Brief biography of the rock band Picnic. Group "picnic" Picnic group leader surname
Picnic, Russian rock band (Leningrad, St. Petersburg). It emerged in September 1978 at the Leningrad Polytechnic Institute on the wreckage of the locally popular ORION, consisting of: Sergei Omelnichenko (guitar, vocals), Evgeniy “Jacques” Voloshchuk (bass), Alexey Dobychin (vocals), Nikolai Mikhailov (flute) and Alexander Matskov ( drums), the latter was replaced two months later by Alexander Kondrashkin.
For some time, the group successfully collaborated with the amateur theater of the Leningrad Polytechnic Institute, where they participated in the production of the musical play “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign.” In March 1979, “PICNIC,” whose composition was reinforced by Mikhailov’s classmate Yuri Danilov (flute, clarinet), made its debut at the annual festival “Spring at the Leningrad Polytechnic Institute,” where it was immediately noticed. He soon parted ways with the theater stage and over the next two years he was one of the most active participants in the underground rock scene of Leningrad, and also visited Novgorod and Moscow. The repertoire of “PIKNIK” in these years relied mainly on songs by Dobychin and Omelnichenko - energetic rock and rolls or beats with cute melodies and simple-minded reflective lyrics in the spirit of the popular “TIME MACHINE” (several numbers from this period were preserved in recordings on debut album "PIKNika" " Smoke"). Various musicians visited the ranks of the group, among whom it should be noted Pavel Kondratenko (later “DEMOCRITES WELL” and “ALICE”) and Peter Troshchenkov.
At the beginning of 1981, “PIKNIK” took an active part in the creation of the Leningrad rock club, and that same fall, the original composition of the group disbanded: Danilov went to “TAMBURINE”, Omelnichenko to “ORNAMENT”, Troshchenkov began playing with “AQUARIUM”, Mikhailov became a member of the council rock club, and in 1982 he was elected its president. Voloshchuk and Dobychin assembled a new version of the group, which included members of another rock club group “LABYRINTH” Edmund Shklyarsky (guitar, piano, vocals) and Alexander Savelyev (guitar).
Edmund Shklyarsky (b. September 26, 1955, Leningrad) grew up in a family with strong musical traditions, learned to play the violin, but his acquaintance with rock and roll put an end to his academic career. In the fall of 1972, he rehearsed for several weeks with Boris Grebenshchikov, at that time a sophomore at the Faculty of Applied Mathematics at Leningrad University (the legendary “Aquarium” then existed more in his imagination than in reality), but in the end he chose to go his own way.
A year later, he entered the Leningrad Polytechnic Institute, and in the fall of 1973 he organized his first group “SURPRISE” there. The following spring, the group took part in the third festival of groups of the Polytechnic Institute, receiving a special jury prize for the song by E. Shklyarsky Stagecoach- contrary to the prevailing fashion in the rock movement for English-language standards, from the very beginning he wanted to sing in Russian and only his songs.
In the mid-70s, Shklyarsky briefly played in ORION, then rehearsed with the future founder of STRANGE GAMES Viktor Sologub and finally became a member of the LABYRINTH group, with which he was accepted into a rock club, and after its collapse he ended up at PICNIC.
Regularly changing drummers and improving the equipment (which was used for almost the majority of the rock club’s concerts in the first half of the 80s, including its 1st festival), “PIKNIK” gradually made its way into the ranks of the club’s most popular bands. In 1982, at Andrei Tropillo’s studio they recorded the album “ Smoke", which discovered Shklyarsky as a strong melodist and gifted poet. In the spring of 1983, “PIKNIK” parted ways with Dobychin (he returned to his academic career and unfinished dissertation) and took third place at a rock club festival, and a year later split in two: Shklyarsky and Savelyev left for the professional stage, leaving behind the name “PIKNIK” , and Voloshchuk and Sergei Shepel (guitar, piano) and Leonid Kirnos (drums), who were playing in the group at that time, organized the short-lived “TO BE CONTINUED”.
At the end of 1984, Shklyarsky and Savelyev, with the support of session musicians Viktor Sergeev (keyboards), Vladimir Sizov (bass) and Alexander Fedorov (drums), recorded their second album “ Wolf Dance"- perhaps the best work in the history of PIKNIC, full of dark images and dramatic plots, inspired by the gothic stories of Edgar Allan Poe and Nathaniel Hawthorne, and musically close to the aesthetics of baroque rock.
Thanks to recordings distributed throughout the country, the popularity of PIKNIK grew, although the group practically did not exist during this period. Only in 1986 was its new composition formed: Shklyarsky, Savelyev, former member of the ZERKALO group Sergei Voronin (b. March 29, 1956; keyboards), Yuri Klyuchantsev (keyboards, saxophone), Viktor Evseev (bass, vocals) and Vadim Ponomarev ( rhythm box). The latter was replaced a year later by Leonid Kirnos (b. August 28, 1957), who once played in the amateur “PICNIC” and the group “TO BE CONTINUED.”
In September 1988, “PIKNIK” performed a solo program for the first time in several years in front of an audience of thousands and was enthusiastically received by the audience. The Melodiya company released two of their records one after another. In January 1989, the group almost fell apart: the attack of personal ambitions caused by popularity led to the departure of Evseev and Klyuchantsev, who assembled the group “ZAMOK ZO” with Andrei Shatalin and Pavel Kondratenko, who left “Alice” under similar circumstances. Veteran Sizov picked up the bass guitar again. In September 1989, with this lineup, the group performed at the rock festival of the same name organized by Alexander Zhitinsky and Andrei Tropillo under the auspices of the Aurora magazine, where fragments of their new program were performed. By March 1990, ZAMOK ZO, having recorded a single album and made several tours, fell apart, and PIKNIK restored the composition of the 1988 sample.
After a long break, “PIKNIK” returned to the studio and recorded a powerful and musically convincing album “ Harakiri"(1992). Savelyev had left the stage by this time, becoming the director of the group. Later, he transferred this post to the former drummer of PIKNik, Alik Bakhtiyarov. To fill some vacuum in the stage arrangements, guitarist Andrei Merchansky was invited to “PICNIC” (again, from “TO BE CONTINUED” and the modernized version of Rexhan’s “SAINT PETERSBURG”). He remained in the group until the spring of 1994, after which he left music and later emigrated. The only work of the group released during this period was “ Collector's album”, which presented the best numbers from the group’s repertoire for 1982-90.
It seemed that “PIKNIK” was doomed to the fate of many groups whose peak of popularity occurred during the underground times and the subsequent euphoria of the late 80s, but the group surprised everyone by finding the strength to change the persistent stereotype of perceiving their music only as a reason for nostalgia. Released after a long pause in 1995, the album “ A Little Fire“confidently confirmed that Shklyarsky’s melodic gift has not diminished over the years, and his ability to fit his melodies into a modern musical context, without changing a single note in them and without changing his chosen style, is worthy of admiration. In 1996, a new one was born - the eighth (or ninth, if we add the collective collection " Vampire Songs", in which the music of "PIKNIK" occupies a central place) disc " Ginseng", the re-release of his musical archives began (it is interesting that the albums of "PIKNIC" are decorated with illustrations by Shklyarsky, which once again demonstrates the versatility of his talent).
There were also losses. In the fall of 1994, drummer and then director of the group, Alik Bakhtiyarov, died in a car accident. In the summer of 1996, Evseev and Klyuchantsev left the group for the second time. Their place this time was taken by the hitherto unknown Alexander Rokin (b. April 5, 1963).
The group is famous for its experiments in the entertainment of its concerts. In 1997, the first stage instrument was designed - a “live cello” for the song “ Eyes outlined in charcoal"(the first appearance of the cello was Oksana Semenova), and in 2001, for the title song of the album "Egyptian", a "New Egyptian instrument" was created, a pyrotechnic sign appears in the group's show (during the performance of the song Purple-Black). The group's 15th anniversary was celebrated with a big concert at the Rossiya State Concert Hall in 1999 (with a two-year delay). “PICNIC” took part in the concert “XX Years of the Rock Club”. In 2003, together with Vadi Samoilov, “Picnic” recorded a new disc “ Shadow of the Vampire Resources Internet:
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Biography (history) of the Picnic group
The history of the group has not yet been written. This page is just another attempt, nothing more. Over time, the plot will develop and there will be more information. Stay tuned.
IN 1981 year, Jacques Voloshchuk invited Edmund Shklyarsky to join the Picnic group. In the summer of 1982, the first recording of Picnic on film appeared - the magnetic album “Smoke”.
