|
Boris Grebenshikov
Music
|
|
‘With all the fuss around my name I am prepared to throw it on the scales where it might be needed. If this way we tip the balance – and a miracle happens – and together with Amnesty International we save at least one person’s life, then it is worth it.’
Russian poet, singer/songwriter and leader of the legendary rock band Aquarium, Boris Grebenshikov is regarded by many of his fans as a Buddhist philosopher with a guitar. A pioneer of Russian rock-n-roll, he is renowned for his musical and poetical experiments, merging Eastern philosophies and traditional Russian themes.
Boris Grebenshikov was born in Leningrad (St. Petersburg), USSR, on 27 November 1953. As a student he started experimenting with poetry, music and theatre, and in 1972 founded the rock band. For over ten years Aquarium was a semi-underground group, having to rehearse at home and in various clubs’ backstage and playing concerts in people’s private apartments. In 1980 at a music festival in Tbilisi the group was officially banned and Grebenshikov was demonstratively sacked from his job at a research institute and expelled from Komsomol (youth Communist organization, membership of which was de facto compulsory for all young people in the USSR). This was reversed in 1986 and since, Aquarium because universally popular throughout the USSR.
In 2003 he was approached by Amnesty International Russia and has since been one of the organization’s staunchest supporters. Boris Grebenshikov’s appearance at an Amnesty International press conference in Moscow in May 2004, an unusual step for a rock musician in Russia, raised a few eyebrows, but he has remained steadfast in his dedication to Human Rights.
Photo credit: © Amnesty International
|
