Megapolis (group)

1980s

In April – November 1986, young Moscow musicians Mikhail Gabolaev and Oleg Nesterov recorded material at the rehearsal base, which later became part of the debut magneto album “Morning”, published on a self-published basis on May 27, 1987. This date has now become the group's official birthday. In June of the same year, the band played their first concert at the Gorbunov Culture House at the rock laboratory festival. The performance was remarkable: “In the mysteries of electronic magic, the Megalopolis feels confident. Their composition “Fishermen” turned out to be the most popular at the concert ” ( Moskovsky Komsomolets , June 28, 1987). The composition of the group at that time was as follows: Oleg Nesterov - guitar, vocals; Andrey Belov - bass; Mikhail Alesin - drums; Alexander Suzdalev - keyboards; Arkady Martynenko - keyboards; Igor Zhigunov - percussion.

In January 1988, Megapolis is part of the Stas Namin Production Center . In February, the musicians accept the offer of the record company “ Melody ” for the release of a record based on the album “Morning”. The record was recorded by sound engineer German Petrov October-December. Released in mid- 1989, the album was called Poor People. On the anniversary of the creation of the ensemble in the newspaper Moskovsky Komsomolets , an article dedicated to the Megalopolis was published. The ensemble was called "a purely Moscow brainchild, which could be born only here and only now . "

In 1988, Megapolis takes part in several major festivals of the rock movement that has gained incredible popularity - Rock for Peace ( Green Theater , May), Rock against Repressions ( Dubna , September), Rock for Democracy (USK CSKA December).

In 1989, the famous anchor of Muzoboza and the director of the Vzglyad program, Ivan Demidov, shot two music videos for the group “Muscovites” and “Christmas Romance” . At the beginning of the year, the ARS production company organized a number of concerts for the group throughout the country. In March, a 20-minute program dedicated to Megapolis is broadcast on the German radio station WDR. And in August, musicians debut abroad - at the festival in Berlin, "World Music for the Head and Belly", in which musicians from 32 countries take part. The group participates in a joint tour of the GDR with the American band "The Beatnics". In the summer, the composition almost completely changed. Now he looked like this: Oleg Nesterov - vocals, guitar; Mikhail Gabolaev - bass; Yuri Matsenov - guitar; Andrey Nadolsky - drums; Alexander Suzdalev - keyboards; from June to November, Vitaly Churilov is a guitar. That same summer, musicians starred in the feature film Our Man in San Remo , presenting there four of their songs and playing themselves.

1990s

In July 1990, the Mosfilm studio released a new album, Variegated Winds (sound engineer - Vasily Krachkovsky). In the framework of the New Year's program “A” , a new song, which later became extremely popular, was presented, “New Moscow Sirtaki” (to the verses of Voznesensky ). At the end of the year, the proposal to record vocals for the song “There” (written on Brodsky’s poems, performed by Oleg Nesterov on the album “Colorful Winds”) is accepted by Lev Leshchenko . It was the very sunset of the Soviet era, and the song sounded extremely topical: "Wheat passed, leaving the coat of arms, to the herbarium ...", although the clip itself gave the impression of a reference to the protest thrash culture: Lev Leshchenko and rock are like Leonid Utesov and heavy metal. In 1993, the director Dmitry Fix will make a video for this song in the spirit of the video “High” (from the English - “High”) of the group “ Cure ” (earlier in the beginning of 1992, directors Mikhail Khleborodov and Sergey Kosach started shooting the video, but from -for lack of funds were forced to suspend the process).

In January 1991, keyboardist Alexander Suzdalev left the band. From March to December, Mosfilm records the album Women's Heart. In the same period, the project “Unborn hits for Germany” was invented and started to be implemented - the translation of popular Russian songs into German ( “ Lilies of the Valley ”, “Volga” ).

In February 1992, Megapolis went to Germany , where he performs at clubs in Cologne and Düsseldorf , and is also invited to participate in radio and television programs. In the fall, the band’s songs are also broadcast on Russian radio stations. In October, Dmitry Fix shoots a video for the song Autumn-86 , using amateur footage from the carnival in Cologne. In December, drummer Andrei Nadolsky leaves the band.

Throughout 1993, Megapolis has been working on a new album, Megapolis, a contract for the publication of which is signed by a German company with the group. After participating in the Generation-93 video clip festival, the group gains a lot of new fans, and songs are increasingly heard on domestic radio stations. In December, the album was recorded at the Mosfilm tone studio. The sound engineer was again made by Vasily Krachkovsky.

