KARCER

Karcer arose by autumn of 1982 in Slupsk and played its first rehearsal in the local culture community centre. There were times of red winds in Poland so since the very beginning the band was under caring eyes of territorial secret service. KARCER started as Krzysztof Zeromski, Piotrek Dudzinski, Jarek Jodlowski. They stepped on the stage on 8th January 1983 with two songs during local qualifying contest for Polish Youth Song Competition, which normally had been entered only by red scout band singing about camping in the forest, groups of 10 year-old- girls in red skirts or sailor suits with songs about how damn it was to sail in the see, or bands singing about some virtual love they had never experienced. KARCER was then quite a damn surprise so when their lyrics with words like “constant fear”, “they follow you”,etc got the audience and guys from local secret service crew (everybody knew them – it is still a small town...) the manager of that cultural centre just stood red in fever... The funniest thing about it was that KARCER was very close to win the contest (people loved it as there was already quite respective number of fans) – the condition was to change lyrics. That was not possible. Three months later the song was permitted to perform as it got a stamp from the Local Censorship Authorities (see pic). Then KARCER wandered here and there warming people in Ustka (winter 83), Miastko (first gig with WC). In April KARCER got changed and started some research in other fields of music (cold wave trial, quite successful). Year 1984 brought another shape of KARCER, the one that thrilled Jarocin in 1985. The four was: Krzysztof Zeromski (guitar, voc, texts, music) Dariusz Lewandowski (vocal & front man), Dariusz Elwert (bas), Wojciech Sobon (drums). KARCER with its freedom of behaviour astonished not only natives in that small village (!) where the band was accommodated, but also thousands of people in audience and punk rock gurus. Nobody was prepared for that. But it happens. They finished in The Golden Ten of the Jarocinfestival one year later. Since then KARCER played almost over the whole country, either in small students clubs, or other big alternative festivals like RÓBREGE. After one of those, KARCER was promised by one of the 3 existing public record companies to record their first album. Obviously those boys of four were cheated. Since 1987 KARCER started playing as a trio, then they got a new drummer (Pawel Wirkus). Next change was new bassist, Adam Lao. In 1990 Karcer was: Krzysztof Zeromski (guitar, voc, etc.), Adam Lao (bas), Tomasz Fangrat (drums), Przemek Brosz (guitar). That year they showed up with new tape album “Turning to Dust” in Warsaw ROBREGE festival. In 1991 in Modern Studio (Gdynia) KARCER recorded their first album, released by Arston. The same week they made for Switzerland tour. Few months later a new album-tape appeared (“Karcer The Best” by Kaszana Factory). KARCER reduced its number to three and then got silent for long time and spread across Europe. In London Panic Studio the material for new album was prepared, and in 1997, eventually “Wschód Jest Pelen Slonca (East is Full of Sun) was released by ROCK’N’ROLLER (Szczecin). (Krzysztof Zeromski, Adam Lao, Henryk Kubala). KARCER was performing in clubs, venues and festivals. Played with bands like UK SUBS or GBH. A couple of years later Daniel Lukasik joined the band for drums. After successful years of heroic work, in 2002 December, KARCER and its late-thirties-boys showed up with new album “Nic Nikomu O Niczym (Nothing To Nobody About Nothing). Year 2007 KARCER celebrated its 25th anniversary. The accent of that event was "ANARCHIVA" - a very fine compilation of most popular songs since 1982 that had never been released. This year KARCER promises a new album. We will see if they keep their declaration...