December 1984 of the year. The album “Wolf Dance” was recorded on tape. The group did not have a permanent lineup and keyboard player Sergei Voronin was invited to help.
IN 1986 year, Picnic acquires a permanent line-up of musicians and a “contract” with Lenconcert. This makes it possible to go on the first tour.
At first 1987 The first vinyl record “Hieroglyph” was released. At that time, this was enough for the whole country to know about the group.
1987-1988 take place in a hectic touring life. Leonid Kirnos becomes the “full-time” drummer of Picnic. As was customary in those days, several concerts are played in a row in each city. The longest series was in Vladivostok - 22 performances in a row.
The second vinyl record (Coming from Nowhere) was recorded at Melodiya studio in 1988. At that time, the studio was “overloaded”, shifts were scheduled for years in advance. The album was recorded quickly and mixed even faster.
Sunset of the 80s. Picnic plays three solo concerts in a row at the St. Petersburg SKK stadium. The concerts were filmed and quietly released 18 years later. Cooperative offices replaced concert state institutions. Picnic is on a joint tour with the French group Dirty Side.
IN 1990 year, Picnic gets its own symbol, which is now present on all covers and stage decorations. In May, the video clip “Let yourself be torn” is being filmed. Picnic goes to Japan, where he performs at the Expo 90 festival along with the Californian group The Doobie Brothers.
1991- the last year of the existence of the USSR. Picnic records the album "Harakiri", which will later be released on "cooperative" vinyl. Most of the songs from this album are still played in concerts. Alik Bakhtiyarov returns to the group as director.
Edmund Shklyarsky and Sergei Voronin make a walking pilgrimage to the Polish city of Czestochowo. I didn’t have the chance to see the Pope and the “Womb Boska of Częstochowa” icon in person due to the huge number of people who came.
The return from Poland coincided with the August putsch-coup. Picnic takes part in the “Rock Against Tanks” concert on Palace Square.
The Soviet Union collapsed. At the same time (coincidentally), digital discs in the CD format came to replace the good old vinyl records. Piknik recorded material in Minsk for publication on a new medium, but that disc was never released. In 1993, Picnic performed in “Program A,” a landmark television show of those times.
With some delay, in 1994 -om, Picnics decided to celebrate the tenth anniversary of the group. The concert took place at the Oktyabrsky Concert Hall and went down in history as the concert where a fan managed to steal Edmund Shklyarsky’s guitar.
In ninety-four, the group recorded the album “A Little Fire.” By that time, CDs had already completely replaced vinyl records. However, Picnic continued to adhere to the classic standards of LP album length - 40 minutes. During a joint concert in Almaty with the Nautilus Pompilius group, he met Vadim Samoilov.
In the fall, Alik Bakhtiyarov dies in a car accident.
One day, at a “cultural event”, the Picnics meet Andrei Karpenko. Andrey sings his songs with a guitar and these songs impress Shklyarsky. What follows is a joint recording. The compositions “Helicopter”, “Hysteria” and “One, Two...” are included in the album “Vampire Songs”. In the credits for the album, Karpenko is listed as “Henri Alf.”
In September 1995 Edmund meets Viktor Gritsaenko (at that time the general producer of Radio Rox). Victor becomes the director of the group, and on December 6 at the Oktyabrsky Concert Hall he holds his first event - the presentation of the new program “Vampire Songs”. For the first time, the miracles of fire eruption are demonstrated by Alexander Yarovoy.
Since then, a tradition has begun - Picnic shows a new program in the fall at the Oktyabrsky Concert Hall, and on March 7, at the Lensoveta Palace of Culture, Picnic plays a “spring concert”. in spring 1996 year, Evseev and Klyuchantsev left the group. The last concert with their participation took place in Nizhny Novgorod.
Alexander Rokin became the bass guitarist of Picnic. In the summer, the Soyuz publishing house releases the Picnic anthology on eight discs with a book annotation by Andrei Burlaka. On September 26, the “Face” video is being filmed at the “Vatrushka” club. The album “Ginseng” is being recorded and soon published.
Year 1997 . The album "Glass" is released. For the first time (singing along in the song “Two Giants”), Edmund Shklyarsky involves his children: Alina and Stas. The first stage instrument was designed - a “living cello” for the song “Eyes Outlined by Coal” (the first appearance of the cello was Oksana Semenova).
IN 1998 year, evil turned into a Crisis and tried once again to defeat good (Music). At this time, Edmund Shklyarsky decides on a daring experiment. Under the banner of Picnic & Sect MO, the electronic album “Drinking Electricity” is being released. "MO Sect" are magical objects. These are people who are not directly related to this music. But their voices were recorded, sampled and then used.
IN 1999 year the album “The Best” was released. The Picnics program of the same name will be presented in St. Petersburg on March 7th, and on May 3rd at the Moscow State Central Concert Hall “Russia”. On the posters the concert is designated as an anniversary concert, dedicated to the 15th anniversary of the group.
In May, Svyatoslav Obraztsov replaced Rokin as bass guitarist. Stas Dremov briefly joined the group, but managed to organize the Picnic tour from St. Petersburg to Vladivostok and create a video for the song “Sharmanka”. The beginning of the new millennium, on New Year's Eve on January 1 2000 year, the Picnic was celebrated with a concert on the square near the Kazan Cathedral.
In the fall of 2000, Picnic took part in the “Screen Tests”. The song “Aluminum Cucumbers” was recorded and later performed at the Olimpiyskiy. On December 6, “The Egyptian” was performed for the first time on the stage of the St. Petersburg Palace of Culture “Lensovet”.
In March 2001 On the 2nd in Zaporozhye and St. Petersburg, Picnic plays a joint program with the Zaporozhye String Orchestra. The concert was filmed and later released on VHS tapes.
The influential major of those years, Real Records, published the collection “Violet-Black” with the premiere of the song of the same name. On February 24 in Moscow, Picnic shows a new program “Violet-Black”.
In the spring of 2001, the album “Egyptian” was released on Grand Records. Now it seems unlikely that the above-mentioned album should have been called “A Million in the Bag.” The song “Egyptian” itself, which along with “Hieroglyph” became the band’s calling card, was not intended to be on the disc at all! But what happened happened. The song, in turn, gave birth to a new instrument, this time a “new Egyptian” one.
On 11/11/2001 the picnic-dot-info website was born.
At first 2002 The album “Alien” is released. At the group concert “The Last Hero” at the Olimpiyskiy, Picnic will present a new song “Speaks and Shows.”
In the spring, an invitation was received to perform at the Nashestviye-2002 festival in Ramenskoye. In the summer, during a tour in Israel, the forms and content of the upcoming performance were invented.
Picnic's performance at Nashestvo-2002 was accompanied by a show by the Black Sky and White theater, the Vasiliev brothers, sitar player Sergei Gasanov and the fire-breathing Alexander Yarovoy.
A figure of the Daughter of the Sphinx was made especially for the performance. The masters did not take into account the wishes of the group. The figure turned out to be so heavy that its further presence in the team turned out to be impossible.
In the fall of 2002, Picnic celebrates its twentieth anniversary. The performance in St. Petersburg was filmed, but the video has not yet been published.
Saxophonist Alexey Mogilevsky (ex-Nautilus Pompilius) takes part in the anniversary concerts for the first time.
In December 2002, Vadim Samoilov recorded a cover version of the song “I am invisible.” A year later, the “Tribute” disc will appear, on which 19 glorious groups and performers performed Picnic songs.
At first 2003 The Picnics made a “musical journey” to Germany and Holland. The architecture of Amsterdam was reflected in the design of the booklet of the original edition of the album “Speaks and Shows”. At the festival in Osnabrück we crossed paths with Inna Zhelannaya, in the “Beatles” club in Hamburg - with the group “Dead Island”. Both acquaintances, in the near future, turned out to be fruitful.
The album “Speaks and Shows” appeared in March 2003. And in April the concert “Speaks and Shows” took place at the Moscow Art Theater. Gorky with the participation of Vadim Samoilov, Alexey Mogilevsky, Yuta and Irina Sorokina.
During the spring tour of the Ural cities, Svyatoslav Obraztsov’s health deteriorates sharply. It was not possible to defeat the disease and on August 11, 2003, Svyatoslav passed away.
At the end of August 2003, the Nota publishing house published a biography of the Picnic group. The book consisted of two parts: Origins (author Alina Shklyarskaya) and History (recorded by Alexey Rybin). Photos from the group's archives, interviews and song lyrics are used as appendices.
Marat Korchemny becomes the new bass guitarist of the Picnic group. The first performance took place on April 26, 2003 in the Kiev Palace of Culture of the KPI.
