School ensemble

In the late 80s, my friends and I decided to put together a musical group. As the song goes, “school ensemble.” Vocal and instrumental. My friend Alexey and I were the leaders. The composition of our team changed over the years, but Lekha and I were always at the helm. At that time, we were fans of Laskovy May and Freestyle. In general, our repertoire was originally planned in the style of pop music.

Actually, the desire to create my own band first arose much earlier. After watching the film “We are from Jazz”. This is very strange, since I never liked jazz at all. But after watching the film “The Prank”, the idea finally took shape. Here, the direction of the music was already suitable.

Our team name changed several times. I don’t even remember them all, but the last name was Third Floor. Everyone was told that we all lived on the third floor, but to tell the truth, I always lived on the fifth.

How it all began.

The idea of creating an amateur group had been around for a long time. In our class there were several guitarists of the pioneer-backyard theme.

There were two electric guitars at school. But the main thing was that we had a great desire to play music. That was enough. We wrote a statement to the principal asking for permission to rehearse, the school drawing teacher agreed to supervise us, who let it slip that he was not only an artist, but a rock musician. And so the evening gatherings began in the assembly hall. There was no drum kit. Our drummer practiced on chairs. There was no bass guitar either. But we didn’t really need one. The main thing that was missing was a synthesizer. What kind of pop music without keys? True, there was a piano. There are no recordings of our first creations, since they simply weren’t made. Everything was pretty primitive, but we got a kick out of the process itself.

Then Lyokha got hold of a synthesizer somewhere. A rather simple synthesizer, but it was a breakthrough! It was not allowed to bring a synthesizer to school, so some of the rehearsals took place at Lyokha’s apartment. The most popular songs from LM and Freestyle were selected. They were performed on the keys with one finger. Then they were recorded with overdubs. There are no recordings of this disgrace left either.

This didn’t last long. Soon we found out that there was a drum kit in a school in the neighboring district. And most importantly, no one was using it. Having made friends with the head teacher of that school (he was a cool guy!), we agreed on rehearsals at someone else’s school. There our team was replenished with volunteers from that school. And things went more smoothly. The sound of our band became more or less decent.

It must be said that visiting someone else’s area was associated with some health risks. At that time, strangers were not particularly welcome in their own area. Just being on someone else’s territory was punishable by local hooligan groups. Sometimes they got it for nothing. It didn’t really bother us. And we didn’t stop rehearsing.

First concert.

Our repertoire then already consisted of almost a dozen other people’s hits. We learned to play and used exclusively other people’s songs at first.

I remember our first concert very well. It was a concert on March 8 for the girls from our class. We dragged the equipment and instruments to our school. I remember dragging the drum across the square.

And so the debut took place. We performed several songs. The girls were ecstatic. Although of course the quality of performance and sound left much to be desired. But apparently our enthusiasm and emotions did their job and were transmitted to the audience. It was spring, we sang about love. Like in the song “Love, Komsomol and Spring”. In general, everything went great.

CONCERTS, competitions, Discography.

Gradually our level of performance grew. We were no longer just performing, but also composing songs ourselves. We had our own repertoire

Korg Synthesizer. We didn’t have that. It was a dream (Public Domain)

The group got a new boost when it became the official team of the cultural center of our instrument-making plant. It was not easy to get this place. The regular group of the cultural center broke up and a competition was announced. We won this competition. The cultural center had decent and partially professional equipment, a studio for rehearsals unlimited at any time. But in return we had to perform at the city’s propaganda sites and at various events.

We started rehearsing with renewed vigor, fortunately we now had our own place and no one bothered us.

Regular concerts began, both solo and in various assemblies. We often performed at discos (usually at school ones), on dance floors (sometimes at city ones). Once, on New Year’s Eve, we gave a concert in a pub for food. However, there was a hitch with the food. While we were performing, our food was slightly eaten by other artists (our replacements). The table was shared. And we had to finish eating after the king had eaten, just like in the movie about the musketeers.

It must be said that if we were paid for our work, it was rarely and only symbolic money. We always performed for the soul, and not for fame or wealth. We did not want to look for extra work (although it was possible to find odd jobs at weddings, graduations – fortunately, we already had some connections in musical circles).

We took part in local music competitions a couple of times. We made it to the finals once. We didn’t manage to win, although we performed (unlike the winners) with our own repertoire. And that means something. It’s much easier to sing someone else’s hit and get the jury’s approval than to present your own work, not particularly well-known and not promoted on television.

Discography. We didn’t have any official albums. We recorded music on compact cassettes exclusively for our own pleasure.

Eventually, our group broke up. Then even just getting together was a problem for us. This became especially evident when our Alexey went into the army. Everyone had families, things to do, work. We met less and less often. And often not as a whole group. One day, I came to a rehearsal alone. And I realized that this was already the end.

But surely each of us sometimes turns on that very cassette with our recordings to return to that wonderful past.