"The fame of the Leningrad rock club was massive, and I was passionate about it"

"Kino", "Alice", "Picnic", "Auctioneer" — the famous Leningrad rock club presented the country with bands that have remained for more than four decades not only legends of the national scene, but also idols of new generations of musicians. Dozens of bands passed through the organization that actually legalized informal rock culture in the USSR. On March 7, the rock club turns 45 years old. In an interview with Izvestia, modern artists who continue his traditions told how, in the wake of the Leningrad experience, the Sverdlovsk rock club with Urfin Jus and Nautilus Pompilius arose, as Viktor Tsoi originally called his band, as well as which of today's musicians read rock encyclopedias and were fond of the work of Alice.

Vadim Samoilov, founder and leader of the Agatha Christie Group

— Information about rock clubs first appeared in 1980, when the Spring Rhythms festival was successfully held in the Soviet Union. Tbilisi-80". The event brought together almost all the rock bands that existed at that time ‑ already established bands. This event was the starting point. The Soviet press was increasingly covering the new musical culture: as if a faucet had opened, it became possible to openly talk about alternative movements. In parallel, films by Juris Podnieks and other authors about informal youth were released. All this happened against the background of the approaching perestroika and the growth of glasnost — the ground was ready for change. We will not assess whether glasnost has brought more benefit or harm (this is a question for political scientists and sociologists). But there was a feeling that some kind of renewal was taking place and it was expressed, among other things, in the development of a new musical culture.

The fame of the Leningrad rock club was massive, and I was passionate about it. When it opened, recordings began to appear, later even vinyl records of some bands — for example, "Alice" (of course, I had one) and "Picnic".

In the first half of the 1980s, I learned that rock music was also developing in Yekaterinburg, then Sverdlovsk. When he entered the institute, he made acquaintances with local musicians. The creation of the Sverdlovsk rock Club was an expected event: even before its opening, some parties gathered in the walls of the architectural institute, musicians played. I have recordings of albums by Urfin Jus, the early Nautilus Pompilius, Nastya Polevoy and Igor Belkin.

After the opening of the club, the musicians had the opportunity to meet officially. I especially remember one significant moment: a concert was organized on Plotinka, the central embankment of the city, as part of a major city event with the participation of Sverdlovsk rock musicians, representatives of new informal music.

Sergey Shilyaev, bassist and one of the founders of the band "Refining"

— The Leningrad rock club had an impact not only on creativity, but also, most importantly, on my whole life. In the eighth grade, a friend borrowed Alexander Zhitinsky's famous book "The Journey of a Rock Dilettante" from the library. Our entire punk band read it one by one, but I was the one who kept it for myself, because I saw in the chronicles of festivals and the description of the life of Leningrad rock musicians some kind of higher meaning - something that deserves to become a beacon in life. As the years have passed, I realize that I was right then. As a matter of fact, my move from Vologda to St. Petersburg would hardly have happened if it hadn't been for those teenage impressions of this book.

Zhitinsky, by the way, became one of my favorite writers, and in his club "Books and Coffee" we were even lucky enough to play with "Affinage" — there we presented the mini-album "I Fly/I'm growing up."

As for the prominent representatives of the Leningrad Rock club, the Affinage group has the warmest relations with Alice. Not only did I and our accordion player Alexander Koryukovets famously "alisomanili" at the time, but now Konstantin Evgenievich Kinchev himself comes to our dressing room at KincheVfest to wish good luck before the performance, and Pavel Zelitsky kindly shares his guitars for recording our songs. In addition, Alexander Koryukovets played in the Aquarium band for a whole season. But when he was faced with a choice — Aquarium or Refining, Sasha chose his native band. This characterizes him not only as an honest and noble person, but also as a visionary one.

Artyom Sagrada, rapper, frontman of the Salt of the Earth band

— I have heard a lot about the Leningrad rock club, although I did not find the period of its existence at a conscious age - I was born in 1983, and in 1990 I just went to school. But when I was a teenager, I bought the book "Who's Who in Soviet Rock" on Arbat. This is an illustrated encyclopedia published in 1991. I remember that about 80% of the groups listed there were members of this organization.

From there, I also learned that the first concerts of Viktor Tsoi and his band Garin and the Hyperboloids took place at the Leningrad Rock Club. Moreover, I once heard their first recordings, where nothing foreshadowed great success. And this place became a workshop, a workshop where the great group that later became Kino forged and revealed their talent. But if their songs for me personally are just the soundtrack of the late 1980s and early 1990s (that is, I know them all by heart, but I've never been a fan), then the Alice group, another representative of the Leningrad Rock Club, is my everything.

I was lucky enough to meet Konstantin Evgenievich Kinchev personally. Imagine what it's like when your childhood idol praises your work! Later, he allowed me to use a fragment of the classic Alice song "Die Young" in my new album "Garrison".

A few years ago, my friend Andrey Pale and I from "25/17" released the track "Premonition". It features a saxophone solo performed by the inimitable Sergey Letov, a member of Sergey Kuryokhin's Pop Mechanics from the Leningrad Rock Club. So it turns out that even though I've never been to this place, either because of my age or because I'm from the Moscow region, I still owe him a lot and am grateful for a lot.