In August 2003, recording of the album “Shadow of the Vampire” with the participation of Vadim Samoilov began in the Moscow studio “Giant”.
In the fall, the Picnics go on a “Tells and Shows” tour. At a concert in Perm, the strings on Marat’s bass guitar mysteriously burst. There was a spectator in the hall who offered his bass guitar in return. Thanks to this, the concert ended successfully and without cuts.
On October 11, 2003, Vitaly Mukhametzyanov filmed the video “Torture Never Ends.” The first collaboration with Mukha falls into the MTV rotation, despite the obvious “non-format”.
On December 11, the premiere of “Shadow of the Vampire” is played on the stage of the Moscow Art Theater. Since then, this program, at intervals of several years, has been played in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Kyiv, Samara and Tula.
The album “Shadow of the Vampire” was released on February 15 2004 of the year. The lyrics of the songs “The Heart Beats at 3/4” and “Here is My Shadow” were written by Alina Shklyarskaya. The publication was accompanied by an interactive application and a quest “The Story of..”.
On April 28, Picnic performs for the first time at the Moscow Central House of Artists. The chamber program “Frescoes” was presented with the participation of Inna Zhelannaya. Subsequently, the Central House of Artists becomes a place for the group's musical experiments.
In the spring, the famous photo shoot “in top hats” took place in Andrey Fedechko’s studio. Just a few months later, these photographs appear on many websites and forums in the People's Republic of China. The reason for the increased interest of the inhabitants of the Middle Kingdom in Picnics remains a mystery.
At the end of May 2004, the Picnics were again celebrated with concerts in Germany. The tour ended with a blitz trip to Italy. A documentary film was made based on the journey, which is kept in a safe place until better times.
Album "Three Fates", 2011.
Often, albums of cover versions are released when one’s own ideas run out or a desire for easy money arises. You wouldn’t suspect the Picnic group of either one or the other. The band releases full-length albums regularly, and Edmund Shklyarsky and his associates don’t seem to be complaining about the lack of money.
Fortunately, the disc “Three Fates” also does not belong to the countless cohort of notorious “old songs about the main thing.” “Picnic” is such a closed and otherworldly conglomerate that all works that fall into its orbit are instantly imbued with specific authorial meanings. It’s like Pelevin’s in “Chapaev and Emptiness”: the words and music seem to be the same, but the song is different. There are catastrophically few such radical recodings in Russian music - I only remember the album “Chubchik” by Boris Grebenshchikov and some reworkings by Fyodor Chistyakov.
According to the concept of “Picnic,” “Three Fates” combine White Guard ballads, Red Army marching songs and salon romances. But in reality, of course, there are more destinies, otherwise where would “The Volga River Flows” and “On That Highway” come from in the album? Edmund Shklyarsky acts like his beloved Salvador Dali, who, for example, took the works of Velazquez and placed them on his own canvases in a new and unusual context.
It is extremely difficult to catch, analyze and sort out the ideas of “Picnic”. Sometimes they even double and multiply before our eyes, as happens, say, with the song “Polyushko-Field”, which appears on the disc in two versions at once - “Zeppelin” and swing. The question “what did the author want to say with this” is again inappropriate, since the meanings are interchangeable. And the epithet “heroic”, used in the album in relation to the swing version, could be applied with no less success to the second version.
Some of the songs involved in “Three Fates” influenced the work of “Picnic” itself. Shklyarsky does not hide the fact that “We are like quivering birds” was written under the impression of “Across the Valleys and Over the Hills.” And when performing the romance “Doubt,” he pays tribute to his beloved Fyodor Chaliapin, although, of course, this genetic connection is not perceptible by ear.
The ethnic roots of Edmund Shklyarsky are also practically not perceptible in the sound of these songs. “Oh frost, frost ...” is generally stylized as Celtic chants, and “Black Raven” and “Oh, it’s not evening” existed in the Cossack environment hostile to the Poles. The only exception is the instrumental “The Volga River Flows,” on which Psalm 91 is superimposed in Latin. It provokes unexpected fantasies: during the mass, the organist went crazy and began playing Soviet classics instead of the hymns prescribed by the charter, and the padre is trying with all his might to “save the game” by muttering spells against evil spirits.
In short, surrealism and nothing more! From the same opera – a hand dotted with esoteric symbols on the cover of the disc, which was clearly borrowed from the sketches for Salvador Dali’s painting “Bacchanalia”. I would like to warmly shake this monumental hand of the Stone Guest and thank him for his creative approach to our song heritage...
to be continued...
Contacts:
Concerts:
Vladimir Safronov - all questions about organizing concerts and tours of the PIKNIK group
phone: +7 911 920-8314
mail: [email protected]
Press attache: Anastasia Rogozhnikova
for all contacts with press, TV and radio
phone: +7 915 094-52-00
mail: [email protected]
Technical rider:
Victor Dombrovsky - all questions about the TECHNICAL rider
phone: +7 921 928-2625
mail: [email protected]
For interesting offers:
Contact email for all questions:
[email protected]
Creative impulses:
mail for competitions, plots, songs and dances:
piknik.online (dog) gmail.com
Official (updated) biography on./../..
Official page of the Picnic group on VKontakte: no.
Facebook: no.
Twitter: https://twitter.com/#!/_piknik
Mail.ru blog: no.
Official website: http://piknik.info
YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/piknikband
Livejournal: no.
MySpace: no.
Picnic group in Odnoklassniki (official group): no.
Photo on FLICKR: none.
Community on LIVEJOURNAL: none.
Materials used to create the biography:
1. Official website of the Picnic group, materials from the KM.Ru portal, Denis STUPNIKOV.
2. Wikipedia.
3. Media.
4. Photos from open sources.
The group was formed in September 1978 in Leningrad from Polytechnic students who played in the amateur group "ORION". The lineup included: Sergey Omelnichenko (guitar, vocals, lyrics), Evgeny “Jacques” Voloshchuk (bass), Alexey Dobychin (vocals, lyrics), Nikolay Mikhailov (flute), Alexander Matskov (drums). When the question arose about the title, someone remembered the recently read story by the Strugatsky brothers, “Roadside Picnic.” The proposal was accepted, but the end of the phrase was almost immediately discarded. After some time, Matskov was replaced on drums by Alexander Kondrashkin.
In March 1979, the group was strengthened by Nikolai Mikhailov’s classmate at the music school and flutist of the group “Tuesday” Yuri Danilov. The repertoire of “PIKNIK” in these years relied mainly on the songs of Dobychin and Omelnichenko - energetic rock and rolls, blues or beat.
In 1981, Evgeny Voloshchuk (bass guitar) and Alexey Dobychin (vocals) were left alone. Voloshchuk invited member of the LABYRINTH group Edmund Shklyarsky (vocals, guitar, piano) to fill the vacant position of guitarist. Edmund did not come alone, but together with Alexander Savelyev (guitar) and Ali Bakhtiyarov (drums). Edmund Shklyarsky's debut took place at one of the concerts of the Leningrad rock club.
In 1982, “PIKNIK” recorded its first magnetic album “Smoke” at Andrei Tropillo’s studio. The original version of the album included the songs “Disc Jockey” and “Who is Silent Much,” which were excluded from the track list in the reissues. Also, for various reasons, such songs as “Bicycle”, “For the Innocently Killed” (released later on the album “A Little Fire”) and some other songs were not included in “Smoke”. The title of the album was proposed by Andrei Tropillo and was accepted without much discussion. The order of the compositions was determined by a simple alternation of “fast-slow” and “from strong to weak.” Initially, the album did not include a cover, even a “virtual” one. In 1993, “Smoke” was not only re-released on CD, but also re-recorded in the studio by the original musicians specially assembled for this purpose.
In the fall of 1982 - the first public presentation of recordings at the Phonograph club in the Leningrad Youth Palace.
In 1983, “Picnic” became a laureate of the Leningrad Rock Club festival (along with “Aquarium”, “Zoo” and “Russians”). Leonid Kirnos joins the group as a drummer. The first version of the song “Giant” is recorded, which for the first time in the musical history of the group enters the hit parade of the Smena newspaper under the heading “In modern rhythms”.
In 1984, a split occurred in the group. "Picnic", in which only Shklyarsky and Savelyev remain, leaves the Leningrad rock club. After this, the group did not have a permanent composition for two years.
