The music of the Polish diaspora

Contemporary Review, Jan, 2004 by Iwo Zaluski

By the early 1970s the adrenaline flow caused by performing up to three times a week was beginning to dry up, and we decided to quit. We never intended Domino to be our living; we all had our day jobs. Besides, the Polish emigration was beginning to fade or blend fully into British society. On Saturday 14 July 1973 we played our Farewell Gig at the Devonia Church Hall, one of our favourite venues. We had no regrets. It was fun while it lasted, the extra money was very useful, but it was time to move on.

'On 14 July 1993 Stan, Joe, Marek and I, with our wives, met at Marek's house in Ealing for a dinner to celebrate the twentieth anniversary of our Farewell Gig. Out came some recordings we made over the years--and pretty dire they were too. We were good live, but dreadful in a studio. A great deal of nostalgia was washed down with a great deal of wine and Wisniowka as we took stock of our years as Domino. Over a decade we brought London's Polish society out of the moribund stagnation of the 1950s to the swinging optimism of the 1960s and beyond. Hindsight, humility and a greater maturity gave us an understanding of our small but not insignificant role in the turbulent history of our people in its diaspora, and we wondered whatever happened to those tormented wretches who saw Russian music and the German language as blasphemies. It took decades for us to finally understand.

It was after this nostalgic get-together that we decided to do the Reunion Gig. No new repertoire, just an evening of the old favourites. Just for fun. After a couple of rehearsals we did a small warm-up gig at the Polish Centre at Amersham in May 1995, as a thank you to the management for allowing us to rehearse there. After all Marek, an architect, had built the place. A motley little crowd of regulars braved the pouring rain and turned up. It all looked very familiar. We bantered with the audience and cracked jokes. They fell a bit flat--Domino humour was a bit of an acquired taste and was based on running in-jokes. We played our prepared programme of Beatles songs, tangos, polkas, waltzes and hits of the 50s, 60s and early 70s, feeling slightly self-conscious at being so terribly out of date. We need not have worried. Someone came up onto the stage and said, very deferentially, 'Gentlemen, can you play something less modern?' Perhaps there is something in Polish genes that is firmly anchored in the past.