How the names of famous Russian rock groups appeared: What does "Bi-2" mean and other little-known facts

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

It's no secret what you call the ship, so it will float. This phrase can be applied to musical groups as well. Indeed, sometimes it is more difficult not to assemble a good creative team, namely to give your brainchild a sounding name. And each name has its own story. We will talk about her and find out.

DDT

The people decipher the name of the legendary Ufa group, which has won all-Russian fame, in different ways. Some say that it is abbreviated from the "House of Children's Creativity." Others argue that this greeting is translated as "Good afternoon, comrades." Still others even parry that it is "Fools from the House of Technology". But few people know that in fact the abbreviation completely sounds like Dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane. If you don't know, then this is an insecticide used to control mosquitoes and pests. In common parlance, it is also called "For domestic creatures" or simply "Dust".

The permanent leader of DDT, Yuri Shevchuk, says that when in the early 80s he and the team were choosing a suitable name for the group, they wanted to find exactly what went in opposition to public opinion and sounded like an ultimatum. Although the participants did not immediately accept the word, which, by the way, was accidentally blurted out by keyboardist Vladimir Sigachev.

Cinema

Viktor Tsoi has never been trivial, and initially his rock band was named Garin and Hyperboloids "in honor of the novel" Hyperboloid of Engineer Garin "by Alexei Tolstoy. At first, everyone was happy with everything, but when in 1982 the musicians decided to record their first album, it turned out that it was still preferable to come up with a not so complicated, but sonorous name for the cover. Even the leader of the Aquarium group Boris Grebenshchikov volunteered to help choose a new name for the group. But it was all wrong.

Once, Tsoi, returning home, saw the inscription "Kino" on the roof of one of the houses. This is how the name of the legendary Russian rock band appeared.

Civil defense

Oh, these random inscriptions, which turned out to be very useful. So Yegor Letov, Andrei Babenko and Konstantin Ryabov, thought for a long time about the name of the group. Everything was decided by chance: in the vocalist's room there was a poster dedicated to civil defense. The guys, on reflection, came to the conclusion that the name accurately reflects the direction of their musical activity.

B2

In the now distant 1985 in the Belarusian Bobruisk, Alexander Uman (better known as Shura Bi-2) and Yegor Bortnik (aka Leva Bi-2) met. The first studied at a music school and played the double bass, the second wrote poetry. Young people decided to unite and create a group. Three years later, together with the guys from the "Chance" group, the "Brothers in Arms" group was organized, which later became the "Coast of Truth". But the guys did not win much success.

10 years later, Leva and Shura met again in Australia and decided to make a second attempt to conquer the musical Olympus. This is how the group "Coast of Truth-2" or simply "Bi-2" appeared.

Alice

In the late 70s, the musician Svyatoslav Zaderiy had a hand in the creation of several musical rock groups at once. One of them was "Magic", in which the ideological inspirer himself, who received the nickname Alice, and Andrei Khristichenko, who was called the White Rabbit, worked. The nicknames appeared thanks to the famous fairy tale by Lewis Carroll. Later it was decided to change the name. The president of the Leningrad rock club, Nikolai Mikhailov, was categorically opposed to the collective being called by a female name, but the musicians stood their ground.

In 1984, Konstantin Kinchev took the place of the vocalist in the group. And three years later, Zaderiy left the team and never returned. And the group, though without him, remained "Alice".

Nautilus Pompilius

Initially, the group was called "Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves". But soon it was decided to change it to simply "Nautilus". But there were several other musical groups in the country, including well-known ones, which were called the same. To avoid confusion, one more word "Pompilius" was added.

But few people know that Nautilus Pompilius is the name of a species of molluscs. The group explained that these sea creatures are naturally beautiful and charming. You can't argue with that.

Chaif

The guys from the Chaif group started their way in Sverdlovsk 35 years ago. There was no name for the group yet, but the process of creating songs was in full swing, and the guys were gaining strength with the help of strong tea, popularly called chifir. The participant was so fond of the drink that soon they began to use “go to chifir” instead of the phrase “go to the rehearsal”. The combination of the words "tea" and "high" led to the emergence of the name "Chaif". Briefly, succinctly and clearly.

Gaza Strip

Before stopping a choice over the final version, the group's lead singer Yuri Khoy went through more than a dozen options. But, as usually happens, the name of the band appeared, one might say, by accident.

The fact is that the history of the collective began in Voronezh. One of the districts of the city was called the gas sector by local residents because of the location of a large number of factories. The sky above this area was heavily smoggy. And it was here that there was a rock club where musicians played.

As Hoy recalled, he did not think that they would be promoted, and at random gave the team a name that is well known to Voronezh residents. Other musicians recalled that, moreover, in the 1980s, the press often mentioned the conflict in the Palestinian region. This also became one of the reasons for the appearance of the name "Gaza Strip".

Time Machine

In the late 60s, high school students from two metropolitan schools decided to unite and create a musical group. And since they did not have their own songs yet, they performed popular English-language compositions (mainly from the repertoire of The Beatles). Therefore, the group was called not in the Russian way - Time Machines.

For several years, the collective continued to work with Western material, until one of its leaders, Andrei Makarevich, decided that it was, of course, good to perform covers, but unprofessional. Soviet propaganda also played a role, which took care of fostering a patriotic spirit. As a result, in 1973 the Time Machine appeared with its own repertoire.

King and the Clown

In the late 80s in Leningrad, Mikhail Gorshenev, Alexander Shchigolev and Alexander Balunov organized the punk group "Kontra". Two years later, "Pot" entered the restoration school, where Andrei Knyazev studied with him. It was he who offered the collective a completely different concept and became the second performer and author of lyrics, each of which was a separate story with a beginning and an end.

With the change of the repertoire, a change of the name was also required. The guys revised many options, among which were "Apocalypse", "Slaughtered Dandelion", "King of Fools". Everyone liked the latter, and it was decided to leave a sonorous name. A little later, the name was slightly corrected, wishing to emphasize the presence of two songwriters - "Pot" and "Prince".

Agatha Christie

In 1988, the group, which had previously existed under the name "RTF UPI", decided to change its name. There were two main options - Jacques Yves Cousteau and Agatha Christie. The latter won, although the team members admitted that they were not interested in the work of the English writer. The name does not carry any special message - it just sounds good.

Night snipers

Women's rock bands are not typical in themselves. And the original name gives a better chance of success. Although initially Svetlana Surganova, who moved from St. Petersburg to Magadan, and Diana Arbenina performed in cafes, educational institutions and various institutions did not name their duet at all.

Oddly enough, a random taxi driver gave a hint to the girls. While giving the girls a lift, he joked that they were apparently hiding weapons and were night snipers. And the problem of security was especially relevant for the nighttime Magadan of the early 90s. The vocalists laughed, but took note of the interesting phrase.