בנזין
בנזין
Genres: 80s, rock, hard rock, hebrew, Israeli Rock
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About בנזין
Benzin is an influential Israeli rock band that was active for a short period in the early 1980s. During the three years of its activity, between the years 1982-1985, the band released two albums that were very successful. After its dissolution, its singer Yehuda Poliker יהודה+פוליקר continued an independent and successful career. History The members of Benzin, Yehuda Poliker (vocals and guitar), Benjamin "Banjo" Kimchi (bass), Yehiel "Kitsch" Amsalem (guitar) and Eli Hadad (drums), have played in various settings since the late 1960s, mainly in the Haifa area and the curiosities. In 1970 Poliker was a co-founder of the band "Hanimar" (in which Kimchi was also a partner and then in 1975, with Micha Shuvel, he founded the band "Barkat". The band mainly played cover versions of hits from the period, and often performed at events and weddings, but between 1975 and 1976 they also recorded two original CDs written by Shovel. In 1980 Polikar was invited to join Zvika Pick's band as a player, but returned to the "Barkat" band after several months, with the end of the concert tour, determined to succeed himself. Poliker sent a tape with cover versions and two original pieces of the band to the writer and producer Yaakov Gilad, who was so impressed by what he heard, that he found it hard to believe that this was material from an Israeli band. Gilad attended one of the band's rehearsals in Kiryat, and decided to take it under his wing. Gilad became the band's artistic accompanist, wrote songs for it, and they also suggested that they change the band's name to a more catchy name - "Benzin". He also recommended that the band members move to Tel Aviv, to be closer to the music scene, and that they become full-time musicians. Until then, they appeared in evening events and weddings but worked during the day, Kimchi worked at the post office, Amsalem worked as a dental technician, Hadad as a dyer and Poliker as a barber. At the end of 1981 they moved to Tel Aviv - CBS company signed the band, and they recorded their first broadcast record "Free is completely alone", which was released on the radio in February 1982. In June, the band's second radio record, "Yom Shishi", was released with the beginning of the First Lebanon War. It was played many times on the radio and reached the first place in the Israeli hymn parade of the Reshet Guimel. Benzin’s first album, "Twenty Four Hours", was released on August 1, 1982 and included a series of hits, such as "Yom Shishi", "Free Is Completely Alone", "Rain", and "Give Me a Reason". Most of the songs on the album were written by Gilad and composed by Poliker, who was also the lead singer in most of them. The exceptions were the songs "Rain", composed and sung by Amsalem, and "Tani Li Siva", in which Hadad was the vocalist. The songs were produced by the band members together with Gilad, the technician Yaakov Moreno and the singer Yehudit Ravitz. The album was a great commercial success and sold over 50,000 copies within a few days. The song "Yom Shishi" was chosen as the "song of the year" in the annual parade of Hebrew hymns by Network C, and Benzin won the title of "Band of the Year" by Reshet Guimel and the "Silver Rose" award of the "Maariv" newspaper. With the release of the record, the band went on tour. Alongside "Tislam", Benzin was the great success of Israeli rock in the early 80s of the 20th century. Despite the impression created in the media, as if there was competition between the bands, they collaborated and performed several times together in those years. In 1983, the members of the band recorded the song "Common House", as part of the Service Room, as well as in the same year they also recorded their successful instrumental piece "Police and Thieves", as well as the song "Family Visit" as part of the children's show "Hagiga" (lyrics: Ya'akov Gilad; Composer: Yehudit Ravitz. The band members began working on their second album, "Night Shift" at the end of 1983. During the recording of the album, the band members suffered from financial difficulties, they returned to live in Krayot, and Kamhi and Amsalem who were married also worked at the same time. Poliker returned to live with his parents. They even took loans to finance the recordings. During the recording of the album, Amsalem left the band due to differences of opinion on professional grounds: Amsalem composed three songs for the band's second album, "Night Shift", in which he intended to be the lead singer. After the band members had already recorded one of the songs, "Hit and Run", it was decided that Polikar would sing the song and not Islam, in order to create uniformity in the album. Since Amsalem objected to this, they decided to remove the two other songs he composed from the album, and record the song "Hit and Run" again, composed by Poliker. Amsalem felt that he was not getting enough expression in the band, and decided to leave. Years later he used the original melody of the song "Hit and Run" in a song he wrote for the movie "Volcan Junction". In August 1984, the album was released, there are two songs left in the album in which Amsalem participated in playing: "Night Shift" and "Beit Ha'vesov". Most of the songs were arranged by Yaakov Gilad and the band members, and in some of them the recording technician Yaakov Moreno also participated in the arrangement. The album was less commercially successful than the band's first album, and sold just under 20,000 copies, two years after its release. It included the hits "Night Shift", "Take Me Home", "Shared House", "After the TV (The Fire Continues)", "Face to Face" and the instrumental "Cops and Thieves". In the same year Benzin once again won the title of "Band of the Year". After the release of the second album, the band went on a concert tour, which included a joint performance with Ariel Zilber at the “Capital City” festival in Eilat, in front of an audience of about 50,000 spectators, in September 1984. At the same time Poliker began working on his record "My Eyes" and on the production of a record for Gidi Gov. At the beginning of 1985 the band's last CD “New Beginning / Film in Place" was released. The song "New Beginning", written in honor of the transition of the Reshet Guimel Radio Station from AM to FM, was one of the biggest hits of the band. The CD marked the end of the band's journey, although its members did not officially announce a breakup. After the success of Poliker’s first solo record "My Eyes", which was released in the summer of that year, the band stopped working. Poliker went on tour with songs from his album at the same time Kimchi and Hadad formed a new band that played cover versions. Kimchi became an Orthodox Jew a few years later, while Hadad joined the band "The Sixties". The band reunited in full in December 1986 as part of a television special recorded by Poliker for the HaArutz Harishon after the release of the album “My Eyes”. In addition, the band appeared on the British Channel 4 program about the music industry in Israel, and sang the song "A New Beginning" in the English version. In 1993, a compilation album of the band was released, in which the song "New Beginning" was included for the first time on an album. In June 2010, the last line-up of the band (Poliker, Kimchi and Hadad) reunited in Poliker’s performance at the Caesarea Theater.
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