Leap Summer

“Leap Summer" was created from the musicians of the Moscow rock groups " Airport " and " Sadko " ^[1] . The first composition included: Alexander Sitkovetsky (guitar, vocals), Chris Kelmi (bass, vocals), Yuri Titov (drums). Six months later, vocalist Andrei Davidyan joined the group. ^[2] The Beatles and The Rolling Stones composed the core of the repertoire. They performed at school evenings and dances ^[3] .

In 1974, bass player Alexander Kutikov , who left the Time Machine, joined the group. It was decided that Chris Kelmi would become a keyboard player as he graduated from a music school in piano. Together they bought an electric organ for the musician ^[3] . In the same 1974, Titov joined the army, and Anatoly Abramov came instead.

At the suggestion of Kutikov, the musicians began to compose their own songs, first in English, then in Russian. Later, Kutikov brought rock group poet Margarita Pushkin to the group, with whom he collaborated in 1970. Lyrics of Pushkina carried features of psychedelic poetry of the late 60s - early 70s, in which there were explicit references to the compositions of The Doors , Jimi Hendrix and others ^[4] .

In 1975, the group gave their first serious concert with decorations, costumes, smoke and a stroboscope ^[3] . The performances consisted of three parts: the art-rock song program (40 minutes), the opera Prometheus Chained (45 minutes), rock and rolls (30 minutes). During the performance, Kelmi pulled on a black tracksuit in the dark, on which a skeleton was painted with fluorescent paint ^[4] .

In 1975, Abramov leaves for Araks , instead of him comes Valery Efremov ^[5] .

According to Chris Kelmi, the peak of the “Leap Summer” was the festival of amateur groups in Tallinn in 1976, where they surprised everyone with their shows and lighting effects ^[3] .

In 1978, “Leap Summer” takes part in the rock festival in Chernogolovka, where along with the “ Time Machine ” it has the greatest success and receives prizes for professionalism and theatricalization ^[5] . According to the memoirs of Margarita Pushkina, the jury also chided the musicians for "isolation in the texts from the realities of today" ^[1] .

In the same 1978, recordings of songs were made at the GITIS speech studio, which were officially released only in 1995 on the CD " Shop of Miracles ".

In May 1979, the group broke up due to contradictions between the creators.

After the split, Kelmi created the Rock Atelier , and Sitkovetsky created Autograph . Kutikov and Efremov went to the " Time Machine ". Abramov later collaborated with such groups as “ Flowers” , “ Rock Atelier” , “ White Eagle” , “ Black Coffee” , etc.

According to Margarita Pushkina , “the second such group as“ leap-dogs ”did not appear. She had her own sound, specific to Moscow, her stage image and a huge army of fans ” ^[4] .

• Alexander Sitkovetsky - guitar, vocals
• Chris Kelmi (Anatoly Kelmi) - keyboards, vocals
• Alexander Kutikov - bass, vocals (1974-1979)
• Valery Efremov - drums (1975-1979)
• Anatoly Abramov - drums (1974-1975)

• 1978 - Chained Prometheus (Magnetic Album).
• 1978 - Leap Summer (Magnetic Album).
• 1979 - “Concert” (magneto-album).
• 1996 - " Shop of Miracles " (CD)

• 1976 - Six letters about the bat ^[6]

• “Leap Summer" on the website www.rock-book.ru
• About the group “Leap Summer”
• Profile of Leap Summer at Last.fm