Alexey Khaas biography. “Hair fluttered even among the bald”: to the twentieth anniversary of the Titanic club
promoter, club owner
“I've always enjoyed doing this. I made my first disco with my classmate Vitka in the seventh grade. The impetus was a well-known theme - only from the eighth grade it was possible to go to school discos. In general, we agreed with the pioneer leader, in a landfill we found a ramp thrown out by someone and dragged it on ourselves along the railroad, because it did not fit into the bus. It took us a whole day - they actually started carrying it at two o'clock in the afternoon, and brought it at ten o'clock in the evening. According to the schemes from the magazine "Technology of Youth", light music was soldered. Vitka brought a Comet reel-to-reel tape recorder from home, and we made a disco. All high school students were with us!
After school, I went into commerce for a while. He tried to “iron” foreigners, he sold gold. Many then dealt with gold - at the state price it cost $ 2.3, and was sold at "six point two." I sometimes loaded half a kilo a day in the bridal salon on Yakimanka - can you imagine what kind of money? My record was $2,600 a day. In 1990! Think about it!
I have said many times that my career as a promoter began with a scam. My friend and I went to "Mobile" (1992 party. - Note. ed.). I really liked it, and I asked: “Sereg, and who did all this - foreigners?” And he: “Yes, good, what kind of foreigners? There is Timur Lansky from the Institute of Culture, he has a diploma as a director of cultural events, and he did it.” So I met Timur, and we decided to create something together. I remember I asked: “Where are the DJs, Timur, will we take?” And he says: “Let's call with M-Radio!” Who does not remember, it was one of two radio stations existing in the FM band, the DJs on which were called Super-Alena and Vanya Kovboy. We went to them - they said that they can do everything. But, in principle, we didn’t care: we were doing a one-time event in order to earn extra money. Only here it was not entirely clear how to do it. It is now that he picked up the phone, and in an hour a hundred guards come to you. And then Timur took some guys from the rocking chair and put them under the guise of guards at the entrance. And next to VDNKh, right behind the Cosmos Hotel, was Mazutka - the most criminal district of Moscow. So, all Mazutka came to our event in the Cosmos pavilion, which we called Gagarin-party-3. And our guards, as soon as they saw these lessons, real repeat offenders, simply stepped aside. I didn't see it with my own eyes. I only remember: some pops were heard, I grab our cash register, which consisted of one cardboard box, and run to the roof of the Cosmos. In general, we didn’t really earn money then, but I realized that doing something similar to me was more interesting than reselling gold.
And Timur and I started building the Penthouse. I just left the girl and began to live in a club under construction. I am a builder by education, I wonder: you get up in the morning, and the construction is already underway. And then one of the autumn nights I hear: some kind of running around ... And we had guards - two grandfathers. So, they put the solvent in a corner, and next to it they hung such a sheet with a spiral inside on the wall - now, in my opinion, they have already been banned - you plug it into an outlet, and the sheet is heated. One of the guards took and hung his socks on him. The sheet went short, the socks caught fire, the solvent in the corner flared up - in general, a fire started. I run, fasten my pants on the go, sneakers, as I remember now, I have New Balance. I ran, and there two floors were already on fire and the third was starting to burn. But we have fire extinguishers everywhere. I grabbed one, tore off the pin, directed the jet to the fire, and the fire fie answered me, just zero emotions. This, I remember, surprised me the most. I thought you could put out half a house with one fire extinguisher.
In short, I threw all the fire extinguishers that I had into the frying pan and called the firemen. I jumped out to meet them at Karetny Ryad in sneakers on my bare feet, in a T-shirt, and I see how they are already on their way to me. They drive up, begin to unload - they seemed to me huge in their headsets, like fairy-tale characters, knights. I run around them: "Uncle, there, uncle, there is a fire." And they pushed me away with their huge mittens and said: “Boy, move away, don’t interfere, we’ll do everything now.” And calmly, without haste, everything was extinguished. Three months before the opening, this fire was. The most interesting thing is that we have almost completed the construction of the club and even heated it. And in one night it was covered with a thick layer of ice. But I must say, we all became more active, picked up picks, shovels - and raked everything. Three months later, at the opening in the already newly heated Penthouse, some group performed - girls with bare boobs.
For the new generation, everything we did was pop. Why is that? I understood a long time ago: if you want to find the answer, project the question onto yourself. And I began to remember. For example, the Ptyuch club. Let's say Vanya Salmaksov is playing, and then the hyper-popular Madonna accidentally stops by there. He wants to sing, they say to Salmaksov: "Van, don't play now - she will sing." What will I do in such a situation? Naturally, I will shout: "Remove Madonna, leave Vanya alone." Each generation has its own religion. And for hipsters, what we did is pop. Like Madonna twenty years ago for me.
There used to be a lot of romance, it manifested itself in everything. For example, on Tuesday morning you walk down the street - and the feeling that you belong to some separate caste. You are strange, cheerful, walking around Moscow while everyone else is going to work. And you can safely talk on any topic with your friends - no one will understand anyway. There were few events then, everyone tried to get to them, listen to music, and club. And so it was until everything turned into a tough commercial story. True, not very profitable.
