Dražen Ričl

Dražen Ričl, known under nicknames "Zijo" and "Para", (12 March 1962 – 1 October 1986) was a Yugoslav rock musician, best known as the original frontman of popular pop rock band Crvena Jabuka.

Ričl started his musical activity in his hometown Sarajevo in the early 1980s. He rose to prominence as guitarist for the band Elvis J. Kurtović & His Meteors and participant in the New Primitivism subcultural movement. He gained nationwide popularity in Yugoslavia as the vocalist and guitarist of Crvena Jabuka, which he formed in 1985 with guitarist Zlatko Arslanagić, along with keyboardist Dražen Žerić, bassist Aljoša Buha, and drummer Darko Jelčić. The band's 1986 self-titled debut album was an instant commercial success. On 18 September 1986, while on their way to Mostar for their first solo concert on the album promotional tour, the band members were involved in a car accident which killed Aljoša Buha. Ričl was transferred to the Mostar city hospital with severe head injuries. Several days later he was transferred to the Military Medical Academy (VMA) in Belgrade, where he died.

Early life Ričl was born in Sarajevo to Czech father Ferdinand Ritchel and Bosniak mother Elvira Deak. He grew up in Sarajevo's Višnjik neighborhood, where he was known by the nickname "Para".

In parallel with primary school, he attended lower music school for acoustic guitar. Already infatuated with the 1970s British and American hard rock, in parallel with his secondary education at Sarajevo's Druga Gimnazija, the teenager started a short-lived band Misterija (Mystery). Later during high school, he switched over to play with Znak Sreće (Sign of Happiness).

By the end of 1981, he switched over to Ozbiljno Pitanje (Serious Question), a power pop band featuring Zlatko Arslanagić. Already sporadically attending his university studies, Ričl would soon abandon them altogether in pursuit of a musical career.

Elvis J. Kurtović & His Meteors (1983–1985)

In 1983, Ričl joined Elvis J. Kurtović & His Meteors, a band associated with the nascent New Primitivism movement in the city of Sarajevo. As part of the New Primitives, he assumed the nickname/stagename "Zijo" and took part in the recording of the band's 1984 debut album (Myths and Legends about King Elvis).

Crvena Jabuka (1985–1986)

By early 1985, Ričl began re-connecting with Arslanagić musically, with a view of possibly launching a new band with his former musical collaborator. The album quickly became popular in Yugoslavia, eventually reaching a highly-respectable 150,000 copies sold, with several songs becoming nationwide hits.

Promoting the album, Crvena Jabuka held several live performances Crvena Jabuka still got to play on the rescheduled date for the event three months later, in early September 1986, when it rained again though not as heavily so the show went ahead as planned.

Death

In late summer 1986, as a consequence of the outstanding sales of Crvena Jabuka's debut album, the band booked the Bosnia-Herzegovina leg of a planned Yugoslavia-wide tour, the opening date of which was scheduled for Thursday, 18 September 1986 in Mostar at the Kantarevac Stadium.

On the day of the concert, the band members and their small entourage left Sarajevo on their way to Mostar in three cars: vocalist and guitarist Ričl, guitarist Arslanagić, and bass guitarist Buha were in Arslanagić's Zastava 750, keyboardist Žerić and drummer Jelčić were in Žerić's Volkswagen Golf Mk1, while employees of the Zenica-based Atlas company, the organizers of the tour, were in a Zastava 1500.

The Dražen Ričl Award is awarded to young composer by the Association of Composers and Music Creators of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Discography With Elvis J. Kurtović & His Meteors Studio albums (1984) (1985)

With Crvena Jabuka Studio albums Crvena Jabuka (1986)