INTERVIEWS, REVIEWS & RELATED ARTICLES
St Petersburg Times JUNE 3, 2005 - by Sergey Chernov
CHERNOV'S CHOICE
After Brian Eno's visit last week, another alumnus of the influential British band Roxy Music, Bryan Ferry, was due in St. Petersburg on Friday to perform at an exclusive, black-tie fashion/music event at the Konstantinovsky Palace.
A promoter was unable to comment Thursday, but according to an insider tickets sell for as much as one thousand dollars.
Ferry was also scheduled to appear as an honorable guest at a fashion event at the newly opened SpoonCafe on Bolshaya Morskaya Ulitsa on Thursday.
Ferry first came to St. Petersburg in 1997 to visit Eno and performed with a symphony orchestra in the Shostakovich Philharmonic Hall in September, 2000. Ferry's concert was based on As Time Goes By, his 1999 album of jazz oldies.
Meanwhile, Eno was in St. Petersburg performing with French-Algerian singer Rachid Taha and showcasing his forthcoming album, Another Day On Earth, with an event at the Russian Museum.
Eno was also spotted at Platforma attending the premiere of Dark Mu, a documentary about Zvuki Mu, Moscow's 1980s avant-rock band whose eponymous debut album Eno produced and released on his Opal label in 1989. Later Eno said that the film confirmed his conviction that Zvuki Mu's frontman Pyotr Mamonov was a genius.
Now working solo, Mamonov will stage his theatrical performance, called Chocolate Pushkin, at the Comedy Theater on Monday.
Moscow promoter BAd TaStE said that a Moscow concert by 17 Hippies was canceled due to inexplicable reasons in its posting this week. It suggested that the band is not coming to Russia at all.
Platforma, the club where the Berlin-based band was scheduled to play its local concert on Friday, also said that the show is not happening.
17 Hippies was to have come to Russia to play at an open-air concert to launch Platforma's concert venue in Moscow. But, according to art director Denis Rubin, the whole event was postponed because of a ban by Moscow city authorities that led to the cancellation of concerts by both 17 Hippies and Romania's Spitalul de Urgenta.
Nevertheless, Rubin confirmed that Chumbawamba, the third act that was to take part in the Moscow opening, is scheduled to perform at Platforma on Sunday. But, as of Thursday afternoon, it appeared that the concert might not be happening at all. Call the venue before going there.
A new jazz club will open Friday. Called Street Life, it will be located at the premises of the city's Architectural Academy formerly occupied by the notorious gay club, Club 69, which closed in 2003. The club seems to be oriented toward a blend of jazz and contemporary dance music.
Ethno Style, a three-day festival of world music, opens at the Yacht Club on Friday, while Sega del Canto, a Finnish eccentric duo who use a saw as a musical instrument will perform at Platforma Thursday.
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