Our country is different from others in that we do not have young people who can spend fifty dollars to enter the club. The clubs are idle. Take the same Burning Man festival in the USA, for which a ticket costs $380. The audience is the middle class, ready to spend two or three thousand per weekend. Do you remember, in the movie "Casino" Robert De Niro's character says that the days when the casinos were run by us guys from the streets are over, corporations came, they began to calculate the average dollar per person. So, this did not happen in Russia. None of the serious businessmen undertook to calculate the average dollar per club visitor. The rave never grew into a business. But Moscow is a different story altogether. Lech Haas once said coolly: "Peter is nostalgically sad, and Moscow is a tavern." Looking at what is happening now, we can specifically say: the taverns have won.
In general, our whole conversation about the past reminds me of the words from Makarevich's song. There, according to the plot, two rock and roll players meet:
“Do you remember, Mishka seventy-second,
Both the psychodrome and the session at Luzhniki?
How the doors were kicked in with their heads,
How did the fans carry us in their arms?
The interview was recorded in the summer of 2014 for the project Oleg Tsodikov Made in Dance.
What did Alexey Gorobiy do
- 1993December
- 2004–2006
- 2014December 25
Together with his friend Sergei Soloveichik, in April he attends one of the first Russian raves Mobile, which was held by promoters Ivan Salmaksov and Evgeny Birman on the cycle track in Krylatskoye. Gorobiy falls in love with electronic music. In the summer, together with a former student of the directing department of the Moscow State Institute of Cinematography, Timur Lansky, he takes part in organizing the Gagarin Party 3 rave in the Cosmos pavilion at VDNKh. According to the memoirs of Gorobiy himself, "it was a pure scam." Nevertheless, they held several more events under the general name "Gagarin Party".
After nine months of construction, together with Timur Lansky in the Hermitage garden, he opens the Penthouse club, where he organizes parties with “complex” music on Mondays - house, trance, techno and hardcore. It also holds several Trancemission parties, the first of which gathered under 2000 people. The club itself, having worked for six months, closed after a fire.
Gorobiy and Underwater Promo Group (Oleg Tsodikov and Dmitry Fedorov) went to Kazantip for the sake of interest in 1996 and were completely delighted with the decision to take an active part in organizing the festival. Before the trip, he leaves the Titanic, because, according to his recollections, "he was tired of working for the bandits, and he was just tired."
Together with Oleg Tsodikov, Gennady Kostrov and Alexander Yakut, he takes part in the opening of the Rotunda Gallery at the Museum of Minerals of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Strange and conceptual events of the widest profile are held there - from exhibitions of neo-academicists and classical music concerts to private techno-after-parties and the wedding of Timur Mammadov. Gorobiy himself worked on this project for quite a bit, because he saw what success Sinisa Lazarevich achieved with his Jazz Cafe.
Furniture and carpets are brought from India to a small establishment on Kuznetsky Most, they enlist the support of sponsors and rely on light music - the then fashionable French disco house. In fact, from Shambhala, Gorobiy, together with the former owner of the Hermitage club, Sveta Vickers, makes his own version of the Jazz Cafe. The place quickly acquires a cult status, and in the summer at night a traffic jam grows on the Kuznetsky Most from expensive cars, beautiful girls and rich dads. It is believed that it was from Shambhala that the era of glamor began and all the technology of expensive clubs was tested here. In the same year, together with the restaurateur Alexander Oganezov, he opened the Jet Set club.
Realizing that it is not stability that is important for the wealthy public, but something new, Gorobiy launches seasonal projects - Winter, Summer, Autumn. All of them do not live long, but they become real places of power of that era. "Winter" was built from scratch in a record 43 days, "Summer" operated on the Yauzskaya embankment, "Autumn" - in the premises of the former Central Baths. The success of these clubs spawns a string of rival clubs like First, Opera and Billionaire.
After a seasonal escapade in the Hermitage Garden, Gorobiy, together with promoters Sinisa Lazarevich and Mikhail Kozlov, builds the Diaghilev club, which was supposed to work for a year, but ended up functioning for two. Face control, boxes for fabulous money, queues for a paid toilet, government members in the crowd and remixes of Soviet pop music - Diaghilev became the peak of the era of Moscow glamor and burned down on February 7, 2008.
On the site of the former Begemot club, Imperia Lounge is being launched. The construction went on for about two years, and according to the plan, it was supposed to be the most luxurious club - with LED panels, a fancy DJ. However, despite the fabulous investment, the place did not live up to expectations. In 2011, the club changed its name to Premier Lounge, and quietly closed two years later.
After the Premier Lounge closed, Alexey Gorobiy's GoroPro team moved to Krasny Oktyabr, where they began to engage in weekend events at Shakti Terrace - they were called "ART (spruce) Insomnia". However, Alexey himself, after his 45th birthday in February 2014, is moving away from management. In an interview with Gorod, he commented on his position as follows: “The ass is full. I didn't like being there."
The heart of Alexei Gorobiy stopped in Bolivia, where he came to relax with a large company. He was buried in Moscow at the Khovansky cemetery.
