacies that could be bought back then, but I could afford such a set. At that time, I had practically no experience when it comes to electronic instruments, it was only after a few years that I formed my own opinions about different models - well, but that's a separate topic ...

... to be continued!

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