It all really began in 1965.
Earlier, in 1962, I got the first guitar of my life. And perhaps that is exactly why I became… a drummer.
The 1960s were a real guitar boom. “They've just sold, the radio announced – the three hundred thousandth guitar” – sang Karin Stanek. So I too enrolled in the guitar class at the Music Centre of the Lenin Steelworks House of Culture (ZDK HiL). The exam was the standard one. Tap, tap… tap, tap, tap… tap, tap, tap, tap… tap, tap. The teacher tapped out a rhythm on the lid of the piano and the candidate had to repeat the taps in the right order and rhythm. And although for five minutes he invented the most complicated taps he could think of, I faithfully repeated his rhythms. He was surprised and said that I should become a drummer rather than a guitarist, which turned out to be prophetic words.
For the time being, however, I practised the guitar with enthusiasm, working through exercises and finger drills under the watchful eye of the instructor. After a few lessons we talked him into showing us the chords and giving us the English lyrics of a song that was in fashion then, Paul Anka's “Diana”. What a thrill it was to show off in front of the girls by playing that hit…
I think it was in 1962 that a Jordan Garden - a children's playground - was set up on the Sportowe estate. Such gardens appeared on almost every estate and consisted of a few swings, a merry-go-round, a fountain, a few benches and a summer house for equipment with a fairly long roofed passage. In summer a garden like that did its job: you could meet friends there, talk, play guitars in the evenings… In winter, however, garden life died down and we set up “clubs” in cellars, basement drying rooms and places of that kind. It was a poor solution, though, because above us lived tenants who mostly could not stand loud youth music, whether played by us or coming from Radio Luxembourg.
In the spring of 1964 an initiative was born on the Sportowe estate to turn the summer house of the estate's Jordan Garden into a community centre. I remember that the whole population of the estate, from the youngest to the oldest, turned out for the voluntary work. The job went ahead at a truly Stakhanovite pace and the centre opened that very autumn. It opened with great pomp, in the presence of the Schools Superintendent, the district authorities and so on. In the artistic part the band “Jupitery” performed, whose drummer Janusz Stadnik lived on our estate.
From that day the centre was bustling with life, and its manager, Mrs Barbara Pasowska, did everything to make the activities attractive for everyone. Naturally our “cellar” life moved to the centre, and with it our guitars and our longing to create a real big-beat band. Of course, at that time bands such as “Ryszardy” “Biała Gwiazda” “Ametysty” “Czarne Perły” and many others were already active, and young people flocked to their performances.
The first band to form at the centre, a band that probably had no name at all, was a group consisting of Józef Bojdo (g) Jerzy Bojdo (g) Janusz Pudło (bg) Leszek Szewczyk (dr) Grażyna Mazur (voc). Rehearsals in this line-up did not last long, and the next line-up, built on the previous one, was: Jerzy Bojdo (g) Krzysztof Oktabski (g) Kazimierz Wiecha (bg) Jerzy Grzeszczuk (dr) Grażyna Mazur (voc). The band began rehearsing on this equipment – one 60 W AMPLI amplifier, one amplifier converted from a Melodia tape recorder, the gramophone amplifier of a radiogram, and speaker cabinets we made ourselves with the help of a friendly sound engineer who supported the band with his enthusiasm and knowledge through all the years of its activity – Olgierd Tarka. Two guitars, lead and bass, were bought by the Culture Department of the Nowa Huta District National Council (DRN), one was an acoustic with a home-made pickup, and the drum kit was a bass drum, a snare and a cymbal. Those were the beginnings. Of course we could not even dream of the kind of equipment that the bands playing at the ZDK HiL had.
The band took the name BARDOWIE, but it turned out that a band of that name already existed in Nowa Huta, so at first it was changed to “BARDOWIE II”, but since nobody likes being number two, the name was quickly changed to FANTOM, and that name lasted until the end of the band's activity.
In the spring of 1965 the band was joined by Andrzej Olkuski (voc), who was in the same class as me at the Electrical Technical School, while Grażyna Mazur (voc) left. Our commitment and enthusiasm for playing meant that more musical equipment was bought for us, with which we could finally show ourselves outside and start performing.
The band's first performances were evenings for young people and dances for adults in our community centre. In time a stage and a dance floor were built in the Jordan Garden, so dances could be held outdoors.
The band also began to play at dances in TE-5, in the hall of the Technical School of Economics and at the Song and Dance Ensemble, and to travel to other towns and to the settlements around Kraków. We also took part in all kinds of band contests and guitar competitions, though mostly local ones. I must say that the local press did not write much about us, because the bands playing at the ZDK HiL were “at the top” and most of the attention went to them, but our activity was appreciated by the official district authorities, which resulted in various distinctions and diplomas, and also in more tangible rewards such as a stay at an international youth camp in Zakopane.
What was our repertoire? Of course, it was what would today be called covers of well-known bands such as The Beatles, Rolling Stones, The Ventures, Monkees, Shadows and also of Polish artists – Czerwono-Czarni and Niebiesko-Czarni, Czerwone Gitary, Skaldowie, Trubadurzy etc. The Polish lyrics to the foreign songs were written mainly by me and my brother Andrzej, and the music was worked out by the other members of the band.
Out of this playing – let's be honest, unpaid, for satisfaction and for the love of it – there did come one more material benefit. In return for our official unpaid performances at all kinds of events, we used the centre's “equipment” for various side gigs, for which we got a payment that was meagre, very meagre, but a payment all the same.
The band lasted in this line-up until 1968, or perhaps early 1969, when Krzysztof Oktabski and I went into the army, Andrzej Olkuski moved to “Pięciu Z Nad Wisły”, Kaziu Wiecha to “Nikt Nic Nie Wie” and Jurek Bojdo stopped playing. Both Krzysztof and I still played in army bands, but after we came back from the army it proved impossible to revive FANTOM. Those times, however, and the adventure with music left an unforgettable impression, on me at least, and I think they were the most beautiful times of my youth…
