Oleg Garkusha will celebrate his 35th birthday with two "artistic nights" at the Art Clinic club.
Garkusha is a member of Auktsyon, one of the very few local bands which used to be Russian rock sensations in the 1980s but managed to survive without sacrificing their integrity to post-Soviet commerciality.
To do this the band had to tour Germany extensively, the tours being organized by their Hamburg-based international manager, but they continue to put out their albums in Russia and play in St Petersburg once every three months or so.
Musically, the input of Garkusha is limited; on Auktsyon's CDs you can mostly hear his back-up vocals. But when on stage, he is in the center of all, overshadowing other musicians -- he sings, shouts, dances in his own quite a peculiar manner and plays assorted instruments, which are often children's toys.
It his him whom Auktyon's neophyte fans mistake for the band's leader and whom journalists and photographers are after. Movie makers took notice of his unusual appearance, but eventually he played only a few cameos.
It will be just normal "artistic nights," said Garkusha about his planned appearances at the Art Clinic this month.
"I will not play guitar or anything. I am going to read some poems, prose, answer questions -- to mix with people, to put it in one word. I made it before. People like it."
Garkusha, who had some of his poems published in a small book called "An Old Pioneer," has recently finished a book of prose.
He said, "It is kind of memoirs, rememberings of my childhood, youth, how I started to be in a group, tours, anecdotes... It has been finished, but I have to collect money to have it published as my second book."