Ian Anderson, Yerevan, Armenia © Onnik Krikorian / Oneworld Multimedia 2009

With the Armenian prime minister rumored to be one of the biggest Jethro Tull fans in the country, rumors circulating last year that the legendary British rock band would perform in Yerevan were certainly not to be sneezed at. However, while initial efforts to have the band perform last year didn’t come to fruition, the speculation was only confirmed a few months ago. Their concert which some joke might be attended by as many government members as ordinary citizens is scheduled for tonight. PanArmenian.Net covers the news.

Within the frames of its European tours, Jethro Tull legendary rock group will organize one concert in Yerevan on May 22. Armenian rock fans and connoisseurs of the British rock group can attend the concert in Sports-Concert Complex after Karen Demirtchyan. During the concert which will last two hours, the group conducted by Ian Anderson will perform both old and news songs of its repertoire.

“World-famous celebrities, Jethro Tull musicians turned out exceptionally modest, and unlike Scorpions, didn’t demand 7 limousines of latest fashion,” Head of Vibrographus company Vardan Grigoryan told a news conference.

The group’s music is a mixture of blues, folk-rock and a little bit of jazz. Jethro Tull was formed in 1963, out of the amalgamation of the John Evan Band and McGregor’s Engine, two blues-based local UK groups. Over the 40 years of its existence Jethro Tull has released 40 albums and sold over 60 million recording discs.

Concert organizers say they are now negotiating with Deep Purple, Paul McCartny and Russian DDT and Mashina Vremeni groups for inviting them to Yerevan.

The full post accompanied by a video interview with Jethro Tull’s Ian Anderson where comments can be left is available on The Caucasian Knot.

MDP, Puppet Theatre, Yerevan, Republic of Armenia © Onnik Krikorian / Oneworld Multimedia 2007

Last night saw a break from the Pan-Armenian Games and a rock festival staged in Yerervan. Actually, I missed most of the bands such as Oaksenham and Bambir, but at least got to catch the last two acts — MDP and Vostan Hayots. MDP were particularly good and I had forgotten how heavy these guys were. Anyway, for those of you interested in rock music in Armenia, interviews with MDP and Vostan Hayots are here and here.

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Bambir, Puppet Theatre, Yerevan, Republic of Armenia © Onnik Krikorian / Oneworld Multimedia 2007

Well, last night’s gig by the two Bambirs was a real killer of a show. Quite fantastic and only the second time I’ve seen them perform together since 2001 so it was also quite a unique event. Hopefully they’ll do more joint gigs, but until then, some photographs from last night to follow up pics of their rehearsal the previous day, and an excerpt on the history of the two bands, which cross two generations and which are both known as Bambir, from an article I wrote in 2005.

The name Bambir is derived from a little known traditional Armenian instrument similar to a cello piccolo, but just to confuse matters, it’s also the name of another folk-rock band that comes from Gyumri. Before Armenia declared its independence in 1991, it was this Bambir that was considered the best folk-rock band in the former Soviet Union, fusing Armenian and Celtic influences to seamless perfection.

No surprise then, that Barseghyan and Kocharyan are the 22-year-old sons of two members of the other Bambir, and that now, the name has been passed down to them to take to a new generation of rock fans in Armenia and beyond. […]

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Bambir Rehearsal, Shant TV Studio, Yerevan, Republic of Armenia © Onnik Krikorian / Oneworld Multimedia 2007

Ahead of tomorrow’s joint concert by The Bambir and their earlier namesake at Yerevan’s Puppet Theatre, I had the opportunity to photograph the two bands as they rehearsed at the studio of Shant TV where they were also practising the sets they will perform with contestants competing for the apparently much coveted title of Hye Superstar. Although I’ve seen the two Bambirs perform together separately, this was the second time I’ve caught them performing together.

The first was in Shushi in 2001 (see here, here and here). Since then, after photographing and hanging out with Bambir the younger on many an occasion, it’s funny to remember guitarist Narek reminiscing about the advice his father, Jag from the original incarnation, gave him when he formed his first band with basist Arman in 1992.

NA (Narek & Arman) was formed at the end of 1992 when the older Bambir were in the United States. Barseghyan and Kocharyan decided to surprise their fathers by performing for them when they returned. Barseghyan’s father, however, was less than impressed, to put it mildly. Gagik Barseghyan, nicknamed Jag because of his love for the Rolling Stones, instead told them they’d never make good musicians.

