Hazard

Hazard was a Slovenian pop rock band whose short run in the early 1980s left a string of songs that are still sung today. Its members first met in the Ljubljana bar Turist in the winter of 1979, brought together by the drummer Miro Čekeliš, who came from the group Prah like the singer and bassist Dominik Trobentar. Saxophonist Braco Doblekar, keyboard player and singer Dani Gančev and guitarist Dare Petrič completed the line-up, and the band started out in 1980.

Most of their songs were written by Tadej Hrušovar and the lyricist Dušan Velkaverh. The very first one, "Vsak je sam", finished third at Slovenska popevka in 1980; in 2008 it was covered by Alenka Godec. Their third song, "Marie, ne piši pesmi več", was the Slovenian entry at Jugovizija 1981 and placed fifth. They returned to the Yugoslav Eurovision selection with "Bistro" in 1982, "Najlepše pesmi" in 1983 and "Nocoj" in 1987.

Their debut album sold some 200,000 copies, making Hazard the first group in Yugoslavia to receive a gold record. At Melodije morja in sonca in Portorož they sang "Kopalnico ima" in 1981, "Zakrokano morje" in 1982, which won the jury's award for the best lyrics, and "Ko sonce kiksne" in 1983. Other favourites from those years include "Zgoraj brez", "Nena", "Otroci pankrtov", "Tovariš Rock'n'roll", "Papige" and "Nafta".

The band broke up in 1983, after Dani Gančev had to leave Slovenia. In 1987 a changed line-up with Trobentar and Petrič recorded the cassette Hazardiranje prepovedano with eleven new songs, and in 2006 the band came back with the album Hazard 2006.

On 10 April 2010 Hazard celebrated its thirtieth anniversary with a big concert in Ljubljana's Hala Tivoli, released as Hazard Forever LIVE!, and played fairly regularly that year and now and then until 2013. Dominik Trobentar died in December 2014.