Tublatanka is a Slovak rock band formed in the autumn of 1982 in Bratislava, best known for the hits "Pravda víťazí" and "Dnes". The band's classic lineup consisted of Maťo Ďurinda, Palo Horváth, and Juraj "Ďuro" Černý, from 1982 to 1992. In 1992, Horváth left the band. Ďuro left the band in 1995 due to complications with drugs. Currently, the band consists of Ďurinda, Juraj Topor, and Peter Schlosser.
Biography
Early years
Tublatanka was formed in 1982 in Bratislava, Slovakia, by Martin "Maťo" Ďurinda, Palo Horváth, and Ďuro Černý. Ďurinda was a student at Comenius University in Bratislava at the time, where he met drummer Ďuro Černý in a wine bar called Veľkí Františkáni through a friend. The two talked about their favorite bands such as Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, Thin Lizzy, Nazareth, The Who, Yes, Pink Floyd, etc. After much discussion, they decided to form a rock trio similar their heroes Cream, Jimi Hendrix, and ELP (Emerson, Lake, and Palmer). They knew they would need a very talented bassist.
Černý remembered seeing a talented and charismatic bassist named Palo Horváth playing in a band called Mentol, so they decided to visit him at his flat in a district of Bratislava called Dúbravka. The three hit it off and decided to jam together for the first time, and eventually, they formed a band together. The trio began practicing and writing songs on the fourth floor of Ďurinda’s campus building until Ďurinda finished his schooling. With more and more songs being written, the band wanted to sing in a style that everyone could relate to so they approached Martin Sarvaš, who was a student of architecture and a good friend of Ďuro Černý, to help write lyrics. Sarvaš was a lyricist for a band Černý previously played in.
They began to perform in bars on most evenings around Bratislava and became quite popular with the crowds. Eventually, they made a demo tape, gave it to Sarvaš, and began shopping around for a record label. Sarvaš became their manager and created the band's image. While getting intoxicated in Veľkí Františkáni, Černý and Ďurinda thought of their band name. Černý wanted to call the band Tublat (which is the name of an evil ape in the Tarzan books), but this name was mocked by crowds while they played. They eventually decided on Tublatanka as a combination of Tublat and Moravanka (a former local band they admired). Another version, given by Ďuro Černý in an interview for the newspaper SME, is that a driver for the band suggested they call themselves Tublatanka, as a combination of Tublat and a parody of local wind ensembles, whose names invariably ended in -anka.
1980s mainstream success
On 30 January 1983, there was a festival for amateur bands in PKO Bratislava (park of culture and relaxation) that was organized by Richard Müller under the title "Mladá vlna 82", where Tublatanka had an opportunity to appear as an opening act. The band had a notable unexpected success and the director of the Slovak Record Label OPUS, Milan Vašica, who was sitting in the audience, offered the boys to record their first big self-titled LP. The album sold over 100,000 copies in the first few months after it was released, so OPUS offered to record their second album, Skúsime to cez vesmír, which came out a year later. While recording that album, Ďurinda was called to do his basic military service, much to his dismay, since he wanted to finish recording the album. Skúsime to cez vesmír reached the number one spot on radio charts and the band started their “30-years tour”, organized by Jožo Šebo (currently the manager for Jana Kirschner). The band was endowed by a wide range of fans in sold-out concerts in amphitheatres and sport halls. The boys won their first performance on the television program Triangel with their song “O nás” (About Us).
Tublatanka recorded their third album, Žeravé znamenie osudu (Glowing Sign of Fate), in 1988, in the new digital OPUS studio. The album sold 250,000 copies in the first few months and received the "Zlatý erb OPUS-u" (Golden Crest of Opus) award. Tublatanka then played concerts all over Czechoslovakia and the song "Láska, drž ma nad hladinou" was in first place on the Czechoslovak chart Formula Pop for several months. In November 1988, the band was invited to play in a music festival in Moscow that was held at a stadium in Luzhniki, where ten shows were held with an audience of 14,000-15,000 people.