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We are in Csongrád (Pol-Pot) district in year 1978. At that time there was not even the band CPG (Come On Punk Group) nor the hippy rock music playing band called CG (Come On Group) existing yet, when Kovács Péter /Dog/ returned from East-Germany to Hungary where he got knowledge about ’77 punk music in Germany and coming home established the band Red Polecats /in Hungarian: Vörös Görények/ with short English name „RPX” – which can be considered as the first documented live concert Hungarian punk band together with the band „TRZ” from Kazincbarcika. We contacted Dog in order to experience the adventurous story of this group.
Kolera: First of all please tell us about your childhood, what kind of music did you like, how did you make knowledge with punk music, how did you learn to play on instrument?
Péter: I was born in 1962 – I will be soon 60 years old and I promise there will be a big celebration since not all of us reaches this age especialy if you live your life like a punk rocker. Lot of my old friends have passed away by now. I was born in Szeged, grew up in Hódmezővásárhely, mother is piano teacher, father is a chemist engineer. I have an older brother called Róbert. We grew up on the 3. floor in Hódmezővásárhely where we were listening to different kind of music quite loudly.
My first LP was from the band Metro. A green Metro LP with the song „I am sitting in a pink bathtube.” My parents had a dentist friend Kovács Bandi who had very good LP-s of foreign bands like Creedence, Doors, ELP, Cream etc. It was the early 70’th when I became a fan of Beatles however I had no LP-s from them at the beinning only some years later. It was not easy to buy good LP-s in Hungary at that time. Later I had LP-s from Slade Creedence, Beatles, Sweet, Dr Feelgood and our flat became quite noisy. On the other hand there were music broadcastings in the radio like "Dance music Coctail" or "Five o’clock tea" where the newest songs of the music world have been presented. We recorded those songs on tape/casettes and listened on our own small record players. The Dance Music Coctail started at 12’35 two times a week and we run home from school just to catch the broadcast. This show was presented by Komjáthy György. We are talking now about the years 1972,73,74 – I always had my favourite band like Sweet, Creedence, or Slade - it always changed time to time. I was learning piano playing for 6 years however I was not a very talented one, but my mother was teaching piano so I was trying to be a good child and kept on practising. However I am still not a good piano player, I was suffering a lot together with my piano teacher Berei Erzsike. She suffered even more than I because of my unconcern for this instrument. I was more interested in soccer than in piano learning. I was quite successfull in soccer playing.
We arrived to year 1977 when after I had finished my studies in the general school our family moved to East Germany to Haldensleben where Hungary has created a porcelain factory for the Germans and my father was employed. Haldensleben was close to Magdeburg and close to the West German border. So we had the possibility to see the TV broadcasts in the WestGerman TV like ARD or ZDF. I visited the secondary school Heinrich Heine Oberschule in Haldensleben in the class 9. Then we started to watch the television broadcasts where we discovered the first punk bands playing live in television. I remember the show Musikladen and similar music shows there where these bands appeared. They were totaly different from the previously seen performers. They had a great impact on me. I did not see the Sex Pistols in television however I have heared them in the radio. That experience was simply shocking. It has changed my whole idea about music and attitude in a minute. Everything became clear and understandable, every question has been answered by that music – it has changed my life forever. And I emphasize I did not see them, I only heard them in the radio and recorded with tape recorder on cassette. I was 15 years old had a severe father who was a very good man but we together with my brother were not easy guys and doing all the forbidden actions with pleasure because the taste of prohibited things was always more tasty and amusing. So we did always what was not allowed to do. Me and my older brother Róbert.
And when I heared Sex Pistols I felt that all our actions had a reason and there was the explanation for our negative attitude in that specific music. I remember when I was listening to the song "Holidays in the sun" I simply wondered how can be a song so perfect and immersive and dynamic? How can someone write such a great song in such a simple way? I was influenced by it immediately and was not able to let go that feeling and desire for freedom. Then I got or stole some Sex Pistols posters and brought them to Hungary. Everybody was jealous those posters were so impressive and special. I returned to Hungary in June 1978. In Germany my parents bought a bass guitar for me and I started to look for partners for establishing a punk band. It was out of question that the band will be a punk band I was so determined and excited about that new style music. Before I left Hungary one year earlier I had already a band called Three Sparks including two of my class mates. The members were Lukács Józsi and Sándor János. One piano, one drums and one guitar. I got one guitar from my parents when I was in class 7 in the general school. It was a Carioca Italian guitar with a very impressive form looking very sportly and nice. However the strings were quite high and it was difficult to play on it, but it was a good school for learning how to play the guitar.
Kolera: Was it an accustic guitar?
Péter: Yes, it was accustic, however it had a wonderfull shape. It was an Italian designed one looked very sportly. Italian people are professional in forms and shapes. With that band Three Sparks we played some Beatles songs only for ourselves and we recorded them by tape recorder and enjoyed the feeling to be a „musician”. So we had such an attempt for making a group before I left for Germany. And while we played there in our flat on the third floor my ex - classmate from earlier visited our practicing. His name was Végvári Tamás. He heared that we made a band and was interested in beeing a member of the band. Later he became a famous painter in Szentendre he was really talented and had good sense for drum playing too. But in the band Three Sparks there was no place for him anymore. But when I returned from EastGermany one year later I remembered him and asked him to be our drummer. He accepted it since he was a Rolling Stones fan and was curious in punk music. It was 1978 summer time.
Kolera: So you decided in East -Germany already that you will establish a punk band and you bought a bass guitar with this definite purpose?
