Auktyon is one of the most famous Soviet and then Russian rock bands, which continues to be active today. The group was created by Leonid Fedorov in 1978. He remains the leader and main vocalist of the band to this day.
Formation of the "Auktyon" group
Initially, "Auktyon" is a team consisting of several classmates - Dmitry Zaichenko, Alexei Vikhrev and Fedorov. Over the next two or three years, the formation of the composition took place. Now the group had guitarists, vocalists, sound engineers and a musician who played the organ. The first performances also took place, mainly at dances.
With the arrival of Oleg Garkusha, there was a serious development of the team in terms of creativity. In particular, Fedorov used to compose music for texts. But initially there were no lyrics of his own, so he had to write music to the words that he saw in magazines or books.
Garkusha offered several of his poems, and entered the main composition. Since that time, the guys even got their own rehearsal room - the famous Leningrad club.
In the late 1970s and early 1980s, the group had a very unstable lineup. New faces came, someone went into the army - everything was constantly changing. Nevertheless, in various forms, the group, although unstable, began to increase its popularity in the Leningrad "party". In particular, in 1983 the group met the famous Aquarium band.
It was this group that allowed the Auktyon team to perform for the first time in the Leningrad rock club. In order to join the club, it was necessary to play a concert - to show your skills to the public.
According to the recollections of the musicians, their performance was terrible - the program was not worked out, and the game was weak. Nevertheless, the musicians were accepted into the club. Despite the fact that this should have been followed by some kind of upsurge. The group went out of business for almost two years.
The second wind of the Auktyon group
Only in 1985, the team took up activities. At this time, its composition has stabilized. The guys started to create a concert program. After everything was rehearsed (this time, the musicians approached this issue responsibly), several successful performances took place in the Leningrad Houses of Culture.
New songs existed only nominally. They were recorded on sheets of paper, but were not recorded on tape. This upset Fedorov. Therefore, he recorded an album that the country later recognized under the name “Come back to Sorrento”.
After a number of successful concerts, the team worked on creating a new concert program. According to this principle, the early work of the Auktyon group was created - the stake was not on recording songs and albums for release, but on working out their live performance.
By 1987, material for new concerts was ready. This time, not only the music was worked out, but also the atmosphere of the performances. In particular, they prepared special costumes and decorations. The theme of the East has become the main style, which can be traced literally in every detail.
Despite a fundamentally new approach (the artists made a big bet on it), it all ended not very well. The audience took the songs cool.
Critics also spoke negatively about the new material. Due to the failure, it was decided not to perform further concerts with this program. So the group started recording a new album.
At the turn of the 1980s - 1990s
"How I Became a Traitor" is the title of the new record, which became the first professional work. An excellent studio, new equipment, a significant number of sound engineers - this approach guaranteed the new album to sound great.
The members claim that this CD has been their personal and professional growth. On this release, the guys decided to create music that comes not from the head, but from the depths of consciousness. They decided not to set limits for themselves and just do what breaks out.
In mid-1988, the group gained popularity. As the musicians later recalled, it was at this time that they began to fear that the “fans” would “tear” them after the next concert.
A number of performances took place on the territory of the USSR. A new drummer came - Boris Shaveinikov, who became the unwitting creator of the band's name. He wrote the word "auction", making a mistake, which became fatal for the image of the team. Since then, his "Y" stood out on all posters and records.
Popularity outside the country
In 1989, the group enjoyed huge popularity abroad. The musicians were invited to full-fledged tours, which covered dozens of cities - Berlin, Paris, etc. The group did not go on foreign tours alone. At various performances, the guys performed with such Soviet rock stars as Viktor Tsoi (the French tour was almost entirely with the Kino group), Sounds of Mu, and others.
"Auktyon" became a very scandalous team. In particular, a case remained recorded on the pages of Soviet publications when Vladimir Veselkin undressed in front of the audience on the French stage (only his underwear remained at that moment).
The reaction followed immediately - the group was accused of being tasteless and corrupting Soviet music. In response to this, Veselkin soon repeated the trick in one of the television programs.
In the early 1990s, three albums were released at once: “Duplo” (censored version of the release name), “Badun” and “Everything is calm in Baghdad”. The latter was a studio version of a concert program that was rejected by critics and audiences in the late 1980s.
The group continued to visit high-profile rock festivals in Russia and abroad. With the record "Badun" the style of music has changed. Now it has become more heavy rock, with aggressive rhythms and sometimes rough lyrics. The team left the infamous Vladimir Veselkin. The fact is that the team often "suffered" due to the abuse of alcohol by Veselkin. This affected the group's image and led to strange situations on tour.
Since mid 1990s
This time was one of the most difficult in the history of the group. On the one hand, the band released two of their most successful albums. The disc "Teapot of Wine" is based on the ideas of Alexei Khvostenko. Fedorov really liked Khvostenko's songs, and they agreed to record the material. This idea was realized, and the release was successfully released in Russia and abroad.
It was immediately followed by the album "Bird". It was he who included one of the most popular songs "Road", which was included in the official soundtrack for the film "Brother 2". The record was released twice - once in Russia, another time in Germany.
Our time
In the late 1990s there was a long hiatus from recording new material. At the same time, the Auktyon group actively toured the regions of the Russian Federation and European cities. Only in 2007 a new disc "Girls sing" was released. The album was very warmly received by the listeners, who for 12 years managed to miss the new creativity. In April 2020, the album "Dreams" was released, which is the last release of the group.
