The real folk song is them. Their music reflects the true Russian reality, not embellished and not artificially-samovar, as the Golden Ring is trying to present it. They were not silent about what really interested their compatriots, and always in the texts and lyrics chopped the truth-womb. They are Soviet and Russian punks. They are the Gaza Strip.
Group Information
December 5, 1987 in the city of Voronezh, the rock band Gaza Strip was founded. The vocalist and author of the texts was Yuri Klinsky, known to fans and connoisseurs of Russian punk under the pseudonym Hoi. He was joined by another Voronezh musician, guitarist Mikhail Fink, who, however, continued to play along the way in another local group called the Peace Decree. For some time, the Gaza Strip actually consisted of one Klinsky, because the guitarist was busy at concerts with the Peace Decree. Later, at the end of 1989, the final composition of the punk band was formed: guitarist Sergei Tupikin, bass player Semyon Titievsky, and drummer Oleg Kryuchkov joined Hoi and Fink.
It began its countdown in 1989 and their discography. The Gaza Strip released its first recordings. Let’s remember how it was.
How it all began
December 5, 1987 on the stage of the Voronezh rock club at a local thermal power plant came Yuri Klinsky. He sang alone, unaccompanied by keyboards or percussion instruments, only with a guitar. He performed three songs: Easter, Collective Farm Punk and Drowned Man. All these compositions over time became famous, and in some ways even legendary.
Then there were more performances at a local rock club. At one of the contests held there, Gaza received a spectator award.
Why the Gaza Strip?
Many people unfamiliar with the history of the collective note that their name seems a little strange to them. In fact, there is no mystery here: Yuri Klinsky called his group like that because he did not even think about success at the very beginning of his career.
The fact is that the musician lived in the Left Bank region of Voronezh. There were many factories, all of them decently smoked. This area was jokingly called the Gaza Strip by many locals. Young Hoy called him that. In honor of this unofficial name of his region, and with a slight eye on the Palestinian hot spot of the same name, whose name was well known in those years because of the military conflict taking place in it, Klinsky decided to choose the Gaza Strip option among others.
Why hoy
The origin of the nickname of Yuri Klinsky is also interesting.
“Hoy” is a short word used by Soviet and Russian punks to greet each other. Sometimes they use it also as a cry: “Punks, hoy!” Yuri Klinsky was a regular at the Voronezh rock club, in which he acquired his nickname.
Performing on stage, the future vocalist of Gaza at each concert addressed the audience: “Punks, hoy!” Most likely, he used this word as a greeting. After some time, Klinsky recalls, people began to come to his house, previously unfamiliar to him, who asked Yura Khoy. This nickname stuck to him and remained with him until the end of his life.
Gaza Strip: First Album
In 1989, two debut albums of the collective were released at once. They were called Plows-Woogie and Collective Farm Punk and were created at the local Black Box recording studio in Voronezh. The quality of these records, as Yuri Klinsky himself admitted after a while, was not very decent, therefore these records did not advance further than Voronezh. But after some time, the group rewrote the songs from these albums. It so happened that the album "Gaza Strip" "Collective farm punk" is considered by many to be the first. The fact is that it was in him that a greater number of songs recognizable in the future turned out to be.
Then, in 1989, they knew about Yuri Hoi and his rock team only in Voronezh. The guys simply did not have the opportunity to perform outside the city, so the Gaza Strip group only appeared on the stage of the local rock club at the TPP. The first album, however, was liked by the local public, although it was recorded unprofessionally.
1990: first studio albums
Three months have passed since the recording of Collective Farm Punk. Two more discs replenished discography. Gaza has released the albums The Core of Louse and The Evil Dead. They were recorded in just four days on two Soviet tape recorders “Timbre”. On one wrote “minus”, that is, only music, without vocals, on the other - “plus”, the final versions of the songs.
The conditions were such that the musicians had to replay the whole song first, if one of them suddenly made a mistake during the recording. But the guys tried, for four days they gave everything in full. No wonder then Klinsky sold his motorcycle, his beloved Java, to rent a studio.
People liked the work of the Gaza Strip. The album “Louse Nucleus” and the album “The Evil Dead” actually paved the way for young musicians on the big stage. Before them, no one could speak so simply and openly, in a language close to Russian, about the problems of ordinary inhabitants of the hinterland, while chuckling at them. And the lyrics about the afterlife seemed something unimaginable.
