Oleg Tsodikov
founder of the club, member of the Underwater Promo Group
“Clubs in our country were an extension of the apartment, kitchen, workshop or dacha. They were done on the knee. “Hermitage”, “Aerodens”, which opened almost simultaneously with “Titanic”, “Ptyuch” - all of them were made in the style of the late 80s - mid-90s. Titanic turned out to be the first grand club with a luxurious design and the best sound at that time. Every centimeter of space was thought out thanks to the efforts of Alexei Haas, me and Lesha Gorobiy.
The fifth chimney was drawn so as not to be confused with a sunken ship, and as a symbol of 1995
We started looking for a place when we made the second “Gagarin Party” in 1992. Haas had a “Tunnel” in St. Petersburg - there was nothing like that in Moscow. We found a place in the wall of the Young Pioneers Stadium: one day I looked into some hole and saw a huge strange basement; my heart skipped a beat. Haas and I went there, and he liked it too. Our commercial director and investor was Oleg Krivoshein, nicknamed Kombez, who visited such establishments a lot in his youth. The room turned out to be practically useless. There was no sewerage system - we had to install a pumping station. The roof was leaking and the water was knee-deep. And we struggled with electricity, and for a long time we couldn’t drill out the concrete, they even called Metrostroy - and they couldn’t. Each stage, which seemed to be possible to complete in a day, was completed in twenty. But the construction of the Titanic was the construction of a legend that was to live for a long time. For many months we conjured with different contractors, drew impossible shapes from metal, made special bolts; we bent the channel for the balconies so that they were round in shape. The light was made with taste - the laser painted all sorts of miracles. The stage was not very big, but there were subs in the right place under it, which were simply demolished. Everything was done firmly and powerfully.
March 32 (actually April 1. - Note ed.), on opening day, the club was bursting at the seams. It was an experiment - we invited different people, half of whom were hearing dance music for the first time. We knew we wanted to marry an audience that had never met before. At the same time, we understood what to do with the underground audience, but not so much with the commercial audience. So the opening stretched over two days, and on the first, dance music interspersed with quite popular music. After the weekend, it became clear that there are people who don’t really understand hard techno or non-commercial house, but want to dance and have fun.
Titanic Club Flyer
Then we started making separate weekends and Mondays, where we played experimental music, among others; those who wanted exclusively new, even strange, attended. On Monday it was rare to see a man in a suit with a briefcase or a woman dressed for a restaurant. And on weekends there were those who just watched, and those who drank, and those who came to show off - or because they had to come. That is, they knew that in Moscow they had to go to Red Square, the Mausoleum, the Bolshoi and the Titanic.
The revenue from the bar was small, relative to the entrance - very small. Hot tea was in first place in sales. It was quite expensive for those times - 40–50 rubles (in other places - 20–30). They drank tea in a state of euphoria, when you don’t always want to drink, but want to prolong the effect with the help of hot liquid. The bulk of the people were dancing, because the Titanic, unlike today's clubs, had a huge dance floor - it occupied 90% of the area. Only a few sat, as in a restaurant, on the balconies and looked down. Goroby always used these balconies: if in the Titanic there were 10% of them, then in his clubs they occupied 50–60% of the area. There was an area in the wardrobe where they danced and undressed. There was an area in the toilet where they went to the toilet and danced too, since there was sound everywhere. Many, when they got to the face control officer, had already begun to move.
Oleg Tsodikov and Pavel Vaschekin, 1995
© personal archive of Oleg Tsodikov
Titanic was the dividing line between the early and late 90s. At first there was the underground, art, creativity, closedness, burning, everyone knew each other. In the mid-90s, professionalism appeared, Titanic, Radio Station, institutions that divided people according to their musical preferences. A large amount of information began to circulate, the magazine “Ptyuch” began to be published. People from a different layer came, there were many clone establishments, organizers appeared who used the work of those same people with shining eyes. The replays began, and the clubs were filled with audiences who had not seen what had happened at the very beginning, the explosion of that first energy. New trends have emerged - a lifestyle called glamor has become very relevant. By the end of the 90s, no one any longer worshiped space, Gagarin, techno music, lasers and cars. Many fell in love with feigned pathos, and if at first it was done with taste, today the word “glamor” causes more colic than pleasure.
What events do you remember? The Titanic was a factory, but let's remember. Paco Rabanne's two-day show featuring his metal museum collection. The first foam party blew everyone's minds - even people who had no idea that they could allow themselves to behave so uninhibitedly. There was an event “Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow” - we organized two parallel weekends in two cities, when people from the Titanic worked in the Planetarium in St. Petersburg, and St. Petersburg residents worked in Moscow. In general, I really liked it when people saw something new. For example, when I invited Petlyura, and a commercial house met a flea market.
“Dense frenzy” to the band Arrival on May Day 1996 - it is clear that the worship of laser and space was still present in Moscow at that time
Around 1997, Titanic took all its energy out of the room and out of us, even though we sometimes returned to the club and came up with something extraordinary. And face control weakened, and the cream of society began to visit less often. Goroby and I left, the club began to repeat ideas, and the quality dropped. Although our DJs played occasionally, the club's aura faded. I myself realized that it was time to finish when “Kazantip” happened. Marshunok came to me, to Shulinsky, to Lantern and said: guys, let's do a new project. "Titanic" worked for three years for the remaining public, held children's parties until 23.00, trance events - and eventually died quietly. It stood closed for a long time, then someone came to the owner of the stadium and said: let me make a new club. We rented out the premises, assembled something out of plywood, and the club lived for several months. Then another club appeared in its place, and “Titanic” clones opened all over the country, even with the same name.
After closing at the Young Pioneers Stadium, I opened the “Public Skating Rink”. And for another 10–12 years I was in this territory, watching how the grandstand building in which the Titanic was located was demolished, and a copy building was erected in the same place as a barrier from sound and dust from the Third Ring.
Many acquaintances idolize the Titanic. Lesha Gorobiy, since he was always in the process of creating new establishments, recalled the old times in bursts. The Titanic was a wonderful period of life for me, very rich and very difficult. He made it possible to learn how to be endlessly creative and feel superior to people - to imagine their reactions in advance and even manipulate, constantly making inspiring projects. At the same time, it was a very difficult period physically and mentally, after which I had to undergo treatment for a long time. Then I didn’t visit nightlife establishments at all for seven to nine years - they caused me allergies.”
Dmitry Fedorov at the club's birthday party, 1996
© personal archive of Oleg Tsodikov
Alexey Khaas
architect, DJ and promoter, co-founder of Titanic
“In the 1990s, I lived in New York and went to clubs. There was a house revolution all around me, an ecstasy revolution. It was wildly fashionable. Can you imagine - a military aircraft carrier is located on the Hudson, and there is a party on its deck. People are taken there by boats and helicopters. Around New York. Interested in going to such a party? And what kind of clubs were there at that time - The Roxy, Save the Robots. This was the very beginning of the movement. Maybe now every second person invites us to start a club, but then no one did it, and it was interesting to do it.
I knew a little more than Oleg Tsodikov, with whom I worked on “Gagarin Party,” so they invited me to build a club. Its working name was “Flask”, because the room had a narrow neck at the entrance and a wide one inside. There were also some funny names associated with chemistry: the ecstasy revolution was in the yard. I don’t even remember who suggested Titanic, I didn’t like it at first. The image was different - we were making a space laboratory.
Paco Rabanne show, 1996
© personal archive of Oleg Tsodikov
For me, any club is about sound and ventilation. I knew this from the best places in London and New York. Another good floor to make it comfortable to dance: not slippery tiles, but preferably wood, or rubber, or metal glued to rubber. That is, well-made surfaces. The uniqueness of the Titanic was that it was in the relative center, it was large and there was convenient parking - this also turned out to be important. But the main thing is good sound and good ventilation.