In late autumn, at the same Andrei Tropillo studio, Shklyarsky and Savelyev, with the support of session musicians Sergei Voronin (keyboards), Vladimir Sizov (bass guitar) and Alexander Fedorov (drums), recorded their second album “Wolf Dance”. The album was full of dark images and dramatic plots, inspired by the gothic stories of Edgar Allan Poe and Nathaniel Hawthorne, and was musically close to the aesthetics of baroque rock.
Since 1985, the group begins active touring. At LDM the group shows the program “Wolf Dance” live. For the first time, “electric rock” appeared on the scene, which sometimes travels with the group today.
Also in the same year, “Picnic” was included in the “black lists” of groups prohibited from being reproduced in recording studios. The group is attacked by the party-Komsomol press, especially for songs such as “Opium Smoke”.
The first version of the song “Holiday” was recorded (for the first time in the history of the group a computer is used), which is heard on the air of the New Year’s program “Disks Are Spinning” on Leningrad TV.
In 1986, using the same computers, the song “I’m Almost Italian” was recorded. The group acquires a stable lineup: Edmund Shklyarsky (vocals, guitar), Alexander Savelyev (guitar), former member of the Zerkalo group Sergei Voronin (keyboards), Viktor Evseev (bass guitar, backing vocals), Yuri Klyuchantsev (keyboards, saxophone) and Vadim Ponomarev (drums). The first version of the album “Hieroglyph” is recorded, including a work by Johann Sebastian Bach.
With the help of Vladimir Voronetsky, Lev Levinson and journalist Mikhail Sadchikov, “Picnic”, in a protracted battle with the artistic council, received the right to tour, and at the end of the year the group went on its first tour to Tallinn and Donetsk.
During New Year's concerts at the Palace of Culture. Kapranov is filming a video for the song “Hieroglyph”. With the help of Mikhail Sadchikov, the group has the opportunity to release their songs on the Melodiya recording company. The second, classic version of the album “Hieroglyph” was recorded in four days in the studio of the House of Composers. A few months later, one of the first albums of a domestic rock band released on vinyl appears in music stores across the country.
On the disc “Meeting Place - Disco-3” the song “I’m Almost an Italian” appears with author’s comments by Arthur Makariev, who later became the initiator of the recording of the second vinyl record of “Picnic”.
In the spring of 1987, drummer Leonid Kirnos joined the band again.
In 1988, in Moscow, at the Melodiya company, the album “Born from Nowhere” was recorded. On tour, Svyatoslav Obraztsov works with the group as a sound engineer. In the summer, a video for the song “Holiday” is filmed for the “Morning Mail” program in Yalta. In September at the SKK named after. Lenin (Leningrad) hosts three Picnic solo concerts in a row. In December, Evseev and Klyuchantsev left the group.
In 1989, Vladimir Sizov became the group’s bass guitarist, who, like Sergei Voronin, participated in the recording of the album “Wolf Dance”. In the spring, “Picnic” tours with the French group “Dirty Side”, and in the summer participates in the festival of the Baltic cities in the Polish city of Sopot.
In 1990, Picnic got its own graphic symbol, which is now present on all discs and stage decorations. In May, a video for the song “Let yourself be torn” is being filmed. Evseev and Klyuchantsev return to the group. With this composition, “Picnic” flies to Japan, to the city of Osaka, to the Expo-90 festival.
1991—1995
In 1991, Mikhail Shemarov recorded the album “Harakiri” at Lenfilm. Former drummer Ali Bakhtiyarov returns to the group as director. In the summer, Edmund Shklyarsky and Sergei Voronin take part in a walking pilgrimage to the Pope in the Polish city of Czestochowa.
In 1992, the penultimate gramophone record of Picnic, Harakiri, was released on the Matuzalem label, first designed by Shklyarsky himself. There is devaluation in the country, and for a concert in Minsk the group receives a bag of money (its “million in the bag”). Another attribute of the show appears - the “pointing finger”. In the same year, Ivan Okhlobystin’s film “The Arbiter” was released with a soundtrack by the groups “Picnic” and “Obermaneken”, which received the “Kinotavr” award in the “Films for the Elite” category.
In 1993, “Picnic” took part in the “live filming” of the program “Ad Libitum” and in the concert “The Far Side of the Moon” at the Palace of Culture. Gorbunova. At the end of the year, with the assistance of Oleg Kruglov, the group’s first CD is released on the Aura label - a remake of the album “Smoke”.
On February 16, 1994, at the Oktyabrsky Concert Hall, two years late, the group celebrated the 10th anniversary of the release of the magnetic album “Smoke”. In the spring, the second CD of “Picnic” appears - “A Little Fire”.
The last flash of “vinyl” (Alexander Savelyev on the “Anthrop” label releases the original version of the album “Wolf Dance”). During a joint concert in Kazakhstan (Alma-Ata) with the Nautilus Pompilius group, I met Vadim Samoilov. In the fall, Ali Bakhtiyarov dies in a car accident.
In the early autumn of 1995, Edmund Shklyarsky met Viktor Gritsaenko, who later became the director of the group, and on December 6, at the Oktyabrsky Concert Hall, he held his first event-presentation of the new program “Vampire Songs”. For the first time, the miracles of fire eruption are demonstrated by Alexander Yarovoy. The album “Vampire Songs” was recorded together with vocalist Andrei Karpenko (also known as Henri Alf).
In 1996, after a tour in Nizhny Novgorod, Evseev and Klyuchantsev finally left the group. Alexander Rokin becomes the bass guitarist. The album “Ginseng” is being recorded and soon published. In the summer, the Soyuz label will release the Picnic anthology on eight discs with a book annotation by Andrei Burlaka.
In 1997, the next album, “Glass,” was released on the Aura label. For the first time (as back-up singers in the song “Two Giants”), Shklyarsky involved his children in the recording: Alina and Stanislav. On September 26, a video for the song “Face” is being filmed at the Vatrushka club.
The first stage instrument was designed - a “living cello” for the song “Eyes Outlined by Coal” (the first appearance of the cello was Oksana Semyonova).
1998 added another musical branch to the Picnic anthology - the electronic album Drink Electricity, recorded together with the mythical group Sect MO. “MO Sect” are magical objects. These are people who are not directly related to this music. But their voices were recorded, sampled and then used.
In the same year, director Viktor Gritsaenko left the group and returned to the radio business.
In 1999, a compilation of “Picnic” songs and the program “The Best” of the same name were released. The presentation of the program took place in St. Petersburg on March 7.
On May 3, at the Rossiya State Concert Hall, again with a delay of 2 years, the group celebrates the 15th anniversary of “conscious” life. Stas Dremov briefly joined the group, but managed to organize a tour of “Picnic” from St. Petersburg to Vladivostok and create a video for the song “Sharmanka”.
In May, Svyatoslav Obraztsov replaced Alexander Rokin as bass guitarist.
The beginning of the new century, New Year's Eve from December 31 to January 1, “Picnic” celebrates with a shock concert in St. Petersburg, on the square near the Kazan Cathedral, at 4 o’clock in the morning.
year 2000. Three Ukrainian heroes - Viktor Shpak, Oleg Lyashko and Yuriy Gora - initiated the creation of a joint program of Picnic and the Zaporozhye String Orchestra under the direction of Vsevolod Madan.
In the fall, “Picnic” takes part in the “20th Anniversary of the Rock Club” concert.
In 2001, the album “Egyptian” was released on the Grand Records label. For the title song itself, a “new Egyptian instrument” is created, and a pyrotechnic sign appears in the group’s show (in the song “Purple-Black”).
On February 15 in Zaporozhye and March 15 in St. Petersburg, the idea of joint concerts of the group with the Zaporozhye String Orchestra is finally being realized, with the subsequent appearance of a video version of the event, as well as an audio version (concert album).
On February 24 in Moscow, “Picnic” shows a new program “Violet-Black”, and the song itself gets into rotation on FM radio stations throughout the country.
In the spring, Picnic begins cooperation with the MZCreative team. On October 29, the first “material” result of this cooperation becomes the official website of the group: http://www.piknik.info.
At the beginning of 2002, “Picnic” took part in gala concerts of the largest “real” TV show at that time, “The Last Hero,” performing his new song “Speaks and Shows.”
The “Alien” album is being released on the Grand label, consisting of two equal parts - 5 new songs and 5 songs that were previously only performed at concerts or were not included in previously released discs.
In August, at the festival “Invasion 2002” in Ramenskoye, “Picnic” shows fragments of its new program “Wild Games”. The performance includes the theater of Doctor Yes - “BlackSkyWhite”. The Picnic program will be shown in its entirety in September in St. Petersburg, Moscow and Minsk. These concerts include: Alexey Mogilevsky (saxophone), Sergey Gasanov (sitar) and the Vasilyev Brothers Theater. The St. Petersburg concert is recorded on video for subsequent publication.
