Pekinška Patka (Serbian Cyrillic: Пекиншка Патка; trans. Peking Duck) is a Serbian and Yugoslav punk rock band formed in Novi Sad in 1978. The band was among the pioneers of punk rock in Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and is widely considered one of the most prominent and influential acts of the Yugoslav punk rock scene and the closely associated Yugoslav new wave scene.
Pekinška Patka was formed by vocalist Nebojša "Čonta" Čonkić, guitarist Sreten "Sreta" Kovačević, drummer Laslo "Cila" Pihler and bass guitarist Miloš Žurić, the latter soon replaced by Srbislav "Srba" Dobanovački, himself later replaced by Boris Oslovčan. In 1979, the band was joined by the second guitarist Boško "Brča" Prosenica. With their energetic and provocative live performances, the young band attracted immediate public and media attention in Yugoslavia, but also saw criticism from conservative cultural circles as well as unenthusiastic music press reviews dismissing their act as puerile and sophomoric. The band's early singles brought them significant popularity while their 1980 debut album Plitka poezija is considered the very first punk rock album by a Serbia-based group. Following subsequent personnel changes—both guitarists, Kovačević and Prosenica, replaced by a single one, Zoran "Bale" Bulatović, and bassist Oslovčan replaced by Marinko Vukmanović—the band released their second album Strah od monotonije in 1981. Shifting towards post-punk and darkwave sound, the album was met with a lukewarm public reception and poor reviews, leading to the group disbanding the same year.
In 2008, the band reunited with Čonkić on vocals, Kovačević on guitar, Pihler on drums and Oslovčan on bass guitar for a one-off performance, playing on the main stage of Novi Sad EXIT Festival alongside Sex Pistols. Two years later, the lineup that had worked on the band's second album—Čonkić, Pihler, Bulatović and Vukmanović—reunited for new performances; Pihler, however, eventually withdrew, ostensibly due to health issues, and was replaced by drummer Robert Radić. The reunion was disapproved of by Kovačević who delivered threats of legal action against Čonkić over copyright. Legal action would eventually be filed, resulting in a process before Serbian courts during mid-to-late 2010s that was won by Kovačević who, in 2021, joined up with Pihler for Pekinška Patka's third reunion, the incarnation performing only songs from the band's initial punk rock phase. In 2024, Čonkić formed his own band named Profesor Čonta i Patka (Professor Čonta and the Duck).
History Origins and background (1976–1978) Pekinška Patka's roots can be traced back to the short-lived Novi Sad-based cover band Trafo, formed in 1976 by electric guitarist Sreten Kovačević with Nebojša "Čonta" Čonkić providing the vocals. Further featuring Štrc on bass and Zare on drums, they performed covers of rock standards by globally popular bands such as the Rolling Stones, Santana, and Deep Purple at local dance parties.
A year later, Kovačević formed pop rock band Café Express. It featured Kovačević on guitar, Boba Mama on guitar, Aleksandar Čerevicki on keyboards, Aleksandar "Caki" Kravić on bass guitar, Laslo "Cila" Pihler (formerly of Tanker) on drums, and Aleksandar Krstić on vocals, with Nebojša Čonkić appearing as guest vocalist on the band's performances, singing international rock hits. The group disbanded in the spring of 1978.
Band formation and initial activity (1978) Pekinška Patka was formed in mid-1978 by Nebojša Čonkić (vocals)–at the time an electrical engineering graduate and a teacher at Novi Sad's Electrical Engineering School Centre–Sreten Kovačević (guitar), Laslo Pihler (drums) and Miloš Žurić (bass guitar). Prior to Pekinška Patka formation, Čonkić, Kovačević and Pihler had already collaborated in Café Express. Pihler, who was at the time known under the nickname Dupli Skalp (Two-Scalp, after a character from the French comic book Oumpah-pah) because he sometimes used to wear a wig, had previously also played with Laboratorija Zvuka.
According to Čonkić, Pekinška Patka was formed on his initiative in May 1978. Čonkić had already become enamoured with punk rock, a new musical genre he had been enjoying via Radio Luxembourg, and approached his friend Sreten Kovačević at Novi Sad's Bulevar cafe about trying out two of Čonkić's punk-inspired musical ideas "just for fun". The two ideas were a riff that he came up with while unsuccessfully trying to reproduce a song off of Radio Luxembourg (the riff would eventually become basis for "Bela šljiva") and proposal to cover Procol Harum's 1967 ballad "Homburg" in a faster-paced punk arrangement. Both university graduates in their mid-20s, Čonkić and Kovačević had had a long prior history: in addition to being part of the same social circle in Novi Sad and past involvement in multiple joint musical collaborations, the two had attended the same high school, Jovan Jovanović Zmaj gymnasium, and later studied at University of Novi Sad's Faculty of Technical Sciences. Missing a drummer for their latest punk-inspired collaboration, Kovačević brought in Laslo "Cila" Pihler. The trio of Čonkić, Kovačević, and Pihler began practicing at one of the backrooms within Mašinac club, itself run by the Faculty of Technical Sciences. Kovačević then brought in bass guitarist Miloš "Žure" Žurić, and the now four-piece practiced throughout June 1978, scheduling the rehearsals around live broadcasts of the 1978 FIFA World Cup football matches from Argentina. Sporting long hairs, despite trying to play punk, each one of the four young men's respective appearances and musical sensibilities were still a mixture of several Western 1960s and 70s cultural trends, mostly hippie counterculture and prog rock.
