[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.] Point Blank, probably, the first real blues band in former Yugoslavia,
enough honest and brave to dive deep into the blues idiom at the
time which was over piled with music so much different from blues,
as well as fighting against, for so, so long, firmly established
opinion that Balkans couldn't cope with such kind of feelings arose
from dark depths of American black society's spiritual tradition.
English language finally cemented down the prejudice, casting away
an idea to playing blues music as already highly respected form
of musical expression. But..., as always happens, something was
creeping out from the cellar!
The very beginning of the summer 1983 found Dragoljub Crncevic-Baki,
the prodigal son, and two, the off-road pals of his, one Timothy
Davis an American, the other Michael Sulc an Australian, coming
to visit Baki's hometown Belgrade, in which somewhere in shadows
languished Dragan Markovic, a. k. a. Mare di Luna, waiting for an
opportunity to knock!
That summer was good as any other, and almost out of nothing came
out the very first true YU blues outfit, Dr. Project - Point Blank.
During that summer, Dr. Project - Point Blank boasted quite a reputation
as a blues group through live appearances, which led to an idea
of recording the very first YU LP in English, entirely self composed,
which would range from bottleneck to all-electric city blues based
on Chicago and Detroit downtown guitar styles. Again, as usually
happens, drummer Michael Sulc got homesick and left. Not long after
that another fine drummer, Miroljub Vilotijevic, was augmented to
the group. The wheels started turning...!
Mr. Djordje Debac, musical producer of PGP-RTB, was wise enough,
after listening to demo, for not longer than five minutes, to give
the group their first contract. The necessary time for recording
in studio came along.
The very outfit, mentioned above, comprising of D. Crncevic-Baki
(vocal, guitars), D. Markovic (guitars), Timothy Davis (vocals,
bass) and M. Vilotijevic (drums, percussion), brought out their
first born and gave him his Christian name, The Blues!
After, by critics, well received first album and public acclaim,
Point Blank proved, for the first time in the history of YU rock,
that English language and musical expression in its blues form couldn't
have been a barrier for approaching wider audience.
That fact opened the door to formation of the steady blues scene
first in Belgrade, then in other cities like Novi Sad, Nis, Zagreb,
etc. Finally blues became incorporated into Yugoslav musical body
for good. At the time of the first LP Timothy Davis unfortunately
left, and was briefly replaced by the newcomer Sasa Labudovic. However,
by second album group's direction was begining to shift away from
the blues as evidenced in numbers such as Glass Rider and Sisters
of Mercy, as well as experimenting with rhythm in Broken Toillette's
Seat Blues, showing necessary complexity in arrangements throughout
the material. Well composed, arranged and imaginative, Dr. Project
- Point Blank, the second album remains possibly the finest Point
Blank's album to date.
In late summer 1986, not long after very successful Mid-European
tour, due to internal stresses D. Markovic departed to form his
own group, Di Luna Blues Band, which is doing well since then. Replacement
was found in Aleksandar Kozakijevich with whome band kept on constant
gigging across former Yugoslavia. By the end of 1991 along came
well known crissis. Yugoslavia was splitted and the band fell apart
altogether. Point Blank went down into a period of hibernation.
During 1995 and 1996, Point Blank came out as trio, D. Crncevic
(vocal, guitars) with R. Bulatovic (bass) and M. Karlovic (drums),
cutting rather disappointing, Southern Comfort, their third album,
falling apart for the second time after a handful of gigs.
In attempt to put up Point Blank on its feet again, D. Crncevic
gathered completely new outfit consisting of one time member A.
Kozakijevich (guitar), D. Grujic (keyboards), D. Petrovic (bass),
G. Ilic (drums), (who replaced B. Balos), with the addition of the
third guitarist B. Milosevic.
This lineup recorded much improved Sunny Sky, the fourth album,
by the end of summer 1997. In that formation Point Blank has been
touring Yugoslavia, Macedonia and Italy during 1997 and 1998. Not
long after Christmas 1998 all members left except keyboards player
Darko Grujic and founder member Dragoljub Crncevic. Two young musicians
were brought in, Zoran Milenkovic on bass and Jovan Pejcinovic on
drums, which rounded up new, rejuvenated quartet, ready to bite
down hard! After a couple of months of rehearsing during 2000 this
new formation occupied studio, for a week’s time during December
the same year, and recorded excellent LP having John O'Leary, prominent
British harmonica hero, as a guest.
Boys, wish you the best luck ever!
I njihov zvanični sajt , gde ima sve o njima , diskografija i ostalo: [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] 