In January 2003, the group visited the German cities of Hamburg and Osnabrück with concerts.
In March, the Grand label releases the album “Speaks and Shows,” the first track of which is “Silver!!!” For a long time, it has been practically at the top of the Chart’s Dozen hit parade, second only to the Kipelov group. And the album itself is one of the five “most popular” albums of spring 2003.
April 2 at the Moscow Art Theater. Gorky hosts the premiere of the concert program “Speaks and Shows,” with the participation of Vadim Samoilov, Alexey Mogilevsky, Utah and guest violinist Irina Sorokina.
On April 5, a performance takes place at the Yubileiny Palace of Culture in St. Petersburg as part of the VII Fuzz Prize ceremony. “Picnic” is nominated for an Award in the category “Best Live Band”.
Literally a few days later, during the Ural tour, Svyatoslav Obraztsov appeared on stage for the last time. He was later replaced by Marat Korchemny.
On August 2, at “Invasion-2003”, “Picnic” presents its “chamber” program. In September, together with Vadim Samoilov (“Agatha Christie”), the group begins recording a new album, “Shadow of the Vampire.”
On October 18, Valery Kipelov appears on stage at the Moscow Art Theater together with the group “Picnic”. The songs “I wish I could run beyond the forests and mountains” and “There, at the very edge of the earth” are performed together.
On November 15, famous director Vitaly Mukhametzyanov (also known as Mukha) will film a track from the future album, “The Torture Never Ends.”
On February 15, 2004, the official release of the album “Shadow of the Vampire” took place. For the first time in the group’s discography, the disc includes the animated “History Pro.” A concert in support of the release takes place on March 2 at the Yubileiny Sports Palace in St. Petersburg, where songs from the new album and “greatest hits” in a special arrangement are performed together with Vadim Samoilov.
In May, at the invitation of the German group “Ostrov Ded”, “Picnic” tours the German lands. At the end of the tour, taking advantage of the geographically convenient opportunity, the band’s musicians make a pilgrimage to Senor Stefano Donatti.
In the summer, the song “Kingdom of Curves” is recorded and then the filming of a video for it begins. In October, “Picnic” is celebrated with an unusual project - “Metamorphosis”, which is released on DVD a month later. The unusual thing is that Edmund Shklyarsky uses a synthesizer instead of a guitar, and Sergei Voronin plays the guitar. Drummer Leonid Kirnos is also absent, and in the background the group is accompanied by a so-called small “orchestra” led by Denis Vasiliev.
In December, the group celebrates the 20th anniversary of the release of the album “Wolf Dance” with a concert in the company of N.V. Gogol and Mr. Grand Inquisitor.
The beginning of 2005 was marked by the completion of work on the “Kingdom of Crooked” video and its subsequent premiere at the Central House of Artists. A little later, in April, in the same hall, two sold-out concerts celebrated the release of the album “Kingdom of the Crooked”.
Meanwhile, in St. Petersburg, the keyboard player of the group “Alice” Dmitry “Donkey” Parfenov is finishing work on the album “New Egyptian Songs”. The disc includes techno versions (that is, electronic arrangements) of the hits of the Picnic group. The vocal part in the track “Night” was performed by the leader of “Alice” Konstantin Kinchev himself. The disc was released in September.
In August, Edmund Shklyarsky participates in Mikhail Kozyrev’s venture - creating a Russian-language soundtrack for Tim Burton’s famous work “The Nightmare Before Christmas”. Edmund sang for a whole choir of vampires. The text was corrected on the fly. The result was shown on TNT channel on October 31.
In the fall of 2005, the most ambitious tour in the recent history of “Picnic” started in Kyiv, whose name is, again, “The Kingdom of Crooked”. The spectacular part of the tour was brought to life by Irina Ponomareva and Alexander Zatsepin. The main concert of the tour took place in St. Petersburg on November 7. Thanks to Bogdan Drobyazko, this performance of “Picnic” was filmed and subsequently released on DVD.
In December, director Vitaly Mukhametzyanov made a video clip for the group for the song “The Shaman Has Three Arms,” and Edmund Shklyarsky recorded a track for Vitaly Mukhametzyanov’s film.
On January 12, 2006, at the Central House of Artists, the Picnic group plays the concert program “Harakiri”, dedicated to the 15th anniversary of the release of the album of the same name.
On February 5, with the support of Nashe Radio, the youth television channel O2TV and the music channel Music Box, the DVD “Kingdom of the Crooked (Live!)” is released.
On March 29, the Central House of Artists hosts a concert dedicated to the 10th anniversary of the release of the album “Ginseng”, at which the songs “Silent Movie”, “Sliding on the Ground”, “Their Elastic Names” and other tracks from this album are performed. previously unperformed live by the band. A special show has been prepared for a detailed visualization of the performance.
From May 24 to 27, the Picnic concert tour takes place in German cities. Then the group goes to the Far East with three more concerts.
On July 29, “Picnic” performs at the “Wings” festival, on August 4 at the “Baltic Storm” festival in Kaliningrad, on August 6 at the “Invasion-2006” festival. According to the musicians, a presentation of the song “Obscurantism and Jazz” was supposed to take place at this festival, but in fact the presentation of this song took place at the traditional autumn concert at the St. Petersburg Concert Hall “Oktyabrsky” on October 8, and a little later this song was included in the rotation on “Our radio". (It should be noted that “Obscurantism and Jazz” became the first song of the Picnic group to reach the top of the Chart Dozen. This was on November 24, 2006.)
At the same concert, the premiere of the program of the anniversary tour “25” (“XXV”) takes place, which “Picnic” will soon take to cities. For the first time, the Surround FX system is used, with the help of which it was possible to “revive” sound effects. On the song “Obscurantism and Jazz,” Mr. Jazz Obscurantist performs a solo on exposed high-voltage wires. In addition, an impromptu shadow theater performance takes place.
Andrey Burlaka and Yuri Shevchuk honored the anniversary concert with their visit. The first announced that he was preparing an extensive rock encyclopedia for publication, and Yuri Shevchuk performed an “autumn-spring” song.
On November 26, the Picnic apartment party is being held live on the O2TV channel as part of the Kommunalka special project.
In January 2007, Edmund Shklyarsky recorded the soundtrack to the film “The Law of the Mousetrap” directed by Alexander Yakimchuk.
At the beginning of February, the group’s new album, called “Obscurantism and Jazz,” is being released.
On February 24, 2007, Picnic plays a big anniversary concert at Luzhniki. Groups and musicians such as Agatha Christie, Valery Kipelov, Bi-2 and Kukryniksy were invited to the Picnic anniversary. Also, in addition to the four permanent members of the group, guest musicians play on the Luzhniki stage - Irina Sorokina, Natalya Voronina and Stanislav Shklyarsky (who later became the group's keyboardist).
On April 27 in the city of Tula and on May 3 in the Moscow Central House of Artists “Picnic” and Vadim Samoilov give a performance called “Vampire Songs”. In addition to the tracks from the corresponding album, the program includes classic Picnic songs, which the group performs together with Vadim.
On May 4, at a concert in the Central House of Artists, musicians Inna Zhelannaya and Sergei Kalachev will perform on stage with the group. The concert set list includes several works performed for the first time for a wide audience.
The end of June is marked by the release on the screens of the Ukrainian TV channel “1+1” of the television series “The Law of the Mousetrap” - a product of collaboration between Edmund Shklyarsky and director Alexander Yakimchuk.
In the first half of July, a DVD will be released with an archived concert of “Picnic” at the SKK named after. Lenin (Leningrad, 1988) and TV filming (Saratov, 1987).
In the fall of 2007, the group embarks on a large tour, “Obscurantism and Jazz,” throughout the country. December 10, 2007 - concert in the city of Gomel (25 years after the first concert in this city). On December 21 and 22, 2007, two concerts took place in the Moscow Central House of Artists - “The Best” and “On the Beam”, respectively.
In 2008, a new album, “Iron Mantras,” was recorded and released.
In April 2008, the group went on a Ukrainian tour with the program “Obscurantism and Jazz”, where they performed in Donetsk, Poltava, Simferopol, Kharkov, Cherkassy, Dnepropetrovsk, Odessa, Kherson and Kyiv.
On October 1, 2008, a new tour of the Picnic group across the country, “Full Moon,” began from the city of Murmansk.