Gorobiy in the memories of friends
former promoter, now co-owner of the Chaihona No. 1 network
“In 1992, Lesha and I made Gagarin Party 3. We only knew about the Petersburgers and their Gagarin from the words of our friend Lelik, who visited the squat on the Fontanka, and then told us about how people play vinyl records on turntables, how melodies shimmer into one another, like a girl of fabulous beauty dancing to it. To our inexperienced brains, this was amazing. Our party was on June 1 - the very next day after the opening of the disco "At Lis's" in the "Olympic". On this occasion, Lesha and I spent the night walking around the parking lot around the sports complex and laying out flyers under the car wipers. And then it was scary: we walked around the Cosmos pavilion with pockets full of money - proceeds from the entrance, and at one in the morning the nine wrestlers we hired could no longer cope with the flow of people, and a huge crowd rushed inside. I think it was after this that Lesha developed a passion for “serpentines” - metal fences at the entrance so that people would stand in a line.
Actually, we only trained at the Gagarin Party. Even then, our main dream was the club. In March 1994, we opened the Penthouse in the Hermitage. The director of the garden was my friend from GITIS Andrey Kebal. He rented the former Mermaid restaurant to Sveta Vickers, where she created the Hermitage club, and advised us to take either the Shchukin box or the Mirror Theater, where Chaliapin once sang Mephistopheles. The box was full of scenery, which was brought there from all over Moscow, and in the theater there was a huge crystal chandelier and there were very beautiful boxes; we made a club there. "Penthouse" was under construction for nine months - Lekha practically lived in the club. I myself am not a lazy person, but I was always far from Lesha.
For this period of time in Russia there is no person who would have achieved more in the club culture than Gorobiy. Actually, I don't fully believe what happened. I asked the people who were involved in all these sad events - the transportation of the body, the funeral - no one saw him so clearly in the coffin, do you understand? And knowing the scale of Lekhina's fantasy, his determination to commit a fairly thoughtful and at the same time courageous act, I do not exclude that everything is not as tragic as they think. I want to believe in it."
Producer
“My eldest daughter introduced us to Lesha at Penthouse. The next time we saw each other was on the Titanic. It was about to open, and we worked very hard. I remember that what surprised me about him was not how fast he was, but, on the contrary, how slow he was. I mean - how he painstakingly treated the details, how he loved to systematically write everything down. “Well, well, well, wait a second, we haven’t finalized this item.” I was more struck by this feature in him than by the reactivity, which, of course, always caught my eye.
Somehow, on New Year's Eve, we got carried away with the invention of a flyer and at some point came up with such a non-standard solution: to make an invitation in the form of a huge heart-shaped box rattling with candies. But either the boxes were expensive, or sweets ... We counted, and it turned out to be a very decent amount for those times. Our commercial partner, who always listened to us, reacted sharply. Perhaps even for him it was expensive, or maybe it was just emotionally difficult for him to agree to a box in the form of a heart. He said, "I won't give you money." We looked at each other, and, despite the fact that none of us had any savings in the mid-1990s, we made boxes for our own money.
I am sure that everyone who worked with Lesha has similar stories: he was always ready to give his all to the cause, burn and ignite those around him. He was one of the best who made this celebration of life. We can think of another hundred and twenty names for what Lech was doing. We can use this phrase or not, agree with it or disagree, pronounce it with banter, sarcasm or respect. The essence does not change: Gorobiy was one of the few who in the 1990s and in the 2000s knew how to create a real celebration of life.
Photo: from the personal archive of Oleg Tsodikov
designer, DJ
“Lesha was sunny. When I say to myself "Lesha Gorobiy" - as if a bright light bulb is turned on somewhere. We met at the Hermitage in the early 90s. In general, we, St. Petersburg residents, have always had a cold attitude towards Muscovites. Especially after they held "Gagarin-party-3", after which it became completely clear that this was the usual extortion of money from the brand. We didn't mind that someone stole our idea, but we didn't like that people couldn't come up with something new. Then, of course, I forgave everything, and we were all just friends.
The merit of Lehi is that he was the first to clearly understand: people get tired of clubs. And after Shambhala, he did not get involved in a fundamental construction project with serious investments, but made a transforming club. "Winter" - it was a huge barn, the former club "Pilot", which was rented for some insignificant period. Lekha invited the workers, whom I had pulled up at the Titanic at one time, real theater masters who made scenery for the Bolshoi Theater. I think that it was they who pushed him to the idea that it was necessary not to build a club, but to put on a performance. The only negative of the scenery is that from afar they seem to be something awesome, but close up you can see that this is a pure fake made of plastic and polyethylene. In Zima, the distracting factor was four flamethrowers brought from St. Petersburg by the Rechniki Roma Gruzovoy and Timofey Abramov, and a giant disco ball a meter and a half in diameter, which was brought from somewhere in Spain. A ball from the times of the first discotheques of the 1980s: such a mechanical orange that opened up, and it was clear that it had lamps inside. So, an orange, flamethrowers, white fabric around the perimeter, dancers in fur hats. Actually, everything. There was nothing else. Club-transformer - easy to assemble, easy to disassemble and move to a new location.
I remember how Lesha came to the club "Most", which I was just building then. He watched me work and said: “Alexey, why the hell are you doing this? You spend so much energy on this toilet, on this sound system!” I wondered: "Yes, why?" And he: “Yes, because Moscow does not need it! She needs women, drags and places where these women with these drags can be fucked!” I answered that I did not want to build clubs for such people. And he said: “There are no others in Moscow! If you want the club to bring in money, put together a stall out of plywood and pour warm champagne in it! Sounds cynical, but it's true. At the same time, there was no falsehood in Lech. Everything he did, he did with a clear conscience. And therefore he was one of my closest Muscovites in spirit.