Calvin Klein show, 1996
© Alexey Vasiliev, from the personal archive of Oleg Tsodikov
Of course, those were funny times - Oleg Krivoshein gave me money, we went to the Turbosound plant, where I just took 70 or 80 thousand dollars out of my pocket. Half the factory came to look at the cash - they had only seen so much in gangster films. They say: Why are you Russians paying for everything like that? We say yes. They gave us a big discount.
I stopped closely working on the Titanic at the end of construction - we disagreed on some artistic things. I thought that if Oleg knows better, then fine. At that time, too much money was spent. The preliminary budget was one hundred thousand. When it was already approaching a million, everyone was on nerves - the sound system alone cost a hundred thousand. Nobody knew what would happen tomorrow. The gang came and pointed at me: “But this one is okay, he’s an artist, what can we get from him. And you guys will answer where the money went.” Everyone was walking around there sad and nervous. Now a million dollars is nonsense, every second apartment costs a million dollars. At that time, for this money they could bury an entire family four times. Something had to be decided. I am very grateful to Olegs - one and two - for putting up with me for so long and putting up with my quirks. Despite the tenfold increase in the budget, they pushed through - well done. I was pleased that everything worked out: everyone was dancing, the music was good. I haven’t been to a party stronger than “Gagarin Party” in Moscow: if you take some emotions from the project, it’s impossible to be high all the time. The second time will be weaker. This also applies to the Titanic. So I was not interested in his fate, but I was sure that everything would be all right with him.”
One of the parties in the club, 1996
© personal archive of Oleg Tsodikov
Dmitry Fedorov
club designer, member of Underwater Promo Group
“Before Titanic, I worked in the team of Zhenya Zhmakin and Slava Finist - I was responsible for decorating the premises, and when Zhenya went to England or somewhere for a long time, then also for printing. When the Titanic was being completed, Goroby called me as the artist who was supposed to draw the logo. It took a long time to come up with a name - I would come to meetings and think about a logo, but there was no name yet. There were about a hundred options written in pen on a piece of Whatman paper. One day Oleg Kombez circled the word “Titanic” because there was no time. "Sure?" He says, "I'm sure." Everyone liked a completely different name - for example, “Boat” for me. For some - Das Boat.
I took a notebook sheet and drew the logo for about a month. He was accepted and offered me a position as a full-time designer. I agreed with joy, because I liked both the project and all its participants. Quite quickly, the function of creative director passed to me. If Lesha Goroby was the deputy art director, then I, in addition to drawing everything, was the one who was allowed to improvise.
Club flyer, 1997
We had brainstorming sessions in which up to 15 people participated, but the key creatives were Tsodikov, Gorobiy and me. Nobody got hung up on who is the art director and who is the promoter. A hundred trivial ideas were proposed, I mostly proposed crazy ones, and, as a rule, we kept some of the crazy ones and launched them.
Stand out or die is one of the rules we have always used. During the week, 10 clubs released 10 flyers - my 11th was different. Theirs is yellow-orange, mine is black-gray. The second rule is that we must be two steps ahead of the desires of our clients. An indicative example was the “Jungle” party - no one expected this, and no one would take it on. The thing seems simple in name, but the production is very complicated. We covered a fairly large club with trees - a special team went into the forest, cut branches, and another team under my leadership went to the Botanical Garden, from which we brought a whole gazelle of palm leaves five meters in size. We also found guys who produced dinosaurs from special rubber for amusement parks and rented them from them. They flew and stood with us - such was the most powerful decorative component. When people came, they were surprised because the interior turned into a real jungle, in which the leaves began to give up moisture. Everyone had the feeling that they were in a bathhouse. We talked about this for about a year.
Once we made a party in the style of porn - I don’t consider it a masterpiece. Lesha lobbied for this topic, I did not agree with him, because I am for the understatement of the product, and pornography is an overstatement. But some people have increased erections - they conceived children in cars in the Titanic parking lot, and this is a demographic plus. There was an interesting party, which was called, I think, “Turbodynamic”. The idea was to install a large fan and blow it into the hall. People thought I was schizophrenic, but the creative part of the club jumped on it. This made an indelible impression on the public - even the bald ones had hair flying. In Russia, I think, in terms of using some kind of airflow, we were the first. Then this fan from the Happy Mondays parties moved on to regular events and began to be used constantly - everyone liked it so much.
Presentation of the Kazantip project in Titanic, 1997
© personal archive of Oleg Tsodikov
Another interesting event turned out to be prophetic: 9 months before Versace’s murder, I suggested to Lesha that we organize a “Kill Versace” party. The implication was not that we wanted to kill Gianni Versace: at that moment, new Russians with bad taste were dressing in Versace. The party had to fight for good taste, and the call was for some kind of truth in society in external manifestations. I came up with the “Kill Versace” logo, we made about 20 exclusive T-shirts, which immediately scattered among relatives and friends, someone stole them from someone else or gave them away. One, I know, was even beaten by Versace fans for wearing this T-shirt.
Two-day marathon at the Titanic and the Planetarium, 1995
And nine months later Versace was actually killed, and I gave several interviews after that. By the way, our founders gave us a hat for the party - they wore Versace. Conversations with them about how we should do more understandable things have been going on since day one.
In those days, bandits were called “bulls” because they looked in the Lyubertsy style - healthy, with short hair, wearing colorful shirts from Gianni. Sometimes they got into such a rage that they tore their shirts. Security came up, made comments, they changed clothes somewhere. Periodically, they were twisted and thrown into the street. There were serious fights - I know that one of our security guards was killed as a result. The founders wanted to make money and not pay extra for culture, so there were “bulls” in the Titanic. But we have always focused not on them, but on our friends. The turning point in the life of the club, I think, happened with my departure, after me Lesha Gorobiy and Oleg Tsodikov left. True, I later returned to the crisis of 1998. We fought and fought with him, and then we started cutting everyone off.
Nobody has ever done anything like the Titanic in Russia. Everywhere we strived for some kind of absolute. It was difficult for us, we spent a colossal amount of time - now no one spends so much on one event. We lived in the club for about two years. I walked from home around 12 noon - at 2 am Lesha took me home by car. We gave our souls to this project, we had no personal life. We decided not to hold an event for the anniversary this year, because we wanted to do something grand, and I can have a drink at the bar with Vengerov at any time. By the way, we met him in Titanic.”
Club birthday, 1996
© personal archive of Oleg Tsodikov
Pavel "Pasha Face Control" Pichugin
regular and flyer in later years
“I was 15–16 years old, so Misha Kozlov and Dmitry Fedorov, who worked there, took me to night parties at the Titanic and then took me to Shambhala, where I was already standing at the entrance. A friend invited me to the Titanic for the first time. I liked it so much, you walk in and it’s a different world: people are dancing, everyone is having fun, the girls are beautiful. At that time I went to “Master”, and to “Three X’s”, and to “Robotek”, but less often. The Titanic was near the house. Convenient, beautiful - why not? Then a friend started handing out flyers and said: Do you want to try? Come on. They were distributed everywhere - the most popular place was on Pushkinskaya Square.
Previously, everything was simpler - people did not care about the area where the club was located. Everyone went at least to Izmailovo, because the main thing was the party. Now location and parking are important - people are greedy. Then they really rested, and everything was simpler. Previously, we drove “nines”, and everyone was happy. And now they are trying to drive up in Rolls-Royces, back and forth, boxes, deposits. Clubs in the 2000s were already very different; Previously, you bought a ticket at the box office and went. Face control in the Titanic was not very strict - an adult man, Petya, a friend of the owner, mainly looked at whether the person was drunk or not. Many could not afford a ticket because it cost a lot. People dropped out because of the cash register, and now there are no tickets at all in clubs.”
