The Spring Rhythms. Tbilisi-80 was a musical event held in Tbilisi

Tbilisi

Tbilisi is the capital and the largest city of Georgia, lying on the banks of the Mt'k'vari River. The name is derived from an early Georgian form T'pilisi and it was officially known as Tiflis until 1936...

, capital of the Georgian SSR, Soviet Union

Soviet Union

The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....

, from March 8 to March 16, 1980. It was the first official rock festival

Rock festival

A rock festival, or a rock fest, is a large-scale rock music concert, featuring multiple acts.The first rock festivals were put on in the late 1960s and were important socio-cultural milestones. In the 1980s a minor resurgence of festivals occurred with charity as the goal.Today, they are often...

 in the Soviet Union and is frequently considered the turning point in the history of Soviet and Russian rock

Russian rock

Russian rock refers to rock music made in Russia or in the Russian language. Rock and roll became known in the Soviet Union in the 1960s and quickly broke free from its western roots. According to many music critics, its "golden age" years were the 1980s , when the Soviet underground rock bands...

 music.

Organization

The festival was organized by the Georgian National Philharmonic Hall, the Union of Composers of the Georgian SSR, and the Republican Center for Youth Culture at the Georgian Komsomol

Komsomol

The Communist Union of Youth , usually known as Komsomol , was the youth division of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. The Komsomol in its earliest form was established in urban centers in 1918. During the early years, it was a Russian organization, known as the Russian Communist Union of...

 Central Committee

Central Committee

Central Committee was the common designation of a standing administrative body of communist parties, analogous to a board of directors, whether ruling or non-ruling in the twentieth century and of the surviving, mostly Trotskyist, states in the early twenty first. In such party organizations the...

. The acclaimed Russian musicologist and the first Soviet rock-critic Artemy Troitsky

Artemy Troitsky

Art, Artem, Artemiy or Artemy Troitsky is a Russian journalist, music critic, concert promoter, broadcaster, and an academic who has taught classes on music journalism at Moscow State University. He was born in Yaroslavl, then in the Soviet Union...

 was also heavily involved in organizing the event. The organizers enjoyed the support of Eduard Shevardnadze

Eduard Shevardnadze

Eduard Shevardnadze is a former Soviet, and later, Georgian statesman from the height to the end of the Cold War. He served as President of Georgia from 1995 to 2003, and as First Secretary of the Georgian Communist Party , from 1972 to 1985. Shevardnadze was responsible for many top decisions on...

, the contemporary First Secretary of Georgian Communist Party, who is said to have sought, in this way, to pacify the Georgian youth increasingly involved in nationalist and dissident activities after the April 1978 demonstrations in Tbilisi, and to nurture his image as a liberal leader.

Although dubbed by some as a "Soviet Woodstock", the festival was essentially a state-sanctioned musical competition with the declared aim "to promote the development of original Soviet VIA

VIA music

VIA music or Vokalno-instrumentalny ansambl , was the official name applied to pop and rock bands in the Soviet Union...

 music... and to discover new talented performers and composers." The jury, formed by the officially established Soviet composers and musicologists, was chaired by Yuri Saulsky and included Murad Kazhlayev, Giya Kancheli

Giya Kancheli

Giya Kancheli , born 10 August 1935, in Tbilisi, is a Georgian composer resident in Belgium.Since 1991, Kancheli has lived in Western Europe: first in Berlin, and since 1995 in Antwerp, where he is composer-in-residence for the Royal Flemish Philharmonic....

, Konstantin Pevzner, Vladimir Rubashevsky, Arkadi Petrov, and others. Many suspected that the festival was an attempt by the Soviet establishment to channel the Soviet rock movement into a controllable ideological vessel. However, the event was truly democratic in that it allowed amateur performers to contest on equal terms with professional musicians. Over twenty groups from seventeen cities of the Soviet Union arrived in Tbilisi to take part in the event. Yet, several notable bands, for example Sergei Rudnitsky's Araks and Aleksey Romanov’s Voskresenie were not invited to take part in the competition.

Prize winners

The first prize was awarded to two acts: Gunnar Graps

Gunnar Graps

Gunnar Graps-Grafs was a popular Estonian musician and one of the pioneers of hard rock in Estonia and Soviet Union. He has sold hundreds of thousands of records all over the world and in 2004 Graps was given a lifetime award at Estonian Music Awards...

's Magnetic Band

Magnetic Band

-History:Magnetic Band was formed in 1976 by Gunnar Graps. They played jazz-rock, which had influences of reggae and funk-soul. Later, after Graps graduated from Tallinn music school , Magnetic Band was reformed and started to play metal-rock as well...

 and Mashina Vremeni

Mashina Vremeni

Mashina Vremeni is a Russian rock band founded in 1969. Mashina Vremeni was a pioneer in Soviet rock music, and remains one of the oldest still active rock bands in Russia...