Deputy Director for Education and Research of the IT Cluster of the Skolkovo Foundation, former photographer
“We met Lesha at the Penthouse, became colleagues at the Titanic, and then the acquaintance turned into friendship. We talked with the same people, grew up on the same things. In 2000, I left to study and for some time stopped following what was happening in Moscow. I remember that on one of my visits Lesha opened "Summer". In the three years since I was gone, the city has changed. Some new format appeared, when DJs were no longer as important as glitter, tinsel, a sense of intoxication and celebration. I remember that Lesha, when he saw me at the club, was very happy, he took me everywhere, showed me everything. It was evident that he was very glad to see us, despite the fact that we had not seen each other for several years. Then he said: “Gadget, there are not so many people in Moscow whose opinion about what I do is important to me, you are one of them.” I still remember these words of his and the feeling that we are “of the same blood” - no matter where we are and what we are. In Lesha, in general, there was this personal integrity, especially in relations with friends. Suddenly this man was gone - and it was as if one column had been removed from the colonnade. And everything seems to be OK, but something is missing.
Promoter
“In 2001, I was sitting without a project, and Lesha invited me to work at Shambhala. Before that, he had dealt only with large projects - "Penthouse", "Titanic", and I, on the contrary, only with small ones. We decided to join forces.
Lesha did not like the idea of dividing visitors into classes with Misha Kozlov. Lesha was for democracy. But since we all wanted to get paid, we had to learn how to earn money. At first we made only two boxes paid for, then we started selling the swings on the first floor, then all the other tables. The money earned went to work. "Shambhala" did not live without entertainment. It's like an Indian movie - it cost the same crazy money as Bollywood. The only difference was that Indian films are watched by a billion Indians, and we did not have such an audience.
I remember we all went to Italy together. And Lesha liked to carry all things with him - in fact, such a suitcase for two days! I told him: "You're about to fall apart." And so it happened. When we flew from Sardinia to the continent, I look - it is not and is not there, but the plane is already taking off, and I do not know where to look for it, and the phones do not work. As a result, he arrived with his collapsed suitcase only a day later. And there - and I also warned - they did not give him a car for rent because he did not have an international license. We had to take a taxi and pay a thousand euros for a trip to Monte Carlo. Or in Japan, where we came to watch Formula 1. He got on the wrong train and missed all the races. It was interesting to travel with him.
Lesha was different from other people, and I even made comments to him about this. I mean a difference that borders on discord. For example, I constantly keep myself in shape - physical and mental. I tried to explain to Lesha that mental health is the most important thing, that without it there can be no physical health, that happiness, which everyone is running after, is in our mind, just think about it. But we never got along. He was painfully honest.
And I started working in clubs 25 years ago, and one of the first lessons was this: the best girl in the disco is the new one. And if a person thinks otherwise, he should not work in this business. Lesha apparently thought differently, but he was still the best in our industry.”
Promoter
“Michael Jackson gave his first and only concert in Moscow at the Dynamo stadium, and we are standing with Nightingale (Sergey Soloveichik is a club figure in the early 90s, now he is a restaurateur. - Note. ed.) near the metro, and suddenly Gorobiy comes up. Looked at me from head to toe and invited me to work as a flyer. And I loved it so much! Back then, I taught history at school, worked during the day, handed out flyers in the evening. Over time, I had a whole army of flyers (and Pasha Face Control started in my army, he was then 14 years old). There were always a lot of people around me, but of all those who one way or another determined my fate, I always singled out, of course, Alexei. I loved him madly.
His Diaghilev was the culmination of all that was good in the Russian club business. The Shchukin Box in the Hermitage Garden is a beautiful little house in the style of Parsley. The entire top ten Forbes visited us there. Once on New Year's Eve I walk past the entrance, and the guards tell me that there is a woman standing there, the face control does not let her through. I approached, we talked. It turned out that she was an English teacher from the Moscow region, that she had been preparing for this evening for a whole month. “I know that it’s expensive for you,” she told me, “but I collected two salaries, I specifically learned how to dress, I want to get into your club.” Of course I let her in. And Alexey, when he found out about it, praised me. "Well done," he says.
Diaghilev burned down in February 2007. Below us was a basement where the janitors who serviced the Hermitage lived: guest workers from the southern regions, who were always cold. Something in their basement ignited - and everything burned down in a minute. At that time we were sitting in a restaurant and celebrating a friend's birthday. We didn't work for a year after that. And then I was invited to Ginza, and Lesha built the Empire Lounge. The last time we saw each other was this summer - we met in a shoe store on Trubnaya. Terribly delighted, went to drink coffee, as a result they drank champagne. And he bought me running shoes. To be honest, I didn’t like them terribly - and for a long time I couldn’t force myself to wear them - and when I started walking in them, everyone asked: “Where did you buy such cool sneakers?” I proudly told that Gorobiy gave them.
former face controller of Jet Set, Shambhala, Zima, Summer, Diaghilev clubs, now he is a managing partner at Duran Bar
“We met Lesha at Jet Set, where I was on face control, and he was a co-founder and appeared occasionally to check on how things were going. After the Jet Set closed, he invited me to his Shambhala, and I went without hesitation. Lesha was a person with whom I wanted to work. He clearly knew what he wanted, and very competently resolved any problems.
