Gordi

Gordi, "The Proud Ones", were a Yugoslav rock band formed in Belgrade in November 1977 by the guitarist and singer Zlatko Manojlović, former leader of Dah, after his military service. They started as a progressive rock band and turned to heavy metal in the early 1980s, and Manojlović wrote the music and lyrics on all five of their albums of that era.

The first line-up was Zlatko Manojlović, his brother Goran Manojlović on keyboards (also from Dah), drummer Stevan Milutinović and bassist Dragan Janković. Zdenko Pomper replaced Janković and left soon after the 1978 debut album, and Slobodan Svrdlan took over on bass. Gordi 2 (1979, PGP-RTB) moved towards hard rock and gave them the radio hits "Ovog leta idem na more" and "Baci tu cigaru", and that year they won first place at an international rock festival in Poznań, Poland.

Gordi 3 (1981) brought "Haos u radio mreži" and "Stari as". In 1981 drummer Čedomir Petrović joined, Goran Manojlović left, and Gordi became a power trio. That year they opened for the Ian Gillan Band at the Pionir Hall in Belgrade and released Pakleni trio on Jugoton, their first heavy metal album, followed in 1982 by Kraljica smrti. These two albums are often seen as milestones of the Yugoslav heavy metal scene.

The band stopped in 1984, when Manojlović released his first solo album. Svrdlan went on to Ratnici and U Škripcu, moved to Los Angeles in the early 1990s and later played with Generacija 5, among others. "Put do pakla" appeared in 1994 on the compilation Pakleni vozači: Jugoslovenski hard rock, and Rock Express Records reissued Pakleni trio in 2006 and Kraljica smrti in 2007.

In 2024 Gordi returned with Fenix on Croatia Records, a mostly hard rock album of Manojlović's songs, with Todor Manojlović, Marko Terlević and two members of Parni Valjak, Dalibor Marinković and Berislav Blažević.