According to Kovačević, on the other hand, Pekinška Patka was his idea all along, spawned during February-March 1978 while he played weekly Thursday-night dance parties at Mašinac with his band Café Express. Frustrated at the crowds' indifferent reaction to his shoddy guitar solos, construction engineering graduate Kovačević reportedly sought a simpler and more direct way of playing music, finding the emerging punk genre perfectly suitable in this regard. He claims to have first reached out to his Café Express drummer Pihler about putting the new punk project together followed by bassist Žurić and only then, once they realized a need for a vocalist, contacting Čonkić whom the three had "known from around town". Kovačević did acknowledge Čonkić for coming up with the band name; Čonkić suggested Pekinška Patka because he believed it reminds of the word punk.
The band's first live performance, a 9-minute set, took place at Mašinac club in late June 1978 with four people in attendance, all of them friends of the band members. The material they performed consisted of four tracks: aforementioned "Bela šljiva" ("White Plum") and cover of "Homburg", in addition to two new songs, Čonkić-written "Kratkovidi magarac" ("Shortsighted Donkey") and Čonkić/Kovačević co-written "Šta je zbližilo nas" ("What Made Us Closer"). After the performance, Žurić left the band, and was replaced by Srbislav "Srba" Dobanovački.
Čonkić spent the July of 1978 in London, attending a study-English-abroad course at a UK-based college. Taking in the city's music scene by going out to live shows on a nightly basis, he ended up seeing a variety of performers—including punk and punk-adjacent acts such as The Clash, The Specials, Midge Ure, Glen Matlock's Rich Kids, Skids, and Magazine. Particularly impressed with one of The Clash shows from their four-night July 24-27 residency at the Music Machine venue, with The Specials as the opening act, where The Clash played material off their upcoming album Give 'Em Enough Rope—a live performance Čonkić would later state influenced him the most of any he'd ever seen—the look, posture, and pageantry of English punk as well as The Clash's performative manner 24-year-old Čonkić witnessed that night in Camden were then copied by his own fledgling band upon his return home to Yugoslavia.
Čonkić and Kovačević continued to develop new material, both in English and Serbo-Croatian. Initially, the Čonkić-written lyrics contained a generally sophomoric common thread, steering clear of even mild allusions to local political and/or societal issues let alone direct references. Rock writers such as Dušan Vesić would subsequently speculate about such avoidance being a consequence of the firm control local communist authorities exerted over the Novi Sad cultural scene due to the city's multiethnic character. The band practised in makeshift accommodation—a shed near Pihler's house—sharing the space with Pečat, a band Pihler also played with simultaneously to drumming for Pekinška Patka. On the band's invitation, during fall 1978, Radio Novi Sad personalities and Dragan "Goja" Gojković showed up at one of these practice sessions and, liking what they saw and heard, proceeded to champion the young band.
Local prominence (1978–1979) The band's first prominent live appearance took place in early December 1978 at Novi Sad's Sonja Marković Club venue. The club's staff were sufficiently shocked by the performance that they decided to put a stop to it after only five or six songs, under an excuse that there was a power outage, sending the crowd of about 200 young people home. The immediate reason was the band's performance of an impromptu vulgar punk cover of a youth work action song featuring the modified lyrics "Brižit Bardo bere čičke; vidi joj se pola pičke" ("Brigitte Bardot is picking thistles; half of her pussy is hanging out").
A week later, the band played the BOOM Festival, being held in their hometown that year. What would turn out to the festival's last year was being organized and booked by the Belgrade-based promoter with help and input from his local Novi Sad counterparts Mijatović and Gojković who turned his attention to Pekinška Patka, resulting in the band that had only held two live performances to date being booked at the prominent festival.
At the beginning of 1979, Dobanovački was replaced by former Gomila G bass guitarist Boris "Bora" Oslovčan. Furthermore, former Direktori (The Executives) member Boško "Brča" Prosenica joined the band as its second guitarist.
The group based their act on melodic punk rock and vivid public image with high-energy live shows. Being one of the first groups in the country with this kind of sound and performing style, they attracted media interest before releasing any material. Čonkić often used those media appearances for self-promotion, delivering sweeping statements like: "We're the first important thing to happen to Yugoslav rock since Ivo Robić and ". He also purposely courted controversy with soundbites such as referring to his group as the "first Orthodox punk band", which went against the doctrine of the ruling League of Communists of Yugoslavia, that promoted atheism in Yugoslav society.
Wider popularity, first release and controversy (1979)