Year 1991. Fifth album and growing popularity
In 1991, the band signed a contract with Gala Records. The fifth album was supplemented by discography. The Gaza Strip called it The Night Before Christmas.
This year was significant for the team: the producer appeared, Fidel Simonov, the tour began, popularity came. In the same year, the composition of the group changed: new musicians came, some of them remained exclusively in session or only helped to record songs in the studio, but did not perform at concerts. The main composition was considered:
- Sergey Tupikin, bass player;
- Alexey Ushakov, keyboard player;
- Alexander Yakushev, drummer;
- Yuri Klinsky, vocalist.
In addition, the last albums were recorded with the assistance of backing vocalist Tatyana Fateeva, who two years later left the group due to health problems - an incomprehensible allergy that prevented her from working at concerts.
Another “Collective farm punk”, “Take a walk, man!” And “Press the gas”
At the end of 1991, the collective farm punk album was re-recorded on vinyl. The circulation was huge - as many as 100,000 copies. At the beginning of the following 1992, the band released their first video for the title track of the album. He was shown on TV, and the popularity of the team has become truly all-Russian.
Then she enriched herself with two albums, which the audience immediately liked, his discography. The Gaza Strip released “Walk, Man!” And “Press the Gas.” With a tour in support of the first of them, the group played more than a hundred concerts in a year. And the musicians were not going to stop there.
Fruitful 1994
This year, the material left over from the recording of the first two albums saw the light on the Gaza Strip’s disc of the same name. The following was the album "Dancing after the bang." As the name implies, when working on it, Yuri Khoy was least shy in expressions. This record was recorded with another backing vocalist, Inna Bukharina, but her manner of singing so much reminded Tatyana Fateeva who left the band that fans did not immediately pay attention to the replacement.
This year was marked by the embodiment of a large-scale creative idea - the punk opera Kashchei the Immortal. In terms of content, it was an alternative version of the tale of Ivan Tsarevich and Vasilisa the Beautiful, and in terms of performance, it was a parody of famous rock artists, both foreign and domestic. Then, from Hoya, the AC / DC, Queen, Red Hot Chili Peppers and even the Soviet Songs were “given”. Fans fell in love with punk opera, and many people know it under the simple name "Tale".
They were going to film the "Tale" back in the nineties, but then there was no time or money for it. The project was frozen, they planned to return to filming in 2000. But, unfortunately, this idea was never realized ...
Mid-90s Crisis and Best Gaza Album
Until 1996, no new discs were released by the Gaza Group. Yuri Klinsky entered a period of creative crisis, and therefore simply did not write a song. But all this time the team was actively touring with their best songs.
The period of creative stagnation of the creator of the group ended in 1996, as unexpectedly as it had begun. In just one week, Klinsky created material for the new album, which would later be called the best. It was the album "Gas Attack", a completely new album, because the group had not performed such songs before. It was real lyrics, vital and interesting. The song "30 Years" almost immediately became a feast, and "Fog" went to the people with a real hit, on which a black and white clip of the same name was shot.
1997–2000
Then came the album entitled "The University of Narcology of the Millions". This album in its sound resembled the previous one. In addition, he was also restrained. His brightest song is “Time to Go Home”. She continued the military theme touched by the group in the previous album, and also very quickly left the people.
In the spring of 1999, a fundamentally new sounding album was released - a collection of remixes of old Extasy songs that were already loved by millions. Many wondered why it was necessary to turn the best songs into dance tracks, but Klinsky himself said that this idea captured him several years ago. He also said that he was glad of its implementation.
The full discography of the Gaza Strip took shape in 2000. Then the world saw the last, mystical album of the band “Hellraiser”. True, this happened only after the death of Jura Khoy ...
That was the story of the Gaza Strip. Discography (1989–2000) is rich in it, and it is interesting because it represents development in its purest form. As the person changed, the personality - Yuri Klinsky, his music also became different. And now, over the years, we can say with confidence that Gaza is a group whose discography has given Russian rock a lot. Even in spite of all the criticism and misunderstanding of the colleagues in the workshop and many ordinary people who met the musicians. The songs of Yura Klinsky love, listen and sing, and on his grave are always fresh flowers.