Metak

Metak ("Bullet") was a Croatian rock band from Split, active from 1978 to 1981 and playing hard rock, power pop and new wave. Bass player and composer Mirko Krstičević, formerly of Che, started it in the spring of 1978 with the poet and journalist Momčilo Popadić, who wrote lyrics. The first line-up had singer Ranko Boban, drummer Matko Jelavić, guitarist Željko "Jappa" Brodarić and keyboard player Doris Tomić.

The band first appeared at the 1978 Split festival with "Šijavica", released as a single with "Gastarbajterska balada"; the organisers thought the name Metak too provocative and announced the group as "Meta". Boban left that autumn, Jappa took over the vocals and his brother Zlatko Brodarić joined on guitar. The albums were recorded at the Tetrapak studio in Split, named after a song on the first of them, U tetrapaku (1979, Jugoton), which also had "Miss Levi's". After it came out Metak opened for Bijelo Dugme at the JNA stadium in Belgrade.

"Da mi je biti morski pas" (1980) was their biggest hit and the most played song on all Yugoslav radio and TV stations that year, and it gave its name to their second album. The third, Ratatatatija, recorded in 1980 and released by Suzy in 1981 while Jappa was in the army, moved towards new wave, with "Split at Night" and the instrumental "Bijela soba". The band ended at the end of 1981.

Jappa released the solo album Majmuni (1982), built on songs meant for Metak's third album, and became a producer for Haustor, Regata, D' Boys, Đavoli and Crvena jabuka; since 2016 he has performed with his daughter as Sara & Jappa. Krstičević became a composer for film, television and theatre, Zlatko Brodarić a studio musician with instrumental albums of his own, and Matko Jelavić a pop singer and songwriter. Momčilo Popadić died in Split on 20 November 1990, and Toni Volarić's documentary about him, "Pope, vrati se", came out in 2017.

"Da mi je biti morski pas" was covered by Osmi putnik in 1987, inspired Ognjen Sviličić's 1999 film of the same name and in 2006 was ranked 55th on the B92 list of the 100 best Yugoslav songs. A previously unreleased live version appeared on the 2019 box set Splitska djeca.