DJ Groove, Oleg Tsodikov, Sergey “Afrika” Bugaev on the “Around the World” project, late 1995
© personal archive of Oleg Tsodikov
Vladimir Trapeznikov
DJ and promoter 4Rest Division
“For me, Titanic is 1995-1996: the balance of a super dance club, very hip and very popular. It stood out because it was a new club, well built by Alexei Haas. Much has changed since then. Lesha Gorobiy gave a lot to Titanic - his development as a successful promoter took place there. Actually, I found out about Titanic because Lesha went to work there after the closure of Penthouse, and already on the second day of Titanic’s opening I organized the arrival of foreign DJs.
Club flyer, 1995
There was Pierre, a resident of the Belgian Fuse, who can now be found at Lessizmore parties in Arma 17, and Stefaаn _ A&R of the Music Man label. It’s interesting that 20 years have passed, but essentially the same people are still at the forefront of techno and house music. True, the speed of musical compositions was very high back then, 130–135 beats per minute, but now it is no higher than 117–120.
Then, in company with the well-known Alexander Oganezov and Artem Molchanov, we held several parties on Mondays. One of them, by the way, was called “Love Boat Cruise”. These were ordinary house parties that we did back in the Penthouse, and after it closed we moved them to the Titanic. They became extremely popular, and then the co-owners of Titanic, realizing the commercial appeal of the project, continued without us under the name “Happy Mondays” with an entrance ticket of $50 - after that, my participation in Titanic consisted of the role of a DJ and booking agent.”
Photo from a press conference on the occasion of the club's birthday, 1996
© personal archive of Oleg Tsodikov
Titanic birthday, 1996
The DJ room was in such a corner that you could see everything that was happening on the dance floor, on the balcony, and on the spiral staircase. These chants, whistles, “come on, come on.” This sound - Turbosound - took everything away. These fans, this crazy bit. The bartenders stood in a line.
Each disc jockey had his own audience. There were fans, calls, treats. Then the tour began - we traveled to four or five cities a week. It happened that in one night there were three cities: Samara, Togliatti, and in the morning I flew through Moscow to Kaliningrad. They played tricks as best they could. Yes, I won the Funny House Awards in 1997 as best DJ - thanks to both Titanic and my acting. Still, it all depends on the person, on taste - I went, chose, bought records. Volodka Trapeznikov is constantly with new products, with fashionable sounds. Ivanov - he has everything carefully chosen, excellent presentation. Dima Dak on the groove wave. Mendez has nuclear compilations. Slavka Finist and I had a fan base: from the first record, the sets were a breeze. The girl-DJ Katka Kat made a big splash in Titanic - she also always had a good program.
Another revealing video from Titanic with DJ Nikk, but from 1998. There are shouts of “come on, come on”, and rollicking house music, and a performance by the black diva Martha Wash
Then the records in each DJ's collection were repeated. When we met, we discussed who would play this or that piece. Klubbheads were a hit, Technohead, a reworked theme from Pulp Fiction - everything was a delight. At Titanic, I didn’t even receive my salary for a couple of months - I left everything at the bar. My friends almost bet me how much I would drink: “20 whiskey-colas per night! Kolya, stop drinking!” Many came up: “Kolyan, whiskey for you!” Double, right? There was one cocktail next to the DJ, and two and a half hours later, when I finished playing, there was a whiskey-cola battery. There was strength.
Then people started visiting differently - some had already matured and were tired; a minimal percentage of the old crowd remained in the club. From 1998–1999 there were evening parties - and those people who grew up listening to our music began to go to clubs. They needed to stage something faster, but Titanic did not support this format. I played hard house, but I needed to be more commercial in my approach. At two o'clock in the morning they had to play disco-funk, disco-house... I didn't understand. Then I worked at Gorod, went to Kazantip and played until 2005. My last residency was at the 30/7 bar, after which I needed to change my lifestyle. When I reached a weight of 115 kg, I realized: it’s time, my friend, to stop. You cannot escape from nature - you need to work during the day and sleep at night. But I remember all these times with a big smile. I recently called Finist. "How are you?" - “Take care of myself.” - “Are you saving it until Friday?” - “Yes, and then...” Someone lives by it, someone turns the page.”
The interviews given in the material will be used in Oleg Tsodikov’s project. The article was first published in April 2015.
The Most club parted ways with its promotion team led by Georgy Petrushin and invited the famous St. Petersburg promoter, designer and DJ Alexei Haas to develop a new concept for the establishment.
In my opinion, Most has never been a club. There was a point, a platform, a place of events. Sometimes understandable, sometimes not entirely clear. The glamorous Paris Hilton came here. Here a drunken Barbara Panther was jumping up and down the walls. Celebrities and oligarchs, expats and just students gathered here. But no one could understand why? It was some kind of territory. But did this place ever exist as a club? After all, a club is a place of interests. Or was the word “club” used simply because they did not know any other definition? Corporate events - please, some birthday - no problem. Anything. The last few months at Most have been a period of restructuring. Alexey Haas plays Gorbachev.
What will happen in the new “Bridge”?
Now I would like to implement it a little as a club. The club is a certain idea, strategy and direction in which we are moving. And people who like this direction and vector are with us.
What do you like?
Music has always been important to me. Music is the key that opens any closed lock of nightlife. Because sound and music are the main components of the club. What music, such people, such requests, and themes in the bar.
Will it be a “flying gait”?
Difficult question. May be. But this is not the main vector. Still, I would like the music to be interesting above all. And, of course, different. I don’t want to say smart or intellectual, but I want it to be not boring, unusual music that can be heard not always and not all the time, but only in this place. So that people come here to dance to good music. Probably in order to meet a girl or guy, and for other reasons. But the main thing is to have high-quality music.
What is quality music for you?
This is Frankie Knuckles, this is David Morales, Roger Sanchez.
And now about the design and interior. What are you changing here and why?
We moved the DJ. They made the sound in a different place. We slightly expanded the space for sofas and combined two small bars into one large one. The stage was very limited in size to accommodate different groups and performances. And then the scene in the center of the hall is difficult to perceive, both visually and psychologically.
According to Feng Shui?
You know, for me Feng Shui is an ambiguous concept. I just know that the word itself scares people away. They remember the sticks they light for the scent and run away from them like hell from incense. In any space there is a point, by finding which you can twist this space. Every person who works with space knows this. The right center is found, and everything is built around it. This could be a window or a corridor. There could be some kind of fork in the ceiling or the architecture of the place itself. This is how churches were built? We walked with sticks and looked for a point. They weren't built just anywhere. First we chose a place. And this was not done in vain. Likewise the position of the DJ, the position of the stage and bars in the space of a nightclub. In principle, it can be random. But the situation will not work one hundred percent. That is, all the movements that we now make are aimed at turning this space into an ideal system that works for its tasks. So that people come, drink, dance, get drunk, feel good, and go home. The next day they came again. With pleasure. Maybe they even went to other places, walked around, and then came back to us. This magic, this feng shui, it is difficult to explain.
Everyone in the club industry knows that inside the club - God is the DJ!
No, not everyone knows that a DJ is a god. That is, what is God? This is something abstract and something deep inside everyone. The situation regarding movements in the club is exactly the same. It is associated more with sensations rather than with specific explanations. Why is that? Yes, because here the bar will be longer. Or why put a DJ here? Because the dance floor will be bigger. This doesn't work in clubs. That is, I walk in and feel that something is wrong. There is something here, or standing, or playing in a way that makes me feel uncomfortable. And in order to feel comfortable, you need to try different things. Sometimes this happens the first time: once - and you’ve built a scheme. For example, there are certain laws according to which clubs are built. Ideally, this is a platform of 15 by 15 meters. That is a square. By the way, about Feng Shui: a square is a stable figure, and the feeling of stability and sustainability in a nightclub is very important. Because all the people in the clubs are in an unstable state, and they definitely need something to lean against. And if the walls also float, then everyone will definitely go crazy.