Péter: I dont remember exactly but I had the bass guitar so I had a plan in that direction definitely. I kept my bass guitar in the college dorm where I was living during my parents were staying in East-Germany in 1978-79. I was alone in Hungary, my parents remained in East -Germany for one more year. So Végvári became the drummer of the group. Secondly Sándor János from Three Sparks came to the band as rythm guitarist. Three Sparks could have been also a punk band, we were playing so badly but at that time we had no idea about punk music, yet. After that came into the band Csehó Péter my good friend, and finaly Berki László who became the singer. Berki László had large musical experiences, he played the piano professionally and was very smart in music theory. He composed classical music and performed his own works with delight on piano. Years later he became a music-hystory teacher. Csehó Péter in contrast had no idea about music but he became our solo guitarist and Berki became the singer. We explained to Berki that punk does not need educated musicians so we did not allow him to play on instrument but he had a nice voice so he became our singer and song writer, composer. Csehó had skillfull hands and was quite flexible so for our purpose he was the best solution. His playing was easy to understand and not complicated. And he developed his playing quite quickly. I became bass guitarist and song writer. We had all our nicknames: Végvári was Snail, Sándor was Cobra, I was Dog, Berki was Tsa-Tsa, the name Csehó means in Hungarian language „pub” so he did not need other nickname since there is no better name than” Pub” for a guy like him. He was a lucky guy with that. With this the band was so complete.
We started to practise in Frankel Leó secondary school in the midle of the town. We got sound emplifier from the school first. Berki was learning in that school. We had our own instruments simple guitars and drums. In September 1978 we made our first live introduction concert in that school. We played 3 songs the audience was about 30 or less people who were interested in what kind of band is playing there. We played 2 punk songs plus one slow love song which was for the misleading and deception of the management of the school who definitely were not fans of punk music. If they started to blame us for aggressive attitude we immediately played this slow love song and they stoped blaming us. The 2 punk songs were: "Harlem" and "Final Judgement" and the love song was Hopeless Dissappointment. Good title isn’t it? The audience liked that slow love song very much and did not understand the 2 aggressive punk songs. We played 3 times the love song for request since they claped them back and only one time the 2 punk songs. They did not want to hear them one more time. This slow love song I wrote when I was in EastGermany in love with a German girl and I did not thought that soon I will become a punk rocker.
Kolera: Please stop for a second. Lets return to the practices, how many times did you practice, who wrote the songs and the lyrics?
Péter: We practiced on Fridays afternoon or Saturdays. The school gave us the sound amplifiers and a synthesizer for Berki who wished strongly to play on it. We three had the guitars and Végvári his own drums. Végvári was a very good drummer, very talented. When we had that concert in 1978 we became well known in the town and we started to create new songs. Berki and I were the main song writers. Berki wrote the "Final Judgement", "Hell", "Polecat song","Millionaire", "Beggar", "Indifference", I wrote "Harlem", "Opportunist", Csehó wrote "Hyppies". With these songs we became more and more popular in the town and we recorded the songs on tapes which tapes have been copied and in this way we succeed to reach the young hyppies who started to like that kind of new style music. But at one point we were kicked out of the school where we practiced, we had to look for a new place.
Kolera: How was it? Was there somebody who come into the school and did not like what was there?
Péter: Unfortunately there was a caretaker in the school who was annoyed by our loud music and provoked us and took the drum with him to the police station. We followed him and told to the policeman that that man was provoking us. But the police of course suported him and not us, we were lucky that the policeman did not arrested and beat us and finaly let us go. One week later we got back the drums from the police. So this motherfucker caretaker finaly achieved that we had to stop and could not continue the practice in the school for longer. We had to find a new place for us.
However we were smart young 16 years old kids and were far from giving up so we found a new place for practice quite quickly. The band had two complementary members: one person was our technician Benyhe Gábor who was very talented in electronic things and built sound amplifiers and other special and complicated equipments what we did not understand at all. The other person was my older brother Kovács Róbert who was the manager and arranged the selling of the photoes of the group for 5 Forint per pieces, copied the new songs, organized the live concerts regularly etc. So Benyhe created a sound amplifier for the 3 guitars. With this we became independent from the school, we had finaly our own sound amplifier. Benyhe was also our class mate in the Gymnasium and became an electric engineer after he finished his studies at the university in Budapest. Végvári went to Szeged to Tömörkény art secondory school, Berki visited the Frankel Leo school where we had the practices first, Csehó,Sandor Jancsi and me were learning in Bethlen Gábor grammar school.
Regarding the sound amplifier there was a continuous problem with it, when it became too hot the transistor was demaged and should be exchanged and replaced. One transistor like that had a price of 300 forint which was a very high amount for us so we were obliged to steal new transistor from the shop in order to replace it. Moreover we had to travel to Szeged because it was the only place close to us where this kind of transistor was sold in a shop at Kárász street in Szeged. In his stealing action participated Csehó and me . We went into the shop asked the shop assistant to give us into the hand the new transistor to have a closer look at it while we had the wrong transistor in our other hand and gave the wrong one back to the assistant with remark: this is not what we are looking for. This we did several times in that shop. The H string on Cobra’s guitar always broke time to time so he was also obliged to steal the H string from the shop – he was so poor at that time since his father was not very happy about his punk carrier at all.
So we were thinking where could we go to make the practicing and finaly Csehó’s father who was the director of the Agricultural State Company in the town accepted that we go to make the practicing to their house where was a small building in the corner of the court. This small building became for us very important like second home since we had spent so nice and valuable time there creating and practicing most of our punk songs there.