Suppose a banal story: I did not let a person into the club, he, of course, was offended, called Gorobiy. Lyosha always went out to the door if something was wrong, and from the outside it didn’t look like the owner of the establishment appeared and commanded: “Let me go, I said.” He always asked my opinion: “What do you think, Pash, can such a person be allowed into the club?” I honestly answered: no, and explained why. For example, Vova Versace - there was such a character - or the Vickers, the whole family, these are still very specific people and look, to put it mildly, scary.
Sometimes he agreed with me, and sometimes he said: “You don’t know these people, Pash, but I do. These are artists, representatives of the creative intelligentsia, we need them at the club, regardless of how they are dressed. That is, he conducted an educational program. And I never humiliated in front of those people whom I did not let in, but could. On the contrary, right there, at the entrance, we were reconciled, introduced. Many of those whom I once didn’t miss in the same “Winter”, with whom I directly quarreled harshly, later became my close friends.
Of course, at some point it became clear that all this creative intelligentsia no longer determines public opinion and it was pointless to call these people to the club with the expectation that crowds of other people would come after them, but Lesha let them in anyway: “These are my old friends, Pash." And this is one of the many qualities that he possessed. That's why I followed him from project to project - it always gave me great pleasure to work with him.
I just remember how Grace Jones performed at Diaghilev. I also came to see, and I see that there is no one on the stage, and Gorobiy runs back and forth around the club in a panic. I ask what the problem is, and he: "The singer does not go on stage." What should I do. “Let's go, Lech,” I say, “we'll figure it out now.” We go into the dressing room, and Grace sits there and demands champagne, but for some reason they don’t bring it to her. In short, Lekha brought champagne, the singer went on stage, and then there was something that I will not retell. I stood behind the tightly closed door, but I still heard Gorobiy yelling at the employees: he fired someone, fined someone. This lasted for several minutes, after which Lech, who let off steam and forgave everyone, treated everyone to champagne ...
Here, they say, friendship is a round-the-clock concept. Lekha and I last saw each other about two years ago. Constantly agreed to meet, he put off everything, and that's what is called met. But I always had the feeling that he was there. There are very few such people. I think that with his departure the club industry will die completely. Only he supported her: he built clubs, invented decorations for them. I don’t know a single promoter today who would bother with each of his projects in the same way as Lech. At one time, I didn’t have enough for the motor itself: in 1998, I realized that I could not step over all these bureaucratic difficulties. But he could - he rested his horns and pushed through.
You have fulfilled yourself in many professions.
I constantly play hide-and-seek with myself, looking for the key that will unlock the locked door to myself. For a long time I thought about who I am by profession, and decided that the English word Artist suits me the most. Capacious like that. Denotes any person engaged in creative work.
When you decided to arrange a disco in the apartment, did you have any problems? Still, the living quarters, the neighbors do not like noise.
There was only one difficulty - we had no money at all. But my friends and I were not particularly worried about this - we had never had money before, so we coped with everything perfectly. And in the very idea - to organize a disco in the apartment - there is, in my opinion, nothing original. Do you invite your friends to parties? Now imagine that you are Prince Yusupov or Shuvalov, you live not in a small communal apartment, but in a palace. Then you invite not two or three guests, but twenty or thirty - to fill the space so that you can run with them, play hide and seek, you never know what.
Your brainchild, the Tunnel club, was recently closed.
To be honest, I don't care what is happening with the "Tunnel" now. I regard it exclusively as my gift to young people. As a child, you probably had a favorite toy - a teddy bear. You played enough with it, grew up - you can put it on a shelf or give it to someone, take it to kindergarten. I chose the last option. That is, of course, it’s not that the fate of my “bear cub” is not at all important to me, but I have already gone beyond that age to be interested in it.
What is important to you now?
The main thing in the world is harmony. Yin and yang. Black and white - one does not exist without the other, the difference is in the lighting. I'm looking for a fair balance, a balance without distortions.
How do you balance yourself?
Now is the era of Aquarius, and feminine energy is important for it. Therefore, I surround myself with women, because only they can calm a man. If they weren't with me, I wouldn't have survived. They direct energy towards life, the world - not for destruction, but for creation.
Do your friends love you more or understand you more?
I'm happy that they tolerate me. I am a heavy and difficult person. If I need, I can be pleasant, but I can be unbearable.
Who will you be in your next life?
Probably a bird. Migratory. I would definitely not want to become a snake, a mole or a fly. I think people were once birds, it's not for nothing that we fly in a dream - we know the feeling of flying. I sometimes feel like a different being, not exactly a person.
In general, do you believe in the Creator or in Darwin's theory?
I don't know what I believe. Some kind of strength. I don't like Darwin's theory. And, of course, I believe in the concept of the Creator. We are called “Architectural Workshop No. 2” because No. 1 is He.
Which of the modern creators-architects are you interested in?