Maybe this is good?
No, if a person goes crazy, they will take him to a mental hospital, not home. And so very quickly we will lose clients. Our task is a measured descent into madness.
An example of an ideal club. Architecturally and in feel.
For me, the ideal club is a black box measuring 50 by 50 meters. And preferably 30 meters high.
It's practically a theatrical stage. Modern theater. Because people don't go to church now. They don't go to theatres. They go to clubs. I mean young people. For them, clubs are now everything - both church and theater.
I meant exclusively the club.
And clubs in the modern world have seriously displaced all other entertainment.
I can't call church entertainment. And then clubs are a night activity, and people usually go to church during the day.
Well, what about night vigils, and religious processions?
Let's return to the ideal club!
It’s difficult for me to answer right off the bat. Definitely not in Moscow! Definitely not in St. Petersburg. Definitely not in Russia. There was a USA club in New York for a long time. It worked for six months and closed. The owners had drug problems. It was a huge old theater in the heart of Manhattan that had been converted into a discotheque. And this volume - the height of the ceilings is exactly 20 meters, ancient authentic interiors that were made for a classical theater. They simply took all the chairs out of the auditorium and turned it into a dance floor. It had a very unusual layout. It was made like a fan. And they kept this fan. The focus was not on the stage. There was a very nice feel to the space. Plus the sound was crazy, the ventilation was unreal. And this space makes it possible to build any decorations in the air. That is, for me the ideal club is Cirque du Soleil. They build their own scene every time. Ministry Of Sound did the same. Only with sound. They built eight towers and covered them with a hangar. Therefore, if I were making an ideal club, I would probably take a huge workshop from which I could carve out space for myself. Or I would just build it from scratch. Because all the clubs in the cities where I have been - Paris, London, Moscow, etc. - they are all stuck somewhere. There was something there already before this club. And Cirque du Soleil is ideal because they build the situation around themselves and for themselves. For me, this is the ideal archiculture of the club, when you can put film projectors in the back. When you can build any scenery. And when the stage has a backstage.
What are our clubs missing?
Some clubs lack life. Extreme. They have no purpose, no risk, no danger, no emotion, no dedication. Some clubs open because it is fashionable, because there is room, because you can become famous. And not because people live by it. You know, they say, if you don’t have to write, don’t write. It’s the same here—people don’t feel the need for these clubs. When I got into the club, I realized that I couldn’t do anything else in my life. This is my drug, my need. In the same way with any successful business, there must be a need to do it. Not because it’s interesting now or because it just happened that way. But because it's yours. You have found a trick inside yourself, and you will implement it. If you don’t have this internal need, then it’s better not to do it, because the business will never be super successful.
What are the trends in interiors and architecture?
I have a feeling that the new trends are exactly what we were talking about - extreme. And the next step in club architecture, it seems to me, will be a high-tech direction. They have already invented flat screens that, like wallpaper, can be glued to walls. This is the fantasy we read as children: the room is completely like an image. All sorts of 3D holograms. Press the button and you're at sea. The next direction will be extreme sports. Trash, ruins, music with broken rhythms, strobe lights, real fire, real water. Elements. The riot of the elements is what a person lacks in an urban environment.
promoter, club owner
“I always liked doing this. I made my first disco with my classmate Vitka in seventh grade. The impetus was a well-known topic - only from the eighth grade it was possible to go to school discos. In general, we agreed with the pioneer leader, at a landfill we found a ramp that had been discarded by someone and dragged it along the railway, because it did not fit into the bus. It took us the whole day - they actually started carrying her at two o’clock in the afternoon, and brought her at ten o’clock in the evening. According to the diagrams from the magazine “Technology for Youth”, the light and music system was soldered together. Vitka brought a Comet reel-to-reel tape recorder from home, and we made a disco. All the high school students were there!
After school I went into commerce for a while. He tried to “iron” foreigners and sold gold. Many people dealt with gold back then - at the state price it cost 2.3 dollars, and was sold at “six point two.” I sometimes loaded half a kilo a day in a bridal salon on Yakimanka - can you imagine that kind of money? I had a record - $2,600 per day. In 1990! Think about it!
I have said many times that my career as a promoter began with a scam. My friend and I went to Mobile (1992 party - Note ed.). I really liked it, and I asked: “Serge, who did all this - foreigners?” And he: “Yes, good, what kind of foreigners? There’s Timur Lansky from the Institute of Culture, he has a diploma in directing cultural events, and that’s what he did.” That’s how I met Timur, and we decided to create something together. I remember I asked: “Where are we going to get DJs, Timur?” And he says: “Let’s call from M-Radio!” For those who don’t remember, this was one of two radio stations existing on the FM band, the DJs on which were named Super-Alena and Vanya Cowboy. We went to them and they said that they can do everything. But, in principle, we didn’t care: we were doing a one-time event to earn extra money. Only it was not entirely clear how to do what. He just picked up the phone, and in an hour a hundred security people will come to you. And then Timur took some guys from the rocking chair and placed them at the entrance under the guise of guards. And next to VDNKh, right behind the Cosmos Hotel, there was Mazutka - the most criminal district of Moscow. So, all of Mazutka came to our event in the Cosmos pavilion, which we called “Gagarin Party-3”. And our guards, as soon as they saw these lessons, real repeat offenders, simply stepped aside. I didn't see this with my own eyes. I only remember: I heard some popping noises, I grabbed our cash register, which consisted of one cardboard box, and ran to the roof of the Cosmos. In general, we didn’t really earn any money then, but I realized that doing something like this was more interesting to me than resell gold.
And Timur and I started building the Penthouse. I had just left my girlfriend and started living in a club that was under construction. I’m a builder by training, and it’s interesting to me: you get up in the morning, and construction is already underway. And then one autumn night I heard: some kind of running around... And we had guards - two grandfathers. So, they put the solvent in a corner, and next to it they hung on the wall such a sheet with a spiral inside - now, in my opinion, they have already been banned - you plug it into an outlet, and the sheet heats up. One of the guards took his socks and hung them on him. The sheet shortened, the socks caught fire, the solvent in the corner flared up - basically, a fire started. I’m running, fastening my pants as I go, my sneakers, as I remember now, are New Balance. I come running, and there two floors are already on fire and the third is starting to burn. But we have fire extinguishers everywhere. I grabbed one, tore off the pin, directed the stream at the fire, and the fire responded to me with ugh, just zero emotion. I remember this struck me the most. I thought one fire extinguisher could put out half a house.
In short, I threw all the fire extinguishers I had into the fire and called the fire department. I ran out to meet them on Karetny Ryad, wearing sneakers on my bare feet and a T-shirt, and I saw them already coming towards me. They arrive and begin to unload - they seemed huge to me in their headsets, like fairy-tale characters, knights. I run around them: “Uncle, there is a fire there, uncle.” And they pushed me aside with their huge mittens and said: “Boy, move away, don’t bother me, we’ll do everything now.” And calmly, without haste, they put out everything. There was a fire about three months before the opening. The most interesting thing is that we have almost completed the construction of the club and even heated it. And in one night he was completely covered with a thick layer of ice. But I must say, we all stepped up, picked up picks and shovels - and raked everything out. Three months later, at the opening in the already re-heated Penthouse, some group performed - girls with bare tits.
For the new generation, everything we did was pop. Why is that? I realized a long time ago: if you want to find the answer, project the question onto yourself. And I began to remember. For example, the Ptyuch club. Let's say Vanya Salmaksov is playing, and then by chance the hyper-popular Madonna drops by. She wants to sing, they tell Salmaksov: “Van, don’t play now - she will sing.” What will I do in such a situation? Naturally, I will shout: “Remove Madonna, leave Vanya alone.” Each generation has its own religion. And for hipsters, what we did was pop. Like Madonna twenty years ago for me.