We called that place „Apple-store” There were really some vegetables but also big stock of Hungarian brandy called „pálinka” what we tasted sometimes and also gave some of it to the direct neighbour who was a professional soldier and was quite disturbed by that terrible noise right along his fence. After he got the brandy he became safisfied and did not argue against us. Giving him regularly some brandy was a wise decision at our side in order to keep peace. This happened by the end of 1978. From this time we started to improve, Csehó became more and more familiar with his instrument, Végvári was really good in drums, I also improved my bass playing, and Cobra was not loud enoough to be heared Berki and me made the song writing, Csehó wrote one song about the hyppies which was really a good song since at that time everybody was hippy in Hungary in concerts so they liked that song very much. It was funny that Berki who was the most educated musician in the group professionaly playing on piano was only singer while Csehó who had no idea about music was the solo guitarist with poor talent in rhythm sense. This was very- very punk. We pulled down Berki to our music level, did not allow him to make things too complicated. We explained him that punk is not about melody or skill but about feelings and hardness. He understood finaly quite well this argument and accepted our points and in the concerts later became really the front man of the group. Our practicing was very noisy it was easy to hear it from 300 meters distance I quess. Sometimes a work delegation came with the father of Csehó to this place and for this occassions we played the slow love song "Hopeless Dissappointment" with big success – maily because those delegation members were fans of brandy and liked that shit lovesong. Csehó’s father was very proud of his young son who was concentrating on guitar playing very visibly. After the delegation left we played our most aggressive songs in order to keep the balance in our musicial practice.
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Kolera: At the beginning you had 3 songs ready as you told. How far did you get by then? Did you have 7-8 songs by this time?
Péter:Our next big concert was organized for October 1979 in the same place at Frankel Leo school. About one year after the first concert. During this one year we made lot of practice in the apple store we became a a quite unified band with exactly worked out songs. First we had those 3 songs as you told, then we fixed the songs in apple store: "Indifference","Pirat","Millionaire","Beggar","Opportunist", "Hell","Polecat song","Hyppies".
Kolera: During this one year period of time you did not try to organize concert?
Péter: I think we were only at the beginning at that time. I was in the second class of the secondary school only. We did not accelerate concerts or force it, we wanted to make good music on the other hand we enjoyed playing on instruments. We loved playing for ourselves too. We loved the feeling that although we were not educated musicians but at the same time it looked like we were playing well music, like professionals. It was like a miracle for all of us. We recorded those songs and people copied them so these songs have been more and more popular among the hippies in Hódmezővásárhely. In summer 1979 we have been working in the agriculture in order to earn some money and buy proper equipments for the band. Cobra and Csehó bought new guitars, we bought bigger speakers to the amplifier - 4 pieces 200 WATT BEAG speakers – with those equipments we were ready for bigger concerts. We became well equiped independent band with own composed songs and with fans knowing these songs from cassette tapes. In this condition we went to our first big concert to Frankel Leo School in October 1979. Although the fans have known the songs they did not know at the beginning that this is punk music, they simply did not know it so we were the ones who made for them clear actualy what is going on. They found it very strange and different from other usual rock songs and wondered what do we want with this. Luckily by the end of that concert for all of them became clear what is punk music that concert was so successfull and special for all of us.
I am considered even today in my secondary school that I was the person who brought the punk into Hungary from East -Germany. For example Czeglédi Sándor the librarian in the school while he introduces the history of Bethlen High School he is telling about my story with punk importing from Germany to Hungary. I am very happy about it, it is good for my vanity that there are people who still remember me.
For this concert Berki received one synthesizer from the school since he was an excellent pianist ,he wanted to play some solo but unfortunately for him the instrument broke down during his solo so he gave up . We were laughing how unlucky he was, although he was the most educated in music by RPX he was only a singer. This first big concert I still have on cassette, luckily we recorded it. Unfortunately we did not record all of our concerts but this one was recorded and lot of photos have been made during the concert about the band and the audience. This concert has been recorded from the beginning till the end. Very bad quality, noisy recordings.
Kolera: That cassette worth a treasure.The first Hungarian punk recording,
the first true, real punk music in Hungary.
Péter: There was a song with following text about Mao’s Communist China "Yellow is a nice colour, like dung shit in the garden, It's a pitty that there are so many of them – China!”
Kolera: Did you play this song in that concert?
Péter: Of course. We have it on the cassette.
Kolera: Was it a private circle closed concert? Only children from the school were allowed to participate or anyone could come?
Péter: Anyone could come. Most of the hippies of the town have been among the audience.
Kolera: Was it advertised on poster?
Péter:Yes, we fixed the poster on the main square of the town. We had to pay some fine penalty since we did not have the permission from the town council. Inspite of this we always fixed them back again and again. Also the fans have picked off the posters and took them as souvenir. We did not print the posters, Végvári had paint them by hand. Like an announcement with the date of the concert and the hippies read and came to see the concert. At that time everybody was hippy.
Kolera: Do you remember how much was the entrance ticket fee?
Péter: I dont remember exactly but I think it was free of charge. Concerning money we were selling photoes about the band. One photo’s price was 5 Forint. We made lot of photoes this is the reason we still have lot of pictures about the band luckily. My neighbour was Hegyi Marshall who was a professional photographer, he was invited to the concert to make photoes. He did wonderfull job. I saw one of his photos in a newspaper where I was yelling on the picture like a fool. I still own this picture. So this concert was succesfull, we became famous in the town we had fans already who liked our music and were waiting for the next occasion to celebrate with us groping and shouting together.
Not much later in February 1980 we had the next concert in the catering Educational School Komócsin Zoltán where was a carnival. My older brother Róbert returned from East-Germany and became our manager. He was selling the pictures, managed the copiing of cassettes and organized the concerts. He is a very talented in such things, he is open minded one, even today he is the postman in Hévíz city where he lives. His sense for communication is very highly advanced. His job was very effective by RPX. So my brother went to the director of this school and they agreed that PRX will give a live show at the carnival as main attraction. But the director had some bad feeling concerning this event and requested a list from Róbert including all the names for whom my brother takes full responsibility. My brother did not hesitate and wrote a list with at least 100 names and returned to that school director who got mad while seeing that long list since he was committed to that existing political system and was not a friend of changes in general. He pulled out 50 names immediately, still remained there about 50 names so my brother had to go to the fans and informed them who may visit the show and who not. This was a carnival in the school so there were entrance tickets sold for the visitors. The people who were not on the list of Róbert climbed in through the small toilette window because they wanted to see the concert by all means. They liked our music really. More and more people filled up the big center hall of the school when we started to play. Before the concert started we visited a pub called Hódtava near to the school together with about 30 fans and achieved some kind of euphoria from the drinks. In this atmosphare we started the concert and felt very well while several more fans appeared in the hall with a bottle of wine in their hands. This was very unusual at that time in a school like that.
