Zdenko Kolar () is a Serbian bass guitarist, most notable as the member of Idoli and Zona B.
Biography
Kolar was born in Zemun in 1956 where he lived until 1963 when he moved to inner town in Belgrade. He moved to a building where two of his future bandmates lived, Vlada Divljan and Boža Jovanović. In an interview Kolar noted that Divljan was the first boy he had met in his new neighborhood on the day his family was moving in.
First musical steps
In 1968 Divljan decided to take up playing and so did Kolar. Divljan managed to get a mandolin and later bought a guitar while Kolar got his first guitar by getting a vacuum cleaner on a newspaper lottery. His parents sold the vacuum cleaner and bought him a guitar. The two started learning how to play while watching others play in their neighborhood at the places where the young were gathering. Later they went to a guitar course at RU "Braća Stamenković" held by professor Branko Perišić.
In the meantime Kolar, Divljan and Boža Jovanović formed a band called Faraoni (Pharaohs) as Divljan at the time had a necklace from Egypt. The band was soon renamed to Hoplipe when the three found out there was a popular band from Kopar called Faraoni. In May 1969 the three had a very successful appearance at their school which Zdenko credits as the beginning of his musical career.
Zvuk Ulice
The first serious band Kolar and Divljan formed in 1976 called MARILYN (after youthful infatuation with Marilyn Monroe – but the first concert that was to be played in I Bgd Gimnasia featured newly ordered T-shirts from USA which came misspelled, so the name was promptly changed to MERLIN (the magician)) which was soon renamed to Zvuk Ulice. The lineup featured Vlada Divljan first only on guitar and vocals, Kolar on bass, Kokan Popović on drums, Dragan Mitrić on keyboards, Bora Antić on saxophone and Dragana Milković on piano and vocals. The band played a combination of melodic rock, hard rock and jazz rock. Beside their own tracks they also performed songs by The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Jimi Hendrix, etc.
The band had recording sessions at Radio Belgrade and the recordings were broadcast on radio stations, but were never released. They performed at the last BOOM Festival in Novi Sad and Zaječar Gitarijada festival in 1979. Since the drummer, Kokan Popović, had to go to serve the Yugoslav People's Army the band split up.
Dečaci plus Bradonje, Idoli
In late 1979 Divljan created a conceptual band called Dečaci (The Boys) with Nebojša Krstić and Srđan Šaper. The three, with Dragan Papić who was a kind of media activist. He published photographs of Dečaci in youth magazines "Vidici" and "Izgled". In the meantime the three tried to play together but without progress. Then Divljan invited Kolar and Boža Jovanović to join the band and, since both Kolar and Jovanović wore beards, the band was renamed to Dečaci plus Bradonje (The Boys plus The Bearded).
On 1 March 1980 the band was renamed to Idoli on the first official rehearsal held that day. A month later Papić made a deal with "Vidici" to finance the recording of the first Idoli single which was released as a present with a copy of the magazine. The single "Pomoć, pomoć" / "Retko te viđam sa devojkama" became a local hit. The next single was released for Jugoton and performed the Festival Omladina with the song "Zašto su danas devojke ljute".
In the meantime Idoli, with Električni Orgazam and Šarlo Akrobata participated the Paket aranžman compilation. Kolar was credited as writer on the track "Amerika" which appeared to be the only Idoli song he appeared as writer. The release proved to be one of the most influential Yugoslav rock releases. The band also prepared their debut record which came out to be a six-song EP entitled VIS Idoli it was a huge success and was sold in about 200.000. After the release of the EP, Jovanović left the band and was replaced by Kolar's and Divljan's former bandmate Kokan Popović.
In late 1981 the band entered the studio to record their first long play album. Odbrana i poslednji dani was released in early 1982 and proved to be a high appreciated album by the critics and a part of the fans, but due to non-commercial approach and sound, considered a failure by Jugoton. The album was voted the best in 1982 and had the best album design. In 1985 Džuboks magazine voted the album to be the best Yugoslav rock album of the 20th century. The band had a tour following the record release after which Kolar left the band to serve the Yugoslav People's Army and was replaced by Branko Isaković.