There used to be a lot of romance, it manifested itself in everything. For example, on a Tuesday morning you walk down the street and you get the feeling that you belong to some kind of separate caste. You are strange, cheerful, walking around Moscow while everyone else is going to work. And you can safely communicate on any topic with your friends - no one will understand anyway. There were few events then, everyone wanted to go to them, listen to music, and get involved in clubs. And so it was until everything turned into a tough commercial story. True, not very profitable.
Our country is different from others in that we do not have young people who can spend fifty dollars to enter a club. The clubs are running empty. Let's take the same Burning Man festival in the USA, for which a ticket costs $380. The audience is middle class, ready to spend two to three thousand over the weekend. Do you remember in the movie “Casino” Robert De Niro’s character says that the days when casinos were run by us guys from the streets came, corporations came and began to calculate the average dollar per person. So, this did not happen in Russia. None of the serious businessmen undertook to calculate the average dollar per club visitor. The rave never grew into a business. But Moscow is a completely different story. Lech Haas once said coolly: “Peter is nostalgically sad, and Moscow is a tavern.” Looking at what is happening now, we can say concretely: the taverns have won.
In general, our whole conversation about the past reminds me of the words from Makarevich’s song. There, according to the plot, two rock and rollers meet:
“Do you remember, Mishka seventy-second,
Both a psychodrome and a session at Luzhniki?
How the doors were knocked down with their heads,
How did the fans carry us in their arms?”
The interview was recorded in the summer of 2014 for the project Oleg Tsodikov"Made In Dance".
What did Alexey Goroby do?
- 1993December
- 2004–2006
- 2014December 25
Together with his friend Sergei Soloveichik, in April he attended one of the first Russian Mobile raves, which was held by promoters Ivan Salmaksov and Evgeniy Birman at the bicycle track in Krylatskoye. Goroby falls in love with electronic music. In the summer, together with former student of the Moscow State Institute of Cinematography, Timur Lansky, he takes part in organizing the “Gagarin Party 3” rave in the “Cosmos” pavilion at VDNKh. According to Gorobia himself, “it was a pure scam.” Nevertheless, they held several more events under the general name “Gagarin Party”.
After nine months of construction, together with Timur Lansky, the Hermitage garden opens the Penthouse club, where on Mondays it hosts parties with “complex” music - house, trance, techno and hardcore. Trancemission also holds several parties there, the first of which attracted about 2,000 people. The club itself, after operating for six months, closed after the fire.
Having gone to Kazantip for fun in 1996 and being completely delighted, Gorobiy and the Underwater Promo Group (Oleg Tsodikov and Dmitry Fedorov) decide to take an active part in organizing the festival. Before the trip, he leaves the Titanic because, according to his recollections, “he was tired of working for the bandits, and he was just tired.”
Together with Oleg Tsodikov, Gennady Kostrov and Alexander Yakut, he takes part in the opening of the Rotunda gallery at the Museum of Minerals of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Strange and conceptual events of a wide range of profiles take place there - from neo-academic exhibitions and classical music concerts to private techno after-parties and the wedding of Timur Mamedov. Gorobiy himself worked on this project quite a bit, because he saw what success Sinisa Lazarevich achieved with his Jazz Cafe.
Furniture and carpets are brought to a small establishment on Kuznetsky Most from India, they enlist the support of sponsors and rely on light music - the then fashionable French disco house. In fact, from “Shambhala” Gorobiy, together with the former owner of the Hermitage club Sveta Vickers, makes his own version of Jazz Cafe. The place quickly acquires cult status, and in the summer at night on Kuznetsky Most there is a traffic jam of expensive cars, beautiful girls and rich daddies. It is believed that the era of glamor began with Shambhala and all the technology of expensive clubs was tested here. In the same year, together with restaurateur Alexander Oganezov, he opened the Jet Set club.
Realizing that what is important for the wealthy public is not stability, but something new, Gorobiy launches seasonal projects - “Winter”, “Summer”, “Autumn”. All of them do not live long, but become real places of power of that era. “Winter” was built from scratch in a record 43 days, “Summer” operated on the Yauzskaya embankment, “Autumn” - in the premises of the former Central Baths. The success of these clubs gives rise to a whole string of competing clubs like First, Opera and Billionaire.
After a seasonal escapade in the Hermitage garden, Goroby, together with promoters Sinisa Lazarevich and Mikhail Kozlov, built the Diaghilev club, which was supposed to work for a year, but ended up functioning for two. Face control, boxes for exorbitant prices, queues for a paid toilet, government members in the crowd and remixes of Soviet pop music - “Diaghilev” became the peak of the era of Moscow glamor and burned down on February 7, 2008.
Imperia Lounge is opening on the site of the former Begemot club. Construction took about two years, and according to the plan, it was supposed to be the most luxurious club - with LED panels and a sophisticated DJ. However, despite the incredible investment, the place did not live up to expectations. In 2011, the club changed its name to Premier Lounge, and two years later it quietly closed.
After the closure of the Premier Lounge, Alexey Gorobiy’s GoroPro team moved to “Red October”, where they began to organize weekend events in Shakti Terrace - they were called “ART(el) Insomnia”. However, Alexey himself, after his 45th birthday in February 2014, steps away from management. In an interview with Gorod, he commented on his position: “It’s a complete ass. I stopped enjoying going there.”
Alexei Gorobiy’s heart stopped in Bolivia, where he came to relax with a large company. He was buried in Moscow at the Khovanskoye cemetery.
Goroby in the memories of friends
formerly a promoter, now co-owner of the Chaikhona No. 1 chain
“In 1992, Lesha and I made Gagarin Party 3. We only knew about the St. Petersburg residents and their “Gagarin” from the words of our friend Lelik, who visited a squat on the Fontanka, and then told us about how people play vinyl records on turntables, how melodies flow into one another, how fabulously beautiful girls They dance to it. To our inexperienced brains this was amazing. Our party was on June 1 - the very next day after the opening of the disco “U Lis’s” in the Olimpiysky. On this occasion, Lesha and I spent the night walking around the parking lot around the sports complex and placing flyers under the car windshield wipers. And then it was scary: we walked around the Cosmos pavilion with our pockets stuffed with money - the proceeds from the entrance, and at one in the morning the nine wrestlers we hired could no longer cope with the flow of people, and a huge crowd rushed inside. I think it was after this that Lesha developed a passion for “coils” - metal fences at the entrance so that people would stand stretched out in a line.
Actually, at the Gagarin Party we were only training. Even then, our main dream was a club. In March 1994, we opened the Penthouse in the Hermitage. The director of the garden was my friend from GITIS, Andrey Kebal. He rented out the former restaurant “The Little Mermaid” to Sveta Vickers, where she created the “Hermitage” club, and advised us to take either the Shchukin Box or the Mirror Theater, in which Chaliapin once sang Mephistopheles. The box was all loaded with decorations that were brought there from all over Moscow, and in the theater there was a huge crystal chandelier and there were very beautiful boxes; That's where we made the club. The Penthouse took nine months to build - Lech practically lived in the club. I’m not a lazy person myself, but I’ve always been far from Lesha.
At this time in Russia there is no person who has achieved more in club culture than Goroby. In general, I don’t fully believe what happened. I asked people who were involved in all these sad events - transporting the body, funeral - no one saw him so clearly in the coffin, you know? And knowing the scale of Lekha’s imagination, his determination to commit a rather thoughtful and at the same time courageous act, I do not rule out that everything is not as tragic as they think. I want to believe in it.”