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A young girl announced that there was some kind of cake recommended for the students to eat. Berki took from her hand the microphone and shouted to the crowd "Don't eat cakes just listen to the punk songs". In Hungarian language it rhymed very funny. We continued playing 8-10 songs without any problem and suddenly everything went into darkness, the lights went out. We could hear only the drums. The electrical power was disconnected from the school. Everybody was in darkness within a second. I could not see my nose neither. Then came the police into the school to check everybodies ID card only after the check could the audience leave the school building. We the band as last ones. First the police separated the crowd, the outsiders from the students of the school. That idiot director called the police and took away the electricity. Its a shame we could not end the concert because of him and we were not able to play our at that time most popular song „Hippies” among others. This was quite annoying. So this was a memorable concert for all of us. We new that some people will not like us but we never thought that they simple take the electricity away just to stop us in playing for our fans. That stupid cunt.
This concert was on a weekend and the week after on Monday we were drafted to the school director for explanation what has happened and they ordered us to stop this kind of attitude and music. Also Végvári who’s school was in Szeged was invited to the director there and was punished. They told us we were drunken cheeky and naughty. This was the usual way that time, if somebody was different from others they simply made his life difficult with lies and prosecution. Perfect, simple recipe. I never forget that bad feeling listening to those old fuckers. So we promised to stop for a while but we all knew that some later we will start it again.
Our manager Róbert was working hard and organized the picture selling and the next concert. Two months later we went to the next concert to an orphanage for girls/ without parents/ in the Klauzál street in Hódmezővásárhely. It was April 1980 two months after our carnival concert. These orphans were young but knew about life a lot since they experienced quite a lot of horrible things already unfortunately for them.Our usual fans were not allowed to enter into this institute they were outside in the street listening to the music and inside the building were just the inmate girls dancing and singing.It was also a very special concert. It was somehow hartwarming and bitter at the same time. We in the band felt all the same I guess. We played the aggressive punk music and they were happy and laughing. It was controversial and made us all think. It was an unforgettable experience. Our next occassion to play was in May or June 1980. We were allowed to participate at the Erkel Student Holiday EDÜ competition where we played in the Petőfi Sándor Cultural Center of the town. This talent show competition was organized by the KISZ /Communist Youth Association/and the winners went to Gyula city to the finals. So it could have been a great opportunity for getting known outside Hódmezővásárhely by the whole country. In the cultural center there were lot of people it was full with the students from the different schools of the town. About 400 people I guess, may be much more. But unfortunately we did not pass that time, the folk dance group and the student choir was preferred. So we failed.
Kolera: How many songs did you performed there?
Péter : Two or three songs
Kolera: I guess you paid special attention to the texts?
Péter: The lyrics were dark and pessimist. Songs like „Russians go home” and similar text was not possible to play. It was a bad world for us in Hungary but at the same time it was very good to create songs. To be a young rebel in a dictatorship is amaizing, it's a heavenly feeling to be free among the suppressed crowd who does not even understand that they are prisoners. This feeling is almost pervert.
And then we arrived to summer 1980, when a tragedy happened since the father of Csehó the director of the agrar company has died. As a result of this we had to leave the apple store after so nice times and Csehó Peti left the band. We remained only 4 in the group. Csehó was a handsome good looking guy and was in love with a psychopath girl whom he married some years later. They divorced after some years of marriage however in 1980 he needed this girl since his father has passed away. So he quited the band.
My family had a weekend house in Mártély 6 km far from Hódmezővásárhely at the Tisza river. We the remaining four went there for practicing. Berki took over the guitar in order to replace Csehó. Mártély is a quiet place for fishermans and the noise we made was very annoying for them. However any time they come I rejected their request to stop playing with the argument that this is a private property they are not allowed to enter and there is no regulation which forbids the listening to music in that forest. Especially our direct neighbour was very down and dissappointed – no wonder. Here we composed also new songs like „My bride” „XXth century” „Bastards”,”Fixer”„ Officer” „Lick it good” etc..
By the end of 1980 our manager Róbert arranged our next concert which took place in the cellar of the Youth House which was on the main square of the town on the opposite side of Black Eagle Hotel. At that time it was called Peace Hotel. In that cellar an old hippy rocker had a rock club visited by hippies. His name was Egon. My brother convinced him and he allowed us to arrange this concert there. There was lot of space in the cellar and we asked for the installation of a band called Interrock in order to achieve a better sound. There was a band in the town that was called Interrock they played AC/DC, P. Mobil, Black Sabbath and similar songs. Their singer was Radics Ferenc who was a wonderful person, old rocker, interlligent and open minded. He was a little afraid of us but finaly gave us their perfect installation free of charge. Unfortunately he also passed away by now. He was an engineer his hobby was rock music. Their installation had amaizing sound. So we made this concert with 4 members: Berki solo guitar,Cobra Rytm guitar,Dog Bass,Végvári drums.
We played in that concert for the first time my new single „XX.Century: Kill someone if you want to stay alive”. We also played the new song of Berki „Shaman song”
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Kolera: Did you have at that time already the song „Russians go home”?