. Magnetic Band from Tallinn

Tallinn

Tallinn is the capital and largest city of Estonia. It occupies an area of with a population of 414,940. It is situated on the northern coast of the country, on the banks of the Gulf of Finland, south of Helsinki, east of Stockholm and west of Saint Petersburg. Tallinn's Old Town is in the list...

, Estonia

Estonia

Estonia , officially the Republic of Estonia , is a state in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland, to the west by the Baltic Sea, to the south by Latvia , and to the east by Lake Peipsi and the Russian Federation . Across the Baltic Sea lies...

 performed a mixture of jazz-rock, blues

Blues

Blues is the name given to both a musical form and a music genre that originated in African-American communities of primarily the "Deep South" of the United States at the end of the 19th century from spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads...

 and funk

Funk

Funk is a music genre that originated in the mid-late 1960s when African American musicians blended soul music, jazz and R&B into a rhythmic, danceable new form of music. Funk de-emphasizes melody and harmony and brings a strong rhythmic groove of electric bass and drums to the foreground...

 and was noted for their instrumental mastership. Mashina Vremeni is a rock band from Moscow

Moscow

Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...

 and led by Andrei Makarevich

Andrei Makarevich

Andrey Vadimovich Makarevich is a Soviet and Russian rock musician, founder of the Russia's oldest still active rock band Mashina Vremeni .-Biography:Makarevich was born in Moscow to the parents of Belarusian and Jewish origin...

, which fascinated the public with their poetic lyrics and, through this success, firmly established themselves on the Soviet rock scene.

The second prize was won by Alexander Sitkovetsky

Alexander Sitkovetsky

Alexander Sitkovetsky is a British violinist.-Family:Sitkovetsky was born in Moscow to a musical family; his father being guitarist and composer Alexander Sitkovetsky of the Autograph fame, mother Olga Sitkovetsky being a pianist, his great uncle and aunts being violinist Julian Sitkovetsky and...

’s art-rock group Autograph

Autograph (Russian band)

Autograph was a Soviet Russian art rock band, considered a pioneer of progressive rock music in Russia.The group was founded in 1979 by Alexander "Sasha" Sitkovetsky, and achieved a considerable success at the first Soviet state-sanctioned rock festival held in Tbilisi, Georgia with Sitkovetsky's...

 hailing from Moscow, Gunesh from Ashkhabad, Turkmen SSR

Turkmen SSR

The Turkmen Soviet Socialist Republic , also known as the Turkmen SSR for short, was one of republics of the Soviet Union in Central Asia. It was initially established on 7 August 1921 as the Turkmen Oblast of the Turkestan ASSR. On 13 May 1925 it was transformed into Turkmen SSR and became a...

, playing jazz-rock based on Turkmen folk melodies, and Labyrinth from Batumi

Batumi

Batumi is a seaside city on the Black Sea coast and capital of Adjara, an autonomous republic in southwest Georgia. Sometimes considered Georgia's second capital, with a population of 121,806 , Batumi serves as an important port and a commercial center. It is situated in a subtropical zone, rich in...

, Adjar ASSR

Adjar ASSR

The Adjar ASSR, Adzhar ASSR or Adjarian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic was an autonomous republic of the Soviet Union within the Georgian SSR, established on 16 July 1921...

, Georgia, which performed a half-hour composition marrying folk-rock with traditional Georgian choral music.

The professional Georgian soft-rock band VIA-75 led by Robert Bardzimashvili

Robert Bardzimashvili

Roberti Bardzimashvili was a very famous Georgian musician. He was the founder, lead vocalist, creative director, and guitarist of Orera. Formed in 1958, Orera became a Soviet sensation on the scale of Beatlemania...

, to the surprise of many, received only the third prize which they shared with Dialog led by the organist Kim Breitburg from Donetsk

Donetsk

Donetsk , is a large city in eastern Ukraine on the Kalmius river. Administratively, it is a center of Donetsk Oblast, while historically, it is the unofficial capital and largest city of the economic and cultural Donets Basin region...

, Ukrainian SSR

Ukrainian SSR

The Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic or in short, the Ukrainian SSR was a sovereign Soviet Socialist state and one of the fifteen constituent republics of the Soviet Union lasting from its inception in 1922 to the breakup in 1991...

, the eclectic band Integral from Saratov

Saratov

-Modern Saratov:The Saratov region is highly industrialized, due in part to the rich in natural and industrial resources of the area. The region is also one of the more important and largest cultural and scientific centres in Russia...

, Russian SFSR, and Tip-Top from Riga

Riga

Riga is the capital and largest city of Latvia. With 702,891 inhabitants Riga is the largest city of the Baltic states, one of the largest cities in Northern Europe and home to more than one third of Latvia's population. The city is an important seaport and a major industrial, commercial,...

, Latvian SSR

Latvian SSR

The Latvian Soviet Socialist Republic , also known as the Latvian SSR for short, was one of the republics that made up the Soviet Union. Established on 21 July 1940 as a puppet state during World War II in the territory of the previously independent Republic of Latvia after it had been occupied by...

, whose success was largely indebted to the singer Harald Simanis.

