Srđan Šaper


Srđan Šaper is a founder of I&F McCann Grupa. He is also well known as a founder and a member of the Yugoslav new wave band Idoli in the 1980s.

Biography

Šaper was born in Belgrade in 1958 as a son of teacher Ljiljana and professor Radomir Šaper. His family lived in the Vasina Street until they moved to Nevesinjska Street in the Vračar neighborhood. Šaper attended the Sveti Sava elementary school followed by the Eight Belgrade Gymnasium. During high school, he became interested in the work of Carl Jung and his analytical psychology. This was one of the reasons Šaper enrolled in the University of Belgrade's Faculty of Medicine where he developed friendships with future bandmate Nebojša Krstić as well as Boris Tadić who would go to become the President of Serbia.
In March 1979, with friends Krstić and Vlada Divljan, 20-year-old Šaper formed Idoli, a new wave band that quickly became popular throughout SFR Yugoslavia. He quit the medical studies, enrolling at the Belgrade's Faculty of Dramatic Arts and graduating with a degree in film direction.
When Idoli disbanded in 1984, Šaper worked with Bucko & Tucko, a company that recorded TV commercials, and starred in Davitelj protiv davitelja movie as Spiridon Kopicl. He also worked on the soundtrack and wrote the song "Beogradski davitelj" which he performed with the imaginary band VIS Simboli. In 1987 he recorded Poslednja mladost u Jugoslaviji with Nebojša Krstić.
He joined the Democratic Party in 1990 and in 1993 started working on political campaigns, later with his own company "Idols & Friends" formed in 1995. The following year Nebojša Krstić and Piloti singer Zoran Lesendrić Kiki and he formed Dobrovoljno Pevačko Društvo. The band released only one album Nedelja na Duhove and disbanded.
In 1997. Srđan Šaper signed an affiliate contract with McCann Worldgroup and opened agencies in Belgrade and Skopje.
In the following years, I&F McCann Grupa established agencies in other countries in the Balkan region, and today the group operates in twelve countries of South East Europe and Nordic region.
Srđan Šaper is the owner of the Novembar art gallery in Belgrade. He is also the author of the original idea for the TV series BESA.
He had been identified as one of two dozen Serbian citizens mentioned in the Panama Papers.

Musical career

VIS Dečaci and Idoli

Šaper became interested in forming a musical group with his friend Nebojša Krstić and at a party during the late 1979 he made a deal with his close high school friend Vlada Divljan to start playing together. Šaper was to play guitar, Krstić was to play guitar and Divljan was to be the drummer. The band was called Dečaci. Divljan took them to his apartment building basement where he and his friends kept their instruments and tried playing. Having realized there was no progress, the band was joined by Divljan's friends and neighbors Zdenko Kolar and Boža Jovanović with whom he previously played. Krstić and Šaper became percussionists and did the vocals. Since the two wore beards, the band was renamed to Dečaci plus Bradonje. The band was soon renamed to Idoli.
In the meantime Dečaci started working with Dragan Papić, who became the band's media activist and published photos in "Vidici" and "Izgled" youth magazines, but when the band included Zdenko Kolar and Boža Jovanović, whom Papić did not like, Papić stopped working with the band. He did however manage to persuade "Vidici" and "Izgled" to finance the recording of the first single.
Idoli were officially formed on March 1, 1980 at a rehearsal where they wrote some of the most notable songs of that period, including "Retko te viđam sa devojkama" and "Pomoć, pomoć" which appeared on the first single released a month later. The single was labeled as Izgled and appeared with the April issue of "Vidici" magazine. Soon after the band started working on the Paket aranžman project which was released in 1981 by Jugoton. In the meantime the band released a new single, "Maljčiki" with a new version of "Retko te viđam sa devojkama". Šaper and Divljan were credited as writers of "Maljčiki". The promotional video for "Maljčiki" was first broadcast on New Year's Eve 1981 in the "Rokenroler" show. The song became a nationwide hit and caused a protest of the Soviet embassy, as the song was a parody on Russian working class.
In 1982 the public was expecting the Idoli debut record which turned out to be a 12" EP called VIS Idoli. The EP contained six songs including two covers and was a major success as it was sold in about 200.000 copies. The band went on a tour with the band Film). Having finished the tour, during the late 1982, the band started working on the first long play album released in early 1983. The album was called Odbrana i poslednji dani and did not become a commercial hit as it was a complex concept album dealing with an anthropological attitude towards Orthodoxy which was a bit of a taboo topic in Yugoslavia at the time. Šaper provided vocals for "Senke su drugačije", "Nemo", "Igrale se delije" and "Odbrana". For this record Šaper played synthesizer and was credited as a partial author.
Since Odbrana i poslednji dani was sold only in 50.000 copies which was considered failure, the band had to turn towards a more commercial sound. New album was recorded in London with producer Bob Painter who completely changed the band's style. The album Čokolada was the band's greatest success, sold in 350.000 copies which was a record at the time. All songs were written by Divljan, Krstić and Šaper provided lead vocals for "Tiho, tiho", "Bambina" and "Udri bogataša". The tour followed the album but, beside successful and sold-out shows, after the Ljubljana concert due to a quarrel, the band ceased to exist. Džuboks magazine critics voted the album the greatest Yugoslav rock album of the 20th century in 1985. The album was polled in 1998 as Yugoslav greatest popular music album in the book. In 2015, Odbrana i poslednji dani was polled the greatest Yugoslav rock album in the special edition of Croatian Rolling Stone.
Šaper participated the recording of the last Idoli release, the Šest dana juna soundtrack album where he provided vocals.

Post Idoli career

In 1986 Šaper with Nebojša Krstić formed a band called Unutrašnja Imperija and recorded the album Poslednja mladost u Jugoslaviji released by Jugoton in 1987. The two also performed live at the Zagreb festival in 1987.
In March 1991 Šaper appeared as guest at the Akcija band concert at SKC and performed the song "Beogradski davitelj" from the movie "Davitelj protiv davitelja". The recording of the song is available on bootleg.
In 1995 the two joined by Piloti frontman Kiki Lesendrić formed a supergroup Dobrovoljno Pevačko Društvo. The band went to Budapest and recorded the album in the "Utopia" studio with Hungarian session musicians. on the album also appeared Nenad Stefanović Japanac, Milan Đurđević and Aleksandra and Kristina Kovač who did the backing vocals. Nedelja na Duhove released by Eastfield Music in 1995 was a successful pop rock album. The three members were credited as song authors. Šaper did the vocals on "Sestrice mala", "Arcadia", "Zemlja", "Laura" and "Little Sister", the last two featuring lyrics in English language.
In 1996 both Šaper and Krstić appeared on the Akcija self-titled debut on the track "7 dana". Since then, they have not recorded nor performed live, and in 1999 the songs "Razvod 1999" and "Parada" appeared on the various artists compilation Rock 'n' roll - "Ravno do dna" i druge, manje-više, čudnovate pjesme .

Discography

With Idoli

With Nebojša Krstić

Studio albums