Between 1983 and 1990, Russian rock and pop music was associated exclusively with the Secret group. This team was the most popular at the time. "The main group of the Soviet Union" - this unofficial title, which spectators and critics endowed with "The Secret", proved a huge popular love for the work of the famous four.
Group formation
The Secret group in its final composition was formed in 1983. The group’s entry into the Leningrad Rock Club and the release of the first album on magnetic tape “You and Me” became significant events in the history of the group and gave rise to active collective activity. Less than a year later (March 1984), the group was among the laureates of the II festival of the Leningrad Rock Club, which by the standards of that time was a resounding success. The quartet of four members, Maxim Leonidov, Nikolai Fomenko, Andrey Zabludovsky and Alexei Murashov, became megapopular.
First concerts
Group "Secret", rarely performing in public, made a splash at a concert in the framework of the International Festival of Youth and Students, which took place in the summer of 1985. This was another confirmation of the cult popularity of the team.
Soon Maxim Leonidov, one of the best vocalists in the country, became the host of the musical show program for young people "The wheels are spinning." Each issue was marked by the advent of "The Secret" with a new song.
Around the same time, the guys participated in the work on the musical eccentric comedy “How to Become a Star?”. In this project, independent numbers are connected together by the main characters: Maxim Leonidov and the parrot Vaka. The film gathered many megastars of the time. In it, in addition to the participants in the beat quartet, you can see the Lyceum Theater, Valery Leontyev, Viktor Reznikov, Larisa Dolina, Raymond Pauls.
In the fall of 1985, the Secret group began touring actively. Everyday performances at various venues have always been a resounding success. The busy schedule forced Maxim Leonidov to refuse to work in the program “Spinning Disks”.
First disc
Already in 1986, at one of the best recording studios in Tallinn at that time, the collective recorded their debut giant disk. This album has been recognized twice as platinum. The popularity of the guys became simply fantastic. It was then that a fan club opened for the first time in the Soviet Union. The members of the fan club organized meetings of numerous fans with the members of the group and conducted other propaganda activities.
“Leningrad Time” is the second, no less successful album of the beat quartet, which was recorded in 1988. A few months after its release, the guys were invited for the first time on foreign tours. They visited Germany, and after that took part in a song contest held in the Polish city of Nozzle.
Composition changes
However, soon the first losses occur in the team. In early 1990, the group leader, Maxim Leonidov, left for Israel to live and work there. In January 1990, the group "Secret" in the Swiss city of Schwitz last performed in the legendary composition. The remaining three members of the collective continue to act as a group, now being a trio.
The leader of the team for several years was Nikolai Fomenko. But in parallel, he actively participated in many television programs, starred in films. At this time, the Secret group (photo below) recorded two more albums: “The Orchestra on the Way” (1991) and “Do Not Disturb!” (1994), songs from which became no less popular than those that were released when the collective was a quartet.
In 1996, Fomenko leaves the group. He is no longer able to combine musical activity with numerous shootings and performances at the Satyricon Theater. The Secret group, the discography of which was supplemented with another Blues de Moscou album at that time, existed for a while as a duet.
Soon a new guitarist Oleg Chinyakov appeared in the group. The touring activity was almost stopped, but the trio quite successfully performed in the clubs of Moscow and St. Petersburg, and also participated in various talk shows on television.
In 1998, the Secretomania album, which was to consist of acoustic versions of old songs, was being prepared for release. However, the crisis situation intervened on August 17 ... The Secret Group, whose biography of the participants was subsequently inextricably linked with creative activity, ceased to exist as a whole.
But it should be noted that several times the guys gathered in the legendary composition and gave many concerts dedicated to the memorable dates in the collective's activity.
Many songs of The Secret have not lost their relevance. They sound on the waves of radio stations and remind of the time when the cult of the group was in the country for ten years.