NEWS - ART

NEWS - ART

Boris Grebenshchikov. Place of Residence — NIRVANA.

B.B. Grebenshchikov was born on November 27, 1953—in the year when the country, rolling over, was crawling with its entire huge carcass into the sun.

B.G. picked up his first guitar in the summer of 1968, having found it at a garbage dump.

The time of heroes had begun, the time of frogs that had fallen into milk.

Having founded "AQUARIUM" in 1972 and churned out so much butter by his current birthday—about 30 official band albums, solo albums, and so on—that the useless and selfless rock heroism of the stagnation era has now turned into a commercial enterprise.

B.G. resembles a monument erected during the hero's lifetime that has already had time to turn green with age—an example of how talent can outlive its own time.

He is one of those who can afford to be a Buddhist, like Steven Seagal or Richard Gere—wittingly or unwittingly, he ended up in the establishment thanks to his talent for deceiving everyone, including himself, with poetic imagery.

"Music of the well-fed"—that is what jazz used to be called in the USSR. Starting with Radio Tishiny ("Radio Silence"), one can notice how his songs become ever smoother—Grebenshchikov skillfully polishes them, and they are easy to listen to.

The album Lilit ("Lilith") is the apotheosis of gliding, the pinnacle of the product.

...The body smiles at people, the soul smiles at Buddha...

Andrey Dobrov (Art-Mozaika)

IN BRIEF...

BEK KHAN — "Na krayu" (Extraphone)

It is time to cast mysticism aside, especially since Bekkhan Barakhoev himself does not overuse it. Unlike the masses of V. Tsoi imitators, he does not emphasize the fact that his voice, music, and lyrics resemble those of the late leader of the band "KINO".

It just so happened that the songs of the band "Bek Khan" are very similar to the songs of the band "KINO".

AGATA KRISTI — "10 let zhizni" (Extraphone)

"10 let zhizni" ("10 Years of Life") is a recording of Agata Kristi's anniversary concert at the Olimpiysky Sports Complex on February 21, 1998. Even six months later, this stock-taking remains just that—still no new songs have been heard from the band. Logic suggested that in addition to the universally beloved hits from the last three albums, old songs that had for some reason been carefully hidden before would be brought to light. Unfortunately, that did not happen—only "Sobachye serdtse" ("Heart of a Dog"), which closed the concert, is not part of Agata's setlist road-tested over the past couple of years.

Otherwise, there is nothing to fault: the crowd singing along louder than the Samoylov brothers, the overall atmosphere of an unmistakably successful concert. We await further action...

About Ms. PRESLEY...

Lisa Marie Presley is planning to have a third child with her first husband, Danny Keough (they already have two). However, friends claim that she has no intention of tying the knot with him again—even though two years ago rumors circulated that after divorcing Jackson, Ms. Presley wanted to go back to Danny Keough.

"Danny and I make wonderful children," she said, "but I'm not going to marry him again. The thing is, he wants me to become a housewife and look after the kids, while I dream of a career. Still, I really do want a child by him."

Lisa Marie split from Danny Keough in 1994 and married Michael Jackson three weeks later. Two years later they divorced, after which Jackson managed to have two children with nurse Debbie Rowe, who is still considered his official wife.

PINK FLOYD

Pink Floyd guitarist David Gilmour has denied rumors that his band is supposedly going on tour, will manage to release a new studio album before the end of the 20th century, and will perform near the Egyptian pyramids on the night of December 31, 1999 to January 1, 2000. The musician categorically stated that neither a performance in Egypt nor a tour is being planned. Gilmour also expressed great doubt that a new album would manage to appear before the start of 2000, although all of this is listed in Pink Floyd's plans. In addition, Gilmour said that former Pink Floyd guitarist Syd Barrett has recovered from his mental illness, though he now suffers from diabetes, which is causing his eyesight to gradually deteriorate. Regarding the band itself, Gilmour stated unequivocally: PINK FLOYD exists and has no intention of breaking up.

A Sentence for a Rapper...

At the end of November, rapper Coolio appeared in court, where preliminary charges against him were read out. The rapper is charged with illegal possession of a firearm and marijuana, driving with an expired license, and driving on the left side of the road (quite a lot). Coolio has already paid 1,000 dollars for all of this. The final charges will be brought on January 7. Happy New Year!

BRIAN MAY — EX-QUEEN

When Brian May was getting ready to go to Russia, his 11-year-old daughter Emily worried whether Daddy had forgotten warm clothes. "Russia is like a refrigerator." "I won't freeze," he replied, "I'm taking my fireplace with me."

"Fireplace" was what May called his mahogany guitar, which he made himself some 30 years ago from a mantelpiece. With this "fireplace," Brian brought the heat in the legendary band "QUEEN". And now he plays it at concerts taking place as part of his "Another world" world tour.

The musician came to Russia with this solo project. The concerts held in Moscow and St. Petersburg were a resounding success.

When asked whether May feels Freddie Mercury's influence on his current work, he replied:

"Mostly I feel the influence of my own personality. Do you think Mercury was the leader? We don't think so: back when Freddie sang with the band, complete democracy reigned among us! Nevertheless, not a day goes by without Freddie being with me. I think that when friends, very close people die, they stay with us forever, in one sense or another. I have always been proud of that creative period when we were 'the Queens'. I perform some Queen songs. Most likely they sound different—I wouldn't want them to be something frozen, like in a museum, and I try to keep those songs alive. But despite that, I don't want to spend my whole life under the Queen label. Today everything is different, and I don't like being perceived only as an ex-'Queen'!"

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