Rescued From The Fire: Nightwave

For this 28th edition of Rescued From The Fire, the London-by-way-of-Slovenia bass queen and 2011 Academy participant Nightwave talks about her family jewels.

Gu-Gu - Ta Veseli Dan Ali Gu-Gu Play For You (ZKP, 1985)

Thoughts of old UR discs and signed techno white labels initially spring to mind when I think about rescuing a record from the fire, but I’m sure there’s only one record I would grab before I ran away from the flames and that’s ‘Ta Veseli Dan’ by Gu-Gu - a surreal 80s Yugoslavian pop adventure. The reason this record is so priceless to me is that Gu-Gu was my Dad’s band and the music itself was the soundtrack to my early childhood. The songs on this album and its wacky cover are amongst the few memories I still have about that time, so I’d be pretty upset if it was to melt in the fire along with other records and junk I’ve accumulated over the years.

Back in 80s Yugoslavia Gu-Gu were a big deal, and although they broke up in 1989, they continue to captivate Slovenian people’s hearts and imaginations to this day. It’s highly likely that at least five out of ten kids today would be able to sing along to one or two of their songs, for example. The album I’m talking about was probably their biggest success, however other hits followed such as the single "Aerobik", which was the first Slovenian rap song (my Dad wrote the lyrics).

The Gu-Gu trademark was an interesting blend of influences, from electro-funk and tropical rhythms to kitsch pop laced with surreal double-entendre lyrics that stretched from criticising the state of the country and the communist regime to absolutely absurd songs about fish, wine or tropical fruit. Whatever the song was about, the goal of Gu-Gu was to preach the importance of humour and slight insanity in everyday life. You can pretty much grasp all this from the cover of ‘Ta Veseli Dan’ (This Happy Day). My Dad is the curly foamy dude in the boat. He was the same age there as I am now, as I sit here writing about this band and how grateful I am to have had a childhood that consisted of funny weird songs and bizarrely wacky Gu-Gu live shows. When this record came out I was so little I actually thought they all went to some crazy island for the picture... Now that I’m a big girl, I’m thinking of sampling the hell outta this record. Just need to ask my Dad.