Much better, he told the two budding musicians, to choose another career. “Something like agriculture, he suggested,” remembers Barseghyan, smiling.

Undaunted by parental displeasure, Barseghyan and Kocharyan wrote their first song, “I’m Crazy,” and it wasn’t long before they found another young musician to join the duo. During Christmas 1995, they discovered flautist Arik Grigoryan performing in a Gyumri restaurant. When the twelve year old said he liked the British folk-rock band Jethro Tull, that was all Barseghyan and Kocharyan needed to hear.

The newly formed trio started to write more and more material. “They were interesting songs with melodies played on flute,” says Barseghyan. “Interesting good, or interesting bad?” I ask. “Interesting awful,” Barseghyan responds, laughing. “We were shit.”

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Fête de la Musique Rock Stage, Yerevan, Republic of Armenia © Onnik Krikorian / Oneworld Multimedia 2007

I’ll be totally honest and admit that I had no idea what the Fête de la Musique was and certainly didn’t realize that it would be held in Yerevan as well as 400 other cities and towns worldwide. In fact, I had just been told that there would be a free rock concert outside of the Moscow Cinema on Thursday and I should probably go down and take a few photos. As it was, there were other different types of music being played elsewhere in central Yerevan, as detailed by Anoush Armenia.

In Yerevan, the philharmonic orchestra played a free concert, children’s singing groups performed by Komitas’ statue, but later in the evening it was lovely Abovian street whose scene was not to be missed. Reggae-band Reincarnation brought smiles to everyone crowded around Square One, The Beautified Project and of course Bambir brought their unstopable energy out to Charles Aznavour square…and the Fête ended with a finale of a remarkable new jazz band The Zoo playing at the French Terrace (how apropos), under cafe umbrellas while the warm summer rain started to drizzle in, with the smell of wine and strawberry hookah floating in the air…

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Joshua Kucera posts an entry about the different types of music he’s experiencing in Armenia. In particular, he writes briefly about Gyumri rockers Bambir, posts a video taken last night and links to an article I wrote about the band for Hetq Online way back when.

Last night I went to see what is apparently the best indie band in Armenia, Bambir, and I can see why people say that. The show was terrific, they rock the flute like no one since Jethro Tull (and in this interview, they all talk about how much they loved Jethro Tull as kids).

Incidentally, after flicking through my book on poverty in Armenia, Bambir used over a hundred of my photos as the backdrop for their most recent music video for a song from their still unreleased second album although I’ve yet to see it. When I do I’ll upload it to YouTube and post a link.

It’s been a reoccurring theme for recent votes in Armenia. That is, the use of music to attract audiences for events staged to convey political messages. During the 2003 presidential and parliamentary elections, for example, Armenia’s pop stars were dragged out to campaign for the incumbent authorities, something which is continuing today for the pro-government Republican and Prosperous Armenia parties.

However, the international community occasionally gets in on the act too, and specifically the British Embassy and the British Council who have sponsored rock concerts for the 2005 referendum and the last Human Rights Day. Interestingly, attempts by the youth movement, Sksel a, to arrange another British Embassy funded “Rock for Freedom” specifically timed to coincide with the 12 May parliamentary election have failed.

As a result, the active part of Sksel a met last weekend to discuss ways to get around official rejection of their request to hold a rock concert by the statue of Komitas in central Yerevan, as Observer explains.

This new gathering of Sksela was called “OpenSpace”. About 40 young people were citing in a circle in front of the Komitas statue, the favorite location of Sksela events, and were discussing their future plans in the “open space”, for anyone to hear and join. In fact I spotted a lady who had no relation to the action joining in with a suggestion of her own after watching these strange young people sitting on grass for a while.

As to the topic of discussion - there really was a lot to discuss: Yerevan Municipality continuously rejects permission for Sksela to organize the “Rock for Freedom” concert. obviously they’re starting to take Sksela seriously. Furtunately, noone can stop a bunch of young people from peacefully sitting around wherever they like. So anyway, there’s more in the video.

