History
In 1987 guitarist Alexey Belov, vocalist Nikolay Noskov, bassist Alexander "Big Sasha" Minkov, guitarist Jan Ianenkov, and drummer Alexander Lvov (formerly from Aria) came together to form Gorky Park. Stas Namin, a famous 70's soviet musician, became the band's manager. Because Gorbachev lifted the censorship, many underground rock bands, including Gorky Park, became able to receive more widespread popularity. Later that year the band left Russia for the United States in search of a record deal.
In the U.S. the band soon made some connections in the record business. One of the first people to take notice was famous guitarist Frank Zappa. Jon Bon Jovi and Richie Sambora also helped them to secure a deal with Mercury Records.
The band released a self-titled debut album in 1989, featuring initials 'GP' stylized as a Hammer & Sickle on the cover. With the fall of the Iron Curtain and a growing interest in Soviets to western countries, Gorky Park soon became widely known. The band seemed to be a kind of symbol of American-Russian friendship. The band's first video, "Bang", received MTV rotation. Their next two singles, "Try to Find Me" and a collaboration with Bon Jovi, "Peace in Our Time", received rotation on mainstream radio stations.
Gorky Park participated on that year's Moscow Music Peace Festival alongside Bon Jovi, Mötley Crüe, Skid Row, Cinderella, Ozzy Osbourne and Scorpions. Gorky Park joined the other acts from the Moscow Music Peace Festival in the compilation album Stairway to Heaven/Highway to Hell. Which included each of the bands performing one song from an artist who died from, or a band who lost a member to, drug problems. Gorky Park's contribution was a cover of The Who's My Generation.
The band continued into 1990 touring with Bon Jovi and performing at the Goodwill Games opening ceremony. Gorky Park live shows often featured the band dressed in traditional Russian style, waving Soviet and American flags. In 1991 the band received Scandinavian Grammy award as the best new international act.
As Perestroika era came to its end, the group's fame in America subsided rather quickly. Nikolai Noskov left the band in 1990 but Gorky Park remained active and kept releasing albums in the '90s with Minkov taking over as lead vocalist. 1993's Moscow Calling, produced by Fee Waybill, sold 500,000 copies outside the US. Their next album, Stare, came out in 1996, released only in Russia, followed up by promotional tour of the former USSR states. In 1998, the band released Protivofazza. In 1999, Alexander Minkov left the band and started his solo career under the stage name Alexander Marshall. Gorky Park was never officially claimed to disband, but actually inactive since 2001. Belov and Yanenkov continue to perform Gorky Park songs in their band "Park Belova" (Belov Park).
Since then, Gorky Park made several brief re-unions in festivals. On September 12, 2007 the band headlined Bridge of Friendship and Warmth festival in Yerevan, Armenia. In 2008, Gorky Park received Muz-TV award for contribution to Rock music and performed Moscow Calling with Alexander Minkov.
Since the beginning of 2012, Gorky Park is on a Russian Tour featuring the original line-up (excluding only Noskov). On November 18th, 2012 the band gave special show in Crocus City Hall in Moscow, celebrating their 25th anniversary. Nikolay Noskov joined the band on stage for the first time in more than 20 years, singing "Bang".
Read more about this topic: Gorky Park (band)
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“History does nothing; it does not possess immense riches, it does not fight battles. It is men, real, living, who do all this.... It is not “history” which uses men as a means of achieving—as if it were an individual person—its own ends. History is nothing but the activity of men in pursuit of their ends.”
—Karl Marx (1818–1883)
“The history of all Magazines shows plainly that those which have attained celebrity were indebted for it to articles similar in natureto Berenice—although, I grant you, far superior in style and execution. I say similar in nature. You ask me in what does this nature consist? In the ludicrous heightened into the grotesque: the fearful coloured into the horrible: the witty exaggerated into the burlesque: the singular wrought out into the strange and mystical.”
—Edgar Allan Poe (1809–1849)
“No one can understand Paris and its history who does not understand that its fierceness is the balance and justification of its frivolity. It is called a city of pleasure; but it may also very specially be called a city of pain. The crown of roses is also a crown of thorns. Its people are too prone to hurt others, but quite ready also to hurt themselves. They are martyrs for religion, they are martyrs for irreligion; they are even martyrs for immorality.”
—Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874–1936)