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Igor Vidmar (born December 10, 1950) is a prominent Slovenian and former Yugoslav journalist, rock music promoter and manager, music producer and political activist.
Vidmar was born in Ljubljana, Yugoslavia, but spent most of his childhood in Nova Gorica, where he attended the Nova Gorica Grammar School.
As an important personality in the Slovenian and Yugoslav rock scene, Vidmar worked with many artists, most of them having a cult status in the underground music scene, especially the punk rock of Slovenia and the former SFR Yugoslavia, such as the Yugoslav punk rock pioneers Pankrti and Paraf, the internationally acclaimed Laibach and many others. The tracks for the famous Yugoslav compilation album Novi Punk Val were compiled by him. He also worked in the only independent student radio existing in a communist country- Radio Student Ljubljana. As a concert organizer, he established the important Novi Rock festival, and brought numerous eminent international acts to Slovenia and/or Yugoslavia, including: 23 Skidoo, Amebix, Angelic Upstarts, Anti-Nowhere League, Christian Death, DOA, Dinosaur Jr., Discharge, Dubliners, Einstürzende Neubauten, The Fall, GBH, Henry Rollins, Iggy Pop, Jane's Addiction, The Jesus & Mary Chain, Killing Joke, The Mission, Nick Cave, Pere Ubu, Pixies, Ramones, Siouxsie and the Banshees, The Sisters of Mercy, Sonic Youth, UK Subs, Youth Brigade, Swans and others. He was also active in the famous ŠKUC Art Gallery.
His behaviour and his journalistic or artistic works, which were often too avant-garde and politically incorrect for the time, (intentionally or unintentionally) provoked reactions from the communist regime of the then-Socialist Republic of Slovenia and SFR Yugoslavia: he lost his membership in the ruling political party- the League of Communists of Slovenia, faced prosecution and even served short prison terms few times. He also criticized the Western imperialism as well. In 1983 he was arrested for wearing the Dead Kennedys Nazi Punks Fuck Off! badge with a crossed out swastika which was mistaken as a pro-nazi symbol. Namely, at that time the Communist authorities were obsessed witch hunting nazi punks, whom Vidmar never belonged to. In the next year, as a retaliation, he "tested" the authorities' and citizens' nerves by playing Deutschland über alles on the air in his radio show (a version performed by Nico). Although it is not a fascist song, the authorities and some of the listeners saw hidden allusions in his action and reacted. Soon he was on court again with an explanation that he wanted to test the "national defense preparement" and the reaction of the people against an eventual fascist provocation.
In the late 1980s, as the fall of Communism and the subsequent breakup of Yugoslavia were approaching, he supported the Slovenian opposition, human rights and pro-independence movements.
In a press interview regarding his work as a musical promoter published in the post-communist and post-Yugoslav period, Vidmar was quoted saying that despite the problems he once had with the previous system, "It is an irony that it is harder to work now in this liberal democracy, than in the final 10 years of SFRY's communism". The system of the non-aligned SFR Yugoslavia was not so rigid as the other communist states, such as those in the Eastern Bloc for instance, so most of the time the Yugoslav rock scene was left alone to work freely. For example, in 1982, Vidmar organized a concert in support of the independent Polish trade union Solidarity; he also worked with the highly provocative act Laibach, a member of the Neue Slowenische Kunst collective which used totalitarian Nazi art and Socialist Realism for artistic reasons as camp or for stirring controversy etc.
Laibach is a Slovenian avant-garde music group associated with the industrial, martial, and neo-classical genres. Formed in the mining town of Trbovlje in 1980, Laibach represents the musical wing of the Neue Slowenische Kunst (NSK) collective, a group which Laibach helped found in 1984. "Laibach" is the German historical name for the Slovenian capital Ljubljana, itself an oblique reference to the Nazi occupation of Slovenia in World War II.
Edvard Kardelj, also known by the pseudonyms Bevc, Sperans, and Krištof, was a Yugoslav politician and economist. He was one of the leading members of the Communist Party of Slovenia before World War II. During the war, Kardelj was one of the leaders of the Liberation Front of the Slovenian People and a Slovene Partisan, and after the war he was a federal political leader in the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and led the Yugoslav delegation in peace talks with Italy over the border dispute in the Julian March.
