Janos Bajtala and the Gypsy Girl

Описание: In the days when the gradual diminishing follicle resources began to take it's toll Andy embarked on making this little project about his Piano player friend Janos Bajtala's exploits in 1960's Hungary.

Not everyone who defected from the Iron curtain was fleeing the ensuing wrath of the authorities for spying. For some it was purely a matter of self expression. Enter in this the third "On the Grounds of National Insecurity" story the name Janos Bajtala. A representative of the silent majority who felt the true effects of day to day cold war policy and the ramifications on such simple and essentially non political areas of life as the recording and performing of popular music.

One of Hungary's only pop singers performing R&B Janos got his big break in 1967 when his band Bajtala was given a live session on Hungary's biggest national radio station Kocuth (Koshoot).
Among the four songs played was a tune entitled "Gypsy Girl" the performance of which had previously been suppressed by the idiosyncratic "Chanson committee" an artistic body set up by the state to veto material submitted for prospective recordings and performances.


"Kocuth" began receiving numerous requests for the live recording of "Gypsy Girl" to be played on the radio and in a very short space of time the song became an unreleased hit. However when it came to having the song released on vinyl the manager of Hungary's only recording company turned it down with no explanation.

A number of reasons may have played a part, the title of the song "Gypsy Girl" which was perceived by the authorities to have connections with bourgeois sentiment relating to the romantic notion of the Gypsy in pre communist Hungary; the attitude of the authorities to pop music which was not that sympathetic and the jealousy of the man who ran Hungary's only record label, Jano Bosr (Janer Borsh), who like so many party officials was not particularly successful in his own field as a musician and may well have resented Yanos's growing fan base established without state patronage.

What ever the reasons the release never occurred. From this moment on Janos knew he did not want to remain in a country riddled with such obvious and petty corruption. Convinced the West had more to offer he took his opportunity to depart without permission in 1972, when a female singer who was well connected with several party officials was allowed to travel to West Germany and perform on a four week engagement and took Janos with her . When the band returned they did so without janos who chose to travel to London where he has remained ever since.