Memphis (band, Hungary)

Memphis founder Peter Fonyodi (Fonyódi Péter ^[2] ) was born in 1948 in the Tripolisz quarter of the 13th district of Budapest. He was familiar with Belaya Radich from childhood, since they lived in neighboring houses, although they studied in different elementary schools. Peter fell in love with Western music as a child in the late 1950s, listening to it on Radio Free Europe and Radio Luxembourg . Then they often broadcast Elvis Prestley, Little Richard and other American stars. And after Peter heard the London Beatles concert in London on radio in 1963, he became fanatical and decided to create his own beat band. He was joined by his schoolmates Attila Imre (Imre Attila, bass) and Gyula Juhas (Juhász Gyula, saxophone), and Peter himself, of course, took the place of the drummer. Their ensemble did not have a name, the boys performed in college on Szabó Ilonka Street, and the audience who came to their concerts were delighted with their enthusiasm.

The school ensemble gave Peter the necessary experience, thanks to which in 1965 he created the semi-professional bit band Memphis. The first to include bass guitarist Jozsef Dios ( Diós József ) and lead guitarist Lajos Krishtofi ( Kristóffy Lajos ). The father of Jozsef Dios was a carpenter, so with his own hand he made the musicians all the acoustic systems that created an excellent wall of sound. The first Memphis rehearsal took place on January 5, 1965 in the assembly hall of the Main Post Office of the 5th District on Gabor Uyvari Street. Then the young people tried to play the songs of the Rolling Stones and The Beatles. But the people at the post office did not like the constant noise behind the wall, and soon the musicians had to look for another refuge. At the end of 1965, they finally signed a contract with the Építők Builders Club on Sandor Petofi Street, where they regularly performed on Mondays from early 1966 until the summer of 1969. It was a very advanced club, playing in which was quite prestigious. Also on other days, the guys performed at the BVSC Vivó Fencing Club, at the Ikarusz beer bar, and sometimes went to rural clubs, but they did this rarely because they did not have a car for transporting musical equipment. In 1966, another member of their team was rhythm guitarist Gyula Gyula (Hegyi Gyula), who accompanied the solo guitarist Lajos Krishtofi.

In early 1967, the group acquired the Matador organ, the first organ model released in Hungary. The price of the instrument was simply enormous: 15,600 forints, therefore, with an average salary in the country of 850 forints, the guys, of course, were able to purchase it only on credit that OTP-Bank provided them. To play on this organ, they invited Székely Péter, an organ-vocalist from the Orkán group, to their team. And the frontman was Lazlo Goy ( Goly László ), who had excellent vocals and was able to expertly imitate the original performers. The group composed and tried to perform several of their own songs in Hungarian, for example, “Körúton”, but the audience they spoke to wanted to hear Western hits in English. Therefore, the idea of ​​Peter Fonyodi to participate in national competitions failed. In addition, at the end of 1967, Peter Szekey joined the Hobó group, and they lost their organist, and a couple of months later Jozsef Dios left for Szivárvány , which Peter Szekey created with his friend Antal Gabor Syuc. In their place at Memphis came the old friends of Peter Fognodi: bass player Attila Imre, who by then had time to work in the beat band Kon-Tiki, and saxophonist Gyula Juhas, who had spent previous years in the Wanderers ensemble ^{[3] [4 ] ]} .

In the spring of 1968, Lajos Krishtofi and Gyula Hedi also left the team, and experienced Ivan Rusnak ( Hungarian Rusznák Iván born 1951), who previously played in the Marvin, Continental, Europa and Nivram groups, became a solo guitarist. At the beginning of 1969, Attila Imre left for Kex , and Goly László became part-time bass player of the group. Then Bela Radic invited Peter Fonyodi to the concert of his band “ Sakk-Matt ” and invited him to join his team, but Peter did not agree, after which Bela Radic took in his composition the mentally unstable drummer Laszlo Varadi, nicknamed “Vadölő” (“Accused” "). Despite the change in composition, by the summer of 1969 Memphis was considered ^{[by whom? ]} already a practically professional team: they had excellent instruments, a well-developed repertoire (including songs of Deep Purple ) and contracts with several metropolitan clubs. However, they spoke without any enthusiasm, it was not a company of friends, but purely business cooperation of people far from each other.

One of the last major Memphis concerts took place on July 21, 1969 in Tchaikovsky Park, just then during a break on the radio announced the landing of an American astronaut on the moon. And in early August, the group performed at the MOM Palace of Culture (Hungarian Optical Plant). The concert program was also attended by the group Rangers (future Corvina ). At that time, its leader, Soltész Rezső, was dissatisfied with his drummer Peter Megyeri Péter and invited Peter Fognody to sign a contract with the Rangers. Among other things, for Režo олoltes, it was also an opportunity to eliminate a rival group, since Memphis at that time occupied approximately the same niche in the music scene as the Rangers. After weighing all the pros and cons, Peter Fonyodi agreed ^[5] .

However, other members of Memphis did not agree that they were thrown. Ivan Rusnak tried to save the group and invited the young talented drummer Tamás Németh Tamás and vocalist Andárás Novák to take the place of Peter Fonyodi. The latter, before Memphis, was already the vocalist of the amateur music ensemble Anonymus (1963-1970), who performed rock and rolls and rhythm and blues. However, despite Memphis' contracts with ORI and good connections with clubs, the new team did not work together, and by the end of the year the group finally ceased to exist. Vocalist Andras Novak and drummer Tamas Nemeth joined the Szivárvány band, saxophonist Gyula Juhas joined Atlantis , and Ivan Rusnak later played Kék Csillag, Gemini and M7.