Producer
“My eldest daughter introduced us to Lesha at Penthouse.” The next time we saw each other was in the Titanic. Things were getting closer to opening and we were working very hard. I remember what surprised me about him was not how fast he was, but, on the contrary, how slow he was. I mean, how meticulous he was about details, how he loved to write everything down systematically. “Well, well, well, wait a second, we haven’t finalized this point.” I was more struck by this trait in him than by that reactivity, which, of course, always caught my eye.
Somehow, on New Year’s Eve, we got carried away with inventing a flyer and at some point came up with such a non-standard solution: make an invitation in the form of a huge heart-shaped box rattling with candy canes. But either the boxes were expensive, or the sweets... We did the math, and it came out to be a very decent amount for those times. Our commercial partner, who always listened to us, reacted sharply. Perhaps even for him it was expensive, or perhaps it was just emotionally difficult for him to agree to a heart-shaped box. He said: “I won’t give you money.” We looked at each other, and, despite the fact that neither of us had any savings in the mid-1990s, we made the boxes with our own money.
I’m sure everyone who worked with Lesha has similar stories: he was always ready to give his all to his work, to burn and light up those around him. He was one of the best who made this celebration of life. We can come up with another hundred and twenty names for what Lech did. We can use this phrase or not use it, agree with it or disagree, pronounce it with banter, with sarcasm or with respect. The essence does not change: Goroby was one of the few who in the 1990s and 2000s knew how to create a real celebration of life.”
Photo: from the personal archive of Oleg Tsodikov
designer, DJ
“Lesha was sunny. When I say “Lesha Gorobiy” to myself, it’s as if a bright light bulb turns on somewhere. We met at the Hermitage in the early 90s. In general, we, St. Petersburg residents, have always had a cold attitude towards Muscovites. Especially after they held “Gagarin Party-3”, after which it became completely clear that this was a common extortion of money from the brand. We didn't mind that someone stole our idea, but we didn't like that people couldn't come up with something new. Then, of course, I forgave everything, and we were all just friends.
Lehi’s merit lies in the fact that he was the first to clearly understand: people are getting tired of clubs. And after Shambhala, he did not get involved in fundamental construction with serious investments, but made a transforming club. “Winter” was a huge barn, the former “Pilot” club, which was rented for a short period of time. Lech invited the workers whom I had brought into Titanic back in the day - real theater craftsmen who put together sets for the Bolshoi Theater. I think that it was they who pushed him to the idea that he should not build a club, but stage a play. The only minus of the scenery is that from a distance they seem like something awesome, but up close you can see that it is a pure fake made of plastic and polyethylene. In “Winter,” the distraction was four flamethrowers delivered from St. Petersburg by Rivermen Roma Gruzov and Timofey Abramov, and a giant disco ball, one and a half meters in diameter, which was brought from somewhere in Spain. A ball from the time of the first discotheques of the 1980s: a mechanical orange that opened up and it was clear that it had lights inside. So, orange, flamethrowers, white fabric around the perimeter, dancers in fur hats. Actually, that's all. There was nothing else. The transforming club is easy to assemble, easy to disassemble and move to a new location.
I remember how Lesha came to the Most club, which I was just building at that time. He watched me work and said: “Alexey, why the hell are you doing this? You spend so much effort on this toilet, on this sound system!” I was surprised: “Why?” And he: “Yes, because Moscow doesn’t need it! She needs women, drag and places where these women with these drags can be fucked!” I answered that I don’t want to build clubs for such people. And he said: “There are no others in Moscow! If you want the club to bring in money, make a stall out of plywood and pour warm champagne in it!” It sounds cynical, but it is true. At the same time, there was no falsehood in Lech. Everything he did, he did with a clear conscience. And therefore he was one of my closest Muscovites in spirit.”
Deputy Director for Education and Research of the IT Cluster of the Skolkovo Foundation, former photographer
“We met Lesha at Penthouse, became colleagues at Titanic, and then the acquaintance turned into friendship. We interacted with the same people, grew up on the same things. In 2000, I left to study and for some time stopped following what was happening in Moscow. I remember that on one of my visits Lesha opened Leto. In the three years that I was away, the city has changed. Some new format appeared, when DJs were no longer as important as glitter, tinsel, a feeling of frenzy and celebration. I remember that Lesha, when he saw me at the club, was very happy, took me everywhere, showed me everything. It was clear that he was very happy to see us, despite the fact that we had not seen each other for several years. Then he said: “Gadget, there are not many people in Moscow whose opinion about what I do is important to me, you are one of them.” I still remember these words and the feeling that we are “of the same blood” - no matter where we are or what we are. Lesha generally had this personal integrity, especially in his relationships with friends. Suddenly this man was gone - and it was as if one column had been removed from the colonnade. And everything seems okay, but something is missing.”
Promoter
“In 2001, I was sitting without a project, and Lesha invited me to work at Shambhala. Before that, he had dealt only with large projects - “Penthouse”, “Titanic”, and I, on the contrary, only with small ones. We decided to join forces.
Lesha didn’t like Misha Kozlov’s and my idea of dividing visitors by class. Lesha was for democracy. But since we all wanted to get paid, we had to learn how to earn money. At first we made only two boxes for a fee, then we started selling swings on the first floor, then all the other tables. The money earned went into business. “Shambhala” could not live without entertainment. It's like an Indian movie - it cost the same crazy money as Bollywood. The only difference was that a billion Indians watch Indian films, and we didn’t have such an audience.
I remember we all went to Italy together. And Lesha loved to carry all his things with him - such a suitcase for two days! I told him: “Everything is about to fall apart for you.” And so it happened. When we were flying from Sardinia to the continent, I looked - he was not there, but the plane was already taking off, and I didn’t know where to look for him, and the phones weren’t working. As a result, he arrived with his collapsed suitcase only a day later. And there - and I also warned him - he was not given a rental car because he did not have an international license. We had to take a taxi and pay a thousand euros for the trip to Monte Carlo. Or in Japan, where we came to watch Formula 1. He took the wrong train and missed all the races. It was interesting to travel with him.
Lesha was different from other people, and I even made comments to him about this. I mean a difference that borders on discord. For example, I constantly keep myself in shape - physical and mental. I tried to explain to Lesha that mental health is the most important thing, that without it physical health cannot exist, that the happiness that everyone is running after is in our mind, it’s enough to just think about it. But we never found a common language. He was a painfully honest man.
And I started working in clubs 25 years ago, and one of the first lessons was this: the best girl at a disco is a new one. And if a person thinks differently, he should not work in this business. Lesha, apparently, thought differently, but he was still the best in our industry.”
Promoter
“Michael Jackson gave his first and only concert in Moscow at the Dynamo stadium, and we are standing with Solovey (Sergey Soloveychik - a club figure in the early 90s, now a restaurateur. - Note ed.) near the metro, and suddenly Goroby comes up. He looked me over from head to toe and invited me to work as a flyer. And I absolutely loved it! I was still teaching history at school, working during the day, and handing out flyers in the evening. Over time, I had a whole army of flyers (and Pasha Face Control started in my army, he was 14 years old at the time). There were always a lot of people around me, but of all those who in one way or another determined my fate, I always singled out, of course, Alexey. I loved him madly.
His Diaghilev was the culmination of everything that was good in the Russian club business. The Shchukin box in the Hermitage garden is a beautiful little house in the Petrushka style. The entire top ten of Forbes visited us there. One day on New Year’s Day I was walking past the entrance, and the security told me that there was a woman standing there, and the face control wouldn’t let her through. I approached and we started talking. It turned out that she was an English teacher from the Moscow region, and that she had been preparing for this evening for a whole month. “I know it’s expensive for you,” she told me, “but I collected two salaries, especially learned how to dress, I want to get into your club.” Of course I let her in. And Alexey, when he found out about this, praised me. “Well done,” he says.
