Already next Friday, October 14, in the club “Melnā piektdiena” the heavy rock and roll group “Rūsa” – the longest-running of the currently active Latvian rock bands – will celebrate its 35th birthday.
Which is the oldest: “Marpli” or “Rus”?
The title of the oldest active heavy rock band at the moment could probably be hotly debated. The oldest of the bands that still play actively is the legendary “Innokenty Marple”, which has existed since 1987, but if we add the period in which it operated under the name of “Aklā zarna” – also since 1985. Subsequent in this list are “Latvijas Motorhead” or heavy rock and roll masters “Rūsa”, also formed in 1987. However, Dambja’s group would still be considered “underground”, while “Rūsa” is proper rock (and heavy) to the roots, then the laurels of the oldest heavy rock bands still go to them. The leader of “Rūsa” himself, the only member of the band since its inception, the owner of iron throat and bassist Viesturs Polikarps reluctantly talks about this topic: “I was asked this question once before. [Latvijas Rokmūzikas asociācijas prezidents Jānis] Bukum and I got confused because I wasn’t ready for this. I guess we are the oldest. I haven’t thought about it specifically, but it could be that it really is. “
He celebrated his coming of age of alcohol for the last time
Viesturs, on the other hand, is ready to talk at length and willingly about the celebrations for the anniversary of the “Rūsa”. “Many groups even celebrate their fifth anniversary, they also celebrate 10, 15 or 20 years – something round. But in” Rus “it hasn’t happened so far, besides, the changes in the composition of the particular moment were not even decisive, It just didn’t happen! We celebrated our first anniversary when the group was 21, the alcoholic age of majority. As if that were comical, but a fact, “smiles Polik.
“I thought, we were born in 1987, so this year marks 35 years – well, this should finally be [atzīmēt]! I talked to my friends, the group members also agreed. We started looking for a seat, but in many places we ran into an unrealistic figure for room rent or other obstacles and hindrances. However, once I had to bring 20 or even more pizzas to the “Black Friday” place (Viesturs is co-owner of the pizzeria-buffet “Ensamblis” – aut.), Where four or five “marching bands” from Germany, Scandinavia, etc. . When I went backstage, along the stage on the left and right sides were stacked shelves where the guitars and basses of these bands were arranged in multiple rows – with horns and claws, Gibson and Fender, all that you may wish for! When I was among those rows of guitars, I felt at home and in that moment I understood – HERE, on “Black Friday”! “
They will play the present, the first and the first
The central axis of the anniversary concert will, of course, be the same “Rūsa” in its current composition: singer and bass Viesturs Polikarps aka Poliks, guitar virtuoso Guntars Endzelis aka Gunča and thunder drum master Pauls Ozols aka Chirka. The closest to this trio is the leader, soloist and guitarist of the band “Rebel Riot”, Roberts Ceris, who occasionally replaces Gunča when he is engaged in other formations, for example playing with “Credo”. “You can understand – Gunča earns money with” Credo “, as they say, for an apartment and a life, so it’s good that we have such a replacement option,” Viesturs calmly comments.
However, at the concert you will also be able to hear and see in the face the former members of “Rūsa”, of which there were not very many, but some – even the well-known jazz pianist Gints Žilinskis, who played in the group in the first half of the 90s .. . guitar! “Gints Žilinskis or Žilis have been playing lead guitar with us for over a year. He is an extremely creative person who was very easy to work with for me, and he is also the co-writer of some of the music on” Rus “. But deep down. he is still a pianist and, by the way, also a very good accordionist. He cares about rock and roll. He said he will not return to guitar, so he will perform a piano performance at our concert, but let’s see – maybe the guitar he will also appear during that period, but not in his performance “, Viesturs opens the curtain of this number.
“Rūsa” will also perform in its first lineup, which also included Žerārs Fīlips, Agris Rostok and Ilmars Vekters. “In the first lineup, I didn’t play bass yet, I was just a singer”, Poliks begins to scroll through his memories. “Our bassist was Ilmars Vekters (currently the leader of the pagan rock group” Letti “- author), who studied under a very talented jazz bass teacher Erik Balož, but at that time we were probably still too” green cucumbers “to be able to appreciate such beautiful things. Our training was interrupted by the Soviet army, because at that time we thought we would never change our training. ” By the way, currently Gerard has created his own band called “Regress”, and Rostock also plays there.
From a pretty face to cleaning up the shit
But for everything in turn – Polik already has the script for the concert. “We will play some pieces that we don’t usually play with the main line-up at concerts. We will perform with the very first line-up with songs that have probably never been played, then with the guitarist of the second line-up, then with Jānis Levitas or Levča, who have played also with us for a long time, then the band will perform “Johnny And The Burnouts” (with Roberts Ceris – aut.) and the female rock group “Šķembas”, but then we will conclude this event with our original program. “
Yes, Levča is also a former member of the “Russ”, in addition he has also climbed this river (or rust) twice – he appeared as part of it in 1989, later becoming one of the founders of the “Huskvarn” group (later “Husqvarn “), but then rejoined” Rust “when he was invited to help by Chirka, who in turn had just replaced Taras Kuzmenko (known for his work in bands such as” Ultra “,” Gust Of Anger “and” Trendkill Method “).
There is no doubt about the gold background of “Rusas” – even people far from heavy music may have heard masterpieces from this group such as “Your beautiful face”, “Move fast”, “Only rock’n’roll”, ” Don ‘t look back “,” Cik ilgi “,” Uz kirkečneśliiem “,” Bez ten ten “,” Motorrocker “,” Chain dog “,” Sūdu talka “etc. And, of course, the ironic “Viva March 8”, in whose honor “Rūsa”, seems to play “Ensemble” every year.
Working on a new album. Or for two
Despite its respectable age, “Rusai” hasn’t had a single studio album for many years – only in 2006, the group released the first official album “Uz kirkeņųtseļiem”, which collected the best and proven songs from previous years of activity. . In 2013, the next album “No vāka til vākam” was released, which won the annual Latvian music recording award “Zelta mikrofons” in the nomination for best album of metal and rock music. “At the moment, we will not play anywhere until 14, because it is important to record the album at the same time. But maybe even two”, in the context of the above, what Viestura said sounds particularly surprising.
It turns out that currently “Rūsa” is not only working on new original songs, but is also thinking about a rock cover album of Latvian songs from different eras: “Eolikas” leader Boriss Rezniks has already praised the heavy rock version of la hit “Ågenskalnas tirgus rīts” performed by “Rūsa”. “We have an idea to release an album with our original songs, as well as an album with covers of famous Latvian songs, but maybe combine both of these ideas into one,” reflects Poliks. “Because, for example, the guitarist objects – man, in no case do we write an album of” covers “, because only those bands who are no longer able to invent anything new on their own do it! I don’t think so at all”.
At the moment it seems to be the case with the new original songs – a couple of songs have already been recorded, but we still have to work on them; ideally, there is clarity on a series of songs; in part the same can be said of the textual section. Of course, it’s not meant to flood album listeners immediately, this process could be broken into cycles. “The most important thing is to record the material first and then we will see what to do with it. If you are a student with a heavy backpack, at some point you will want to get rid of this baggage by passing it. In this case, to convey our songs to the listeners,” he sums up. Polikarps.
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