At the concert of the new Gorky Park, Nikolai Noskov was greeted standing

The first solo concert of the new composition of Gorky Park was prepared as a very significant event. Two singles from the upcoming album were released and a press conference was held, which, combined with the curiosity of people interested in the history of the group, could create some excitement. And in terms of emotions, the concert was generally successful.

The previous history of Gorky Park, as Stas Namin conceived the group, ended in the early nineties. In the midst of passion for the debut album of Gorky Park (the record hit the world charts and became, perhaps, the most successful Russian rock export), vocalist Nikolai Noskov flew to Russia, and the remaining members of the group decided to seriously pursue a career in America.

From then until 2022, Stas Namin, for his part, made no attempts to restart the group. The remaining members of the team, Alexey Belov, Alexander Marshal, Yan Yanenkov and Alexander Lvov, showed much more activity and recorded three albums. It was not possible to repeat the previous successes, but the releases of Moscow Calling and Stare, nevertheless, attracted the attention of the public, including Western ones, and allowed the artists to tour extensively. However, by the beginning of the 2000s, the group practically fell apart, and all further reunions were spontaneous and short-lived.

In the summer of 2022, at the festival in honor of the 35th anniversary of the Stas Namin Center at the Green Theater, a new line-up of the group was presented, to which the producer invited lead guitarists and vocalists Oleg Izotov and Pavel Popov, drummer and vocalist Alexey Baev, bass guitarist and vocalist Marco Mendoza . Nikolai Noskov also took part in that festival performance, thus obviously confirming his agreement with the continuation of rock history. The legendary American drummer Kenny Aronov remained behind the scenes, but according to Namin, he will definitely appear at the concerts of the new Gorky Park.

All this time there was a rather nervous discussion about who owned the rights to the name of the group. There were rumors that in the nineties, Alexey Belov and Co. held successful negotiations with the Stas Namin Center, and as a result received permission to release albums under the Gorky Park label. However, some time ago it was announced that all rights to the group were transferred to Stas Namin in court. The producer’s opponents in interviews talk about their direct relationship to both the name and the music of the group, so they are not going to give up.

So at the end of last year, Alexey Belov and Alexander Marshal announced they were working on new material and their intention to go on tour as “Gorky Park”. The charges of Stas Namin have already prepared a new album, and at a recent press conference it was announced that a world tour will soon begin, the first concerts of which are planned in China and South America.

It is unlikely that both groups perceive the current situation as a reason to find out whose rock is more powerful and cheerful. Probably rock may turn out a little different. In the statements of Belov and Marshal, the music is now served with a thick sovereign sauce, in the rhetoric of Stas Namin there is more about peace, love and freedom. There is a suspicion that the public is not at all obliged to understand the legal intricacies and, above all, wants to get their favorite songs. And this is probably the same case when, according to the old producer’s tradition, it is better to meet at the box office.

The first solo show of Gorky Park at Crocus City Hall was not a deafening sell-out, but there were many who wanted to spend Friday evening listening to rock sounds, and some even took their children with them. In the new doctrine of Gorky Park, not much time is devoted to memories of past achievements. Actually, in the set list they have three main hits from the Gorky Park album: a cover of My Generation by The Who (the concert begins with this song), Peace In Our Time and of course Bang.

For a band that has an album ready, it’s logical to place the main emphasis on new songs, and all the new songs are worked out at maximum volume. Musically, Gorky Park remained in the hard rock niche, however, when writing and recording new material, the band members clearly did not want to deal with vintage music and tried to put into their sound everything that is currently practiced in guitar music. True, without loops, recitative and dance beats, here the musicians showed strength of character.

They say that an album called One World Freedom will soon be released, but in concert conditions the material on one record is of course not enough. And here you can use the impressive rock bins of the Stas Namin Center as help. To some extent they were also used when creating new songs.

So, released in single format, “Girl From New York” is a re-interpretation of the song of the same name by the group “Flowers” ​​from 1986. It was written to Yevgeny Yevtushenko’s poem “Bitnitsa” during the American tour of the Soviet group. In the new version, “Girl” is significantly heavier, and an English fragment has been added to the previous text.

Another single called “Window to Love” is essentially a remake of the song “Open Your Window” from the repertoire of the same “Flowers”. Thanks to the efforts of Marco Mendoza, the new version of the composition also has English text, but it is not immediately recognizable by its sound. However, it’s hard to deny the importance of past hits in creating new PG music.

In general, there were quite a few references to the classics during the concert, and it must be admitted that they fit well into the pacifist message of everything that happened on stage. A noisy rock cover of Bob Dylan’s anti-war anthem Masters Of War (1963) accompanied by a heartbreaking chronicle of the Vietnam War became a number about the here and now. A song about soulless politicians ruining human lives would not have been suitable for archival footage, but now words and pictures need to be carefully chosen.

The cover block was continued by the very consonant Dylan’s People Let’s Stop The War from Grand Funk Railroad and the programmatic rebellious hit Born To Be Wild from Steppenwolf performed by Ivan Guskov, soloist and bass guitarist of the Stas Namin Theater. And then a kind of legend, Grammy and World Music Award winner fusion guitarist Roman Miroshnichenko appeared on stage. Together with a small choir, he presented an unexpected jazz version of “We Wish You Happiness” to the delight of those who still remember the famous song.

Such a cocktail might have seemed too contrasting in taste to many, but very different ingredients were combined, mixed and shaken thanks to the participants of the new Gorky Park. Sergei Arutyunov, who also took the stage as a vocalist, as well as Oleg Izotov, Timofey Grigorovich, Marco Mendoza – musicians of different generations, but together they became a very united group in performing terms with a sound that was previously called “currency”, not without irony and envy. “

However, the most striking fragment of the show was not entirely related to rock. After three songs performed by Marco, Nikolai Noskov appeared on stage. Taking into account all the life circumstances in which the musician found himself, live singing is not the easiest occupation for him, but it was on stage that Nikolai was overwhelmed with emotions. The same thing happened in the hall. The musician was greeted standing, they chanted his name and were ready to sing well-known songs instead of Nikolai. “I Don’t Agree for Less”, “Snow”, “I Love You” and of course “That’s Great” are more distinguished by their pop glamor than their rock and roll frenzy, but it seems these are the songs that many of those gathered were waiting for most.

Bang, which together with Noskov was sung by both the band’s musicians and the fans who had mastered the simple lyrics over the past years, could well have become a loud finale, but they decided to make the farewell more pathetic and symbolic by performing the “Beatles” Come Together. As a result, not everyone could give a clear answer to the question of what a good half of the program had to do directly with Gorky Park. But if someone wanted rock and roll passions, then there was no shortage of them.