The Drinkers

The Drinkers is a Slovenian rock band founded in 1993 in Litija by guitarist Robert Likar, formerly of Niet, and singer Sandi Kolenc, known as Koli. The first line-up also had drummer Andrej Žibert, bassist Miro Medvešček and keyboardist Evgen Malis. Alcohol is a frequent theme of their lyrics, and they call their style "drink'n'roll".

Their first album, Lepi in trezni, came out in 1995, and the second, Žeja, two years later. Its best-known song was "Deset majhnih jagrov", a version of "Zehn kleine Jägermeister" by Die Toten Hosen. At the end of 1998 a single with "Ko to tamo peva", their version of the Bijelo Dugme song, went to the top of the Slovenian singles chart. In 1999 they released the album Pivolucija and the mini album Zadnja večerja with versions of Christmas songs. For their tenth anniversary they released the album Prohibicija and played a big concert in Trbovlje.

2003 was a turning point. Kolenc had to step back for a while because of his health, and the band left its label Megaton, unhappy with the promotion of the new album. They kept touring the next year with new guitarist Matjaž Živkovič, who took over as frontman when Kolenc left in 2005. That line-up recorded Hajdi, released in 2007 on Multirecords, and played across Slovenia and Croatia. Drummer Žibert then left and Klemen Markelj took his place, and in 2011 Kolenc and keyboardist Trebec came back.

The album Recidiv followed in 2014. Sandi Kolenc died in 2017 after long health problems; as he was still the face of the band, the others decided not to go on in that line-up. The band's own channel later posted new songs such as "Ni še umru" and a live recording of "Še vedno sem tu" from March 2026.