Biography
THE DIDET BIDET was the next group in Robert's life. Robert describes the group's music as psychodelic punk rock. In addition to Gawliński, the line-up consisted of Majonez on percussion, Sidney (ex-TZN Xenna) on bass and Johnny (ex-Novo del arte) on guitar. This was when the song that was to become the Wilki hit "Moja Baby"[10] first came into being. It was only created because the band finally wanted a rock ballad on their set list! The Didet Bidet played a dozen or more concerts, including at the Nowa Huta Cultural Centre, where more than 100 police showed up instead of security, and the Czerniaków Cultural Centre, where they played by candlelight after the lights unfortunately went out. They also made a demo of their material but fell apart when Johnny went to the United States. His group Johnny Comes Late was the support act for Wilki at the Copernicus Center in Chicago recently.
At the beginning of 1988, Robert received a proposal to record with OPERA, a group made up of former Republika[11] members minus Grzegorz Ciechowski, who was then recording under his own name. Opera's studio material had to wait for the breakup of the group and the success of WILKI's debut album for its release. They played several concerts together, including at the Hala Olivia and the Jarocin 89 festival but this group did not fulfil Robert's dreams either. The other Opera band members were not interested in recording their younger colleague's compositions and so Robert decided to start his own band. And thus WILKI[12] was born.
Go to http://www.wilki.com.pl to see what it was like in the early days :-)
The endless weeks of gruelling concert tours, combined with the rock & roll lifestyle, took a heavy toll on WILKI. Robert dissolved the group in 1995, after they had released 3 albums, and put out his first album entitled Robert Gawliński Solo.
The album premiered at the Victoria Hotel on 31 August 1995 - Robert's 32nd birthday. A banquet was put on for the artists, journalists and music industry personalities in conjunction with the concert. This was a surprise for Robert. Maryla Rodowicz, Andrzej Krzywy, Robert Janowski, Closterkeller, Cave and O.N.A. were all there and performed their own arrangements of Gawliński's songs. Robert played a dozen or so songs with various formations featuring Madame, Opera and Wilki, and also performed selections from Solo. The album was certified Gold after five months and Robert received as many as six Fryderyk[13] nominations.
After this record, Robert dissolved his relationship with MJM and signed with Starling, an independent Cracow label that gave him complete artistic freedom. The album Kwiaty Jak Relikwie[14] was released on 17 February 1997. This somewhat folk-inflected outing featured the song "Sid and Nancy" (dedicated to Sidney, the former The Didet Bidet bassist, and inspired by the story of Sid Vicious and Nancy Spungen), with a video clip by Borys Lankosz and the saucy "Nie Stało Się Nic[15]" with an animated video clip by Cracow artist Iwona Siwek-Front. The album sold enough copies to go Gold but was not certified as such as Starling was not a member of the Polish Society of the Phonographic Industry (ZPAV).
Robert guested on Jan Borysewicz's Być Wolnym[16] album in spring. He wrote the lyrics to Jan's "Choćby Nie Wiem Co"[17], which he sang with Jan Panasewicz, and performed "Z Dzikiej Ziemi"[18] with his group.
Robert, Monika and the children spent the summer at Andrzej Smolik's home in Świnoujście. The musicians worked on the album X, which they co-produced.
The record was released on 17 April 1998 - Robert's name day.
Robert deployed slides, motion pictures and video projections at his concerts for the first time on "The Generation X Tour" that promoted the album. Robert became the face of Generation X cosmetics. Visionary director Mariusz Treliński made the video once more. The clip for "Długi Spacer"[19] still blows people away even now.
This was the last album and video to feature the Gawliński/Sadowski combination. Sadek died on 26 January 2005.
Robert made his acting debut in 1998. Basquiat screenwriter and longtime U.S. resident, Lech Majewski, invited Robert to portray the Polish writer Edward Stachura in the film Wojaczek.[20] The film premiered in 1999.
Robert began recording the album Gra[21] in the spring of 1999. The record was produced by Smolik and all the guitar parts were played by Robert. The album, which premiered on 22 October 1999, contains some of Poland's first ever material to be recorded and mixed using the Pro Tools platform. The first single, "Cherman", was the most-played holiday song that year. Łukasz Bielan made the video for the second single, "Mamy Tylko Chwile[22]", in Los Angeles.
In 2000, MJM released Największe Przeboje[23], a double album containing 28 of Robert's greatest hits recorded solo or with Wilki as well as two new tracks - "Beze Mnie O Mnie" and "O Miłości"[24] - dedicated to the memory of Bogdan Łyszkiewicz, leader of the group Chłopcy z Placu Broni[25].
At the end of 2000, Robert agreed to work with Tomasz Mędrzak, the Ochota Theatre director who had played the role of Staś Tarkowski in the film W Pustyni i w Puszczy.[26] Robert wrote the music for a production of Hamlet which premiered at Warsaw's Ochota Theatre on 24 February and was also the voice of Hamlet's father's ghost.
A few days earlier, on 9 February 2001, Wilki had got together for the first time in six years and decided to give it another go. Robert's solo plans were put on hold - for quite a few years as it turned out. It was not until late 2006 and early 2007 that Robert started recording a demo for a solo album in Leszek Biolik's studio.
Recording began at Studio S7 in Piaseczno on 17 August 2009 and continued until the end of February 2010. Maciek Gładysz, Andrzej Rajski, Leszek Biolik, Michał Marecki and Magda Koronka were among those who took part in the sessions. "Grzesznicy"[27] was the first single. Borys Lankosz, director of Rewers[28], made a short film for "Grzesznicy" at the exact place in Greece where the songs on the album were created. This was not the next music video, video clip or musical painting, but rather a peculiar allegory, a mysterious metaphor about the world of good and evil, a study illustrating a cycle of magical visions. Similarly to the lyrics of the songs, each scene was open to many interpretations. Lankosz's artistic statement, however, was unequivocally understood by the media::: who wasted no time censuring it :-) The director's version can be seen on the MULTIMEDIA section.
The album Kalejdoskop[29] came out on 16 April 2010.
[1] "Anger" or "wrath" in Polish.
[2] The Fearless Vampire Killers - a 1967 film by Roman Polański.
[3] Polish Public Radio Channel 3
[4] The Greatest Band on Earth
[5] Maybe That Was Sybilla Just Now
[6] If Not Hornets
[7] The Wave
[8] Tie Hung Up in the Bathhouse
[9] i.e. Tom "Thumb" Jaworski
[10] My Baby
[11] Republic
[12] Wolves
[13] The Fryderyk Awards are Poland's most prestigious musical awards.
[14] Flowers Like Relics
[15] Nothing Happened
[16] To Be Free
[17] Although I Don't Know What
[18] From the Wild Earth
[19] Long Walk
[20] Soldiering
[21] Game
[22] We Only Have a Moment
[23] Greatest Hits
[24] "Without Me About Me" and "About Love"
[25] The Boys From Weapons Square
[26] In the Desert and in the Wilderness
[27] Sinners
[28] Reverse
[29] Kaleidoscope