Sankt Peterburg II - AOR Masters from the Soviet Union

Who is who?

Aforementioned question is highly justified, since there were two bands of the same name and of the same origin. Vladimir Rekshan founded Sankt Peterburg in Leningrad in the year 1969. It was one of the first Soviet groups who played rock music and had lyrics in their native tongue. Some rock encyclopedias said that the very first Soviet rock band was Falcon who started their activity in 1964. These two bands are considered the Russian rock pioneers.

But there was another Sankt Peterburg founded also in Leningrad, but in the year 1988. Due to chronological order, this band is recognized as Sankt Peterburg II. Vladimir Rekshan sold the rights for the band’s name to Vladimir Trushin (the leader of Sankt Peterburg II). The originator of the ladder group was a famous Soviet producer - Vladimir Kiselev (the head of The Vladimir Kiselev Leningrad Music Centre). Sankt Peterburg II was meant for playing melodic rock. The original line-up was made up of musically trained artists and sometimes accompanied by an orchestra. Sankt Peterburg II lasted only six months and managed to attract many fans and won the status of one of the most popular groups in the former Soviet Union. Their first great hit was „Russkie“. This one refers to folk songs and to patriotic feelings of the Russian people.

As an interesting fact, I’d like to mention that Vladimir Trushin was a member of another band from Leningrad. Its name was Avgust and they played heavy metal. They came to the Polish People’s Republic and played on „Metalmania“ festival in 1988 (you can hear Vladimir Trushin’s singing in such tracks like „Doroga v nikuda“ - played in the vein of hard rock with heavy guitar riffs and „defiant“ solo as well as in „Demon“ - traditional heavy metal tune with powerful sound).

In 1989, Sankt Peterburg II won the competition „Pesnya ’89“ and was the prizewinner in some other prestigious festivals in the same year: „Stupeni k Parnasu“, „Krasnaya Rvozdika“ etc. The band have started to play lots of gigs since then.

In 1989, a company Pool-Music published „Belye nochy rock’n’rolla“ („Rockin’ White Nights“). Some people consider this stuff as the debut of Sankt Peterburg II. It is not true, since „Rockin’ White Nights“ was a compilation with the Soviet rock bands (released on tape and CD). There were threes tracks by Sankt Peterburg II: „Russkie“, „Ne uhodi“ and „Svyataya lyubov“. Other bands who appeared on the compilation are the following: Russkie, Everest, No i chto, Albom, Kalendar and Passazhiry. It was the first CD with Soviet bands released in Germany. Sankt Peterburg II carried on playing live (ca. fifty concerts monthly!).

In 1990, Sankt Peterburg II, as an international guest band, was the laureate of „Sopot ’90“ festival in Poland. They crowned this event with a great performance. In the same year, Sankt Peterburg II performed very famous track „Ocharovana, okoldovana“. It was played on air by most of the Soviet radio stations. The band won the competition „Pesnya ’90“ with this track. Another interesting fact from the same year is that the musicians from Sankt Peterburg II met other musicians from a Polish melodic hard rock legend - Fatum. Fatum came in to the hall of a hotel in Kiev, and Sankt Peterburg II was leaving the building. They had a brief talk and then dispersed.

In the years 1990-1995, Sankt Peterburg II played over thousand concerts - mostly in the former Soviet Union and countries which were included in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. Obviously, most gigs were sold out. Since 1989, Sankt Peterburg II also played in such countries like Austria, Poland, Germany, Spain, Italy, Japan etc. Sankt Peterburg II was the first Russian band who played in Namibia. Namibia is a country in Southern Africa that gained its independence on March 21st, 1990. On the occassion of this event, Sankt Peterburg II played a concert in the stadium „Vindhuk Central“ and witnessed the raising of the independent Namibian flag. Sankt Peterburg II played not only on great stadiums, but also in clubs as well as restaurants. The group participated in many ventures (on the Soviet Union territory and abroad) that were initiated by the Ministry of Culture, e.g. they played on ruins of an Armenian city next to pop music stars - I. Kobzon, A. Rosenbaum, G. Khazanov and others. One of their most prestigious performances took place on „Pan Pacific Festival“ in Japan. There played groups and artists from Japan, South Korea and USA (e.g. an American singer - Dennis Williams). After the first concert, Sankt Peterburg II was regarded as the revelation of the festival. This success resulted in signing a deal with a Japanese record label Jimco Records. This company published Sankt Peterburg II’s official debut in 1991 (only in Japan).