Like Tadao Ando and his basic idea of hiding the idea. Make it invisible yet functional. To turn an object into an absolute from the point of view of the surrounding world: you do not admire the height of the tower or sophisticated decoration, but admire their absence. The first step is bioarchitecture, the next step is fusion. Ando is light and space, which is the most important thing. In architecture, as in life, there is creation and PR. The tower to heaven is PR, and the temple of light is creation. Eastern people follow water, which flows and penetrates everything, Western people follow ice, the atomic system. My wife is a Westerner and I am an Easterner, and that makes sense. We are like a double-headed eagle - we look in different directions, but this makes us see the world better.
The water does not stop, does it introduce an element of incompleteness?
The feeling of incompleteness haunts me all my life. Completion and focus on the result is the Western culture. I am closer to the theory of Tao or bushi-do - "the way of the warrior." Creativity is a path, a search. The path did not take place if you entered a phase in which you do not change. It is not the result that matters, but the movement towards it.
Would you like to live in another country or in another city?
And I had such an opportunity - to live anywhere, and I used it. It still pulls here. There are angels everywhere on the spiers that protect us. Petersburg is the last and at the same time the first city in Europe. It’s just as comfortable only in Amsterdam: there everyone is pretty indifferent to who you are, everyone is busy with themselves. It's free there.
For you, freedom is indifference?
Rather, respect for someone else's life. I have not been to the East, but I have read and thought a lot about it, like Robert Louis Stevenson, who wrote about the sea, although he never went on a ship. I view the Earth as a human organism that has legs, arms, a heart. Accordingly, I subdivide the countries in terms of physiology: Germany - hands, England - brain. The heart is the Himalayas or Petersburg. Our city is a strange place, one could dream about it: unusual in history, place, internal status. Phantom and Ghost. I have a feeling it doesn't belong to us. In the "Dance Floor" on the Fontanka, there was a feeling that we climbed into someone else's life, and I see the shadows of these people. This is a city of shadows, and we are the tenants who were hooked to them. A drug city that you can't get off of so easily.
Personalities
Alexey Khaas
The first Russian club promoter. Creator of the first nightclub "Tantspol" on the Fontanka, 145 and organizer of the first giant raves in the early nineties.
Creator of the first technoclub "Tunnel" and the iconic Moscow club "Titanic".
Currently he lives in St. Petersburg and Moscow, plays in nightclubs, most of the time he is engaged in design. Author of interiors: Giusto, Zhiguli, Tunnel (2002), Ministry, Decadence (2005), Bridge (2006).
Georgy Guryanov
Drummer of the legendary group "Kino" and the most famous artist in contemporary art, aesthete and original. He was the ideological inspirer of the very first dance parties and influenced the development of the entire club movement as a whole. In the early nineties, he rallied the best representatives of artistic Leningrad around the first "Dance Floor".
Currently lives and works in St. Petersburg, actively moving around the world following his exhibitions.
Timur Novikov
An artist, a genius of artistic thought, ahead of his time in his work. From the beginning of the eighties he was a participant in all the most important artistic events in Leningrad, by the end of the nineties he was the creator of a whole artistic movement, the author of scientific works, the founder of the New Academy of Fine Arts and a recognized master. The breadth of vital interests allowed Timur to participate and contribute to the emergence of most of the most interesting projects of his time, one of which in 1990 was the first dance club on the Fontanka.
Timur Petrovich Novikov died in St. Petersburg in 2002, leaving behind an artistic movement that went down in the history of art, thousands of friends and priceless works of art.
Sergey Bugaev (Africa)
Artist, actor, collector, famous character. Being a powerful communicator, he actively contributed to the development of dance culture, participated in all the first parties of the Dance Floor. He published a number of books, was the editor of the magazine "Cabinet", hosted the radio program "Three Little Pigs", participated in a huge number of art projects.
Currently holding exhibitions in major museums and galleries.
Janis Krauklis
The first vinyl DJ who played at parties in Leningrad and Moscow in the period 1989-1991. Formed musical tastes and ideas about house music among many members of the club movement of the early nineties.
Currently not playing, lives in Riga.
Catherine Becker
A German, a bright personality who studied cultural processes in post-perestroika Russia. Bachelor of Arts. Participant of many cultural events in Leningrad 1989-1992. Active member of the dance floor club.
Currently lives and works in Germany, a specialist in Russian art.
Ruben Petrosyan
Organizer of the first house-parties in Moscow and Leningrad. "gray cardinal" of the world techno. He had a significant impact on the development of the club movement in Russia. Lives in Paris.
Ivan Salmaksov
Member of the Dance Club. One of the first promoters. Founder of Block Limited and F. Y. Entertainment. Participated in the organization of a number of the largest dance parties in Moscow. He worked with clubs, played music, performed on the radio, produced musicians and developed the design of clubs. Member of the creation of the iconic Moscow club "Ptyuch". One of the most famous characters of the Moscow club in the mid-nineties. Went missing in the late 1990s.
Evgeny Birman
Founder and CFO of Block Limited and F. Y. Entertainment. Organizer of a number of the largest dance parties in Moscow: Gagarin-party, Mobile, Technoir. Organized parties in St. Petersburg: "Venetsiya", "Bitter House".
Currently not associated with clubs, lives in Canada.
