Laskovyi Mai
Laskovyi Mai is a Soviet boy band from Orenburg founded by Russian songwriter, composer and musician Sergei Kuznetsov. The group's best-known member was Yuri Shatunov, who subsequently went on to some solo success. The group disbanded in 1992. Laskovyi Mai once had been called "the legends of the 80–90s".
Laskovyi Mai was formed in the middle of the 1980s when Sergei Kuznetsov decided to create a group of musicians with orphan children from an orphanage in Orenburg.
History
The band Laskovyi Mai was founded on 6 December 1986 at Orenburg Boarding School No. 2 by the school's music instructor Sergey Kuznetsov, musician Vyacheslav Ponomaryov, and thirteen-year-old student Yuri Shatunov as the lead vocalist.Later, Kuznetsov met Konstantin Pakhomov, and together they gave several concerts under the name Laskovyi Mai, even filling a stadium with 5,000 people.
Popularity
Commercial success came to the group in 1988 after Arkady Kudryashov, who worked with Andrei Razin as an administrator for the band Mirage, discovered them. While on tour in Alma-Ata, Kudryashov accidentally heard the song Belye Rozy. Impressed, he bought a cassette of the band's songs and brought it to Moscow. Although others dismissed the music as “primitive,” Kudryashov obtained contact information for the Orenburg musicians from a local acquaintance.According to Andrei Razin, who had earlier been the first producer of Mirage, he later created multiple touring line-ups of Laskovyi Mai performing to Shatunov’s pre-recorded vocals. In 1988, Razin traveled to Orenburg to invite the original group to Moscow for professional studio recordings at SPM Records with producer Yuri Chernavsky. During these sessions, Kuznetsov insisted that the real Shatunov perform the vocals.
The core members were:
- Yuri Shatunov
- Konstantin Pakhomov
- Andrei Razin
- Musical director and composer Sergey Kuznetsov
- From 1989, composer Vladimir Boyko
Razin’s activity generated many controversies, one of which he tried to diffuse by spreading the rumor that he was Mikhail Gorbachev’s nephew. When the scandal over duplicate line-ups could no longer be hidden, Razin officially founded the Laskovyi Mai Studio, allowing him to create multiple “official” versions of the band.
The first manager of the group was Rashid Dairabayev. In 1989, after Kuznetsov’s departure, Razin appointed Vladimir Boyko, founder of the group Belye Rozy, as musical director. All tracks were re-recorded at the Rekord studios by sound engineer Anatoly Meshayev.
As the first Soviet teenage pop group performing in the Euro-disco style of the 1980s, Laskovyi Mai achieved unprecedented popularity among both youth and adults.
However, tensions between Razin and Kuznetsov escalated in 1989 over financial and creative disputes. Kuznetsov left, believing the group could not survive without him. After his departure, the quality of the group’s songs declined, though commercial success continued due to the multiple touring line-ups.
Between 1989 and 1990, Laskovyi Mai performed to packed stadiums and set records for the number of concerts per day. During the winter holidays of 1989–1990, the band held 13 sold-out solo concerts at Moscow’s Luzhniki Olympic Complex with the program White Roses – in White Winter… Attendance across the Soviet Union reached up to eight concerts per day and over forty per month.
Although later attempts to recreate the success of White Roses and Pink Evening were less successful, Laskovyi Mai had a lasting influence on the development of Russian pop.
In November 2022, Sergey Malinkovich, the Chairman of the Communists of Russia political party, accused musician Andrey Razin of treason for selling the rights to the songs of Laskovyi Mai to an American company.
Members
1986–1992 period
;Vocalists- Yuri Shatunov
- Andrei Razin
- Andrey Gurov
- Anton Tokarev
- Viktor Kulikov
- Vlada Moscovskaya
- Oleg Krestovsky
- Konstantin Pakhomov
- Vladimir Shurochkin
- Rafael Isangulov – also keyboardist
- Yuri Barabash
- Yuri Gurov
- Anna Kuznetsova — founder, lyricist, composer, arranger, keyboardist
- Vladimir Boyko – musical director, composer
- Alla Goltseva – lyricist
- Rashid Dayrabaev – band's first director
- Arkady Kudryashov – band administrator
- Anatoly Meshaev composer, arranger
- Natalia Grozovskii – vocal group "Белые розы" "Belye Rozi" – after a famous song by the band
- Eugene Zakulaev – deputy general director of the orphanage
- Igor Anisimov – main keyboardist of the first band
- Alexei Burda – keyboards
- Alexander Priko – keyboards
- Evgeny Bychkov – keyboards
- Sergei Kulagin – keyboards
- Arvid Yurgaytis – keyboards
- Mikhail Sukhomlinov – keyboards
- Vyacheslav Ponomarev – bass guitar
- Igor Safiullin – saxophone
- Igor Igoshin – drums, percussion engineer
- Sergei Lenyuk - drums
- Sergei Kuznetsov — founder, lyricist, composer, arranger, keyboardist
- Oleg Andreev – sound engineer
- Alexander Egunov – sound engineer
- Vladimir Hozyaenko – sound engineer
- Pavel Tomov – sound engineer
2009 reformed band members
- Andrei Razin
- Sergei Serkov
- Andrei Kucherov
- Sergei Lenyuk
Discography
- White Roses/Tender - 1 May
- Autumn is slowly leaving/Tender - 2 May
- A little about myself/Old Forest
- Broken Love
- 8 March
- Pink Evening
- On the roof
- Goodbye Baby
- Tender Summer
- Fairy Shore
- October Album
- Stupid snowflakes
- Matryoshka Masha
- Naughty girl
- Come back
- Island for two
- Close the door on me
- Chance Encounter/Younger Sister
- The Best
- CPR
- Legends #1
- Legends #2
- Legends #3
- Star
- All hits
- New songs