On 25 April 1987 in the assembly hall of the Moscow experimental plant Gramzapis the Melodiya company held a listening session not in the "stuffy secrecy" of an art council but in the presence of an audience: musicians, critics, young workers of the plant and simply fans gathered, and many could not find a seat. The report on that evening, "Northern Legend", appeared in Moskovsky Komsomolets on 15 May 1987 (authors Natalya Marina and Sergey Ilyin; full text on this site).
The existence of Oblachny Kray, the authors wrote, was "surrounded by a kind of mystical aura": everybody had heard the band, but nobody had seen it. In Moscow it was known from tape albums: by Moscow music lovers' count, not five but seven albums circulated, because the first two recordings were so long that in listeners' memory they "multiplied by division".
Who took the stage
Besides the three founders — Sergey Bogaev, Oleg Rautkin and Nikolai Lyskovsky — the stage was taken by drummer Dmitry Leontyev ("a locksmith by trade") and bass player Andrey Ilyichev ("an electrician"). "The rhythm section did not let down the prestige of Arkhangelsk rock, and the audience's delight exceeded all expectations," the reporters write. They also note that the band still has to work on its stage image: its concert experience is small.
What was written about the band
The report calls Bogaev "one of the best guitarists in the country" and retells the story of the name: in 1982 the friends were invited to a festival in the Solombala district and the name "Oblachny Kray" was found on the way — it had to be "northern" and had to be announceable from the stage. The art critic Sergey Guryev, who ran the "Lessons of rock music" in the magazine Yunost, sees "Stremya i Lyudi" as "an intermediate phenomenon on the edge of classic hard rock and heavy". The authors also write that Oblachny Kray is invited to concerts by the Leningrad Rock Club and by Melodiya and that the song "Seryy kardinal" has already been aired on the radio.
What came next
Later in 1987 the band played at the festivals in Chernogolovka and Podolsk; at the Podolsk festival the bass player was Andrey Lukin. In November 1987 Bogaev's songs were played on BBC radio with a comment by Seva Novgorodtsev (as Pravda Severa reported on 5 February 1988). The Arkhangelsk festival that preceded the Moscow evening is covered in The V rock festival, 28 February – 1 March 1987.
Sources
- N. Marina, S. Ilyin. "Northern Legend". Moskovsky Komsomolets, 15 May 1987.
- Pravda Severa, 5 February 1988, no. 30, p. 3.
- A. Burlaka. "Oblachny Kray" ("Rock Music in the USSR: an attempt at a popular encyclopedia").
