“Srebrenite Grivni” is one of the cult Bulgarian rock bands from the second half of the last century, who during the time of censorship in Bulgaria when it was forbidden to listen to the radio stations “Voice of America” and “Slobodna Evropa“, were amazed by the music transmitted through the radio waves of “Radio Luxembourg”. They laid the foundations of rock music in Bulgaria.
The band was formed in Sofia by Valentin Stefanov and Aleksandar Petrunov in 1962. Later they were joined by Troshan Vladovski and Georges Jan Banov. In the beginning, they played covers of The Shadows and The Kinks. With the inclusion of Boris Gudјunov in the band, covers of traditional Bulgarian folk songs in ethno-rock style begin to be made. With this music style, the band became extremely popular in Bulgaria, but also in the Soviet Union.
The song “Pustono, ludo i mlado” is one of the two tracks on their only solo EP released under the Balkanton label in 1970. On this EP, both songs are performed by the outstanding vocalist Georgi Minchev. The new arrangement of “Pustono ludo i mlado” was made by Georgi Stankov. According to the Bulgarian rock encyclopedia “ABV of Pop Music“, this song belongs to the psychedelic rock, pop rock and beat rock genre.
This song was regularly in the repertoire of the “Srebrenite grivni”, especially when they were on summer tours on the Black Sea. In addition to being played at parties, the audience regularly was listening to it in the book club “Hristo Botev,” where the band rehearsed several times a week.
The band also faced inconveniences when performing this song, because older music lovers thought that the reworks of traditional songs in a new tone (Western!), “spoils” the songs and belittles the culture. In addition, the regime magazines wrote that with this presentation of this traditional song, the band negatively influence the advanced socialist youth of Bulgaria.
However, the music and songs of “Srebrenite grivni” are written in the history of Bulgarian pop and rock music. The song “Pustono ludo i mlado” has been included in several compilations, and recently one of the band members (Valentin Stefanov) opened his own YouTube channel, where he uploaded almost all of their songs, which reminded their fans of some good old times.