Also in 2008, the song “Nautilus Pompilius” “Gentle Vampire” was recorded for a two-disc tribute to this group authored by Vyacheslav Butusov and the group “U-Piter” - “Nau Boom”.
In the fall of 2009, “Picnic” participates in the “Salt” project of “Our Radio”, within the framework of which famous rock musicians perform Russian folk songs. “Picnic” is recording the song “Lyubo, brothers, lyubo” for this project.
In February 2010, the group went on an “early spring tour” to the cities of the Volga region. On February 13, “Picnic” performs at the Petersburg Sports and Concert Complex at the Chart’s Dozen festival.
In 2011, the group completed the “Theater of the Absurd” tour and began creating a program for a new, anniversary tour “30 Light Years”, dedicated to the 30th anniversary of “Picnic”. The album “Three Fates” was released, on which folk songs of the war and pre-war years were performed.
In the spring of 2012, a DVD and Blu-Ray will be released with a recording of the anniversary concert “30 Light Years” at the Ice Palace (St. Petersburg).
At the end of May, three joint concerts are held with Vadim Samoilov in Volgograd, Rostov-on-Don and Krasnodar, at which the “Vampire Songs” program is played.
The start of work on the album “Singer of Decadence” is announced and a new concert program “Decadence” is announced, starting on October 5 with a concert in Moscow.
In addition, for the first time in its thirty-year history, the group has planned a trip to Canada and the USA, where the anniversary program “30 Light Years” will be presented to audiences in a number of cities.
http://ru.wikipedia.org
Although the newspaper epithet “amazing fate” has long become a common place and is hardly capable of reflecting the real state of affairs, the fate of Picnic, one of the most popular groups born of the St. Petersburg music scene, is, indeed, extremely original and unique: on the one hand, flesh of flesh local rock culture, he followed all the typical paths for it and experienced all the influences inherent in the musicians of his generation, on the other hand, he always followed his own path in everything.
The history of Picnic, like the history of most groups that started in the 70s and successfully survived this decade, is complicated and full of contradictions. If any researcher of St. Petersburg rock and roll one fine day dares to depict on paper the roots and branches of its family tree, he will no doubt come to despair when he discovers how long and closely intertwined they are. It is enough to note that the Picnic that exists today is one hundred percent different from the group that first took this name in March 1979.
However, the history of the group began much earlier. Leader, singer, guitarist and author of the entire current Picnic repertoire Edmund Shklyarsky(Date of birth: 09/26/55 in Leningrad) grew up in a family with strong musical traditions (one of his cousins, Yaroslav, by the way, was the lead guitarist of the well-known band 2001 in the early 70s), became interested in music during his school years, easily Having mastered the guitar and piano, he played music in a family quartet, however, his acquaintance with rock music turned him away from an academic career. In the spring of 1973, Yaroslav introduced Edik to Leningrad State University sophomore Boris Grebenshchikov and his friend Anatoly Gunitsky (at that time they existed, rather, as an idea and rehearsed at the 2001 point), but after several rehearsals he chose to go his own way.
That same summer, Shklyarsky entered the Polytechnic University (where the traditions of student amateur performances have been strong since time immemorial and the local rock scene flourished wildly), and at the end of 1974 he organized his first group there Astonishment. The following spring, Surprise took part in the III Festival of Polytechnic groups "Spring Rhythms", receiving a special jury prize for Shklyarsky's song "Stagecoach" - contrary to the prevailing fashion, which valued close-to-original performances of Western hits higher than his own creativity, he wanted to sing from the very beginning in Russian and only their songs.
And a little earlier, in the spring of 1972, in one of the schools on the Petrograd side, the Orion group was born, organized by eighth-grader Evgeniy Voloshchuk. Two years later, she was joined by the strong singer Alexey Dobychin, who composed his own (and quite mature) songs and was also a student at the Polytechnic University. Influenced by his propaganda, upon graduation, two Orion members followed his example.
In the mid-seventies, groups from the Polytechnic Institute were famous throughout the city. From its walls came Revival, Bronze Horseman, Lel, Lesnoy Prospekt, XXX Century, Kaleidoscope, Ascension and at least two dozen more teams, the names of which today belong only to history. Sooner or later, the musicians of Orion and Surprise inevitably had to cross paths and become acquainted, and in January 1977, after the participants of the latter abandoned guitars and drums on the eve of their diploma, Shklyarsky became the pianist of Orion, with whom he achieved laureateship at the fifth “Spring Rhythms”. Alas, they were never given the well-deserved prize in the form of a trip to one of the people's democracies (GDR or Poland), which noticeably cooled emotions, so when the holidays began, the alliance disintegrated.
In the next season, Shklyarsky tried to put together a new group, which was supposed to include former ORION drummer Ali Bakhtiyarov (b. 10/7/54 in Leningrad) and bass guitarist of another group from Polytechnic Nizhny Bmta (by the way, future founder) Viktor Sologub, however , this basically curious triumvirate never went beyond rehearsals.
Meanwhile, Orion continued to travel around the city and region, slowly but surely gaining experience and professionalism, however, in mid-1978, after a trip to Novgorod that ended disastrously for the group (local officials sent a complaint to the institute about the “ideologically harmful” group, as then they said, “they rolled the cart”, which entailed an official ban on the very name Orion), they were forced to part.
The Polytechnic student theater gave them a helping hand, which in those years staged several interesting and quite daring performances (including a stage version of the story “The Verb Engineer”) by the then-beginning Alexander Zhitinsky. In the fall of 1978, the theater began work on one of its most ambitious projects - a musical performance based on "The Tale of Igor's Campaign" - for which it urgently needed a full-fledged group. Its original lineup included three former members of Orion: Alexey Dobychin, vocals, Evgeniy “Jacques” Voloshchuk, bass and Sergei Omelnichenko, guitar, as well as saxophonist - flutist Nikolai Mikhailov and experienced drummer Alexander Matskov - ex-Mania, Rainbow, etc. .
In December 1978, the group, together with the theater, attended a student amateur competition in Moscow. Shortly before this, Matskov was replaced on drums by Alexander Kondrashkin, who previously had only modest experience of playing on suburban dance floors (including with the group ZA), but was an exceptionally erudite musician and ready for any experiments.
As one might expect, the theatrical framework turned out to be narrow for the group, and when on the eve of “Spring Rhythms 79” the question of a new name arose, someone remembered the recently read story by the Strugatsky brothers “Roadside Picnic”. The proposal was accepted, but the end of the phrase immediately fell off.
So in March 1979 Picnic was born.
On April 10, 1979, Picnic, whose composition was reinforced by Mikhailov’s classmate at the music school and flutist of the group VTtornik Yuri Danilov, together with Mirror and Kakadu played at the Energetik cultural center, and on May 13 officially debuted in his native Polytechnic as Picnic. Having met an extremely warm welcome there, he soon parted with the theatrical stage, and over the next two years he was one of the most active participants in the rock underground, regularly playing at sessions, in suburban clubs (Rakhya, Murino, Gorelovo), etc.
Piknik's repertoire during these years relied mainly on songs by Dobychin and Omelnichenko - energetic rock and rolls, blues or beats with cute melodies and reflective lyrics in the tradition of popular music (several numbers from this period were preserved in recordings on Piknik's debut album).
By the early eighties, Picnic from a club in the village of Gorelovo, where his creative method matured, moved to the city, changing several more dance floors along the way and continuing to gather suitable musicians: in September 1979, Kondrashkin, who had gone to Mirage (not that one!), was replaced by Alexander Evseev, and he was New Year's Eve 1980 - the famous Nikolai Korzinin, and then Pyotr Troshchenkov;
in the spring of 1980, the future founder, keyboard player Pavel Kondratenko, flashed through Picnic, who was soon replaced by an adult music school teacher, Alexey Malkov; finally, in the fall of 1980, a veteran of sessions of the 70s, a former member of at least a dozen bands, vocalist Mikhail Panaev, joined the group, and Troshchenkov’s place was taken for another four months before leaving again - this time, to Aquarium - Kondrashkin took the place for the second time. The group's sound engineer during these years was Mikhail Shepelev, also a former member of Orion.
At the beginning of 1981, Picnic participants took an active part in organizing the Leningrad Rock Club. It was they who opened the very first concert of the club on the LMDST stage on March 7, 1981; On May 5, together with other stars of the Rock Club of the first convocation, they successfully performed at a mini-festival in the Nevsky Palace of Culture, however, three months later, the group essentially broke up when six of the nine then-members left one after another.