On January 13, 1994, at the next Generation-94, the group of musicians awarded the Golden Apple prize for the Karl-Marx-Stadt video, which soon went on the air on the German channel VIVA . Since January, the musicians of the ensemble Mikhail Gabolaev and Oleg Nesterov begin work on dance remixes of their songs. This project is called “M. E. G. A. P. O. L. I. S. / NEGORO ”and is fully completed in January 1995. In February and March, there are several club shows of the so-called “NEGORO Show”, where the artists did not sing and did not play, but only danced to the music. The group participates in the Eurovision-94 qualifying competition with the NEGORO version of the song “Pushkin” . Dmitry Fix shoots with the help of an old amateur movie camera a low-budget clip for the song “I am Spring” . On May 27, in the Moscow Youth Palace ( MDM ), a presentation of the collector's edition of the albums “Feminine Heart” and “Colorful Winds” was released on one disc. Finally, in August, first in Germany, and a month later in Russia, the album “Megapolis” is released. In December, drummer Alexander Filonenko and guitarist Andrei Kifiyak appear in the ensemble.

In May 1995, the guitarist Yuri Matsenov left the band. In July, the shooting of the video for the song “40 Waltz Nights” (directed by Dmitry Fix) took place. In September, the Triarii company, together with Soyuz, released a remix album “M. E. G. A. P. O. L. I. S. / NEGORO. " In November in St. Petersburg at the Concert Hall “Oktyabrsky”, the group gives a recital as part of the “Musical Philosophy of the End of the 20th Century” campaign.

On February 23 and 24, 1996, the group gave an acoustic concert at the Utopia club, later, in August, published on disk by the Moroz Records company. Dmitry Fix shoots the clip "Pushkin" . In June, the Deus Ex Machina compilation was published in Europe, which included the composition “Megapolis” “1 + 1” from the album “Megapolis”. In the summer, a new album is being recorded in Germany at the studio of Dieter Dirke (sound engineer is Bridget Underhousehausen). In September, Dmitry Fix shoots another video for the song "Asterisk" . And then the creative association “Two Wings” makes a video sequence for the composition “Seduction” . During an operation on the heart of then-President of Russia Boris Yeltsin, musicians attract attention with their action “ Get well soon, Boris Nikolaevich! "Or" 36.6 ". This clip was among the best at the Generation 97 festival. At the end of the year, the album “The Storm in the Village” is released - sad and lyrical, unlike previous works of Megapolis.

In 1996, the group received the Golden Gramophone Award for the song “Women's Heart”.

Since the beginning of 1997, the songs “Zvezdochka” and “Ballad about Wax and Honey” are often heard on the air of radio stations, the clip for the song “36.6” reaches the heights in the charts of musical television. In April, Dmitry Fix begins filming the film “Little History”, dedicated to the tenth anniversary of the ensemble “Megapolis”. In addition to live performances, rare archival materials, clips, and interviews of participants were used in the film. In July, as part of an action dedicated to the upcoming 850th anniversary of Moscow, the song “Moscow - the city of love” was recorded, which was included in the collection “Songs of Moscow”. In October, a contract was signed with the Soyuz concern to publish a collection of the best songs, which will be released in March 1998.

Mikhail Gabolaev and Oleg Nesterov devote themselves to production activities. Among the first wards are the groups Masha and the Bears , Lakmus , and later Underwood . In January 1998, a new guitarist, Maxim Leonov, appeared in the group. At the end of the year, Megapolis is working on a Russian version of Peter Seeger 's composition “Where Have All the Flowers Gone?”, Recording it in a duet with Masha Makarova . Director Roman Prygunov and cameraman Vlad Opelyants will later shoot a clip for this song.

In March 1999, Nesterov, Gabolaev and Gedrius Klimkevichus founded the company Snegiri-muzyka. In September, together with one of the Bullfinches projects - DJs "Horizons" - the ensemble shoots a video for the song "Everything Will Not End Old Age" (director - Roman Prygunov).

2001-2016

In March 2000, Alexei Kadlubovich came to the collective as a drummer. The group increasingly performs with an acoustic program, and soon consciously refuses club concerts in the general public.

Since 1999, Oleg Nesterov has repeatedly made statements about preparing for the recording of the group’s new album, but the recording was constantly delayed. In the fall of 2003, a song with the provocative text “Smiles of Love or ezhik forever” ( “Hedgehog hiding between your legs” ) sounded on the air of radio stations. After that, there was a lull again. And on April 28, 2006, for the first time in a long time, musicians performed at a Moscow club. Among others, a new song, “Winter (“ Wounds on the Glass ”),” was performed on verses by Alexander Barash. A clip was shot for this song in the same 2006, and in June 2007 the long painstaking work of the Bold Design studio ended on a new animated video for the song World Karl-Marx-Stadt .

