Boris Grebenshchikov. (Large jpg - 27K)
A former member of the British band "The Waterboys" has signed up with top Russian rock band "Aquarium" for its latest tour.
Mandolin and saxophone player Anthony Thistlethwaite will appear alongside Aquarium's lead singer-songwriter Boris Grebenshchikov on the band's extensive tour of the country which takes in St Petersburg this week.
This most recent addition to the line-up once worked in studios with the likes of Bob Dylan and Donovan.
Hotfoot from his recent successful British tour which promoted his second solo album, "Aesop Wrote a Fable," Thistlethwaite will make his debut with Aquarium at the forthcoming concert on Thursday. A few days after the show Aquarium will head for Britain to record an album in a London studio.
The folk-influenced, seven-piece rock band which plays guitars, electric bass, accordion, flute, clarinet and violin, will premier its latest releases at the 3,500-seat Oktyabrsky Concert Hall.
The new material is somewhat gloomier than previous material written by Boris Grebenshchikov over the past eight months. Grebenshchikov, who also plays on the guitar, said, "The melancholic mood of our new songs has been influenced by current events in Russia like the war in Chechnya." and added that "today's Russia had nothing to do with anything anymore."
Because of the new material and changes within the band's line-up, Grebenshchikov was not sure whether it was a good idea to call the band Aquarium. Indeed the band was billed as "BG" --Grebenshchikov's initials -- for its last low-profile concert in February.
But Grebenshchikov said recently, "Since then we've spent a long time deciding what to call the band, and realized that it was "Aquarium" anyway and there's simply no sense in pretending otherwise."
Grebenshchikov describes the London recording project as a "sort of Christian "Sgt Pepper's," because most of the songs are not sung from the writer's point of view -- the persona being "an ordinary Russian drinker."
While Grebenshchikov's 1989 CBS released album "Radio Silence" targeted the Western mainstream-rock market, the forthcoming album will be put out by the Moscow-based Triary label. If there is any interest from Western recording companies, Grebenshchikov would not object.