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Bambir Midnight Bash, The Club, Yerevan, Republic of Armenia © Onnik Krikorian / Oneworld Multimedia 2006

An email message posted to subscribers of a civil society mailing list bills tonight’s show by Bambir as their first in Yerevan, but what they mean is the first in a long, long time. For six months last year the Gyumri rock band played the club circuit in Los Angeles and other cities in the U.S., before returning to Armenia in December.

Tonight will be their first show here in something like eight months, and ironically coincides with Army Day in Armenia — as the email explained.

MURDER IN A UNIFORM IS HEROIC, IN A COSTUME IT IS A CRIME!

Abbie Hoffman

THE BAMBIR

On

The day of Armed Forces

LIVE SHOW AT “STOP CLUB” ON JANUARY 28, AT 09:00pm
Moskovyan 37, Stop Club

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MDP, Puppet Theatre, Yerevan, Republic of Armenia © Onnik Krikorian / Oneworld Multimedia 2005

To be honest I wasn’t going to post an announcement about this festival because after speaking to someone involved in this event I’m a little disappointed, but anyway, that shouldn’t reallyaffect what’s on this blog and what’s not so here goes. Tomorrow at 7pm at Yerevan’s Puppet Theatre, a Rock Festival will be staged in support of human rights protection in the Republic of Armenia. Bands schedule to play include MDP, Vortan Karmir, Stryfe and Sworn.

On December 10, 1948, the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which has become a universal standard for defending and promoting human rights. Every year the 10th of December, Human Rights Day marks the adoption of the Universal Declaration. On Human Rights Day throughout the globe we celebrate the simple truth which still needs to be asserted that “All human beings are born with equal and inalienable rights and fundamental freedoms”.

In recent years Armenia has gone a long way to bring its legislation and practices on human rights to international standards; however it is not secret that there have been several cases of blatant violations of human rights and freedoms. The struggle against human rights violations requires active participation of civil society, especially that of young people. In this regard, the rock festival will provide an opportunity to promote awareness of human rights among the general public. It will attract and unite young people under the flag of freedom and human rights. Moreover, it will facilitate and foster cultural diversity which is essential element in promoting human rights anywhere on the globe.

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PanArmenian.net reports that the Armenian-American rock band System of a Down have been nominated for Best Alternative Group in today’s MTV Europe Music Awards. Well, good luck to them, but the Red Hot Chili Peppers are more my bag. The BBC reports that they’re so far ahead of the pack in terms of nominations.

The Red Hot Chili Peppers are leading the way at this year’s MTV Europe music awards, which take place in Copenhagen on Thursday.

The US band have four nominations, including best album. Madonna, Shakira, Nelly Furtado, Kanye West, Muse and Christina Aguilera all have three.

The 2006 MTV Europe Music Awards site is here.

Hovhannes Kourghinyan, Downtown Club, Yerevan, Republic of Armenia © Onnik Krikorian / Oneworld Multimedia 2005

As mentioned in a previous post, the veteran Armenian rock band Vostan Hayots reunited and performed at Yerevan’s Rocking Club last night. For those of us who have only heard of the band, it was an occasion not to be missed. Although there is an underground rock scene here, it’s mostly mediocre or consists of yet another group of young people playing covers of rock classics from the West.

Last night, however, was something quite different, as Garo (AKA Christian Garbis) from Notes from Hairenik writes today.

The genesis of Vostan Hayots was in 1986, when a small group of guys with musical ambitions started hanging out figuring out ways to play rock, during a time when assembling in any unapproved form could land you into problems. They composed many songs over the length of their career, although the band broke up several times, having three incarnations yet at least two loyalists the entire tenure.

[…]

The first set featured their own material exclusively, and the songs were very impressive. The band is obviously influenced by hard rock legends from the 1970s as evident in their style and playing. I had heard only one or two of the songs before. They played about six or seven songs, then the leader announced that it was time for the “ancient ones” to rest. Thirty minutes later they were back on stage—if you could call it that, a short platform barely large enough to hold a small drum kit—and sang about three more original pieces, including one sung by the lead guitarist and a vocal duo, with the leader and his sister, perhaps a unofficial fifth member at one point in the band’s history. The music was really powerful and exciting—I think its great to hear live rock music sung with Armenian lyrics, it’s a rare privilege it seems but it’s wonderful when it happens and you are there to absorb the exhilarating energy.

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