"Leprikonsy" is a Belarusian group whose peak of popularity fell at the end of the 1990s. At that time, it was easier to find radio stations that did not play the songs “Girls did not love me” and “Khali-gali, paratrooper”.
In general, the band's tracks are close to the youth of the post-Soviet space. Today, the compositions of the Belarusian team are not very popular, although the guys' creations still sound in karaoke bars.
The history of the creation and composition of the Lepriconsy team
The Leprikonsy group appeared in the music world in 1996. The ideological founder of the team was Ilya Mitko. At the time of the creation of the group, Ilya was only 16 years old.
Ilya met Fedor Fedoruk (the second soloist of the Leprikonsy group) at a construction site. The musical tastes of the guys coincided, so they agreed that it was time to create their own group.
After working at a construction site in the summer, the guys managed to buy musical instruments. The history of the creation of the group is simple and at the same time very complex.
After the release of the first demo cassette, a new member, Vladimir Fedoruk, joined the guys. Vladimir had a diploma of graduation from a music school in the accordion class, but in the group he played the bass guitar.
The name of the band has an interesting history as well. Ilya Mitko in one of his interviews shared with reporters:
“I somehow accidentally watched a horror movie, and it was called Leprechaun. And then they played hardcore, punk rock. In general, we immediately realized that Leprechauns is about us!”.
Soon the guys recorded the first trial album, and, as they say, "went and gone." With the advent of the first album, staff turnover began to occur in the team. The soloists of the Leprikonsy group changed one after another.
The first composition of the Belarusian group included: Ilya Mitko (soloist), who also played the guitar, Vladimir Fedoruk (bass guitarist), Andrei Malashenko (drummer), Sergei Lysy (guitarist).
A year after the creation of the team, half of the first line-up remained - Mitko and Fedoruk, a new member Mikhail Kravtsov came to the bass guitar, and Sergey Borisenko (Chest) took the place of the drummer.
Unfortunately, this is not the only change of musicians. As part of the Leprikonsy group, newcomers constantly appeared.
In 1998-2001 in the group, in addition to Mitka and Fedoruk, played: Konstantin Kolesnikov (bass guitar), Sergey Borisenko (Chest) (drums), Rodoslav Sosnovtsev (trumpet), Evgeny Pakhomov (trombone). Actually, in this composition, the guys moved to the capital of Russia.
In Moscow, a team from Belarus signed a lucrative contract with the Soyuz recording studio. In the capital, the guys rented a three-room apartment, but soon they began to yearn for their homeland.
Decreased popularity
After the decrease in popularity, the Leprikonsy group returned to Minsk almost in full force. Ilya joined his team after 4 months.
The team resumed its creative activity. Borisenko and Kolesnikov were replaced by charming Kirill Kanyushik and Dima Kharitonovich.
During this period of time, the group began an active touring life. During the existence of the group, the guys traveled all over Russia and Ukraine, visited Italy, Spain, France, Monaco.
In 2009, a list of members of the Leprikonsy group was published on the official website.
Group line-up in 2009
So, in 2009, the team included:
- Ilya Mitko
- Vladimir Fedoruk
- Alexey Zaitsev (bass guitarist)
- Sergey Podlivakhin (drummer)
- Pyotr Peruvian Martsinkevich (trumpeter)
- Dmitry Naydenovich (trombonist).
According to most music critics, this was the golden composition of the Leprikonsy group.
Music group Leprikonsy
In total, the discography of the group from Belarus has 9 albums. The musicians started their activities with hard rock and lyrics in English. Thus, they also wanted to interest Western music lovers.
The first cassette with demo recordings was called "Kids". The official release year was 1997. They released 20 cassettes with this album, but only 10 were sold.
In 1997, the Leprikonsy team presented the first official collection, A Man Walks and Smiles.
A little later, an updated version of the album appeared with a changed name “We were super with you” (1999). It was recorded at the Rock Academy studio with Kirill Esipov. The track "Khali-gali, paratrooper" became a real hit.
