Rockstock festival to return early 1990s music

TIRANA, May 28 – More than twenty rock bands from Albania and Kosovo will be performing for three days in the first Rockstock festival in Tirana.
“The spirit of the Rockstock festival brings back to attention our quality music, the icons of Albanian rock and conveys messages of peace as well as criticism for anti-value,” says singer and song-writer Elton Deda, the organizer of the festival which will be held in Tirana from June 5 to 7 at a stage at the Mother Teresa square.
Deep Purple drummer Ian Paice will be the special guest of the festival which brings back some of the early 1990s rock bands created soon after the collapse of communism.
In Albania, the first rock concert was organized by Aleksander Gjoka in 1989. Only after the collapse of communism in Albania did the first rock groups appear there. The first rock band in Albania was Megaherz, founded by guitarist Bledar Sejko who after the fall of communism went on to form with Elton Deda Thunderway, a thrash metal band which recorded the first rock album in Albania called “The Executioner’s Orders”, on cassette. Meanwhile, Bojken Lako was experimenting rock with his first band, The Fishhook, who released one album on cassette. The first recorded rock album on CD in Albania was released in 1997 by Crossbones and named Days of Rage.