Kombi - turbulent decades on Polish stages

Among the many stars of the Polish music scene that shone on the stages of the 70s and 80s of the last century, one of the brightest is undoubtedly the band Kombi. Despite the passage of time, his work has not aged at all.

Kombi – beginnings and successes

In the formation Kombi, continuing the work of the original line-up of the group, Grzegorz Skawiński rightly sang that “each generation will fade into the shadow, but ours will not”, because subsequent generations of Poles are being born and growing up, and the group’s music still remains on a separate, immortal hit list.

The band originates from the Akcenty group, active in the years 1969-1976. Although its name is sometimes presented as coming from a combination of different musical styles, the members themselves admitted that it comes, as you can easily guess, from a station wagon car body. If anyone had any doubts, there are posters available on the internet from the band’s early days, on which the musicians are shown behind the rear window of such a car.

The second half of the seventies saw the first concert tours and first albums in which Kombi forged their own style. This began to gain wider popularity at the beginning of the next decade, which proved to be a key period for the band’s later fame. It was from this period that such famous hits as “Black and White” and “Słodkiego, miłego życia” came from.

The band’s breakup

The year 1991 became an opportunity to celebrate the 15th anniversary of the group, which was crowned with a jubilee concert broadcast by Polish Television and recorded on CD. A year later, Grzegorz Skawiński and Waldemar Tkaczyk decided to leave the band to establish their formation under the name Skawalker. A few years later, it became known as O.N.A. with Agnieszka Chylińska in the line-up. At that time, Kombi gradually ceased its activity, and finally, in 2003, there was an actual split.

Kombi — Sławomir Łosowski — Sławomir Łosowski

At that time, two separate bands were formed. The first was Skawiński’s Kombi, the second was Łosowski, which in 2014 was transformed into Kombi Łosowski. The resulting dualism became the source of the conflict over the copyright to the name of the original band, which is still ongoing, as the last verdict in the case was issued in 2022, ruling that Łosowski did not have exclusive rights to the group’s name.

Both bands, despite the ongoing dispute, are still active today, performing old hits of the original Kombi band. Songs such as “Pokolenie”, “Awinion” or “Sen się spełni”, which have gained immense popularity in recent decades and are associated with the band’s brand, are already the work of Kombi led by Grzegorz Skawiński. Slightly in the shadow of Skawiński’s success is Łosowski’s Kombi, which claims it is the sole heir to the activity of previous decades and presents itself as such on its website.