After signing to Jimco Records, Sankt Peterburg II did two tours in Japan (in such cities like Tokio, Osaka, Jokohama, Kioto etc.) as well as played gigs in Spain, e.g. in the stadium „Centrum Madrid“ next to a well-known heavy metal band Barricada.

Sankt Peterburg II visited Prague in the former Czechoslovakia and performed in the popular Tamara Maksimova's TV show - „Muzykalnyi Ring - Arena“. There played famous Chechoslovakian rock bands as well.

In 1992, Sankt Peterburg II finished cooperation with the producer Vladimir Kiselev and started to act as an independent group.

In 1994, Sankt Peterburg II was invited by the vice speaker of the South Korean parliament to come to this Asian country. The band played a tour there and recorded another album in Seoul (some tracks were sang in Korean). Over 300 thousand copies were sold in South Korea only! There were also shot two videoclips and a documentary devoted to the group. This film was shot both in Seoul and in Sankt Peterburg (former Leningrad).

There were many changes in line-up, however the incessant leader and charismatic vocalist was nobody, but Vladimir Trushin himself. He was always the main composer and author of lyrics for Sankt Peterburg II. One of the main reasons of aforesaid changes were long tours and physical tiredness.

In 1996, Vladimir Trushin, alongside I. Kornelyuk and R. Lis, wrote and performed a song titled „Drugaya“ meant for the Eurovision Song Contest, but, unfortunately, wasn’t qualified for the next stage of the contest. „Drugaya“ is like a lullaby with fairylike mood produced by piano and keyboards. It is very light song, by which a listener can fall into a reverie.

Due to contract bequests meant for such countries like Germany, Japan, South Korea and France, Sankt Peterburg II wasn’t allowed to publish their albums in Russia. The only one exception is album titled „Ocharovana, okoldovana“ published in 1996 by Azart Records (this record company stopped operating in 1998). Unfortunately, this album, except most faithful fans, met with no response, since the record company didn’t do contractual duties as regards promotion.

As far as the line-up of Sankt Peterburg II is concerned, there played many musicians in various periods of the band’s activity: Andrey Lobanov, Sergey Bolotnikov, Sergey Gritsenko, Vyacheslav Pleshkov, Valery Ostapenko, Dmitry Evdomaha, Andrey Kruglov, Evgeniy Lependin, Valery Sudakov, Andrey Vdovichenko, Sergey Boldakin, Oleg Chinyakov, Gennadiy Anastasov, Vadim Ryabov, Viktor Drobysh and Andrey Deykov. All of these artists are professional musicians and play(ed) in many famous Soviet and Russian bands like Avgust, Soyuz and Radio-Rok.

In 1996, because of the decline of melodic rock popularity, Sank Peterburg II suspended their concert activity, but the band formally still existed. In that time, Sankt Peterburg II’s musicians participated in many side-projects. They worked mainly in recording studios and as session musicians. For instance, Vladimir Trushin performed as a solo artist along with a guitarist Oleg Chinyakov (their concerts were founded mostly on Sankt Peterburg II’s repertoire).

After 6-year pause from activity, some musicians of Sankt Peterburg II decided to reactivate this legendary band. They fixed a concert agenda of working name „Russkaya Zvezda“ and it was founded on both old and new songs.

In Semptember 2002, the line-up of Sankt Peterburg II was the following: Vladimir Trushin (vocal), Oleg Chinyakov (guitar), Sergey Boldakin (keyboards), Valery Sudakov (bass guitar) and Andrey Vdovichenko (drums)

New Chapter

Aforementioned history regards the old line-up of Sankt Peterburg II with its frontman Vladimir Trushin who played over 1500 concerts in his artistic career. Trushin, tired with long tours and irritated with political situation in Russia, decided to started work in 2003 in a production centre „Belye Nochi“ in Sankt Peterburg (the centre operated until 2005).

