Powers of rock – Newspaper Kommersant No. 20 (7465) dated 02/03/2023

The Boslen Publishing House has published an autobiography of the guitarist, songwriter and creator of the Leap Summer and Autograph bands Alexander Sitkovetsky. The title of the book is English – “It’s a long story …”. I was not afraid of a long story Igor Gavrilov.

“Autograph” has overtaken colleagues in many ways. The team was the first in the USSR to have a “rock group” on the sleeve of the record. Later, already at the time of all-Union recognition and incessant tours, they had at their disposal the most advanced and powerful concert equipment by the standards of that time. “Autograph” was the first domestic group that was seen by an audience around the world. This happened during the Live Aid 1985 festival, during which the signal from the Ostankino studio with “Autograph” on stage was turned on on the screens of Wembley Stadium immediately after the performances of Phil Collins and Sting. After all, Autograph was the first professional art-rock band in the country, ready to stand on a par with the leading representatives of the genre. Actually, the last chapter of the book by Alexander Sitkovetsky tells just how the group made a career in the USA under the leadership of the legendary manager Frank Zappa and Tom Waits – Herb Cohen.

Sitkovetsky remembers a lot, but what he has forgotten he finds in his Rabochaye Zhurnal. He has been leading it since the 1970s, from the time of his performances as part of the Leap Summer group, which is given quite a lot of attention in the book. Brands of instruments and amplifiers, tour routes, names, addresses, appearances, a lot of photos – and little lyrics. Everything is to the point, the texture is richly flavored with musical slang of the 1970s and 1980s, professional terminology and anglicisms typical of the emigrant environment – the musician has long lived in the USA.

It is clear that there are a lot of touring tales and adventurous episodes in the author’s luggage. Four solo concerts played in a row on the same day in Cherepovets due to the delay of trailers with equipment. Two drummer faints at two Odessa shows. The electric shock that struck down Sitkovetsky on the ungrounded stage in Norilsk. Delivery of dry ice for special effects to hot Baku. The shock of the vocalist of “Autograph” Artur Berkut from visiting the supermarket on the first tour in capitalist country.

It seems that all this or something similar was described earlier in similar memoirs by the artist’s colleagues. Of what could only happen with “Autograph”, it is worth noting Alexander Sitkovetsky’s memories of the Soviet-American festival “Our Move”, aka Rock’n’Roll Summit in 1987 with Carlos Santana as the headliner. It was held on the Independence Day of the United States – now it sounds like a fantasy. This festival is remembered much less often than the 1989 Peace Festival or AC / DC with Metallica in Tushino in 1991. Sitkovetsky restores historical justice, and at the same time talks about how he had to become not just a translator, but the main negotiator at meetings of American concert managers and Soviet officials. The latter not only did not understand a foreign language, but the very mechanics and philosophy of the modern concert process was inaccessible to them.

Another sad episode was the sending of “Autograph” to a pop festival in Sopot, Poland. Tired of endless tours, Sitkovetsky asks to send “Time Machine” instead of “Autograph”. “Makarevich (Andrey Makarevich, recognized as a foreign agent.— “b”)? – the employee of the Ministry of Culture answers. – So that I don’t hear this name here anymore. As the saying goes, years have passed…

Alexander Sitkovetsky and Avtograf went on a long-term sabbatical in the early 1990s. More the group in the original composition did not gather, except for one or two “anniversary” performances. Sitkovetsky names the reason: “The group was split by tours in the USA.” However, there is another reason, which he does not speak directly, but which still shows through his lines.

Throughout the story, with the exception of the chapter devoted to the festival “Spring Rhythms” (“Tbilisi-80”), he does not seem to notice that there was some other kind of rock in the country, except for Moscow. And if he notices, then in such a spirit, for example: “The country was ‘metalized’ before our eyes and at the same time quickly backed away into the wretchedness of the Leningrad rock laboratory.” Or: “You can’t play the songs of Autograph in the yard with one string, like Butusova.” It is unlikely that Mr. Sitkovetsky does not know that there was a rock club in Leningrad, and a rock laboratory was in Moscow. It’s just that for him all this is a scene that does not even deserve to be properly called in a book. This is at first glance. But in fact, he certainly understands that it was this “wretched”, but sincere and much more modern rock that swept the philharmonic seriousness of “Autograph” from the map of the USSR.

Alexander Sitkovetsky. It’s a Long Story… M.: Boslen, 2023.