Lačni Franz

Lačni Franz were a Slovenian rock band from Maribor, founded in June 1979 by singer Zoran Predin, guitarist Oto Rimele, bassist Zoran Stjepanovič, drummer Andrej Pintarič and keyboardist Mirko Kosi. They are counted among the most prominent acts of the Yugoslav new wave and rock scenes. Rimele, then playing in the band Zevs, heard Predin sing at a birthday party on Pohorje, and the band built its repertoire on Predin's own songs. The name was his idea too, taken from Hungry Joe in Joseph Heller's novel Catch-22; "lačni" stood for the band's hunger for rock in the age of disco.

The first albums were Ikebana (1981) and Adijo pamet (1982), with early hits such as "Praslovan", "Stari vojak" and "Šankrok". In 1981 the band won the best interpretation award at the youth festival in Subotica and the SKOJ "Seven Secretaries" award. Because of his long monologues on stage, some of the Yugoslav music press called Predin the "Yugoslav Lenny Bruce".

The title track of Ne mi dihat za ovratnik (1983) was the band's first big hit and the album its first major mainstream success. Slon med porcelanom followed in 1984 and Na svoji strani in 1986, their biggest seller up to then. After that tour Rimele left to join Laibach and Milan Prislan took over the guitar. Sirene tulijo (1987) and Tiha voda (1989) followed, with songs like "Čakaj me", "Tiha voda (Vzami si čas)" and a rock version of Prešeren's "Zdravljica", which caused controversy in Slovenia. In 1985 the band took part in YU Rock Misija, the Yugoslav contribution to Live Aid, and in 1989 it represented Yugoslavia at the EBU Rock Festival in Novi Sad.

The farewell album, Zadnja večerja, came out in 1994, and the band officially split on 31 December 1997. Predin had already started a solo career, releasing Gate na glavu in 1992. Four of the others reunited without him in 2000 with singer Boštjan Velkavrh, and in 2005 Predin rejoined them for a concert at Ljubljana's Križanke and a tour of the former Yugoslavia. In 2014 he formed a new line-up, which made Lađa norcev (2016), Akustična pusa (2017) and Nova nebesa (2017).

Drummer Andrej Pintarič died on 23 January 2022, and after a series of farewell concerts Lačni Franz ended at the close of that year. In the book YU 100 (1998), Na svoji strani was ranked 72nd and Adijo pamet 81st among the best Yugoslav albums.