Péter: No that song was written early 1981 when my neighbour and good friend Rőzse visited me at home. We wrote that song together while drinking some wine. During this concert in the cellar of the Youth House one of our fellows Vas Doki has hit one of the communist youth guards who were responsible for ticket check by the entrance of the cellar. However Vas Doki was not known as he buys tickets for performances so he got trouble with them by the entrance. But inspite of this he could not enter because there were a lot of youth guard members and they drove him away. The cellar was full with fans, the sound was clear and loud it was a very good concert again.
After this cellar concert we were looking for a new guitarist in place of Csehó and Berki found Farkas Zsolt who was a very talented and good guitar player. We started to practice with him early 1981 and prepared ourselves for the next EDÜ talent competition. Unexpected we won the city round in Hódmezővásárhely Cultural Center and moved on to the Csongrád county phase. So we traveled to Szeged with our music installation by two cars one Zsiguli + one Polski Fiat. It was a very nice building close to the old bridge in Szeged where we performed our songs for the jury. We played the songs „Shaman song” and” Nobody helped us” which we considered a little more complex and we worked out very detailed completed with nice solo etc... However the jury said that anyone can make such music. So we failed again and did not move on to Gyula city to the final where the people from all over Hungary could have heared our punk songs. We were a little disappointed but not too much because no wonder we could not move on but we felt some kind of anger after this critics that we are casual almost boring. May be it would have been better to play our real punk songs like” Kill someone if you want to live” or” Lick it out” and we spit on the floor in front of them. May be this would not have been boring for them. Anyway we did not care too much since we made RPX first of all for ouselves and enjoyed every second of beeing part of that band and playing music what we liked. Coming close to the graduation in the school, prepared for final exams and before stepping forward to studies at universities and high schools we decided to organize a farewell concert with our fans in spring time of 1981. in March or April. This last show took place in the club of the Agricultural High School in Hódmezővásárhely at Petőfi Sándor street . There was a band of the High School called Orpheus and we performed together. We played first and they played after us. We recorded that concert but not all part of it because the tape recorder was not in perfect condition and its operator was also drunk I guess. But it is always nice to listen to it after so long time. It's a real live show with shoutings, real punk music and noise. At this concert we played 5 songs of Sex Pistols, too. Moreover there were in the audience the members of the group CPG who became later very famous in Hungary. They were three young guys who introduced themselves to me and told me they are from Szeged and also play punk music. But I heared from them already before and knew that in Szeged there is also some kind of punk band and my cousin Sara who was visiting school in Szeged brought me informations about the punk life in Szeged. But I had only a very poor knowledge of them, they were at the beginning of their music carrier at that time. They became famous in Budapest some years later. My friend Vas Doki who was also a friend of Benkő Zola of CPG told me that Zola liked the RPX song „Final Judgement" the most.
Kolera: Did they know you from earlier?
Péter: Yes,definitely. They heared in Szeged that we play punk in Hódmezővásárhely. We should have been some kind of precedent for them that even if you are not a professional guitar player you can build a band and play punk music for your pleasure. That might be the reason they came to our last concert and they probably knew our songs from tapes/cassettes. They prefered the Serbian punk I guess, and we the RPX liked more the British punk. So this last RPX concert was very successful and we all felt very well with our friends and fans together who gave also everything in order to rise the atmosphare as high as possible with shouting and celebrating . If you are member of a band who is playing against the official trends and fashions in a country where nobody understands what you are doing and what you intend to achieve you are finally very satisfied when you see that your fellows and friends are with you in this efforts and give you respect in participating in that hopeless battle against the whole world while shouting and raging during your last concert in your hometown. And with your music you give them something what make them feel free and strong. This was the best gift for me in that farewell concert in 1981.
This 3 years experience determined my whole life and I think that the other members of the band have also similar thoughts because we all feel that it was worth to be born and live and got a big impulze from these 3 years for our whole life since we participated in a great story what nobody can take away from us ever. To my opinion the whole story is about that if you believe in that punk thing where the essence is that you dont allow your life to be ruled by people whom you dont respect and you want to be different from the average mass of people and you dont let yourself to be frustrated by them then you will be happier than they are and you will be special and your self respect will grow and with this you will be successfull and glad in your life. This punk attitude was the opposit of what that society expected from their citizens. And as I told at the beginning of this report me and my brother have been always enjoying doing forbidden things because we were living among very strict and definite frames and barriers. There are people who try to stop you but a punker is a unstopable rebel if his freedom is at stake.
Kolera: How did you come so far? You globaly decided that you finish or you came to that point step by step slowly? What was the reason you stopped?
Péter: The answer is very sad and simple. There was no possibility for us to continue this music. In our efforts to make music nobody supported us we did eveything from our own will and power. Now we came to the point that we wanted to study at universities and we went separated from each other in different directions. Childhood was over with this forever. I started my studies in Budapest at Foreign Trading High School, Berki went to Eger to became a music teacher but first he was taken to the army as soldier for 1,5 years. Cobra and Benyhe went to the University in Budapest while Végvári remained in Vásárhely. As a matter of fact without Benyhe and his amplifier we could not exist and play music. Csehó also went to Gödöllö to the university and 4 years later he broke his neck and became cripple. Végvári and Farkas Zsolt remained in Vásárhely and played some kind of rock music with other staff for a while. But the first phase of RPX was over with that.
From that point I concentrated stricktly on my private life, made marriage, had children worked a lot and did not make any music until year 2004. I was happy that we dont live in a communist country since 1990. However in 2004 there was a referendum about the citizenship of the Hungarian people living in the neighbouring countries. I always tought that if somebody speaks and thinks Hungarian he may have the same rights as me and this is the general way of thinking in Hungary – I though naively. Everybody can understand this if he knows Hungarian history and has open mind. And suddenly appeared the old communists and started making propaganda against this noble referendum and finaly they achieved that our Hungarian brothers did not get the Hungarian citizenship.