Those who have heard the track “Khali-gali, paratrooper” will agree that the chorus is a banal set of words. The leader of the group, Ilya Mitko, said that they “stole” the name of the song in their hometown.
This is the name of one of the attractions in the Amusement Park. No less bewitching story of the creation of a hundred pounds hit - Ilya wrote a song in the bathroom, taking a shower.
Initially, it was planned that the Leprikonsy group would play this track in the same Amusement Park, but the result turned out even better than expected.
The track was born and immediately hit the radio. The words from the refrain broke off the music lovers from the tongue and could not get out of their heads. It was the team's first major success.
Group in the 2000s
In the early 2000s, a team from Belarus began to take part in various music festivals. The most significant was participation in the rock festival "Invasion-2000".
In 2001, the band expanded their discography with the collection "All the guys are peppers!". The album included only 13 musical compositions. The first song on the list was the track "Girls didn't love me."
The composition "Girls fell in love with me" also became the hallmark of the Leprikonsy group. A little later, a video clip was also released for the song.
The video was filmed at the Mosfilm studio. The main role was played by a girl from the Moscow metro, and the mafiosi were played by professional actors.
Interestingly, almost every video clip of the band had its own little history. Take, for example, the video clip "Students". The clip for the guys was filmed by students from Kyiv.
The guys contacted Mitko on social networks and offered their services for free. The soloists of the group hesitated for a long time, but agreed on the condition that if the video was not liked, they would not post it.
The guys from Kyiv filmed the video in a small apartment. The soloists of the Leprikonsy group also took part in the filming. After filming, the guys disappeared, and Ilya was already thinking about the fact that he had been abandoned.
But after some time, the video clip was in the "hands" of the soloists of the group. Ilya Mitko appreciated the video and agreed to broadcast it.
The soloist and founder of the group, Ilya Mitko, considers the video clip "Topol" to be the strongest work of the group. The clip contains cuts from the band's concert in 2000-2001. The video clip of "Topol" was directed by Maxim Rozhkov.
In 2011, the Leprikonsy team, with the participation of an artist from the Comedy Club Vadim Galygin, released the album Gift. Most of the songs included in the collection were written by Galygin himself.
By the way, Vadim is also from Belarus. After this event, the group was not heard. And only in 2017, the single "Super Girl" appeared on the network.
Interesting facts about the Lepricons group
- Khali-gali, Paratrupper and Super-8 are attractions in the Chelyuskintsev Park in the capital of Belarus.
- The musical composition of the group “And we play KVN with you” sounds in the title screen saver of the KVN for an encore program on the Russian TV channel STS.
- The track "Khali-gali, paratrouper" sounded in the TV series "Team B".
- The leader of the Leprikonsy team, Ilya Mitko, said that Ukraine is his favorite country. Here is an excerpt from Ilya's interview: “We often visit Kyiv with the team. But now, of course, the number of visits had to be reduced. I mean the period when I held a position on one of the country's music channels. Then all the concerts of the group were exclusively on the territory of Ukraine.
- Each concert of the Leprikonsy group is an amazing show. The musicians manage to please the fans of their work with their virtuoso playing and, as a bonus, they do not forget to add humor to the concert. This allows you to "make contact" with the audience.
Leprikonsy group today
The leader and founder of the musical group "Leprikonsy", in addition to "promotion" of his team, spends a lot of time at his own recording studio SUPER8.
Of course, today the team is not very popular. But the soloists of the group are not very upset. In one of the interviews, Ilya said:
“I never wanted to be a mega-popular performer. Rather, at the beginning of my career, I wanted to be popular. Now this fuse has passed. I just want to do what I love and be in demand. I have it all."
Today, the Leprikonsy group can be seen more at private parties and corporate parties. They tour, but not so actively. The latest news from the life of your favorite musicians can be seen on their official VKontakte page.
The team spent 2019 on tour in Belarus, Ukraine and Russia. The concert schedule for 2020 has not yet been drawn up.