A popular Georgian beat

Beat music

Beat music, British beat, or Merseybeat is a pop and rock music genre that developed in the United Kingdom in the early 1960s. Beat music is a fusion of rock and roll, doo wop, skiffle, R&B and soul...

-band Blitz led by Valery Kocharov was awarded a special prize of the audience.

The compilation of the award-winning songs was released as a 2 LP Laureaty festivalya "Vesenniye ritmy" Tbilisi-80 (Лауреаты фестиваля "Весенние ритмы" Тбилиси – 80; "Laureates of the Festival Spring Rhythms Tbilisi-80") by the Soviet state-run record label

Record label

In the music industry, a record label is a brand and a trademark associated with the marketing of music recordings and music videos. Most commonly, a record label is the company that manages such brands and trademarks, coordinates the production, manufacture, distribution, marketing and promotion,...

 Melodiya

Melodiya

Melodiya is a Russian record label. It was the state-owned major record company/label of the Soviet Union.-History:It was established in 1964 as the "All-Union Gramophone Record Firm of the USSR Ministry of Culture Melodiya"...

 in 1981.

The prize-winning songs

1. Mashina Vremeni. Crustalny gorod (music and lyrics by Andrei Makarevich)

2. Mashina Vremeni. Sneg (music and lyrics by Andrei Makarevich)

3. Autograph. Irlandia. Ulster (A. Sitkovetsky – M. Pushkina)

4. Labyrinth. Sakartvelo (M. Kiladze)

5. Autograph. Pristegnite remni bezopasnosti (A. Sitkovetsky)

6. Autograph. Caprice Blues (A. Sitkovetsky)

7. Integral. Stranniy mir (Ch. Nemen – V. Lugovoi)

8. Integral. Suliko

Suliko

Suliko is a Georgian female and male name meaning 'soul'. It is also the title of a love poem written in 1895 by Akaki Tsereteli, which became widely known throughout the Soviet Union as a song performed with music composed by Varenka Tsereteli. In that form it was often performed on radio during...

(Georgian folk song)

9. Magnetic Band. Lady Blues (music and lyrics by Gunnar Graps)

10. VIA-75. Samshoblo (Georgian folk melody; lyrics by Akaki Tsereteli

Akaki Tsereteli

Prince Ak'ak'i Tsereteli was a prominent Georgian poet and national liberation movement figure.He was born in the village of Skhvitori on June 9, 1840 to the prominent Georgian aristocratic family. His father was Prince Rostom Tsereteli...

; arranged by R. Bardzimashvili)

11. Magnetic Band. Troubadour on a Highway (G. Graps – V. Mirtem)

12. Labyrinth. Moya Gruzia (M. Kiladze – I. Noneshvili)

13. Gunesh. Reka Tuni (Turkmen folk song, arranged by Sh. Byashimov)

14. Integral. Podsnezhnik (Tatar folk song, arranged by B. Alibasov and V. Dolenko)

Controversies

Among the notable participants, the veteran Soviet rock bands VIA-Ariel and Stas Namin

Stas Namin

Stas Namin is a Russian-Armenian musician, composer, and record producer; artist and photographer; theatre and film director and producer; entrepreneur, promoter, and businessman...

 Group did not win any prizes. Boris Grebenshchikov

Boris Grebenshchikov

Boris Borisovich Grebenshchikov also known as Boris Purushottama Grebenshikov, is one of the most prominent members of the generation which is widely considered the "founding fathers" of Russian rock music...

’s Aquarium

Aquarium (group)

Aquarium or Akvarium is a Russian rock group, formed in Leningrad in 1972 by Boris Grebenshchikov, then a student of Applied Mathematics at Leningrad State University, and Anatoly Gunitsky, then a playwright and absurdist poet.-History:...

 was also left without laurels, but the band's outlandish stage antics made Aquarium into a symbol of the Soviet alternative culture. The jury members walked out of a concert when the musicians drank port wine right on the stage and made provocative body movements, with Grebenshchikov playing his guitar in the prone position. The show came as a shock to the organizers and led to an effective ban of the band. Yet, Aquarium managed to organize a second concert in Gori, Georgia

Gori, Georgia

Gori is a city in eastern Georgia, which serves as the regional capital of Shida Kartli and the centre of the homonymous administrative district. The name is from Georgian gora , that is, "heap", or "hill"...

, in a spacious circus hall near the birthplace of Joseph Stalin

Joseph Stalin

Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin was the Premier of the Soviet Union from 6 May 1941 to 5 March 1953. He was among the Bolshevik revolutionaries who brought about the October Revolution and had held the position of first General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union's Central Committee...

. The concert was filmed by a Finnish

Finland

Finland , officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden in the west, Norway in the north and Russia in the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.Around 5.4 million people reside...

 TV crew and the segments were included into a 40-minute film of the Tbilisi festival called Soviet Rock.

External links

• A 1970s image of Tbilisi Philharmonic Hall that hosted the festival. From The Great Soviet Encyclopedia, 3rd edition (1969–1978). Cultinfo.ru.