Denis Oding
Artist. Member of the creative group "Sunny Bunnies". Organizer of the informal squat "Svechnoy" and the first technoclub "Tunnel". Co-owner of the promotional company "Kontrfors" and organizer of the largest raves: "Ravemontage", "Eastern Strike", "Maidai", "Soundtropolis", "World dram" n "bass". Prime Minister of the Kazantip Republic. Organizer of the Fresh Wind Festival.
Currently the President of the Corporation of Happiness.
Oleg Nazarov
Artist, member of the creative group "Sunny Bunnies". Organizer of the informal squat "Svechnoy" and the first technoclub "Tunnel". Participated in the creation of the media center "Club Port", held an open-air "Air Fire". Creator of the promotional company "Sound Reflex", brought Cosmic Baby and Sven Watta, Owner of the club "Mama" to Russia.
Currently a member of the Corporation of Happiness.
Mikhail Vorontsov
Talented fashion designer. One of the organizers of the dance floor club on Fontanka, 145, a participant in projects: Planetarium, Chaika, DK Kirov, Gagarin-party.
Since 1992, an independent promoter: Aquadelik, Kristall, Arsenal, Kurort.
One of the first DJs, he performed a lot around the country and abroad, broadcast on the radio.
Since 1995, he became one of the organizers of the "Kontrfors" company, where he still works.
Masha Small
Promoter. She took part in international projects of the club "Tunnel". In 1995 she became one of the organizers of the "Kontrfors" company. Currently, he continues to work on organizing the largest dance projects.
Mikhail Barkhin
Architect and theater artist. Participated in the first dance projects "Block Limited" and "F. Y. Intertaminent. In the mid-1990s, he was the art director of the Planetarium club. Developed the concept and design of the "Port" club. Prepared and held open-ain "Air Fair", "Rest 4 Rest", "Yelagin Island", "Dry Dock", "Alexander I", "Shanz", many other promotions and events. Design author: Sadko restaurant, Griboyedov project, USSR cafe, Sharovnya sports complex, Korova restaurant, Moskva restaurant. Prepared scenery for several performances.
Currently lives in St. Petersburg, is engaged in theater projects, works as an architect, an active member of the Corporation of Happiness.
Irena Kuksenaite
Artist, model and actress. Participated in all projects of the dance floor club since its foundation. Editor of the scientific publication "Cabinet". She starred in the films "Forests", "Weekend in Hell", "All Against One" and "Document P". In 1998 in London she received the title of "Alternative Miss World". Participated in the project "Flora and Fauna".
Currently lives and works in St. Petersburg, is engaged in graphics.
Marina Albi Maud
Lives in Russia since 1985. Participant of the first teleconferences between the USSR and the "capitalist world". Headed a large American company; leaving business, settled in St. Petersburg. Organized the project "Flora and Fauna".
Currently he advises heads of state, teaches at the university, practices yoga and coordinates the work of an eco-hotel in Egypt.
Ekaterina Golitsyna
Came from England in the early nineties. She became an active participant in many art projects, attended Dance Floor events, and promoted Russian music in Anglin.
She opened a library in St. Petersburg, starred in films.
Currently lives in London, often in St. Petersburg.
"New Composers" Valery Alakhov, Igor Verichev
One of the first dance groups. They made a huge contribution to the development of electronic music. They performed at many parties and large raves in the early nineties. Released several albums.
Sergei Zaitsev (Hare)
Member of the dance floor club from the first day of its foundation. Squager, jovial and fashionista, a visitor to all club events since 1990. Member of the club "Tunnel".
He died in India while trying to build his own club there.
Igor Borisov (Long)
Member of all projects of the dance floor club since 1990. Currently, he is a program director at a radio station in Kostroma.
Lena Popova
The first female DJ in Russia. She started playing at the Tunnel club as a tech DJ. She lived in squats, broadcast on Port FM radio, worked as a promoter, and participated in art projects. In 2002, together with Alexei Khaas, she took part in the restoration of the legendary Tunnel project.
The Most Club parted ways with its promotional team headed by Georgy Petrushin and invited the well-known St. Petersburg promoter, designer and DJ Alexei Khaas to develop a new concept for the establishment.
In my opinion, Most has never been a club. There was a point, a platform, a place of events. Sometimes understandable, sometimes not entirely. The glamorous Paris Hilton came here. Barbara Panter was drunk on the walls here. Celebrities and oligarchs, expats and just students gathered here. But no one could understand - why? It was some territory. But did this place ever exist as a club? After all, a club is a place of interest. Or was the word "club" used simply because they did not know another definition? Corporate events - please, some kind of birthday - no problem. Anything. The last few months in the "Most" - perestroika. In the role of Gorbachev - Alexei Khaas.
What will happen in the new Bridge?
Now I would like to implement it a bit as a club. A club is a certain idea, strategy and direction in which we are moving. And people who like this direction and vector are with us.
What do you like?
Music has always been important to me. Music is the key that opens any closed locks of nightlife. Because sound and music are the main components of the club. What kind of music, such people, such requests and topics in the bar.
"Flying gait" will be?
Difficult question. May be. But this is not the main vector. Still, I would like the music to be interesting first of all. And, of course, different. I don't want to say smart or intellectual, but that it be not boring, unusual music that can be heard not always and not all the time, but only in this place. For people to come here to dance to good music. Probably, in order to meet a girl or a guy, and for other reasons. But the main thing is that there should be high-quality music.
What is quality music for you?
