In the common room of Nowa Huta's Secondary School No. XII (Słoneczne estate), for almost two years already, Jerzy Ochoński , playing the clarinet and later the tenor saxophone, together with the boys - Zygmunt Schornstein, Andrzej Kunz, Witek Robotycki, myself and others - had been playing Dixieland. Jazz was the passion of Jurek Ochoński, and his dream was the classic line-up: trumpet, trombone, clarinet + rhythm section. There were rehearsals, performances, and also a great deal of laughter. It has to be said that the playing got better and better, until the breakthrough year of 1960 came.
        At that time in Kraków Janusz Gajec (guit. voc.) and Jerzy Świerczek (p) dreamed of creating a rock band (a big-beat band, as people said then). They lacked an instrumental soloist. They invited Jurek Ochoński and talked him into the new music. At last they began rehearsing together, and after some time others began to turn up: Zdzisław Zięciak (b), Jan Kowalczyk (bg), Lesław Trojanowski (lg), and Wiesława Bator, gifted with a superb voice. Slowly the same music began to appear in the common room of our own school. There the guitar was already played by Zygmunt Schornstein, and after some time I began to master the drums . Jurek Ochoński , without saying a word, was giving guitar lessons at home to Piotr Pałamar. It went better and better, and the group began to show up "in town" more and more often.
        Around the spring of 1961 a mysterious manager began to appear around the band (a student - Jan Grudziński), who finally offered to work with us (care, organisation, arranging gigs, etc.). He had ideas and more time. Soon he and Jurek Ochoński went to the "Wisła" sports club in Kraków for a talk. After some hard bargaining it was agreed:

        - the club will provide microphones, guitar amplifiers and the whole sound system, make a room available for the band's rehearsals, and dress the boys in matching outfits,
        - the band will play a set number of evenings free of charge in the club hall, and on its shirts will wear the club emblem, that is, the white star ("biała gwiazda").
        Jurek Ochoński (out of courtesy, together with the manager) settled the line-up, and so the following went for a tailor's fitting at the Dąbrowski Cooperative on Wiślna Street: Andrzej Kunz (p), Lesław Trojanowski (lg), Zygmunt Schornstein (g), Piotr Pałamar (bg), Wacław Kraszewski (dr) and the leader Jerzy Ochoński (ts). In this way Jurek Ochoński brought to life the band Biała Gwiazda.
        Before long we received, made to measure: black trousers + a gold shirt with black cuffs and a black collar; Jurek Ochoński (the leader) had the colours reversed - a black shirt with gold cuffs and a gold collar - so that on his shirt the white star embroidered on the left breast, with the name embroidered in an arc above it, stood out most clearly (see the photos).
         This is what it looked like, and this, almost to the very end, was the line-up of the first big-beat band in the history of Nowa Huta, the band   Biała Gwiazda .

For the only major change that occurred took place in July 1963. When I left for Szczecin for good, the place behind the drums was taken by Mietek Spyrczyński.
While the band was active, in the years 1961-1963, it worked with excellent singers: Wiesława Bator, Elżbieta Żakowicz, Włodzimierz Gurgul

        Intensive rehearsals began in the café room of "Wisła" , along with dance evenings for young people. In Nowa Huta the band played above all at the "Violinka" club (also known as "Jedynka") on the Młodości 1 estate, where it won enormous popularity. The following year it played there in turn with "Ametysty" . A regular, almost half-year series of dances for young people was organised by "Biała Gwiazda" in the hall of the Song and Dance Ensemble at the ZDK on the Górali estate, a hall that could hold about 400 people. There it launched the "open microphone" , which meant that during the dance anyone could come forward and, accompanied by the band, sing (or sometimes merely "perform") a song of their own. Of course there was no shortage of volunteers.
         Understandably, some "performers" won applause, while others caused general merriment. The band was invited to play at dance evenings in a great many secondary schools of Kraków.
        On the wave of its popularity the band "served" events at the House of Culture on Krowoderska Street, at the "Pinokio" club in Bronowice and at the "Olimpijka" café (in a building that no longer exists). Finally, by special invitation, it also performed in Łódź, at the student club "Pod Siódemkami" at 77 Piotrkowska Street.
        Obviously the idol of all the young people of the time, Elvis , had to be reflected in the band's repertoire, in the form of instrumental versions of several of his famous rock and roll numbers. Besides these, a number of evergreens such as "Charmaine" or "Perfidia" and others. The latest hits were a must, such as "Speedy Gonzales" by Pat Boone or "Let's Twist Again" by Chubby Checker. But the ambitions of Jurek Ochoński reached further, which is why he prepared "beat" arrangements even of songs such as the famous "Starzyk" of the "Śląsk" Song and Dance Ensemble (it really won admiration).
    The need for such ideas of our own, more careful arrangements and better performance also came from the preparations for the announced, multi-stage Contest of Kraków Big-Beat Bands. We had to perform something that would be a clear accent of our own. Besides "Starzyk", mentioned above, this was also the famous "Tequila", whose performance, with changing rhythm and tempo and almost choreographic elements, always set off a burst of enthusiasm.
         A great success of the band was its performance in the Barbican (among other bands) at the Juwenalia student festival in 1963 (see the photos).
In the early autumn of that year the band ended its activity. Some of the musicians took up studies, others developed their performing skills in the colours of other groups.

 Read more about the beginnings of Biała Gwiazda ..