Koncert kod Hajdučke česme

Background

During the promotional tour for the band's third studio album, 1976's Eto! Baš hoću!, Bijelo Dugme experienced numerous difficulties, from clashes within the band to technical problems and dwindling attendance. After spending three years at the top of the Yugoslav rock scene, the band faced a clear decrease in popularity. The band members wanted to organize some sort of spectacle to help their decreased popularity. On the idea of journalist Peca Popović, the band decided to hold a free concert at Belgrade's Hajdučka česma.

The concert, held on 28 August 1977, was also Bijelo Dugme's last concert before the band went on hiatus due to the band's leader Goran Bregović's army duty. Between 70,000 and 100,000 spectators attended the concert, which was the biggest number of spectators at a rock concert in Yugoslavia until then. After the opening acts (Slađana Milošević, Tako, Zdravo, Džadžo, Suncokret, Ibn Tup and Leb i Sol) Bijelo Dugme played a successful concert. However, after disappointingly realizing the show's sound recording sounded poor on tape due to technical limitations and the wide open space, the band played another show at Đuro Đaković Hall in Sarajevo on 25 October 1977, which is the actual performance heard on the album. In the end, the only part of original Hajdučka česma concert that ended up on the album were the crowd reactions after each song.

Koncert kod Hajdučke česme would turn out to be the band's last album with keyboardist Laza Ristovski and drummer Ipe Ivandić, for the time being at least, as the two decided to leave the group after releasing a side project of their own, album Stižemo (Here We Come) in 1978. Both eventually rejoined Bijelo Dugme; Ivandić in 1982 and Ristovski in 1984.

Personnel

Additional personnel

Legacy

The album was polled in 1998 as the 74th on the list of 100 greatest Yugoslav rock and pop albums in the book YU 100: najbolji albumi jugoslovenske rok i pop muzike (YU 100: The Best Albums of Yugoslav Pop and Rock Music).