"Diaghilev" burned down in February 2007. Below us there was a basement in which the janitors who serviced the Hermitage lived: migrant workers from the southern regions who were always cold. Something in their basement caught fire - and everything burned down in a minute. At that time we were sitting in a restaurant and celebrating a friend’s birthday. We didn’t work for a year after that. And then I was invited to Ginza, and Lesha built the Lounge Empire. The last time we saw each other was this summer - we met in a shoe store on Trubnaya. We were terribly happy, went to drink coffee, and ended up drinking champagne. And he bought me sneakers. To be honest, I really didn’t like them - and for a long time I couldn’t bring myself to wear them - and when I started walking in them, everyone asked: “Where did you buy such cool sneakers?” I proudly told them that Goroby gave them.”
former face control officer of clubs Jet Set, Shambhala, Zima, Leto, Diaghilev, now managing partner at Duran Bar
“We met Lesha at Jet Set, where I was on face control, and he was a co-founder and appeared occasionally to check how things were going. After Jet Set closed, he invited me to his Shambhala, and I went without hesitation. Lesha was a person I wanted to work with. He knew exactly what he wanted and resolved any problems very competently.
Let’s say a banal story: I didn’t let a man into the club, he, naturally, was offended and called Goroby. Lesha always came to the door if something was wrong, and from the outside it didn’t look like the owner of the establishment came and commanded: “Let me in, I said.” He always asked my opinion: “What do you think, Pash, can such a person be allowed into the club?” I answered honestly: no, and explained why. For example, Vova Versace - there was such a character - or the Vickers, the whole family, these are still very specific people and they look, to put it mildly, rather scary.
Sometimes he agreed with me, and sometimes he said: “You don’t know these people, Pash, but I do. These are artists, representatives of the creative intelligentsia, we need them in the club, regardless of how they are dressed.” That is, he conducted an educational program. And I never humiliated them in front of those people whom I did not let in, but could have. On the contrary, right there at the entrance he made peace and introduced us. Many of those whom I once did not miss during the same “Winter”, with whom I directly quarreled harshly, later became my close friends.
Of course, at some point it became clear that all this creative intelligentsia no longer determines public opinion and inviting these people to the club with the expectation that crowds of other people would come for them was pointless, but Lesha still let them in: “These are mine old friends, Pash." And this is one of the many qualities that he possessed. That’s why I followed him from project to project - it always gave me great pleasure to work with him.”
I just remember Grace Jones performing in Diaghilev. I also came to watch, and I see that there is no one on stage, and Gorobiy is running back and forth around the club in a panic. I ask what the problem is, and he: “The singer doesn’t go on stage.” What should I do. “Come on, Lech,” I say, “we’ll sort it out now.” We go into the dressing room, and Grace is sitting there and demands champagne, but for some reason they don’t bring it to her. In short, Lekha brought champagne, the singer went on stage, and what happened next is something that I will not retell. I stood behind a tightly closed door, but I still heard Gorobiy yelling at the employees: he fired someone, fined someone. This lasted for several minutes, after which Lech, who had let off steam and forgave everyone, treated everyone to champagne...
Here, they say, friendship is a 24-hour concept. Lekha and I last saw each other two years ago. We constantly agreed to meet, he kept putting it off, and that’s what they call a meeting. But I always had the feeling that he was nearby. There are very few such people. I think that with his departure the club industry will completely collapse. He was the only one who supported her: he built clubs and came up with decorations for them. I don’t know a single promoter today who puts as much effort into each of their projects as Lekha does. I myself didn’t have enough motor at one time: in 1998, I realized that I couldn’t get over all these bureaucratic difficulties. But he could - he put his horns in and pushed through.”
Personalities
Alexey Khaas
The first Russian club promoter. The creator of the first night club “Dance Floor” on Fontanka, 145 and the organizer of the first giant raves in the early nineties.
The creator of the first techno club "Tunnel" and the iconic Moscow club "Titanic".
Currently lives in St. Petersburg and Moscow, plays in nightclubs, and spends most of his time designing. Author of interiors: “Giusto”, “Zhiguli”, “Tunnel” (2002), “Ministry”, “Decadence” (2005), “Bridge” (2006).
Georgy Guryanov
Drummer of the legendary group “Kino” and the most famous artist, esthete and original in contemporary art. He was the ideological inspirer of the very first dance parties and influenced the development of the entire club movement as a whole. In the early nineties, he rallied the best representatives of artistic Leningrad around the first “Dance Floor”.
Currently lives and works in St. Petersburg, actively moving around the world following his exhibitions.
Timur Novikov
An artist, a genius of artistic thought, who was ahead of his time in his work. From the beginning of the eighties, he was a participant in all the most important artistic events in Leningrad; by the end of the nineties, he was the creator of an entire artistic movement, the author of scientific works, the founder of the “New Academy of Fine Arts” and a recognized master. The breadth of his life interests allowed Timur to participate and contribute to the emergence of most of the most interesting projects of his time, one of which in 1990 was the first dance club on the Fontanka.
Timur Petrovich Novikov died in St. Petersburg in 2002, leaving behind an artistic movement that has entered the history of art, thousands of friends and priceless works of art.
Sergey Bugaev (Africa)
Artist, actor, collector, famous character. Being a powerful communicator, he actively contributed to the development of dance culture and participated in all the first Dance Floor parties. He published a number of books, was the editor of the Cabinet magazine, hosted the Three Little Pigs radio program, and participated in a huge number of artistic projects.
Currently holds exhibitions in major museums and galleries.
Janis Krauklis
The first vinyl DJ to play at parties in Leningrad and Moscow in the period 1989-1991. He shaped the musical tastes and ideas about house music among many participants in the club movement of the early nineties.
Currently not playing, lives in Riga.
Catherine Becker
German, a bright individual who studied cultural processes in post-perestroika Russia. Bachelor of Arts. Participant in many cultural events in Leningrad 1989-1992. Active member of the Dance Floor club.
Currently lives and works in Germany, specialist in Russian art.
Ruben Petrosyan
Organizer of the first house parties in Moscow and Leningrad. “Eminence grise” of world techno. He had a significant impact on the development of the club movement in Russia. Lives in Paris.
Ivan Salmaksov
Member of the Dance Floor club. One of the first promoters. Founder of Block Limited and F. Y. Intertainment.” Participated in organizing a number of the largest dance parties in Moscow. Worked with clubs, played music, performed on radio, produced musicians and designed clubs. Participant in the creation of the cult Moscow club “Ptyuch”. One of the most famous characters of the Moscow club scene in the mid-nineties. He went missing in the late 1990s.
Evgeniy Birman
Founder and CFO of Block Limited and F. Y. Intertainment.” Organizer of a number of the largest dance parties in Moscow: “Gagarin-party”, “Mobile”, “Tekhnuar”. Organized parties in St. Petersburg: “Vesentia”, “Bitter House”.
Currently not associated with clubs, lives in Canada.
Denis Oding
Artist. Member of the creative group “Sunny Bunnies”. Organizer of the informal squat “Svechnoy” and the first techno club “Tunnel”. Co-owner of the promotion company “Buttress” and organizer of the largest raves: “Ravemontage”, “Eastern Impact”, “Maidai”, “Soundtropolis”, “World drum" n "bass". Prime Minister of the Republic "Kazantip". Organizer of the festival "Fresh Wind".
Currently the President of the Happiness Corporation.
Oleg Nazarov
Artist, member of the creative group “Sunny Bunnies”. Organizer of the informal squat “Svechnoy” and the first techno club “Tunnel”. Participated in the creation of the media center “Club “Port””, held the open-air “Air Fire”. Founder of the promotion company “Sound Reflex”, brought Cosmic Baby and Sven Watt, Owner of the “Mama” club, to Russia.
