SAX THEME
By mid June Pasha not only played the saxophone inherited from his dad, the well-known Moscow jazzman. The talent a multiinstrumentalist emerged: he strated playing keyboards, accordion, drums. In one of the songs the Hedgehog sang without drumming, dancing with Alyona and laying around a stage. I swear, no pair of acrobatic or ballroom kind will show the spirit of that most democratic street music. No matter how many times I saw them dance, I wished I would be able to learn to do the rock and roll as well as the Lysenkos.
Speaking about saxophonist Pasha had been drafted in army in spring '87. He served in the Far East city of Khabarovsk in an orchestra with his own instrument, and on the photo he'd sent he was blowing it with his parade uniform on with a whipped pomp with a picture "The horn players of the the First Cavalry Regiment" in the background. Mr.ÒWISTER terribly lamented the loss and always warmly recalled Pasha, and the crowds at first tim groaned nostalgically: "Pasha, where are you? " For a tour the guys hired a sax man, who asked for the written sheet music because he couldn't get down the theme for the "Moscow night ", or did not want. Another one would play in the Orchestra of Honourable Sentries, would meet all Heads of governments at the Moscow International airport of Sheremetyevo, could play 1000 (!) Hymns of the different countries, looked OK and once went for a week tour of Petrograd. But he was unable to shake off his sergeant's stripes, no matter how much he drank and how many times he was absent. One couldn't be released from the Soviet Army just like this. All the summer the TWISTERS played as a trio. Plus the dancer Mauriky, the manager Val, the soundman Alexey and the makeup girl Alyona.
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HEROIC FLIGHT Alma-Ata - Omsk through Simferopol and the "MORNING MAIL"!
A NIGHTMARE WITH THREE LANDINGS! 12 HOURS IN AEROFLOT VICE!
The students of the summer camp, where the most p
opular morning music show of the day "The Morning Mail" Saturday was shot, gave the TWISTERS something to eat and to shave with. In the morning they had a quick videoshoot, in the afternoon got a little sun on a nudist beach, and in the evening prepared for a show. But then there started not just a rain - a real Southern monsoon torrent, everybody ran up the mountain in the nick of time, and the mechanics of a double bass got rusty. The show had to be cancelled.
The show the TWISTERS were on was considered the best for all history: Vlad Markin who had just formed his band THE HARD CHILDHOOD, sang that he was "ready to kiss the sand, on which you walked". Alexander Gradsky sang that "how we wish at times to play another's role". The fattest and ugliest Soviet popstar Serge Krylov sang about "the Black sea, usual Crimean landscape". Something becoming to the nature and weather performed new wavers RONDO the then Bari Alibasov's band INTEGRAL. The TWISTER finished the show marked by many spectators with the song "At the very dark blue sea".
That summer the musicians went to see the show of the American pop rocker Billy Joel and a few times traditionally rocked the "Bird". Once there was a film actor/director Robert Deniro there, who was with a jury of the Moscow International Film Festival. After visiting the Bird he'd told in interview to the German magazine "Òåìïî", that there is America in Moscow!
The Rosconcert booking agency not only paid them the minimal salary, but each time tried to brush them up - with resistance from ours guys. In Saratov a Soviet impressario asked them (as the producer of the show) to not play "Fat Hands Blues". Luckily the Commy newspaper "The Truth" caught an eye of the Hedgehog. In the questionnaire "WHAT DO YOU CONSIDER THE MOST SHAMEFUL PHENOMENON IN THE RUSSIAN SOCIETY?" one boy answered: the young Russian nazis. It was what the Hedgehog read from stage before the show. During the last tour performance the whole bill got on stage: Alyona was brought in an iron gear rack, and the Hedgehog with Val in the pants and t-shirts played hockey with a foot ball on the ice of the Saratov Palace of Sports.