Nova Gorica is a town in western Slovenia, on the border with Italy. It is the seat of the Municipality of Nova Gorica. Nova Gorica is a planned town, built according to the principles of modernist architecture after 1947, when the Paris Peace Treaty established a new border between Yugoslavia and Italy, leaving nearby Gorizia outside the borders of Yugoslavia and thus cutting off the Soča Valley, the Vipava Valley, the Gorizia Hills and the northwestern Karst Plateau from their traditional regional urban centre. Since 1948, Nova Gorica has replaced Gorizia as the principal urban centre of the Gorizia region, as the northern part of the Slovenian Littoral has been traditionally called.
Boris Kidrič was a Slovene politician and revolutionary who was one of the chief organizers of the Slovene Partisans, the Slovene resistance against occupation by Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy after Operation Barbarossa in June 1941. He became the de facto leader of the Liberation Front of the Slovenian People. As such, he had a crucial role in the anti-Fascist liberation struggle in Slovenia between 1941 and 1945. After World War II he was, together with Edvard Kardelj, a leading Slovenian politician in communist Yugoslavia.
New wave in Yugoslavia was the new wave music scene of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. As its counterparts, the British and the American new wave, from which the main influences came, the Yugoslav scene was also closely related to punk rock, ska, reggae, 2 Tone, power pop and mod revival. Some of its acts are also counted as belonging to the Yugoslav punk scene which already existed prior to new wave. Such artists were labeled as both punk rock and new wave.
Pankrti are a punk rock band from Ljubljana, Slovenia, active in the late 1970s and 1980s. They were known for provocative and political songs. They billed themselves as The First Punk Band Behind The Iron Curtain. They are one of the most important former Yugoslav punk groups and one of the first punk rock bands ever formed in a communist country.
The Liberation Front of the Slovene Nation, or simply Liberation Front, originally called the Anti-Imperialist Front, was a Slovene anti-fascist political party. The Anti-Imperialist Front had ideological ties to the Soviet Union in its fight against the imperialistic tendencies of the United States and the United Kingdom, and it was led by the Communist Party of Slovenia. In May 1941, weeks into the German occupation of Yugoslavia, in the first wartime issue of the illegal newspaper Slovenski poročevalec, members of the organization criticized the German regime and described Germans as imperialists. They started raising money for a liberation fund via the second issue of the newspaper published on 8 June 1941. When Germany attacked the Soviet Union, the Anti-Imperialist Front was formally renamed and became the main anti-fascist Slovene civil resistance and political organization under the guidance and control of the Slovene communists. It was active in the Slovene Lands during World War II. Its military arm was the Slovene Partisans. The organisation was established in the Province of Ljubljana on 26 April 1941 in the house of the literary critic Josip Vidmar. Its leaders were Boris Kidrič and Edvard Kardelj.
Punk rock in Yugoslavia was the punk subculture of the former Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. The most developed scenes across the federation existed in the Socialist Republic of Slovenia, the Adriatic coast of the Socialist Republic of Croatia, the Socialist Autonomous Province of Vojvodina and Belgrade, the capital of both Yugoslavia and the Socialist Republic of Serbia. Some notable acts included: Pankrti, Paraf, Pekinška patka, KUD Idijoti, Niet, Patareni and KBO!.
Music of Yugoslavia is music created during the existence of Yugoslavia, spanning the period between 1918 and 1992. The most significant music scene developed in the later period of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, and includes internationally acclaimed artists such as: the alternative music acts Laibach and Disciplina Kičme which appeared on MTV; classical music artists such as Ivo Pogorelić and Stefan Milenković; folk artists such as the Roma music performer Esma Redžepova; the musicians of the YU Rock Misija contribution to Bob Geldof's Band Aid; the Eurovision Song Contest performers such as the 1989 winners Riva and Tereza Kesovija, who represented Monaco at the Eurovision Song Contest 1966 and her own country in 1972, and plenty of others. Accordingly, the most widespread current formal and informal use of the term Music of Yugoslavia both locally and internationally always refers to the music of the Second Yugoslavia. Examples of the usage: ex-Yugoslav bands, the rock scene in the former Yugoslavia etc.
