Tbilisi Rock Festival
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Genre
| Rock music
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Dates
| March 8 to March 16, 1980
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Location(s)
| Tbilisi
,
Georgian SSR
,
Soviet Union
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Founded by
| Georgian National Philharmonic Hall, the Union of Composers of the Georgian SSR, the Republican Center for Youth Culture
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Spring Rhythms: Tbilisi-80
(
Russian
:
Весенние ритмы. Тбилиси-80
,
Vesennye ritmy. Tbilisi-80
) was a musical event held in
Tbilisi
, capital of the
Georgian SSR
,
Soviet Union
, from March 8 to March 16, 1980.
[1]
[2]
It was the first official
rock festival
in the Soviet Union
[3]
and is frequently considered the turning point in the history of Soviet and
Russian rock
music.
[4]
Organization
[
edit
]
The festival was organized by the Georgian National Philharmonic Hall, the Union of Composers of the Georgian SSR, and the Republican Center for Youth Culture at the Georgian
Komsomol
Central Committee
. The acclaimed Russian musicologist and the first Soviet rock-critic
Artemy Troitsky
was also heavily involved in organizing the event. The organizers enjoyed the support of
Eduard Shevardnadze
, the contemporary First Secretary of Georgian Communist Party, who is said to have sought, in this way, to pacify the Georgian youth increasingly involved in nationalist and dissident activities after the
April 1978 demonstrations in Tbilisi
, and to nurture his image as a liberal leader.
Although dubbed by some as a "Soviet
Woodstock
", the festival was essentially a state-sanctioned musical competition with the declared aim "to promote the development of original Soviet
VIA
[5]
music... and to discover new talented performers and composers." The jury, formed by the officially established Soviet composers and musicologists, was chaired by
Yuri Saulsky
and included
Murad Kazhlayev
,
Giya Kancheli
,
Konstantin Pevzner
,
Vladimir Rubashevsky
,
Arkadi Petrov
, and others. Many suspected that the festival was an attempt by the Soviet establishment to channel the Soviet rock movement into a controllable ideological vessel. However, the event was truly democratic in that it allowed amateur performers to contest on equal terms with professional musicians. Over twenty groups from seventeen cities of the Soviet Union arrived in Tbilisi to take part in the event. Yet, several notable bands, for example Sergei Rudnitsky's
Araks
and Aleksey Romanov’s
Voskresenie
were not invited to take part in the competition.
Prize winners
[
edit
]
The first prize was awarded to two acts:
Gunnar Graps
's
Magnetic Band
and
Mashina Vremeni
. Magnetic Band, a group from
Tallinn
,
Estonia
, performed a mixture of
jazz-rock
,
blues
and
funk
and was noted for their instrumental mastership. Mashina Vremeni is a rock band from
Moscow
and led by
Andrei Makarevich
, which fascinated the public with their poetic lyrics and, through this success, firmly established themselves on the Soviet rock scene.
The second prize was won by
Alexander Sitkovetsky
’s
art rock
group
Autograph
from Moscow, Gunesh from
Ashkhabad
,
Turkmen SSR
, playing jazz-rock based on Turkmen folk melodies, and Labyrinth from
Batumi
,
Adjar ASSR
, Georgia, which performed a half-hour composition marrying
folk-rock
with traditional Georgian choral music.
The professional Georgian
soft-rock
band
VIA-75
led by
Robert Bardzimashvili
, to the surprise of many, received only the third prize which they shared with
Dialog
led by the organist
Kim Breitburg
from
Donetsk
,
Ukrainian SSR
, the eclectic band Integral from
Saratov
,
Russian SFSR
, and Tip-Top from
Riga
,
Latvian SSR
, whose success was largely indebted to the singer Harald Simanis.
A popular Georgian
beat
-band Blitz led by Valery Kocharov was awarded a special prize of the audience.
The compilation of the award-winning songs was released as a
2 LP
Laureaty festivalya "Vesenniye ritmy, Tbilisi-80"
(
Russian
:
Лауреаты фестиваля ≪Весенние ритмы, Тбилиси-80≫
,
lit.
'Laureates of the Festival Spring Rhythms Tbilisi-80') by the Soviet state-run
record label
Melodiya
in 1981.
