"Zero" is a Soviet team. The group made a huge contribution to the development of domestic rock and roll. Some tracks of musicians sound in the headphones of modern music lovers to this day.
In 2019, the Zero group celebrated the 30th anniversary of the band's birth. In terms of popularity, the group is not inferior to the well-known "gurus" of Russian rock - the groups "Earthlings", "Kino", "King and the Jester", as well as the "Gas Sector".
The history of the creation and composition of the Zero group
At the origins of the Zero team is Fedor Chistyakov. As a teenager, he discovered the magical world of music, so he decided to realize himself in this niche.
As a 7th grade student, Chistyakov met Alexei Nikolaev, who was fond of playing string instruments. At that time, Lyosha already had his own team.
The musicians performed at school parties and discos. Thus, Fedor joined the Nikolaev team. A few years later, the musicians met Anatoly Platonov.
Anatoly, having visited the performance of the young group, also decided to become part of it. Studying at school faded into the background. The guys devoted all their time to rehearsals. By the way, the first rehearsals were held on the streets, in the basement and apartments.
As students of the 10th grade, the musicians have accumulated enough material to show themselves in all their glory. With songs of their own composition, the guys went to the sound engineer Andrey Tropillo.
Tropillo is a man with a capital letter. At one time, he "untwisted" such groups as "Aquarium", "Alice", "Time Machine".
Already in 1986, the musicians of the new band released their debut disc "Music of bastard files". The middle of the 1980s was the "peak" of the popularity of the musical group.
With the release of the first disc, the musicians gained fans. Now the group performed not only at school discos and parties, but also on the professional stage. The team in the original composition did not last long.
While Alexei Nikolaev served in the army, several musicians managed to visit the group. Sharkov, Voronov and Nikolchak sat behind the drums.
In addition, Strukov, Starikov and Gusakov managed to leave the team at one time. And only Chistyakov and Nikolaev held out with the group to the end.
The band leaving the stage
For 5 years, the musicians have delighted fans with high-quality punk. And then the group "Zero" completely disappeared from sight. This event is due to the fact that in 1992 Fyodor Chistyakov ended up in the Kresty pre-trial detention center in St. Petersburg.
The frontman of the punk band was accused under article 30 of the UKRF (“Preparation for a crime and attempted crime”). Fedor successfully started on stage. Many predicted a brilliant career for him.
And everything would be fine, but in 1992 Chistyakov attacked his cohabitant Irina Linnik with a knife. When Fedor was tried, in his defense, the young man said that he wanted to kill Irina, because he considered her a witch.
Soon Fyodor Chistyakov was sent for compulsory treatment in a psychiatric clinic. The young man was given a disappointing diagnosis of paranoid schizophrenia.
After Fedor's release, he joined the Jehovah's Witnesses religious organization. This decision influenced the further personal life.
The band's return to the stage
In the late 1990s, the Zero group returned to the big stage. The team included:
- Fedor Chistyakov (vocals)
- Georgy Starikov (guitar);
- Alexey Nikolaev (drums);
- Peter Strukov (balalaika);
- Dmitry Gusakov (bass guitar)
In this composition, the musicians played several big tours. In addition, the musicians reported that now their team is called “Fyodor Chistyakov and the Zero Group”, or “Fyodor Chistyakov and the Orchestra of Electronic Folklore”.
Fans cheered early on for the return of their favorite band to the stage. In 1998, almost immediately after the presentation of the album “What is the heart so disturbed”, the team broke up.
According to one version, the musicians got tired of working under the direction of Fyodor Chistyakov. It was rumored that the frontman of the group was often in inadequate condition due to illness. After the collapse of the group, Fedor organized a new brainchild - the Green Room team.
Music group Zero
The music of the Zero group is multifaceted. In the band's tracks, you can hear a combination of Russian rock, folk rock, post-punk, folk punk and punk rock.
If we take into account the debut album "Music of bastard files", then we can understand that it differs from the subsequent repertoire of the band.
Initially, the musicians were aligned with the Western scene, so the sound of post-punk is heard in the first work. But the main highlight of the band is, of course, the sound of button accordion in rock compositions.
And if the accordion sounded somewhere in the background in the debut disc, then in subsequent compositions the rest of the instruments were barely audible.
After the release of the second studio album, which was called "Tales", the popularity of the group "Zero" increased. The disc was released in 1989. At this time, there was a "peak" of the band's touring life.
The third collection "Northern Boogie" was recorded on audio cassette. The "trick" of this album was that it was divided into two parts - "Northern Boogie" and "Flight to the Moon".
Several tracks of this collection served as soundtracks for the film "Gongofer", directed by Bakhyt Kilibaev. The sound of psychedelic and progressive rock is clearly audible in the album "Northern Boogie".
In the early 1990s, the band's discography was replenished with the fourth studio album, Song of Unrequited Love for the Motherland. Music critics call this work the best album in the discography of the Zero group.
Almost all the songs included in the collection became hits. It is obligatory to listen to the song: “I'm going, I smoke”, “Man and cat”, “Song about a real Indian”, “Lenin Street”.
1992 was an incredibly productive year for musicians. The Zero group released two albums at once: Polundra and Dope Ripe. In the first one, you can hear obscene language, which was not observed in the previous work of the team.
Team Zero today
In 2017, the group presented a new single, which was called "Time to Live". It is noteworthy that this composition was the last work of Chistyakov and Nikolaev.
In the same 2017, it became known that Fedor Chistyakov decided to cancel concerts in Russia until 2018. The refusal of the frontman of the group "Zero" from the tour is associated with a change in the procedure for obtaining visas to the United States for citizens of the Russian Federation.
In April 2017, Chistyakov left for America after the Jehovah's Witnesses were banned in Russia. The musician was isolated from his audience in the first place.
On May 3, 2020, the silence was broken. Chistyakov played the online concert "Renewal" in New York.