I was very down and got deeply frustrated cried seeing they are back again and hated those communists more than ever. So I decided to use the well-tried gun against them what gives me some consolation for my mental pain and this is the punk music what else could it be? I called Végvári and Benyhe to join later Csehó and Berki, too. Cobra I did not call because I thought it will be easier to work with only 4 persons. But I was not right Cobra was a very good guy in the band with lot of good ideas. This was a mistake at my side. Before calling them I wrote several new songs good and not so good songs and renewed some old RPX songs, too. Since 1978 I never wrote songs about love and never wanted to be popular and nice I always wrote only punk songs expressing my thinking about the world. This made me happier and gave me some satisfaction curing my frustration. We recorded that first CD by Vegvari in Szentendre where he had a small studio. I am not a love song writer with stupid lyrics and can not write songs without feeling some anger and frustration. It is not possible that I write a song about the sunshine and wind blowing over lake Balaton or something. For example a rock song which has nothing to say is for me useless and I am simply not interested in it. For me the lyrics of the song means a lot.
Kolera: It means for 20 years long you did not think of composing any kind of music?
Péter: I had other tasks to do. After getting my diploma I was working in Budapest by Nikex and Hungarofruct state foreign trading companies. I was 1,5 years long soldier. Later I got married had two children and moved to Mezőkovácsháza where I live now. Before I lived in Szentendre in the 80th and went to concerts saw the transformation of the young kids from punk into skinheads but actually I was far from making any music with them. I am not a fan of any kind of schematism I like the world colourfull with own thinking individuals. It does not mean I don't like some of their music.
So I enjoyed life played soccer, traveled abroad drinking and smoking listening music hunting for girls etc...that was the 80’th for me. I was 26 years old when I traveled first time to WestEurope to Vienna in 1988 privately. As foreign trading businessman I was sent only to the communist countries in Warsaw Pact like Czechoslovakia, Poland East-Germany, Rumania since I was not willing to join their communist party. In this way I was an outsider and they did not trust me at all. I remember that in 1990 when the politican system changed it took me for weeks when I finally believed that we are free and can really travel anywhere we want. If you feel yourself as prisoner it takes some time untill you relax and adjust your life to freedom. So in 2004 I bought an Ibanez guitar in the shop Lyon’s cave in Budapest in Pozsonyi street and we created with RPX 3 CD-s between 2005 and 2009.
Kolera: Did you make this CD-s only with Végvári?
Péter: No. Everybody was there except Cobra. Berki and Csehó were singing some songs, Benyhe made the studio works, Vegvari played solo guitar and drums.
One thing I forgot to mention. It was the competition of the weekly journal Pesti Műsor. It was also a talent show competition in whole Hungary an we had to travel to Budapest and play music in the presence of famous Hungarian musicians like Benkő László of Omega, Som Lajos of the band Piramis etc.. They were the jury. It was a big challenge to break out from the unknown state. Cobra was not allowed to come his father kept him closed in his room as prisoner. We traveled by train also my brother the manager Róbert joined us. He usualy stole all the toilette chains whereever we were this was his attitude. He owned finally huge amount of toilette chains. Csehó was also with us since this happened before his father’s passing away in spring 1980. The talent show completition took place in the famous Metro club in Budapest in Dohány street. There have been dozens of professional guitar players and musicians hearing their guitar solos we felt like beeing at the Music Academy as totally amateurs among them. It was not a good feeling like mouse in the snake cage. But we were brave guys and performed our two songs „Final Judgement” and „Hippies” there and shouted into their faces for the great entertainment of the jury. In the song „Hyppies” we always shouted like wild animals.
Kolera: Was there other punk band, too participating at this competition?
Péter: There was the band called Bizottság which was an avantgarde band not a punk band. They came from Szentendre. I did not see any other punk band there. Finishing this preformance we traveled home by train drinking as much alcohol as we could in order to solve tention and relax after this shock in Metro club. In the newspaper it was published one week later that we participated as RPX in that competition. We thought we became famous.
Kolera: Let's talk about your dressing. Have you wear typical punk clothing or rather jeans with plaid shirt?
Péter: We had leather jackets and jeans similar to Ramones. Berki had a cap with a red star on it he wore it on concerts. Cobra and Berki had red shirts with coloured neckties. I sticked through my face and my ears with safety pins. It was not a big deal much less pain than you think. Sometimes we connected the safety pins with toilet chains etc..We used edible fat to fix and keep our hair high there was no gel available at that time. The clothing was not an easy thing because there was nothing special to buy and we were financially very poor but it was also not too important for us. However the leather jacket was our best friend. I kept it for at least 20 years after we quited. In summer we were wearing sport tennis shoes or lowland slippers. I prefered the tennis shoes because I was able to run faster away when I was chased by somebody on the streets.
Kolera: Was there any affair on the streets with the police?
Péter: Of course they regularly insulted us and everybody. One time I was captured because of pissing into the bushes right by the pub entrance. The pub’s name was Kistópart. They invoiced me 300 Forint on a cheque as punishment. It was a lot of money for me so I sent home the cheque and my mother paid it for me. There was an explanation why I was punished and they wrote that „this action is very dangerous for the society„ I was proud that I am so dangerous it was quite funny. I probably still have this document in my drawer. I was drinking in the pub and went out for a piss then two policeman suddenly insulted me. They were the silliest guys in the school class sitting in the darkest bench behind everything and when they grew up they became policemen and had the power to insult normal guys like me. May be I would have never made punk music if such bastards would not existed. They inspired me to create aggressive songs and criticize them and similar fuckers.