This is Frankie Knuckles, this is David Morales, Roger Sanchez.
And now about the design and interior. What are you changing here and why?
We changed the DJ. Made sound elsewhere. We slightly expanded the places for sofas and combined two small bars into one large one. The stage was very limited in size to bring different groups and performances. And then the scene in the center of the hall is difficult to perceive both visually and psychologically.
Feng shui?
You know, for me Feng Shui is an ambiguous concept. I just know that the very word scares people away. They remember the sticks they light for scent and run from them like the devil from incense. In any space there is a point, having found which you can twist this space. Every person who works with space knows this. The right center is found, and everything is built around it. It can be a window or a corridor. Maybe some fork in the ceiling or the architecture of the place itself. How were churches built? They walked with sticks and looked for a point. They were not built anywhere. First we chose a place. And this was not done in vain. Similarly, the position of the DJ, the position of the stage and bars in the nightclub space. It can, in principle, be random. But the situation will not work one hundred percent. That is, all the movements that we are now making are aimed at turning this space into an ideal system that works for its tasks. So that people come, drink, dance, get crazy, feel good, go home. The next day they came again. With pleasure. Maybe they even drove to other places, walked around, then returned to us. This magic, this feng shui, it's hard to explain.
Everyone in the club industry knows that inside the club - God is the DJ!
No, not everyone knows that a DJ is a god. So what is God? It's something abstract and everyone has it deep inside. The same is true of the movement in the club. It has more to do with sensations than with specific explanations. Why is that? Yes, because here the bar will be longer. Or why put a DJ here? Because the dance floor will be bigger. It doesn't work in clubs. That is, I go in and feel - something is wrong. There is something here, or standing, or playing in such a way that I feel uncomfortable. And in order to feel comfortable, you need to try different things. Sometimes it happens the first time: once - and built a scheme. For example, there are certain laws according to which clubs are built. Ideally, this is a platform of 15 by 15 meters. That is a square. By the way, about feng shui: a square is a stable figure, and a feeling of stability and stability in a nightclub is very important. Because all the people in the clubs are in an unstable state, and they definitely need to lean against something. And if the walls also float, then everyone will definitely go crazy.
Maybe this is good?
No, if a person goes crazy, he will be taken to a psychiatric hospital, not home. And so very quickly we will lose customers. Our task is a dosed convergence of mind.
An example of an ideal club. Architectural and feel.
For me, the ideal club is a black box, 50 by 50 meters in size. And preferably 30 meters high.
It's almost like a theater stage. Modern theatre. Because people don't go to church now. They don't go to theaters. They go to clubs. I mean youth. For them, clubs are now everything - both the church and the theater.
I meant only the club.
And clubs in the modern world have seriously squeezed all other entertainment.
I can't call church entertainment. And then the clubs are a night action, and they usually go to church during the day.
Well, what about night vigils, and religious processions?
Back to the perfect club!
It's hard for me to answer right off the bat. Certainly not in Moscow! Peter definitely isn't. Certainly not in Russia. There has long been a USA club in New York. It worked for six months and closed. The owners had drug problems. It was a huge old theater in the heart of Manhattan that had been converted into a discotheque. And this volume - the height of the ceilings is exactly 20 meters, old authentic interiors that were made for a classical theater. They just took all the chairs out of the auditorium and made it a dance floor. It had a very unusual layout. He was made like this fan. And they kept this fan. Made the focus not on the stage. There was a very pleasant feel to the space. Plus the sound was crazy, unreal ventilation. And this space makes it possible to build any scenery in the air. That is, for me, the ideal club is the Cirque du Soleil. They build their own stage every time. So did Ministry Of Sound. Only with sound. They built eight towers and covered them with a hangar. Therefore, if I were making an ideal club, I would probably take a huge workshop, from which I could carve out space for myself. Or I would just build it from scratch. Because all the clubs in the cities where I was - Paris, London, Moscow, etc. - they are all stuck somewhere. There was something before this club. And the Cirque du Soleil is ideal in that they build the situation around themselves and for themselves. For me, this is the ideal archiculture of the club, when you can put film projectors in the back. When you can build any scenery. And when the stage has a backstage.
What is missing in our clubs?
Some clubs lack life. Extreme. They have no purpose, no risk, no danger, no emotion, no dedication. Some clubs are opened because it is fashionable, because there is a room, because you can become famous. And not because people live it. You know, they say, you can not write - do not write. So here - people do not feel the need for these clubs. When I got to the club, I realized that I couldn’t do anything else in my life. This is my drug, my need. In the same way with any successful business - there must be a need to do it. Not because it is now interesting or just happened. And because it's yours. You have found a chip inside yourself, and you are implementing it. If there is no this inner need, then it is better not to do this, because the business will never be super successful.
What are the trends in interiors and architecture?
I have a feeling that new trends are exactly what we were talking about - extreme. And the next step in club architecture, it seems to me, will be a high-tech direction. Flat screens have already been invented, which, like wallpaper, can be glued to the walls. This is the fantasy we read as children: the room is completely like an image. All sorts of 3D holograms. Press the button and you are at sea. The next direction will be sports-extreme. Thrash, ruins, music with broken rhythms, strobe light, real fire, real water. Elements. The revelry of the elements is what a person lacks in an urban environment.