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Warsaw Pact Records, in cooperation with the Trasa W-Z Archive and SPR Jarocin, presents the first release from a vinyl series documenting live recordings of punk/hardcore bands who appeared at the infamous Jarocin festival which took place in Poland in the mid 1980’s.
Over the last few years, there have been numerous book, press, and film studies summarizing the multidimensionality and culture-forming aspects of what was the biggest festival behind the Iron Curtain. Some sound archives have come to light, but in this area there are still many gaps to be filled. After the appearance of NOCNE SZCZURY at the Jarocin festival in 1980 - thanks to the festival organizers' openness to this new form of expression - punk music came to the fore during subsequent editions. This contributed greatly to the explosion of punk in Poland from 1982 to 1986. With time, punk rock became one of the main and most distinctive elements of this diverse event.
During a time when the release of a record or even a demo tape by a punk band was beyond the realm of dreams, shows were rare and there was little or no thinking about international tours. This meant that the possibility to appear on the Jarocin stage in front of large audiences was often the driving force behind creating artistic content. Bands hoped to leave their musty basements or dingy garages and share their creativity with the outside world, possibly even motivating the creation of other bands in the process.
An appearance at Jarocin not only gave a band the opportunity to present their work in front of a huge audience, but thanks to the fact that shows at Jarocin were recorded on decent equipment, for the vast majority of bands this was their only chance to document their achievements with excellent sound quality. For many underground bands, recording meant poor quality rehearsal tapes or at best, medium-quality live recordings. Very few were lucky enough to record in a proper studio.
Mixing-board recordings from Jarocin sets were cherished by fans and shared from hand to hand. With each subsequent copy these tapes lost quality in the transfer process, yet through this method thousands of cassettes made it into circulation and affected not only immediate festival attendees, but also those who weren’t able to be there live. Thus even subsequent generations of music fans were able to be raised on the legend of Jarocin.
It is not a coincidence that the series "Jarocin HC / Punk Archives" begins with a set from 1984. This year was quite special for Polish punk rock. It was a mythical Orwellian year, and at Jarocin, where national and international political and social tensions combined with the frustration of a generation who grew up amidst the humiliation of martial law in 1981, the festival exploded with a multitude of brilliant authentic bands. Many classic bands met and played together during this "golden" edition of the festival. Next to each other on that stage were bands like DEZERTER, SIEKIERA, MOSKWA, PROWOKACJA, SEDES or ABADDON. Each of these performances has gone down in history, and the last name on this list opens our series!
ABBADON’s performance in 1984 was their second time Jarocin (first appearance 1983). With the addition of their new singer Kiki, there was an improved sound quality in terms of dynamics and pace, and the message of the band overall was even more expressive, accurate, and direct than it had ever been before. For the band, this performance opened many gates historically, and to this day is still considered among the punk crowd as one of the strongest points of Jarocin's history overall. The song "Kto?", recorded during this performance, appeared on the legendary vinyl compilation "Fala". Thanks to the recording of the "Wet za wet" LP (released for the first time on French New Wave Records in 1986) in Ljubljana, the band is still well-known all over the world and has continued to be an inspiration for current bands both in Poland and abroad.