Actually, this is where the story of the original Picnic ends, however, the story of the modern Picnic begins. As for the veterans of its first composition, Kolya Mikhailov joined the Council of the Rock Club, and from 1982 to 1988 was its permanent president; In December 1981, Danilov became a co-founder of Tambourine, where he played until 2005; Omelnichenko went to Ornament, and later took up management; Troshchenkov and Kondrashkin passed through the Aquarium at different times - Peter subsequently played in the Reserve, Trefoil and with his project Trop, and Sasha during the Rock Club era was perhaps the most interesting and active drummer in the city, leaving traces in Tambourine, Strange Games, . Jungle, etc. Unfortunately, in the spring of 1994, having received serious injuries during a tour in Germany, he left music, and in July 1999 he died of a stroke caused by their consequences.
Shklyarsky also became a member of the Rock Club from the first days of its existence, but as a member of the Labyrinth group, which was formed in 1976 by guitarist Alexander “Sava” Savelyev. Like Picnic, Labyrinth tirelessly traveled around the clubs and dance floors of the region, performed their own material and broke up in the summer of 1981.
At the end of the same August, Shklyarsky and Savelyev teamed up under the name Picnic with Voloshchuk and Dobychin. Troshchenkov initially remained on the team, but in November he replaced Kondrashkin at the Aquarium. The updated Picnic debuted on stage on November 28, 1981 in a concert with the Russians.
In March 1982, Picnic performed at the anniversary of the Rock Club (this time Viktor Morozov from Myths drummed for them), and in May at an open area in Ekateringof Park (at that time the 30th anniversary of Komsomol) with the participation of Bakhtiyarov. It was at these concerts that the group first demonstrated to the public their “Opium Smoke” program, which revealed Edmund Shklyarsky as one of the most powerful and innovatively thinking authors of the then rock scene. “Opium Smoke” could not help but attract the attention of Andrei Tropillo, at whose studio in the House of Young Technicians on Okhta, tape recorded in detail all the best that appeared in St. Petersburg rock and roll. The album "Smoke" (the first word was removed for safety reasons) was released in the fall of 1982 and immediately spread across the country, immediately making Picnic famous.
Methodically changing drummers (Leonid Kirnos became ninth on their list - in October 1982) and steadily improving equipment (at that time its presence was considered an indispensable attribute of a cool group) Picnic slowly but surely rose in the rock club table of ranks. Savelyev by the beginning of 1983 left the guitar and moved to the console, and in March, at the Korabelka festival "Spring on Lotsmanskaya", Dobychin sang with Picnic for the last time, who decided to resume his scientific career.
By this time it became clear that the new Picnic was, first of all, a testing ground for the implementation of Shklyarsky’s musical ideas. Consisting of: Shklyarsky, Voloshchuk, Kirnos, Savelyev (at the controls) plus new recruits Vadim Lebanidze (former keyboardist of the Polytechnic band Brig) and guitarist Sergei Shepel Picnic shared third place at the 1st Rock Club Festival in May 1983. However, this one too A stage in the group's history was coming to an end.
In the spring of 1984, during the period of feverish preparation for the II Festival, a split occurred in the ranks of Picnic, and the group actually ceased to exist: Shklyarsky and Savelyev, taking with them the loud name, left, and Voloshchuk brought the hastily assembled group onto the festival stage, not without hintingly calling her To be continued; alas, from her performance the only thing left in the memory of eyewitnesses was the acrid tear gas-like smoke that his pyrotechnics released, driving out all the first rows from the hall in a matter of minutes!
Shklyarsky and Savelyev, meanwhile, added fuel to the fire by getting a job at Lenkontsert, the official concert organization of the city, which at that time was considered in rock circles as an unthinkable sacrilege. Fortunately, not everyone was orthodox and dogmatic, and Tropillo in the same year helped Picnic record his second and, according to some experts, best album, in which the baroque fragility of melodies was combined with the sophistication of art-rock arrangements and a tough hard rhythm, and lyrics evoked the gothic stories of Nathaniel Hawthorne and Edgar Poe. Session musicians participated in the recording of the album - Viktor Sergeev and Sergey Voronin, keyboards, Vladimir "Vavila" Sizov, bass (played in Q 69) and Alexander Fedorov, drums.
The next two years became a troubled time for Picnic: endless tours around the country as part of semi-anonymous philharmonic ensembles, into the program of which from time to time they managed to insert one or two of their own songs, outright persecution in the Komsomol press - the Moscow Komsomolskaya Pravda and the St. Petersburg Komsomolskaya Pravda were especially successful in this. "Change" - the skeptical attitude of former comrades in the underground. But Picnic followed his own, perhaps not the most direct, but certainly the right path - and survived.
In February 1985, Picnic teamed up with Continuation Follows (Voloshchuk, bass, Kirnos, drums, Viktor Evseev, guitar, bass, vocals and Kirill "Kiron" Shirokov, keyboards) but their enthusiasm was only enough for one spectacularly theatrical performance at the Palace of Youth, after which The continuation has sunk into oblivion, leaving Piknika Evseev as a legacy as a bass player.
The formation of the working staff ended only after in October 1985, Yuri “Donald” Klyuchantsev, a graduate of the local music school, came to PICNIC, who had moved to St. Petersburg from Murmansk, saxophone, keyboards, percussion, and at the beginning of the next year, the second keyboard player was already familiar from “Dance” Volka" Sergei Voronin is a former member of Pro Et Contra and Mirror, another rock club stars of the first call.
Again, contrary to the canons of the genre (although, admittedly, not from a good life), Picnic during this period did without drums (they couldn’t find a suitable one, and they didn’t want to hire random people), playing to a rhythm computer manipulated by Vadim Ponomarev. In 1986, this lineup recorded the group's third album, which consisted of songs written between 1984 and 1986. Two years later, when the ideological bastions finally collapsed, this album formed the basis of the first Picnic record, released by the Moscow Melodiya. In the spring of 1987, the group finally found its drummer: on the third try, it became Leonid Kirnos.
In September 1988, Picnic - for the first time since rock club times - performed large solo concerts and confirmed its status as one of the most popular domestic groups. Intensive tours around the country began, Piknik visited abroad several times, however, unlike many rock heroes of the 80s, he never sought to speculate on the “red wave”, rightly believing that his listener lived more likely in Kupchino than in Bronx. In 1989, the fourth album Picnic was released, which became a sign of a change in the musical orientation of the group - towards less heavy, but more dynamic and lively pop rock (although, on the contrary, heavy metal was coming into fashion: many groups hastily grew their hair and dressed up in riveted hairstyles). all sides of the skin).
In January 1989, the Picnic almost fell apart: the attack of personal ambition caused by popularity led to the departure of Evseev and Klyuchantsev, who assembled the group Castle Zo with Andrei Shatalin and Pavel Kondratenko, who left Alisa under similar circumstances. Veteran Sizov picked up the bass guitar again. With this lineup, in September 1989, the group performed at the rock festival of the Aurora magazine, organized by Alexander Zhitinsky and Andrei Tropillo, showing fragments of their new program there. In early 1990, after recording an album and making a couple of trips, Castle Zo disbanded, and Picnic returned to the 1988 lineup.
In May 1990, Picnic took part in a grandiose concert at the Sports and Concert Hall in memory of the legendary St. Petersburg group Russians, which broke up in 1984, having lost its leader Zhora Ordanovsky under dramatic circumstances. At the same time, an album was recorded (although released two years later), in which Shklyarsky mixed Gothic images with oriental images and subjects.
Savelyev by this time became the director of the group. Later, he transferred his post to another former Picnic musician, Ali Bakhtiyarov (what a curious pattern!), and to fill the vacuum in stage arrangements, guitarist Andrei Merchansky was invited to Picnic. He played at Picnic until the spring of 1994, and then left music and emigrated to the USA. The only work of the group published during this period was the “Collectors Album” released on record and CD, which presented the best numbers from its repertoire for 1982-1990.
It seemed that Picnic was doomed to the fate of many groups, the peak of which fell on the times of magnetoizdat and the subsequent euphoria of the late 80s, however, here too he surprised everyone by finding a way to change the persistent stereotype of perceiving his music as a reason for nostalgia for the times of rock. n' roll fraternity, underground sessions and cheap port.
The album (1995), published after a long pause by Aura, confidently confirmed that Shklyarsky’s melodic gift has not diminished over the years, and his ability to fit his songs into the current musical context, without changing a single note in them and without betraying his recognizable style, is worthy of good envy and admiration.
