He started the eighth continents with Elan for 40 years. See the legends in the archive photos – PRAVDA.sk

Stuntman, Crazy Games or I have a taste for something chilled, Eighth Continents – these songs once started the stellar career of the group Elán. After 40 years, Elán is releasing a special re-edition of his debut album, Eighth Continents, with hitherto unknown songs.

Photo: band archive

Elán group in a more powerful line-up at the beginning of their career.

First album – straight selection

The first album was released ten years after the band was already playing together, and started their exceptional careers. Concerts followed, and in a short time three more albums, which confirmed the exceptional popularity of this, I guess, the most successful band in the former Czechoslovakia.

“The eighth continents are now being released in a new, remastered version, we managed to save the original record and as a bonus we added songs on the second CD that were something interesting and didn’t get on the original album,” Vašo Patejdl, a founding member of Elán, told Pravda.

The CDs were still the music of the future at the time and the LP fit a maximum of 45 minutes, so the original album contained only 12 songs with hits like Cubs, Crazy Games and Singing Rock’n’roll every day and, of course, Eighth Continents and Stuntman.

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At that time, the band already had songs for three albums, more than 30 songs, so the original Eighth Continents is their debut album and at the same time a “selection” of the best in Elan’s first ten years. – The bonus CD contains a part of the songs that did not make it to the debut album and a few songs that were included on it, but are released here in their original versions.

“It’s a delicacy for connoisseurs, because they get a different version of the song they’ve known for years, in a different arrangement or cast, and something new,” says Vašo Patejdl. These are great memories and I wonder how good we were, “comments Jožo Ráž.

After years, Vašo Patejdl mentions that old recordings were often made in a curious way: “The studio where we recorded this album was located in the former manor house in Pezinok, where other activities also took place. It was there that the local brass band was rehearsing and it occurred to me that we could use it on the recording, so it will be heard at the end of the song Mláďatá. “

The album was created at a time when we could only dream of the current possibilities of recording. “Nevertheless, even today I hear the huge commitment that drove us forward at the time. Above all technology, the most important idea is always a good song,” says Vašo Patejdl.

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They saved the old record by mistake

They started recording their first album in December 1980, when the band underwent several personnel changes and a fresh silver Bratislava Lyre for Stuntman. After the end of the joint one-year basic military service, Ján Baláž joined the four Jožo Ráž, Vašo Patejdl, Juraj Farkaš, Zdeno Baláž and recorded an album in this first “classic” line-up, which started the band’s exceptional career. “It took a long time, but it was very difficult because the recording conditions were catastrophic. When I was recording the songs, the water in the tap on the toilet was frozen,” recalls Jožo Ráž.

“We were very much looking forward to the release of our first record, as it was the culmination of our long-term effort to ‘materialize’ our efforts – to reach a wider consciousness. Twelve songs were released on the album, and that was just a selection of the best things we had created so far, actually as an amateur band, ”recalls Vašo Patejdl.

“I think we managed to collect the best from Elán’s prehistory, and it was also recorded and played very well,” says Jano Baláž.

Forty years later, it is unique that the original soundtrack has been preserved, in fact by mistake. Thanks to this, the annual edition of the Eighth Continent is based on a new analog mix of the original 24-track recording.

“It simply came to our notice then. Under the previous regime, the rule was the so-called wide tracks with unmixed tracks automatically deleted after two years and used for new recordings. The reason was the lack of currencies, because wide belts were very expensive. Elan’s first album escaped this fate thanks to the negligence of one of the workers of the then Opus. It was a happy negligence that providence committed with such a crucial album, Elán’s first album, probably the most hit band in Czech-Slovak music history, “comments Vladimír Kočandrle, director of Warner Music Czech Republic.

“The Eighth Continents is still alive, songs like Stuntman and the Eighth Continents have lived with us for 40 years and have not aged, we have played them all the time,” concludes Vašo Patejdl.