Currently a member of the Happiness Corporation.
Mikhail Vorontsov
Talented fashion designer. One of the organizers of the “Dance Floor” club on Fontanka, 145, participant in the projects: “Planetarium”, “Chaika”, “DK Kirov”, “Gagarin-party”.
Since 1992, an independent promoter: “Akvadelik”, “Crystal”, “Arsenal”, “Resort”.
One of the first DJs, he performed a lot around the country and abroad, and broadcast on the radio.
Since 1995, he became one of the organizers of the “Kontrfors” company, where he still works.
Masha Maloe
Promoter. She took part in international projects of the Tunnel club. In 1995 she became one of the organizers of the “Kontrfors” company. Currently, he continues to work on organizing major dance projects.
Mikhail Barkhin
Architect and theater artist. Participated in the first dance projects “Block Limited” and “F. Y. Intertaimnent.” In the mid-1990s he was the art director of the Planetarium club. Developed the concept and design of the Port club. Prepared and conducted open-ain “Air Fair”, “Rest 4 Rest”, “Elagin Island”, “Dry Dock”, “Alexander I”, “Shantz”, and many other events and events. Author of the design: restaurant “Sadko”, project “Griboyedov”, cafe “USSR”, sports complex “Sharovnya”, restaurant “Korova”, restaurant “Moscow”. Prepared sets for several performances.
Currently lives in St. Petersburg, is involved in theater projects, works as an architect, and an active participant in the Happiness Corporation.
Irena Kuksenaite
Artist, model and actress. She has participated in all projects of the Dance Floor club since its founding. Editor of the scientific publication "Cabinet". She starred in the films “Forests”, “Weekend in Hell”, “All Against One” and “Document R”. In 1998, she received the title “Alternative Miss World” in London. Participated in the project “Flora and Fauna”.
Currently lives and works in St. Petersburg, is engaged in graphics.
Marina Albi Mod
Lives in Russia since 1985. Participant in the first teleconferences between the USSR and the “capitalist world”. She headed a large American company; After leaving business, she settled in St. Petersburg. Organized the project “Flora and Fauna”.
Currently he advises heads of state, teaches at universities, practices yoga and coordinates the work of an eco-hotel in Egypt.
Ekaterina Golitsyna
She came from England in the early nineties. She became an active participant in many artistic projects, attended Dance Floor events, and promoted Russian music in England.
She opened a library in St. Petersburg and acted in films.
Currently lives in London and often visits St. Petersburg.
“New Composers” Valery Alakhov, Igor Verichev
One of the first dance groups. They made a huge contribution to the development of electronic music. They performed at many parties and large raves in the early nineties. They released several albums.
Sergey Zaitsev (Hare)
Member of the Dance Floor club from the first day of its foundation. Squagger, funny guy and fashionista, a visitor to all club events since 1990. Member of the Tunnel Club.
He died in India while trying to build his own club there.
Igor Borisov (Long)
Participant in all projects of the Dance Floor club since 1990. Currently, program director at a radio station in Kostroma.
Lena Popova
Russia's first female DJ. She started playing at the Tunnel club as a tech DJ. She lived in squats, hosted a program on the Port FM radio, worked as a promoter, and participated in art projects. In 2002, together with Alexei Haas, she took part in the restoration of the legendary Tunnel project.
You have realized yourself in many professions.
I constantly play hide and seek with myself, looking for the key that will unlock the locked door to myself. I thought for a long time about what profession I was, and decided that the English word Artist suits me best. Such a capacious one. Refers to any person engaged in creative work.
When you decided to have a disco in your apartment, were there any problems? After all, it’s a living space, the neighbors don’t like noise.
There was only one difficulty - we had no money at all. But my friends and I weren’t particularly worried about this - we’d never had money before, so we coped with everything just fine. And in the very idea - to organize a disco in the apartment - there is, in my opinion, nothing original. Do you invite your friends to parties? Now imagine that you are Prince Yusupov or Shuvalov, living not in a small communal apartment, but in a palace. Then you will invite not two or three guests, but twenty or thirty - to fill the space, so that you can run around with them, play hide and seek, who knows what.
Your brainchild, the Tunnel club, was recently closed.
Honestly, I don’t care what’s happening with the Tunnel now. I regard it exclusively as my gift to young people. As a child, you probably had a favorite toy – a teddy bear. You've played with it enough, you've grown up - you can put it on a shelf or give it to someone, take it to kindergarten. I chose the last option. That is, of course, it’s not that the fate of my “bear cub” is not at all important to me, but I’m already past the age to be interested in it.
What is important to you now?
The main thing in the world is harmony. Yin and yang. Black and white - one does not exist without the other, the difference is in the lighting. I'm looking for a fair balance, an equilibrium without distortion.
How do you balance yourself?
Now is the era of Aquarius, and feminine energy is important for it. That's why I surround myself with women, because only they can calm a man. If they weren't next to me, I simply wouldn't survive. They direct energy towards life, peace - not towards destruction, but towards creation.
Do your friends rather love you or rather understand you?
I'm happy they put up with me. I am a difficult and difficult person. If I need to, I can be pleasant, or I can be unbearable.
Who will you be in your next life?
Probably a bird. Migratory. I definitely wouldn’t want to become a snake, a mole or a fly. I think people were once birds, it’s not for nothing that we fly in our dreams - we know the feeling of flight. I sometimes feel like a different creature, not exactly a human.
Do you generally believe in the Creator or in Darwin's theory?
I don't know what I believe in. Some kind of force. I don't like Darwin's theory. And, of course, I believe in the concept of the Creator. That’s what we call ourselves – “Architectural Workshop No. 2”, because No. 1 is Him.
Which contemporary creator-architects are you interested in?
I like Tadao Ando and his basic idea of hiding an idea. Make it invisible, but at the same time functional. To transform an object into an absolute from the point of view of the surrounding world: you do not admire the height of the tower or the sophisticated decoration, but admire the absence of them. The first step is bioarchitecture, the next is fusion. Ando is light and space, which is the most important thing. In architecture, as in life, there is creation and PR. A tower to heaven is PR, and a temple of light is creation. Eastern people follow water, which flows and penetrates everything, Western people follow ice, the atomic system. My wife is a Westerner and I am an Easterner, and that makes sense. We are like a double-headed eagle - we look in different directions, but this makes us see the world better.
The water doesn't stop, doesn't this introduce an element of incompleteness?
The feeling of incompleteness has haunted me all my life. Completeness and focus on results is Western culture. I am closer to the theory of Tao or Bushi-do - “the way of the warrior.” Creativity is a path, a search. The path did not take place if you entered a phase in which you do not change. What is important is not the result, but the movement towards it.
Would you like to live in another country or another city?
But I had the opportunity to live anywhere, and I took advantage of it. Still drawn here. There are angels everywhere on the spiers who protect us. St. Petersburg is the last and at the same time the first city in Europe. It’s only as comfortable in Amsterdam: there, no one cares who you are, everyone is busy with themselves. It's free there.
For you, freedom is indifference?
Rather, respect for other people's lives. I have not been to the East, but I have read and thought a lot about it like Robert Louis Stevenson, who wrote about the sea, although he never went on a ship. I view the Earth as a human organism that has legs, arms, and a heart. Accordingly, I subdivide countries from the point of view of physiology: Germany - hands, England - brain. The heart is the Himalayas or St. Petersburg. Our city is a strange place, you could dream of it: unusual in history, location, internal status. Phantom and ghost. I have a feeling that he doesn't belong to us. In the “Dance Floor” on Fontanka there was a feeling that we got into someone else’s life, and I see the shadows of these people. This is a city of shadows, and we are tenants who have been moved in with them. It’s a drug city that you can’t easily jump off.
