HUNGARY: Iconic Hungarian band 'Kispal and the Badger' says farewell to fans while looking back at the last 20 years

Record ID: 560613

  • Title: HUNGARY: Iconic Hungarian band 'Kispal and the Badger' says farewell to fans while looking back at the last 20 years
  • Date: 12th August 2010
  • Summary: FAMILY WAITING FOR THE CONCERT
  • Embargoed: 27th August 2010 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Hungary
  • Country: Hungary
  • Topics: Domestic Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA5TV5XHUP6MP3VA2BD6GU96AOS
  • Story Text: When communism ended in Hungary, a small political party called the Alliance of Young Democrats (Fidesz) celebrated with two concerts: one to say so long to the old era, the other to welcome the new.
    Headlining both events was a little-known alternative rock trio called Kispal and the Badger. Its quirky, imaginative lyrics and its fresh, bare-bones music would soon propel the band to immense heights of success.
    Twenty years on, Hungary has changed beyond recognition. The communists are gone, and the considerably older Young Democrats are in government.
    Earlier this year, Kispal and the Badger took stock of the past two decades - and decided to call it quits.
    Although the band has not come out with a new album in the last five years, its popularity is unbroken. They quit, they said, because there was nothing new to say.
    To thousands of their fans, it marked the end of the post-communist era.
    Kispal's first songs were copied from cassette to cassette; its latest recordings downloaded. The Communist government tapped their phones; the last Socialist government gave them the country's top cultural award.
    Taking a break from rehearsals before the farewell concert, the band's two founders acknowledged they had come a long way, and that their success was a product of history almost as much as talent or luck.
    "I think the collapse of communism was instrumental for our careers, we witnessed the world opening up," said lead singer and band leader, Andras Lovasi.
    "We started in '89 and we had caught the last breath of communism. We were on the watch list. While playing our song 'The Revolutionary' we displayed some footage of the '56 revolution. After that, secret services opened a file about the band," he added.
    Once the music industry's censors found themselves out of a job, Lovasi, who wrote the band's lyrics, could express himself freely. The band put out eight albums in a decade.
    As every bar in every town wanted live bands, the need for music was suddenly overwhelming, said guitarist Andras Kispal.
    "When it finally comes to an end, we will have some emptiness in ourselves for sure, because we won't call the others. So probably we will miss this," he said.
    Budapest's giant Sziget (Island) Festival dedicated its entire first day on Monday (August 9) to a farewell concert by Kispal.
    Since the early 1990s, Sziget has expanded from its roots as a student gathering to a massive week-long event that drew almost 400,000 visitors in each of the past two years.
    Kispal and the Badger's last show at the festival drew tens of thousands of people of all age groups. Teenage festival dwellers mingled with rockers of old and families who came to witness Kispal one last time.
    "It won't be the same without them. Something in my life will end today," said Zoltan Katona, a 33 year-old fan from Romania.
    The band's last concert was three hours long and drew huge media attention in Hungary.
    Organisers said 45,000 tickets were sold for the show.
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