Our 3 CD-s after 2004 were multiplied by Cipó Tibor who played bass guitar in the band Tolcsvay. He was a good guy and enjoyed to meet such an old punk rocker like me. We talked a lot about music and had a very good connection. Unfortunately he died some years ago. Our CD- s were sold by Rockworld and there was a man with the group Karpátia who was selling our CD-s on concerts of Karpátia too. He sold not too much but some of them.
Kolera: How many years did you issue these 3 CD-s?
Péter: The first one we recorded in 2006. Then we made two more in 2007 and 2008 I guess. It means it took 3-4 years to make the 3 CD-s.
Kolera: Where did you recorded them?
Péter: We recorded them in Szentendre in Végvári studio. Végvári’s family has a big house there but not big enough. His father and mother escaped and left the house when we started to play and shout.
Kolera: And then you recorded the old songs and the new songs too what you wrote later?
Peter:We recorded some of our old songs with the new techniques but of course only some songs of them. We had a very wide range of songs from the late 70th. The 3 CD-s include about 10 or 12 old songs and the rest are new written songs. On the first CD we had several old songs, on the second only 1 or 2 and on the third CD there was no more new song at all. It was important to criticize the things of that time in those CD-s. The old songs critisized the old regime. Now we are thinking with Vegvári that we start to remake the old songs in order to introduce them to the next generation and keep them alive since those songs were really very good 70th punk songs I am convinced. May be with new lyrics they could be even better. We will see. Without anger and new impressions I am not able to make new songs and lyrics. Now I dont find any reason to start and go on with it. And recording the old songs it is like….
Kolera: Nostalgia?
Péter: Nostalgia is not what I feel. RPX is still alive in me. I go on and have the desire to wake up those old songs from my past because they desrve to get a better recordings and that bad quality on tapes is unworthy to them. It would be wonderfull to remake them with new techniques but with the old soundings.
Kolera: But those songs on cassettes have a huge value as the oldest recordings in the Hungarian punk history. They are period documents.
Péter: Yes indeed if you say. It was a unique thing, we did this while other people did other things. For me this period of time is important because this is part of my life. It helped me a lot in my whole life considering that during my youth I was doing what I was beleiving in and I undertook the difficulties which come together with that kind of music and attitude. I tried to give these experiences to my children how to live straight and clean. When we get stucked the punk cinicysm and humor help us out. There is no worry and doubt any longer. They disappear.
Kolera: What kind of other songs did you have where the text was hard and critical? I mean besides „Russian go home”
Péter: We had „Yellow is a nice colour” „Kill someone if you wanna live””Lick it out „Those were real rebel punk songs.
Cholera: How did this second period of time ended? You thought that these 3 CD-s are enough and you simply stoped?
Péter : When the communists lost the elections in Hungary in 2010 I felt satisfaction and thought that it was enough hope they will never return. I was really very happy they lost the confidence of the people. I lost the motivation to make further CD-s in that situation and hoped that Hungary will rise and communists wont come back. I like music in general I am a punk guitarist but I have some idea about music theory I play for example Creedence or Sweet songs not only punk with some friends but I write only and exclusively punk songs and nothing else. But as I mentioned earlier for writing punk songs one need the motivation and anger.
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Kolera: Do you have the intention to make concerts with that new songs and composition?
Péter :We were thinking about it however it is very difficult by now. We wrote the songs for ourselves first of all but of course we are lucky if other people also like them. I like literature and poems I was reading lot of books when I was younger and with the punk music I can express myself in text and melody. On the other hand it is amazing to belong to a band and play music with them. Especially when you are young kid. With these RPX members I still have the stable friendship in most noble sense of that word we understand each other without long talking we know and feel each others thinking very well. If we have time we talk and entertain together but making music together live is something else. Csehó has broken his neck 40 years ago, Berki is at this moment homeless and had problems with alcohol. I hope he will recover soon but presenty there is no chance for us to make music together at a concert.
Cholera: Let's talk about one of the most important questions. Where did the name Red Polecats come?
Péter: We were sitting together with Csehó in a Pub called Hód Bisztró thinking about the name of the band. We needed a name which is provokative and funny at the same time. First came the word ”polecat„ into consideration because me and Csehó called sometimes each other polecat just teasing the other one. Then came the idea that it should be red, the colour what we all hated because of its political content. So if we put the two words together there is a cross-modulation to the reigning political system. Since the polecat smells our name was ”smelly communists”. It was perfect for a punk band.
Kolera: In Hungarian language it would have been very dangerous for you.
Péter:We were not affraid of that. We put it on the posters sometimes. Eveybody knew that this is our name also in Hungarian. In the concerts the fans were shouting our name in Hungarian language. It has been recorded on tapes.
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Kolera: I thought only the English name was in public?
Péter: Definitively not. First we had the name only in Hungarian but there was a big respect to English pop culture and so we like many other groups translated it into English thinking it sounds much better for the ears. Finally we found out the short name of the band as RPX which was much more practical to use. While playing at the concerts it was much easier for the fans to shout these 3 letters only.
Kolera: You participated at the competitions and at the Metro club talent show under the name RPX. Your band was called RPX also in the newpaper Pesti Műsor.
Péter: Yes indeed. But believe me we never thought that we might have any problem with this name. We did not have any paranoia with it. We were very young and thought that if somebody is asking regarding our name we say simply that this is a small red innocent animal playing with the ball in the garden. Why should they always think of politics? This is only an animal nothing else. We were young and happy and lived our life drinking, sniffing glue enjoying life although there was always some fear in the air in that system.
Kolera: How did sniffing glue come? From the hippies?
Péter: Yes. On the Lenin square there were the hippies and I often joined them and they gave me a sac in order to feel some better. It worked.
Kolera: Did you take medicines too?
