Kabát

Established in Teplice back in 1983, Czech rock outfit Kabat spent their opening years sorting out personnel before unveiling the debut recording Má Ji Motorovou in 1991. Bassist Milan Spalek and guitarist Tomas Krulich enlisted vocalist Josef Vojtek and drummer Radek Hurcik, then locked in the stable lineup in 1990 by bringing aboard guitarist Ota Vana. After the first album and its accompanying live release drew growing crowds, the band landed a contract with Monitor/EMI. A run of successful LPs followed, beginning with Devky Ty To Znaj in 1993. Colorado arrived the next year and posted the strongest sales for an original studio set at the time, only to be outsold by the tenth-anniversary compilation Suma Sumárum in 2002. That release, paired with a matching concert tour, cemented Kabat’s standing as a leading Czech hard rock act, while their subsequent studio album Dole v Dole in 2003 came close to matching Colorado’s commercial reach and earned three nominations at the Czech Grammy Awards, among them Group of the Year and Rock Album of the Year. Corrida surfaced in 2006 and again performed strongly, finishing inside the Top Ten. In 2007 Kabat advanced to the Eurovision Song Contest semifinals, marking the Czech Republic’s first entry in the competition.