The new era came in the year 2004 when Vladimir Trushin invited a group of young and musicians of promise to a joint collaboration. This rejuvenated Sankt Peterburg II was still led by Vladimir Kiselev (ex-producer for the band) and its original singer - Vladimir Trushin. A new singer was Trushin’s successor - 17-year Roman Vasilev (a model and student  of acting under Natalia Krachkovskaya). Vladimir Trushin was a vocal tutor for Roman Vasilev. Roman met 19-year guitarist, Anton Yudin, in a club in Sankt Peterburg. Anton graduated from St. Petersburg High School of Music (classical guitar class). He is a versatile instrumentalist who can play not only classical music, but also jazz and rock. Then the band was joined by 26-year drummer Maksim Agaev and 22-year guitarist Nikita Myasnikov. Nikita got to know Maksim at The Mozhoisky Academy. Nikita wondered if he should carry on his military career, but, finally, opted for music (in 2003, he was admitted to The Rimski-Korsakov School and St. Peterburg University of Film and Television). The first line-up was completed by 20-year bassist Vladimir Kovalev (from Murmansk) and 29-year keyboardist Andrey Dubrovin. Then Vyacheslav Nikiforov substituted for Maksim Agaev on drums, and Albert Vizenberg for Anton Yudin on lead guitars. As in the old line-up’s case, they were also musically trained. Trushin brought new blood into the legendary band who started to play both well-known old („Shag navstrechu“, “Ocharovana, okoldovana“) and new songs („Po stupenyam vniz“, „Pyat minut tishiny“, „Matryoshki“) as well as covers („Budet, chot budet“ - originally by a Swiss hard rock band Shakra as “Lovers on the Run“; “Stupeni“ - originally by Kiss as “Hide Your Heart“, however this track was also covered by Bonnie Tyler; “The Final Countdown“ originally by Europe). 

In 2005, Vladimir Trushin appeared in TV show called „Zhivogo Zbuka“ and sang, along with Gennadiy Bogdanov (Russkie) and Sergey Rogozhin (Aukcyon), a beautiful ballad devoted to their home city - „Sankt Peterburg“. A co-author of lyrics was nobody, but Vladimir Trushin. The same track was performed in another version by the vocal quartet: Vladimir Trushin, Sergey Rogozhin, Gennadiy Bogdanov and Andrey Zabludovskiy. They were accompanied by orchestra "Globalis" and conducted by Konstantin Krimets.

Despite the young age of new musicians, Sankt Peterburg II, in the years 2004-2006, played gigs before such rock music masters like Whitesnake, Europe, Nazareth, Robert Plant and Dio (the ladder singer called them „a Russian Bon Jovi“). In the years 2004-2005, they performed in concert series „Diskoteka 80h“ organized by Avto-Radio in SKK „Olimpiyskiy“. In September 2005, Sankt Peterburg II participated in the contest „Russia Music Award 2005“ organized by MTV. They also played on „Pivnoy Fest“, where someone from the audience thrown a bottle towards Albert Vizenberg what resulted in cut on his head. It was very sad incident proving that the profession of musician is really hard and often unrewarding.

In 2006, on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of Zemlyane’s artistic activity, they played together two songs - „Druzya“ and „A zhizn idyot“. It wasn’t strange, because then Vladimir Tryshin was a manager for Sankt Peterburg II and Zemlyane. They also shot two videoclips to new tracks - „Matryoshki“ and „Golub“. The first clip is very interesting as regards its metaphorical message. Literally, „Matryoshka“ is a Russian doll composed of wooden braces of diminishing sizes located one within the other. Metaphorically, this is about a girl who is very polite and learns to play the cello (when parents are in a home), but she throws off the mask of virtuous and sedate intellectual in order to change into a party girl. This song tells us what false appearance is all about. The ladder one comes from the soundtrack to the adventure movie „Sluga Gosudarev“ (2007).

On January 13th (2008), Sankt Peterburg II played in Trafalgar Square on the 4th „Russian Winter Festival“ in London. This was the crucial year for Sankt Peterburg II’s career in the future. The group was going to record a new stuff by the use of the equipment bought in London. The line-up of the band also changed then: Roman Vasilev (vocal), Vladimir Kovalev (bass guitar), Daniil Kuzin (guitar), Vladimir Stukov (keyboards) and Vladimir Petrov (drums). Unfortunately, at the end of the year, they decided to terminate Sankt Peterburg II.

What was the main reason of such a decision? Vladimir Trushin, as a producer, and his charges wanted to be free artists. Unfortunately, there were some people hostile to the band. They made an artistic progress difficult for Sankt Peterburg II and wanted to impose the direction of evolution on the group. Obviously, Trushin couldn’t agree to such a form of artistic constraint. His decision is admirable, since the artistic freedom is the highest value for all respected musicians.

Even though ex-Sankt Peterburg II musicians parted their ways, Vladimir Trushin has many students by him. For instance, Roman Vasilev (of Qwerty), Nikita and Nastia (of Boykot) and Ruslana (of Zemlyane) try to compose original music that is unrestricted with any pseudo-musical dictatorship. Moreover, one of the most recent Trushin’s projects is an independent record label Music Promo Projects (that is led by Igor Markitantov). The conclusion can be only one: it is better to save face, honour and dignity than selling artistic soul to devil and landing in hell.