There were also losses. In the fall of 1994, drummer and then director of the group Ali Bakhtiyarov died in a car accident. In August 1996, Picnic was abandoned for the second time by Evseev and Klyuchantsev. The first of them took up studio work and teaching vocals, and the second became a member of the Russian Museum group. This time, their place was taken by Alexander Rokin, previously unknown in the rock community. In the same year, the next (eighth or ninth - if you count the collective collection, in which Picnic songs occupy a central place) album was released. At the same time, the Aura company began re-releasing the group’s musical archive (it is symbolic that Picnic’s albums with songs by Shklyarsky the author are usually decorated with illustrations by Shklyarsky the artist).
In the second half of the 90s, Picnic continued to perform successfully and record new albums, and their annual solo concerts on March 7, the anniversary of the opening of the Rock Club, became a good tradition. In 1997, Aura released the album. A year later it was followed by experimental electronic work (released under the guise of Picnic & Sect Mo), and in 1999 the results of the group’s twenty-year history were summarized by the collection “The Best”.
Meanwhile, on January 30, 1998, in the former premises of the Rock Club on Rubinshteina, 13 (where various musical events occasionally took place at that time), a nostalgic concert of the “old” Picnic took place (Dobychin, Omelnichenko, Voloshchuk and Mikhail Soloveichik, another Orion veteran of the 70- X). Almost the same cast also participated in the retro program “Old Rock for the New Year,” which was shown in December 1999 at the Dzerzhinsky Palace of Culture.
In 1999, Rokin, who took up sound engineering, was replaced by a new bass guitarist Svyatoslav Obraztsov, who in the 70s played with the groups Pride, Ladirinth and the Union of Rock Music Lovers.
At the beginning of 2001, Shklyarsky decided on another interesting experiment, combining Picnic on stage with a Ukrainian string orchestra from Zaporozhye. On March 4, the premiere of this program took place in Zaporozhye, and several songs (including, “Real Days,” “Romance,” “Eyes Outlined by Coal,” “Night,” “There, at the very End of the Earth,” “ We are like quivering birds" and "Giant") were recorded for a proposed live album. On March 15, the program was presented in St. Petersburg.
On March 26, 2001, the Grand company (which replaced Aura Records as Picnic's publishers) released a new album of the group, which was based on material accumulated over the previous three years - among its best songs, in addition to the title song, included “A Million in the Bag”, “Nor Yours” , neither mine”, as well as “Purple-black”. The latter, by the way, gave the idea for the title to the collection, which was published almost simultaneously by Real Records. The program shown by PICNIC on October 12, 2001 in the St. Petersburg Palace of Culture of the Lensovet had the same name. For the song "Egyptian" a special "new-Egyptian" instrument was invented, and for the song "Purple-Black" - a branded pyrotechnic sign. In the fall, another collection was released: this time, Grand recognized the importance of the group by including a selection of its songs in its “Encyclopedia of Russian Rock”.
The year 2002 was marked by the appearance of Picnic in the TV show "The Last Hero" (with the song "Speaks and Shows"), the release of an album (it consisted of five new and five previously unreleased songs from different years), the first visit to Israel and the presentation of the program "Wild Games" at the rock festival in Ramenskoye. In September, Picnic celebrated twenty years since the release of the album "Smoke" by giving concerts in Moscow ("Meridian") and St. Petersburg ("Yubileiny") - ex-saxophonist Alexey Mogilevsky, famous sitarist Sergei Gasanov and the theater were invited to participate in them. Wasil Brothers" - and fans presented the group with a gift in the form of a star named after it.
The following winter Picnic paid a visit to Germany; Soon after this, the album was released, presented on the legendary stage of the Moscow Art Theater. On the song "Silver" another exotic instrument was tested - this time, a light one. Unfortunately, the work of the group was interrupted by the serious illness of Slava Obraztsov, who died of cancer on August 7, 2003.
Life, however, did not stop there, and that same fall, bass guitarist Marat Korchemny (b. 10/23/67 in Lipetsk) came to Picnic; Before that, he played in several Lipetsk bands. The new line-up was tested on the album recorded by Piknik with the participation of their old admirer Vadim Samoilov - his name was even included on the cover. The lyrics of two songs on the album were written by Shklyarsky's daughter Alina - she, by the way, co-authored the biography Picnic, published in 2003 by the Nota-R publishing house (compiled by Alexey Rybin).
The cult status of the group was confirmed by the publication of a tribute album (2003), which was prepared by Mystery Sound: Picnic songs were performed on it by people of different age, style and geography, Pavel Kashin, Olga Arefieva, Yulia Teunikova, etc.
The Mukha studio shot an interesting video for the song from “The Shadow,” “The Torture Never Ends,” and Shklyarsky, as a true inventor and innovator, came up with another new instrument, a kind of harp worn on the dancer’s head. Around the same time, violinist from Lipetsk Irina Lavrina began performing with Picnic, which brought new colors to the stage arrangements of the group’s songs.
By the end of 2004, Piknik finished work on his next album, one of the songs of which, “Kingdom of the Crooked,” gave the title to a detective television series (directed by Alexander Yakimchuk), which began showing on the NTV channel on May 3, 2005. A DVD release is coming (concert 22.09. 02), the experience of an acoustic program (in the Moscow Central House of Artists), as well as a personal exhibition of Shklyarsky’s paintings (ibid.).
In 2008, the group's next album was released.
The story continues.
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Not every band that appears on the domestic stage can boast of longevity and legendary status. One of those that has stayed on stage no matter what is the group “Picnic”. It’s simply amazing how you can be popular both during the strict Soviet regime and during the period of complete freedom and lack of censorship that characterized the following years. However, this is a fact. Several generations have loved and appreciated "Picnic". The group became an example for its younger followers. We'll talk about it in our article.
History of appearance
The Picnic group appeared in the very center of culture and free thought of the USSR - the city on the Neva, St. Petersburg. The first name of the group was "Orion". This is exactly what the two first participants called themselves at the very beginning of their joint work. Then the name changed to “Picnic”. The group became what it is now thanks to the fateful meeting of two talented individuals.
Edmund Shklyarsky, the permanent soloist of the group, simply could not help but meet with Evgeniy Voloshchuk, the organizer of Orion. After a short time, one of the turning points in the history of the Picnic ensemble comes. The group breaks up, and Ed Shklyarsky leaves it along with drummer Ali Bakhtiyarov.
And only in 1981 the team united again in its final composition. Then the first popularity comes. Musicians become laureates of the rock festival. Popularity in wide circles comes through the album of the Picnic group “Smoke”, which finally cements the desire of the participants to enter the professional stage.
Obstacles and victories
Like many rock bands of that period, the Picnic group was blacklisted as performers for not conforming to Soviet ideology. Only something happened that no one could have expected. After the first tour, it turns out that there are no empty seats left in the halls. This is surprising, since the band members went through more than 200 cities on their tour. At the same time, there was not a single word about them in the media!
The second problem was the crisis of 1989, when half of its members left the group due to increasing ambitions. We have to perform with a different lineup. However, literally a year later the band was restored, and the series of albums and performances continued. The death of drummer Ali Bakhtiyarov in a car accident deeply shocked everyone who loves the work of the Picnic group. The group, however, again proved that, despite any difficult times, they will perform and create new works. This continues to this day. The albums of the Picnic group find their grateful listeners every time, and concerts are never held in an empty hall.
Soloist and group leader
It is very rare when a team has a person who has been part of the team from the very beginning, who has not left the group or even tried to leave the project. One of these rare groups is “Picnic”. The group has its own unique personality thanks to its leader Ed Shklyarsky.
Having originally been born into a family that was not alien to any creativity, the young guy simply had no chance not to fall in love with music and not connect his life with it. He is not only a soloist, whose voice has become an integral part of the group’s image - Shklyarsky is also a leader, uniting the group around himself, a composer and author of many songs. In addition, he is a multi-instrumentalist. We can say that this is a unique personality. The Picnic group, a photo of which can be seen in the article, is invariably proud of this participant, regardless of its composition. The team has a lot of fans.
Direction of music and style
From the very beginning, the Picnic group was able to create an aura of mystical romance around itself, which attracts young fans and devoted fans. Their work is a mixture of rock and Russian folk sound traditions. All this sounds framed by folk and symphonic instruments, giving a fundamentally new sound.
For lovers of the intellectual component in music, the lyrics of the songs are filled with a lot of irony and philosophy, which distinguishes “Picnic”. The group strives to maintain its style without succumbing to fashion trends. Their appearance perfectly complements and collects the image. Black suits with inscribed runes, dark glasses - this is the style that the Picnic group invariably follows. Photos from last year and photos taken five years ago will allow you to know at first glance who is depicted in them. In all this lies the constant success over many years.
