| A TRIBUTE TO MY BEST FRIEND |
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MICHAEL MOSHKOV 1945 - 1999 We met back in 1967 at the rehearsal of "The Idols", one of the first Russian underground rock bands. At this time my home town friend Nikolai Kurierov and myself were seeking for an opportunity to create a rock-n-roll band. Mike liked Elvis Presley and we were freaked out by The Beatles. It was decided then that Mike, his brother Anatoli and Mike's fellow worker Michael Nesterov would form a musical group with Nikolai and I. Later Michael Nesterov was recruited to the army and Michael Tcherepantzev took his place. The name was decided on to represent a variety of characters that made that group and their desire to make magic. THE TROLLS worked hard to build the speaker systems and amplifiers that were unavailable in Moscow at that time. It took a while to buy the appropriate musical instruments mostly sold in the so-called "black market" by some individuals and imported from Germany. When "The Trolls" started in August of 1967 in Moscow there were 4 big beat groups only: The Roaches (A Polish college student band), The Falcons (A Sokol back street band), The Idols (A college student band) and The Argonauts. The Trolls became popular fast enough and were followed by hundreds of fans at more than 100 performances out of the official stage during 1967-1972. After a while the underground bands were chased by the Communist Party Regional Committees and when the rehearsal base was lost the group had to break up. Mike, Anatoli and Nikolai continued to play in a band at the factory's culture club. Later Mike and Nikolai played in the jazz-rock band directed by a famous composer and a saxophone player Alexei Kozlov. The group reunited again in 1979 and built a powerful Public Address sound system. Yuri Ermakov who played in The Falcons joined the group along with the two new guys. At that time music was different and more synthesized. The name was changed to THE FUTURE MEMORIES. It was a nostalgia of the old-timers, a hard to sell but serious electronic music we liked to play. When the group broke up again in 1981 Mike continued his music career as a DJ at the International Youth Center in Moscow and then as a sound engineer in the recording studios. All these past years we always stayed together, doing music and video recordings, having parties and even spending vacations at the Black Sea . A few days ago we were going to have a meeting over the Internet like those we had a few times before but this time it was a different e-mail message, the one you have never wanted to receive, the sad, the shocking one... |
Died on February 16, 1999 in the age of 53 Michael will always stay in our memory for that remarkable time we shared together, for being a true dedicated friend whom I treated like I would my brother, for what he was for people, his family and friends, for giving away what others needed, for his lifetime devotion to the rock music. |
| 1968 -
THE TROLLS
A peak of fame 
Gorky Park's Cafe 1970 - THE TROLLS
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The
repertoire performed by The Trolls during 1967-1972 included some own compositions
written by E. Balakirov ("Listen to Trolls", "Sunrise over the city skyline")
and N. Kurierov ("What about you?") but mostly songs played by the
famous western groups:
The Beatles
After the group reunion during 1979-1981
the music played was far different:
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 Left to right:
1980 - THE FUTURE MEMORIES
It is unfortunate that these are the only pictures I have available. Evgeni Balakirov
February 19, 1999
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YOU'LL BE REMEMBERED THE WAY YOU WERE, FOR WHO AND WHAT YOU WERE! |