Popular music in Yugoslavia includes the pop and rock music of the former SFR Yugoslavia, including all their genres and subgenres. The scene included the constituent republics: SR Slovenia, SR Croatia, SR Bosnia and Herzegovina, SR Montenegro, SR Macedonia and SR Serbia and its subunits: SAP Vojvodina and SAP Kosovo. The pop and rock scene was a part of the general Music of Yugoslavia, which also included folk, classical music, jazz etc. Within Yugoslavia and internationally, the phrases ex-YU or ex-Yugoslav Pop and Rock both formally and informally generally to the SFRY period, though in some cases also to its successor the FR Yugoslavia including Serbia and Montenegro which existed until 2006.
Gregorij Rožman was a Slovenian Roman Catholic prelate. Between 1930 and 1959, he served as bishop of the Diocese of Ljubljana. He may be best-remembered for his controversial role during World War II. Rožman was an ardent anti-communist and opposed the Liberation Front of the Slovene People and the Partisan forces because they were led by the Communist party. He established relations with both the fascist and Nazi occupying powers, issued proclamations of support for the occupying authorities, and supported armed collaborationist forces organized by the fascist and Nazi occupiers. The Yugoslav Communist government convicted him in absentia in August 1946 of treason for collaborating with the Nazis against the Yugoslav resistance. In 2009, his conviction was annulled on procedural grounds.
Sretno dijete is a Croatian documentary film directed by Igor Mirković, and produced by Rajko Grlić, an Ohio University professor of film, in 2003. The film is a nostalgic autobiographical overview of the authors adolescence in SR Croatia in the former Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia during the late 1970s and early 1980s which corresponded with the emergence of the Yugoslav punk rock and new wave scenes, both which the author affiliated to, thus turning this film into a rockumentary. The film features interviews and rare footage of some of the top former Yugoslav rock acts ever such as: Azra, Film and Haustor from the author's hometown Zagreb, Croatia where most of the story takes place; then members of Električni orgazam and Idoli whom the author visits in Belgrade, Serbia; as well as Pankrti and Buldožer from Ljubljana, Slovenia. Beside materials filmed around former Yugoslavia, the film also contains interviews with important former Yugoslav artists who currently live abroad. For example, Darko Rundek is interviewed in Paris, France, Mirko Ilić in New York City in the United States, and there are also scenes shot on locations in the Netherlands, Germany, Hungary and other countries. The film is named after a song by Prljavo kazalište from their first self-titled album.
Fran Albreht was a Slovenian poet, editor, politician and partisan. He also published under the pseudonym Rusmir.
Matej Bor was the pen name of Vladimir Pavšič, who was a Slovene poet, translator, playwright, journalist, and Partisan.
France Balantič was a Slovene poet. His works were banned from schools and libraries during the Titoist regime in Slovenia, but since the late 1980s he has been re-evaluated as one of the foremost Slovene poets of the 20th century.
Predictions of Fire or Prerokbe ognja is a 1996 documentary film by American filmmaker Michael Benson about Neue Slowenische Kunst.
Dušan Pirjevec, known by his nom de guerre Ahac, was a Slovenian Partisan, literary historian and philosopher. He was one of the most influential public intellectuals in post–World War II Slovenia.
Nova Gorica Grammar School is a coeducational nondenominational public gymnasium school located in Nova Gorica, Slovenia. The school caters for students aged between 15 and 19 and is roughly equivalent to preparatory schools in Anglo-American contexts. The school is considered among the best secondary schools in Slovenia.
The architecture of Slovenia has a long, rich and diverse history.
Igor Torkar was the pen name of Boris Fakin, a Slovenian writer, playwright, and poet best known for his literary descriptions of Communist repression in Yugoslavia after World War II.
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