They were formed in Budapest in 1962 by lead singer János Kóbor and keyboardist László Benkő. They only did covers of British rock songs until 1967, where keyboardist Gábor Presser joined and started writing original songs for them. Their song Gyöngyhajú lány, Hungarian for "Pearls In Her Hair", was their biggest hit and put them on a world stage. The band struggled with censorship due to the communist party of the Hungarian People's Republic judging hard rock as "subversive", so much of their music was locked behind the Iron Curtain. But they ultimately managed to attain international success, especially thanks to their tendency to record English versions of their songs.
The band rocked for 59 years straight, ending only with the death of its frontman János Kóbor in 2021 from COVID.
Band members:
- János Kóbor – lead and backing vocals
- László Benkő – keyboards, flute, trumpet, lead and backing vocals
- József Laux – drums, percussion
- Gábor Presser – keyboards, lead and backing vocals
- Tamás Mihály – bass, cello, lead and backing vocals
- György Molnár – guitars
Discography:
- Red Star from Hungary (1968)
- 10000 lépés (1969)
- Éjszakai országút (1970)
- 200 évvel az utolsó háború után (1972)
- Omega 5 (1973)
- Omega 6: Nem tudom a neved (1975)
- Omega 7: Időrabló (1977)
- Omega 8: Csillagok útján (1978)
- Gammapolis (1979)
- Omega X: Az arc (1981)
- Omega XI (1982)
- Omega 12: A föld árnyékos oldalán (1986)
- Omega XIII: Babylon (1987)
- Trans And Dance (1995)
- Omega XV: Egy életre szól (1998)
- Omega XVI: Égi jel: Omega (2006)
- Omega Rhapsody (2010)
- Omega Szimfónia & Rapszódia (2012)
- 55 - Volt Egyszer Egy Vadkelet (2017)
- Testamentum (2020)
Oh, that girl with tropes in her hair...:
- Cover Version: They've had this both ways. They got their start doing covers of early 60s British rock songs, but would later get their song "Pearls In Her Hair" covered by fellow Euro rock band Scorpions.
- Foreign Language Title: Almost all of their songs have this, being a half-Hungarian half-English band.
- Hard Rock: The earlier 70s were considered the "hard rock era" of Omega.
- Heavy Mithril: They dabble in this occasionally. Songs like "White Magic Stone" are clearly inspired by the fantasy-themed progressive metal of Led Zeppelin IV, which came out 2 years prior.
- Iron Curtain: An obstacle of theirs, naturally, being a Hungarian band during the 60s, 70s, and 80s.
- Progressive Rock: Their earlier 60s era work.
- Psychedelic Rock: Omega experimented with this in the 1960s, creating some of their most iconic songs.
- Revolving Door Band: The band had a total of 11 different lineups.
- Sampling: Similar to their British counterpart King Crimson, Omega has been sampled by Kanye West before... without legal permission.
- Space Rock: Their focus in the late 70s.
