Igor Sandler: “Grisha Leps went to Sochi, and I went to London”
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The turn of the 80s – 90s was rich in the most incredible events not only in the destinies of the country and the world. Global changes influenced, of course, all aspects of life, including music and the fate of musicians. There was drama, but at the same time, amazing opportunities opened up that were previously unimaginable. When else could a real and first ever English-Russian rock band appear? Perhaps only in those crazy, difficult, but very romantic and wonderful years. Unfortunately, there were also tragic events, the death of musicians, a producer…
In 1989, the famous producer Barry White, almost the exact namesake of the famous American blues singer, flew to Russia from England. Unfortunately, Barry’s acquaintance with Russia happened at the end of his life, but we still managed to make some good noise with him and do something important. At that time, all over the world, including England, a huge and very benevolent interest in Russia arose after the start of perestroika – the “Evil Empire” unexpectedly became a place of hope and a new look at a better future. The inspired world hoped that this would be forever, and enthusiastically began to discover a new Russia.
Barry was very interested in Russian culture. In the concert hall of the Cosmos Hotel, he arranged an audition for Russian rock bands, he wanted to choose one band and give it a tour around the UK. More than thirty leading Russian rock bands took part. To my great happiness and surprise, Barry White chose my group Index-398, which I created after leaving Integral. I talked about this in one of the previous “Rock Stories”.
After the audition, Barry and I met and became friends. He invited me to go on tour to England, and also told me that he had a show in memory of Elvis Presley “Forever Elvis”. He confidentially shared his plans, or rather even his hope, to bring this show to Russia, but he didn’t have a very clear idea of how to do it. I asked him for a promo and went to the All-Union Theater Society, where the chairman was the titled and brilliant actor Mikhail Ulyanov, and his deputy was Eduard Mikhailovich Smolny, the great director of concert programs of the 70s – 80s, my close friend, with whom we did and conducted many joint tours around the country. I offered the Barry White show to Eduard Mikhailovich, he was interested and helped organize a tour – for a whole week, first in Moscow, and then in St. Petersburg (then still called Leningrad).
At the same time, I was preparing a large program with the USSR rhythmic gymnastics team for a tour of the USA. I was offered an interesting project: gymnasts perform their routines accompanied by the Index group, which plays classics, of course, in rock adaptations – Ravel, Tchaikovsky, and other great composers. It was very spectacular and very beautiful.
During a break in rehearsals, we brought mats to the rehearsal base at the Khimik cultural center, on which the gymnasts would then rehearse. I still remember this tragic day: on December 3, I stopped by this base, two of my guys were there – Mikhail Zhbrykunov and Igor Bondarev, they were preparing the equipment for that same tour of the Barry White show. We stayed overnight at the base. It was frosty, and the guys had reflector heaters for 3 rubles. I brought them food, checked that everything was okay, that they were warm, and went home. At 6 am they call the home phone and say: “Igor, come to the base urgently!” I ask: “What happened?” They don’t say anything, they just say anxiously: “Come urgently!” I got into the car, drove up, and smoke was pouring out of our building, firefighters, ambulances, and police. The firefighters put a mask on me, take me inside, lead me to the room where the guys were, show me two charred skeletons and ask: “Do you recognize it?”
I felt bad and was taken outside. The examination showed that the guys went to bed, the reflector spiral fell, the mats began to smolder, the guys suffocated while still sleeping, then everything began to burn. A criminal case was opened against me as the leader of the group, two funerals: Igor is an orphan, Mikhail is survived by his wife and daughter. All my equipment, prepared for the Barry White show, burned down. The guys were buried, the case was closed, the equipment was collected from friends, the show was held.
During this tour, Barry turned 50 years old, he said that visiting Russia was his dream, and it came true. At the same time, preparations were underway for the Index tour in England. We sent parcels with posters and promotional videos there. Posters hung in Liverpool, Manchester, Norfolk, London and other cities. This was to be the Soviet rock band’s first tour in the UK.
But in January another tragedy occurred: Barry White himself died, and Index’s tour was disrupted. These two blows of fate made me sit down and think. I decided to go to England and create my own team based on Barry White’s group. I gave “Index-398” to Alexander Serov, young Grisha Leps, who showed promise in it, returned to Sochi, since Serov himself was a vocalist anywhere, and I left.
The Red Rock group was born in England, we made an original hard rock program, and so I spent several years in Foggy Albion. A lot of press wrote about us, we were popular enough to fill medium-sized concert halls, which for most of the artists there are the main concert venues. Red Rock toured successfully, but gradually the number of tours became less and less, I often went to Russia, where musical life was also in full swing, and new projects multiplied like mushrooms after rain. All this required attention, care and personal presence. The group finally ceased to exist by 1994, remaining in history the first and, it seems, the last full-fledged English-Russian rock band.
Newspaper headline:
Rock on the Ashes
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