Péter: Not really. One time I tried but it was some kind of strong heart medicine and I got really sick of that. I was very ill for 3 days from that medicine. The glue was an easy thing compared to that checmical what I was not able to controll. The sac you have in your own hand and you can stop any time when it has come to a wrong effect. By medicine you can not stop it. I took that one medicine when I was drunk and the effect was terrible. It was a punishment not a joy.
Kolera: Was it a Parkán medicine?
Péter: No it was a brutal something for curing the heart. My girlfriend Vas Maca took Parkán and the hippy girls too. Maca was earlier also girlfriend of Güzü from CPG his brother Vas Doki told me. I dont know I only heared it. Vas Doki was a fellow of Güzü and he told us that they both were sitting in East-Railway Station in Budapest on the stairs when Doki told to Güzü that Erdős Péter is the main enemy of the Hungarian youth and it would be great to write a song about this man. Then Güzü wrote this song about Erdős Péter may be Doki gave him the inspiration. Unfortunately Doki died 5 years ago at lung cancer however I can imagine that this was a true story – why should he told us this?
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Kolera: Have there been other punks in your town?
Péter: At the end yes. We inspired them with our music and attitude. First they were hippies then they became punks. There was for example one guy called Szárcsa and the other one Kisbán they suddenly let cut their hair bold. RPX was already known in the town and they came to the concert with bold heads. One day earlier they had long hair so the difference was quite shocking. Hippies prefereed long hair of course. Szárcsa sticked through his face all the time with safety pins and looked like Johnny Rotten in his striped dirty pants with slippers on his feet and spitting all the time everywhere. He was working at the junkyard where the corpses of animals have been processed and it had a strong bad smell through the whole city. When the smell came into the town we were always joking that Szárcsa has lifted the lid of the pot where the dead animals have been cooked. He was also sniffing glue and we have stolen together 25 kg glue called Pálmatex from the house construction areas in Vásárhely. We took it to the forest where we had most of the sniffing glue parties. Instead of the library we went to the forest for having fun.
Kolera: So you did not spend the time with watching television at home?
Péter: We were eagerly waiting till the family went to sleep then we were hanging out in the forest in the darkness drinking wine or sniffing glue and talking about the actual matters of life we were interested in. On the Lenin square we collected the money and if there was enough money for buying a bottle of wine we bought it in the wine cellar and drunk it together with the hippies. It was not a strong wine I guess because I could drink one bottle i.e. one litre with no effort and not getting drunk at all.
Kolera: How many girls have been in this gang?
Péter: Lot of girls have been there. Like Jaksa Maca, Mónus Gabi, Picúr, Nagy Andi, Szendi twins, and even much more.There was a girl who was deaf called Bea. We had a party in Mártély 6 km from our town. It was late we stayed in Mártély for the night and asked this deaf girl to forward the information to our parents that we dont go home and stay in Martély for the night with friends. Unfortunately this girl had some problem with the speaking as well so my parents did not understand what she was saying and when they asked her to repeat she did not hear them and left them. So the message was not forwarded to the addresse. My other classmate Küköm sticked several safety pins through his face and we made a photo about him. My friends were all punk fans like Kispap and Patkány or Csiklós Miklós and many other guys.
There was a hippy called Sik Gyurka. He was a special one. In that socialist system it was compalsory to have a working place and a job. If you did not work and the police catches you they took you into prison. Sik Gyurka had never a job and enjoyed the life in summer in freedom outside the prison. When winter came he went into the prison because there was food and warm. In summer he came out of the prison and enjoyed life again. This he did for many many years. In 1990 the political system changed and it was not a crime any longer if somebody did not have a job and working place. In this way Sik Gyurka was not arrested and taken into the prison in winter time after 1990. So he was freezing in the forest at winter and finaly he decided to look for a job and started to work by a company. For him it was a punishment that the communist system has changed. He was the loser of that political changes. There was another guy called Finta Sanyi who was a sailor at lake Balaton in summer times. But he did not work too much. He was very strong and beat the gipsies when they were too shameless. We liked that because the gipsies were attacking us when they were bored.We always had to decide either to fight or run away. Not an easy decision. When we wanted to hang out of school we asked my brother Róbert to break the window of our class room. He started to school very early and did what we asked by him and broke the window in school. When the teacher came into the class Csehó and me offered to the teacher that we take the window into the town to the glass master for repair. In this way we did not have to take part at the boring lessons at school. Our life was quite busy as you can see.
Epilogue: After RPX broke up Végvári and Farkas Zsolt remained in Vásárhely and played together with some unknown fellows for a while. In the 90th Cobra and Végvari made a CD in Szentendre together, Cobra was singing. Végvari learned to play the guitar and besides of drums he became an excellent guitar player. He was invited and played in several bands as guest guitarist. He also had an own band called Kerpa Ruva where they were playing folk songs in rock style. I liked it. They issued a CD with Kerpa Ruva as well.
So this was the story of the members of Red Polecats .
Thank you for the interview.
RPX - RED POLECATS 1987-1980 Berki László (Csacsa) - vocal, Kovács Péter (Kutya) - bass, vocal, Csehó Péter - solo guitar, Sándor János (Kobra) - rhythm guitar, Végvári Tamás (Biga) - drum
RPX - RED POLECATS 1981 Berki László (Csacsa) - vocal, Kovács Péter (Kutya) - bass, vocal, Farkas Zsolt - solo guitar, Sándor János (Kobra) - rhythm guitar, Végvári Tamás (Biga) - drum
RPX - RED POLECATS 2005-2008 Berki László (Csacsa) -vocal, Kovács Péter (Kutya) - vocal, guitar, bass Végvári Tamás (Biga) - guitar, drum Csehó Péter, Benyhe Gábor - sound technician
Discography:
Jólnevelt naplopók Live 1979 (1995)
Minek neked (2005)
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