[6]
The prize-winning songs
[
edit
]
- "Khrustalny gorod" (
Russian
:
≪Хрустальный город≫
), Mashina Vremeni (music and lyrics by Andrei Makarevich)
- "Sneg" (
Russian
:
≪Снег≫
), Mashina Vremeni (music and lyrics by Andrei Makarevich)
- "Irlandia. Ulster" (
Russian
:
≪Ирландия. Ольстер≫
), Autograph (A. Sitkovetsky ? M. Pushkina)
- "Sakartvelo" (
Russian
:
≪Сакартвело≫
), Labyrinth (M. Kiladze)
- "Pristegnite remni bezopasnosti" (
Russian
:
≪Пристегните ремни безопасности≫
), Autograph (A. Sitkovetsky)
- "Caprice Blues" (
Russian
:
≪Каприз, Блюз≫
), Autograph (A. Sitkovetsky)
- "Stranniy mir" (
Russian
:
≪Странный мир≫
), Integral (Ch. Nemen ? V. Lugovoi)
- "
Suliko
" (
Russian
:
≪Сулико≫
), Integral (Georgian folk song)
- "Lady blues" (
Russian
:
≪Леди блюз≫
), Magnetic Band (music and lyrics by Gunnar Graps)
- "Rodina" (
Russian
:
≪Родина≫
), VIA-75 (Georgian folk melody; lyrics by
Akaki Tsereteli
; arranged by R. Bardzimashvili)
- "Troubadour na magistrali" (
Russian
:
≪Трубадур на магистрали≫
), Magnetic Band (G. Graps ? V. Mirtem)
- "Moya Gruzia" (
Russian
:
≪Моя Грузия≫
), Labyrinth (M. Kiladze ? I. Noneshvili)
- "Reka Tuni" (
Russian
:
≪Река Туни≫
), Gunesh (Turkmen folk song, arranged by Sh. Byashimov)
- "Podsnezhnik" (
Russian
:
≪Подснежник≫
), Integral (
Tatar
folk song, arranged by B. Alibasov and V. Dolenko)
Controversies
[
edit
]
Among the notable participants, the veteran Soviet rock bands VIA-Ariel and
Stas Namin
Group did not win any prizes.
Boris Grebenshchikov
’s
Aquarium
was also left without laurels, but the band's outlandish stage antics made Aquarium into a symbol of the Soviet alternative culture. The jury members walked out of a concert when the musicians drank port wine right on the stage and made provocative body movements, with Grebenshchikov playing his guitar in the prone position. The show came as a shock to the organizers and led to an effective ban of the band.
[7]
Yet, Aquarium managed to organize a second concert in
Gori, Georgia
, in a spacious circus hall near the birthplace of
Joseph Stalin
. The concert was filmed by a
Finnish
TV crew and the segments were included into a 40-minute film of the Tbilisi festival called
Soviet Rock
.
[8]
See also
[
edit
]
Notes
[
edit
]
- ^
Всесвит: л?тературно-художн?й та громадсько-политичний м?сячник, Випуски 7 ? 9. Сп?лка письменник?в Укра?ни, Укра?нське товариство дружби ? культурного зв’язку з заруб?жними кра?нами. ? Радянський письменник, 1987. In Ukrainian
- ^
100 знаменитых символов советской эпохи / А. Ю. Хорошевский. ? Харьков: Фолио, 2006. ? 510 с. ? (Серия ≪100 знаменитых≫). ? ISBN 966-03-3385-4. In Russian
- ^
"Программа передач Светланы Сорокиной", 5 канал. Выпуск от 3 сентября 2010
In Russian
- ^
Легендарные рок-фестивали СССР
. In Russian
- ^
VIA (ВИА) in Russian is the abbreviation of Вокально-Инструментальный Ансамбль
Vokal'no-Instrumental'nyy ansambl
(Vocal-Instrumental Ensemble).
- ^
Все специальные файлы Лауреаты молодежного фестиваля Тбилиси ? 80.
Archived
2007-09-26 at the
Wayback Machine
Radio Mayak
, 2006/15/06, 16:49.
- ^
Артемий Кивович Троицкий.
Небольшой скачок
. In:
Рок в Союзе
. Искусство, 1991 г.
ISBN
5-210-02476-8
. In Russian
- ^
Walter Gerald Moss. A History Of Russia: Since 1855, Volume 2. Anthem Series on Russian, East European and Eurasian Studies. Anthem Press, 2004. 643 pages.
References
[
edit
]
- Troitsky, Artemy (1987).
Back in the USSR: The True Story of Rock in Russia
.
London
:
Omnibus Press
.
- Pedro Ramet, Sergei Zamascikov (1990), The Soviet Rock Scene.
The Journal of Popular Culture
24 (1), 149?174.
- (in Russian)
Вера Шенгелия.
Роковой Тбилиси
. Русский Newsweek. 28 марта - 3 апреля 2005 № 12 (42) (interview with Artem Troitsky)
- (in Russian)
Ю. Филинов, А. Троицкий.
В ритме весны. Послесловие к фестивалю популярной музыки.
Комсомольская правда. 1980.
- (in Russian)
В. К. Яшкин (1980) Вокально-инструментальные ансамбли /, 47 с. ил. 19 см., М. Знание 1980. (
Online version
).
- (in Russian)
Алексеев А., Бурлака А., Сидоров А. "Кто есть кто в советском роке", издательство МП "Останкино", 1991.
- Vera Ivanova and Mikhail Manykin (February 12, 2007).
History of Rock Music in Russia
.
Russia-InfoCentre
- (in Russian)
1980 год (Год Обезьяны)
. In: Хроноскоп 80-х (фрагмент книги Владимира Марочкина и Андрея Игнатьева "Хроноскоп русского рока").
- (in Russian)
Артемий Кивович Троицкий.
Небольшой скачок
. In:
Рок в Союзе
. Искусство, 1991 г.
ISBN
5-210-02476-8
.
External links
[
edit
]
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