They rock ’n’ roll in Russia—cautiously

Press, 2 May 1985, Page 21

They rock ’n’ roll in Russia —cautiously

MARTIN WALKER,

of the “Guardian,”

reports from Moscow on how Russians rock with caution.

It was perhaps the most important concert the young rock band would ever give. The hall below them was empty but for seven chairs. Slowly, the jury filed in. There were four women, one young, two middle-aged, one elderly, and three men in their thirties. They chatted confidently with one another as the band filed on to the stage, introduced themselves, and began to play. The band calls itself Last Chance and they had already been warned that this was a suspiciously pessimistic title. They were amateurs who work and practise in their own time, and who perform without pay. This concert was to decide whether they would get the right to play in Moscow’s houses of culture, factory clubs, student hostels, and at official concerts; whether, in short, they would be an "authorised vocal-instrumental ensemble." The band was formed five years ago, when the cultural atmosphere was rather more relaxed, in the days when there was even a punk rock band in Leningrad called Automatic Satisfaction, whose lead singer called himself Pig. He achieved transitory fame when he once urinated over his audience. But the Communist Party plenum of July, 1983, when Yuri Andropov condemned “ideologi-

cally and aesthetically harmful bands with dubious repertoires,” put an end to all that. A complex structure of controls has been introduced which requires the local Komsomol (the Young Communists), the musicians’ union and the Ministry of Culture to police concerts, discos, and the bands themselves. Last Chance is one of the most interesting bands still playing. Their repertoire includes the poems of Robert Burns, nursery rhymes, Russian poets, and their own lyrics, all set to music and performed in a theatrical, highcamp style. Rather like the British band Genesis, they use masks and costumes and bizarre props, and produce something that is more cabaret than concert.

There are three of them. Sergei Vorabiev is the main singer. He plays acoustic guitar and works in a kindergarten. Sasha Samoylov plays drums, flute, recorder, and castanets. He is the artistic inspiration, and works as an aerobics teacher. He began as a construc-

tion engineer, but is now studying part-time for a theatre director’s diploma. Sergei Ryzhenko plays violin, which he studied at the Conservatoire. He makes a living teaching music, and used to play with the best-known of the Soviet rock bands, Time Machine. They went through their repertoire without a trace of audience reaction. The jury sat silent, even though some of the act was funny, some stirring, and all of it rather good. The band then filed out, and the jury began to discuss them. The performance took place in the recreation hall of the Sverdlov silk factory on the banks of the River Moscow. The band had been on probation there for four months. The factory’s recreation manager spoke first to the jury, and said the band was popular with his young workers and made a good change from the usual disco.

The elderly woman from the Ministry of Culture then called in Sasha to ask him if this was all they could play, these poems? Sasha was non-committal. The

young man from the local Komsomol said that the ban was always ready to volunteer to play at youth clubs, and showed a co-operative attitude. But he wanted to hear the band’s full repertoire in case there were “less wholesome” songs than the ones the jury had heard. “These nursery rhymes can sometimes have a different meaning for adults,” he said. The young woman, also from the Komsomol, then said simply: "This band must live. They are creative.” Then the middle-aged woman from the local centre for public creativity said they were refreshingly different from the usual vocalinstrumental ensemble, had a good stage show, and looked very neat. Last Chance was licensed, not to become a full professional band, but to play at amateur venues throughout Moscow. They could even earn a little money.

And for the jury, they had solved a problem. This summer, Moscow hosts an international festival of youth, and Komsomol officials have been muttering for months about the need to field some decent Soviet groups who would not be laughed off stage by the sophisticated visitors.

If you want to be a rock *n’ roll star, comrade, this is the best possible time to try.