Super Tango

During the production work, Oleg Nesterov and Mikhail Gabolaev completely changed their views on the process of creating music. The result was the album "Supertango" (2010), released by Soyuz with the participation of Snegiri-Muzyka . This work immediately won the award for "Best Album 2010" at the annual festival "Steppe Wolf" and was recognized as the best album by the poster " Afisha ". After the premiere of "Supertango" Megapolis returned to active concert activity.

In 2012, the group recorded four songs from the album "Super Tango" in a duet with Yolka . They entered the joint single "Stars, Stars."

From the life of planets

In 2014, the multi-format project “From the Life of the Planets” was released, which was based on music for real-life scenarios of unrequited films of the 60s: “Berth”, “Seven pairs of unclean”, “Premonition”, “Jump-skop collapsed ceiling” . This musical dedication is presented in the form of a double album of the same name, a large-scale Internet resource, unique in its kind, created in the WEB Documentary format (planetslife.ru), and a full-fledged musical performance. In the course of the work, the archives of the State Museum of Cinema, RGALI , Gosfilmofond , RIA Novosti , and personal archives were studied. The heroes of those events provided great help and support: Alexander Mitta , Andrey Smirnov , Natalya Ryazantseva , Julius Fait, Sergey Solovyov , Ali Khamraev , Yuri Klepikov , German Klimov. The project became a laureate in two nominations for the Steppe Wolf-2014 Prize, topped the list of the best music projects of the year according to the Snob magazine, and entered the short list of the Snob: Made in Russia-2014 award. It was named one of the most significant cultural events of recent years. The large-scale electronic resource “From the Life of the Planets” received the national award “Book of the Year 2015” in the category “Electronic Book”. For this project, the Megapolis group was nominated for the GQ Magazine's Prize “Person of the Year 2015”.

ZEROLINES

In the spring of 2016, the Megapolis group began work on a new project. On November 18, 2016 the album "ZEROLINES" was released, which differs from previous works. The album was influenced by the philosophy of the silver age. Oleg Nesterov himself calls Zerolines an art project ^[1] .

• Oleg Nesterov - vocals, recitative, electric guitar, acoustic guitar
• Mikhail Gabolaev - bass
• Dmitry Pavlov - solo guitar, electronics (since 2008)
• Dmitry Chervyakov - electric guitar, electronics
• Andrey Karasev - violin, keyboards (from 2016 episodic)
• Anton Dashkin - drums (since 2011)

Former members

• Andrei Belov - bass guitar (1987-1989)
• Mikhail Alesin - drums (1987-1989)
• Igor Zhigunov - percussion (1987)
• Arkady Martynenko - keyboards (1987)
• Alexander Suzdalev - keyboards (1987-1991)
• Yuri Matsenov - guitar (1989-1995)
• Vitaly Churilov - guitar (1989)
• Andrei Nadolsky - drums (1989-1992)
• Ruslan Valonen - keyboards (1991-1992)
• Alexander Kosorunin - drums (1993-1994)
• Alexander Filonenko - drums (1994-2000)
• Andrey Kifiyak - guitar (1994-1998)
• Maxim Leonov - guitar (1998-2008)
• Alexey Kadlubovich - drums (2000—2011)

• 1985 - Christmas tree bazaar (pre- "Megapolis")
• 1987 - Morning
• 1989 - Poor people
• 1990 - Colorful winds
• 1992 - Women's Heart
• 1994 - Megapolis
• 1995 - Negoro
• 1996 - Acoustic concert in Utopia (concert)
• 1996 - Thunderstorm in the village
• 1998 - The best
• 2003 - Smiles of love or hedgehog forever ^[2] (maxi-single)
• 2003 - Megapolis In Love (compilation)
• 2010 - Supertango ^[3]
• 2012 - Stars, Stars (Yolka & Megapolis EP)
• 2014 - From the life of the planets
• 2016 - ZEROLINES

• Our man in San Remo

• Alekseev A.S. Who is who in Russian rock music . - M .: AST: Astrel: Harvest, 2009 .-- S. 300-302. - ISBN 978-5-17-048654-0 (AST). - ISBN 978-5-271-24160-4 (Astrel). - ISBN 978-985-16-7343-4 (Harvest).

• LJ Oleg Nesterov
• Megapolis video channel (group) on YouTube
• The official website of the group