The genesis of The Dubrovniks can be traced back to Sujdovic’s departure from the The Scientists in 1986. Sujdovic had travelled across to Europe with Kim Salmon, Tony Thewlis and Brett Rixon in 1983. When his Visa ran out three years later, he returned to Sydney. Sujdovic teamed up with fellow Perth expatriates Roddy Radalj and James Baker (both of whom had played in the original Perth line-up of The Scientists in the late 1970s) and guitarist Peter Simpson to form The Adorable Ones.
In Sujdovic’s mind, the new band was designed so they could play rock’n’roll without the threat of confrontation from audiences and venue owners. “With The Scientists, we’d have to be careful where we played half the time – we’d fear for our lives sometimes,” he laughs. “So with The Dubrovniks it was a bit of a relief at the beginning, not to have to worry too much about where we played. Though with Rod in the band, you never knew – he’d walk out with a turban on his head, and you’d think ‘Oh, here we go again’,”
After learning of a Brisbane band called The Adorable Ones, Sujdovic, Radalj, Baker and Simpson chose the name The Dubrovniks in celebration of the Croation city in which both Sujdovic and Radalj were born. The Dubrovniks’ first record, Dubrovnik Blues, was released on Timberyard Records in 1989, produced by Radio Birdman and The Hitmen guitarist Chris Masuak. A couple of weeks before going into the studio Radalj had unceremoniously left the band after a bust-up on stage at Melbourne’s Old Greek Theatre. In an interview in 2007 Radalj – who in addition to his stint in The Scientists, played a seminal role in Le Hoodoo Gurus and The Johnnys before leaving both of those bands – recalled reacting to Peter Simpson’s request for him to turn down his guitar on stage by punching Simpson.
“I didn’t see it happen, and it probably wasn’t a really violent punch,” Sujdovic says. “It was also out of character, because there wasn’t much tension in the band leading up to it, either, so it came right of the blue. But Roddy could definitely be uncontrollable some times.”
With the studio already booked to record Dubrovnik Blues, The Dubrovniks initially enlisted the help of Tony Thewlis to play guitar before recruiting Chris Flynn as Radalj’s replacement. “The band’s sound definitely changed after Chris joined, but not just because he was in the band,” Sujdovic says.
By the mid 1990s The Dubrovniks – now with Glenn Armstrong on guitar, who’d replaced Peter Simpson in 1991 – had toured Europe four more times, and the band was beginning to feel the strain. After Mushroom dropped the band from its label in 1993, The Dubrovniks released its last album, Medicine Wheel, on the German label Normal before breaking up in 1995.
In 2014 The Dubrovniks reformed for an acoustic set at the Sydney benefit gig for Lime Spiders singer Mick Blood. The band had also become became aware of a resurgence of interest in Greece. A planned one-off show in a small venue mushroomed into a full-blown European tour and appearances in Perth and Melbourne as part of the I’m Flipped Out Over You festival.
“We’ve been offered a couple of hundred Euros to play in Greece, or a hundred million drachma,” Sujdovic. “We’re tempted to take the hundred million drachma just so we’ve got on our CV that we got a hundred million for a gig – even though it’s probably only worth five bucks.”
BY PATRICK EMERY