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In Minsk a reviewer wrote:
ISTER's songs are dashing, fiery, almost aggressive. "Leisure Boogie", and their new tune with a refrain "Rock and roll will never grow old, rock and roll, you can't dislike it". It is necessary to note their "ballet troupe" - Mauriky performing dance steps in heavy boots easily, as if in shoes. From the old tradition the Muscovites took a song from the film "The Last Inch" based on the James Aldridge's story. It sounds quite differently from the movie, where a singer with the big symphony band performs. The TWISTERS churn out the minor swing, diminished chords, intensity, drama, chamber sound, and contrasts! The perfect voices, guitarist on flajolettes, the double bass player jumps into a solo for the first time. The only thing to desire is a saxophone in this song and last, fourth verse, though I do not remember it, my dad prompted me, he's the old teddy".
With long performances the rehearsal studio was lost, but the guys found a Start cafe at Loozhniky Stadium. The famous now virtuoso guitarist Oleg Makeyev, who sat there helped them with the gear. A girl from RONDO came to them to blow the alto sax there. But it happened so that at he show at a Orlyonok Hotel not only she had come, but two more candidates. One named Serge Sookhanov was the one who had come with the instrument, a tenor sax. The second came empty-handed, and that settled everything. After Serge had played "Rock
arou
nd the clock" in the dressing room on the fly, he was dragged onstage and played the tune right there. Without giving him time to collect even his tooth brush, the same night he'd taken away by train to perform in Yaroslavl.
This very day November 6, but only morning, occured a marriage the Hedgehog with Alyona in the district office, where the brides in silent horror oggled the yelling crowd in leather, thorns on motorcycles and again Yugoslavian press.
During the largest festival a ROCK PANORAMA '87 at Loozhniky Sports Palace they went to Kiev with all the family. The people in a House of Culture Kiev Railway Carriage Repaiping Factory was going gaga, hanging down
fr
om the balconies, nearly falling in the stalls, swinging headers "LONG LIVE
ROCK-N-ROLL", "Hurrah", "ELTON JOHN!" For the first time instead of a break between the sets TWISTERS arranged absolutely
informal talk show: "Your questions, remarks, requests on music and more". The promotional propaganda work was also done: MR TWISTER took to people the names and bands, the dates and records, the films
and songs, and the main thing - the spirit this crazy little thing called rock'n'roll. Ironically the poster in Kiev called the TWISTER rackobilly band, and in Donetsk - rockomobile band.
Right before the "panoramic" performance Oleg Ousmanov of the TWISTERS and Nick Arootyunoff of the BLUES LEAGUE arranged the1st Moscow Gala Concert of Traditional Rock-n-roll and Rhythm-n-blues. I shall point out the Moscow BLUES LEAGUE and Riga ARCHIVE with the 40-year old singer Pete Anderson (LP released later). Though comparing them with VITAMIN and ROCK HOTEL from Estonia, ARCHIVE and particularly TWISTERS are much better. The TWISTERS
know about: Tony & THE BOORLAKY (Volgograd), Max&POOGATCHY (Smolensk), THE SILENT HOUR (single on MELODY), HAWAIIAN ISLANDS, GREASE DREAM. The last three hail from Moscow, but it's clear that few people know them.
The gala show finished with a grand jam with 5 guitars, 4 saxophones, 3 harps and a trumpet - it was played by a girl with a baby in a rucksack. The bearded punters furtively brushed away a laconic tear: quite recently the cops would had taken them for that! The massive TWISTER's punters in leather, cowboy boots, all greased up supperted the fathers. The rockabilly cats met the Latvian ARCHIVES
and the meeting finished with home jam, ham, wine and songs at the Ousmanov's - in addition to tha acoustic bass and the piano he kept (and started to learn to play, but later gave up) a tenor saxophone.
With interest the TWISTERS went to see the ROCK PANORAMA'87 and played there. The Finnish TV did a feature on the festival. A French record label put out a live double album with 2 TWISTERS' track on it, and even paid $300 for it. The funny thing was they decided that "Shake Rattle & Roll" had been written by the TWISTERS too.