The Ukrainians are a

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

band, which plays traditional Ukrainian music, heavily influenced by western

post-punk Post-punk (originally called new musick) is a broad genre of punk music that emerged in the late 1970s as musicians departed from punk's traditional elements and raw simplicity, instead adopting a variety of avant-garde sensibilities and non-r ...

Career

The Ukrainians were formed in 1990 by

Wedding Present The Wedding Present are an English indie rock group originally formed in 1985 in Leeds, England, from the ashes of The Lost Pandas. The band's music has evolved from fast-paced indie rock in the vein of their most obvious influences The F ...

guitarist

Peter Solowka Peter Solowka or Solovka ( uk, Петро Соловка, , born late 1959 in Oldham) is a musician of Ukrainian and Yugoslavian descent. He has been involved in music since 1985, most notably as guitarist with The Wedding Present from their ince ...

, with singer/violinist Len Liggins and

mandolin A mandolin ( it, mandolino ; literally "small mandola") is a stringed musical instrument in the lute family and is generally plucked with a pick. It most commonly has four courses of doubled strings tuned in unison, thus giving a total of ...

player Roman Remeynes, after all three had played on the Wedding Present's Ukrainian John Peel Sessions recordings (''Ukrayinski Vystupy v Johna Peela'', released 1989). Following the success of that release, the trio began composing and recording in Ukrainian as a separate band. In 1991, their first EP, Oi Divchino, was awarded Single of the Week by British music weekly, NME. Notably, the video for this release was filmed in pre-revolution

Kyiv Kyiv, also spelled Kiev, is the capital and most populous city of Ukraine. It is in north-central Ukraine along the Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2021, its population was 2,962,180, making Kyiv the seventh-most populous city in Europe. Ky ...

making them the first western band to produce a video entirely in

Eastern Europe Eastern Europe is a subregion of the European continent. As a largely ambiguous term, it has a wide range of geopolitical, geographical, ethnic, cultural, and socio-economic connotations. The vast majority of the region is covered by Russia, whi ...

. In the same year, Solowka left the Wedding Present, later claiming that he had been kicked out, the success of the Ukrainian project making him the scapegoat for the band's lack of mainstream success. Since 1991, the band have released five studio albums as well as various

live albums An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early 20th century as individual 78 rpm records coll ...

and EPs, all without chart success in the UK. They continue to tour regularly, especially in

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populou ...

and

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe ...

. They celebrated 20 years of the band in 2011 with a tour of British

Ukrainian Ukrainian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Ukraine * Something relating to Ukrainians, an East Slavic people from Eastern Europe * Something relating to demographics of Ukraine in terms of demography and population of Ukraine * So ...

clubs.

Band members

Besides Solowka, Liggins and Remeynes, band members have included: *Dave Lee - drums *Woody - drums, percussion *Chris Harrop - bass guitar *Paul 'Dino' Briggs - bass guitar *Allan Martin - bass guitar *Alan Dawson- Bass guitar *James Howe - bass guitar * Stepan "Ludwig" Pasicznyk - accordion, backing vocals, guitar *Steve Tymruk - accordion, melodion, backing vocals *Paul Weatherhead - electric mandolin, sopilka, theremin *Michael L.B. West - mandolin, guitar, piano, trumpet, duda, oud, 'cello, euphonium The current line-up comprises Liggins, Solowka, Tymruk, Wood, Weatherhead and Howe.

Discography

Albums and EPs and singles include: * ''Oi Divchino'' (1991) * ''The Ukrainians'' (1991) * ''Pisni iz The Smiths'' (EP) (1992) (four songs originally by

The Smiths The Smiths were an English rock band formed in Manchester in 1982. They comprised the singer Morrissey, the guitarist Johnny Marr, the bassist Andy Rourke and the drummer Mike Joyce. They are regarded as one of the most important acts to eme ...

translated into

, also included as bonus tracks on reissues of ''Vorony''). * ''Vorony'' (1993) * ''Live in Germany'' (1993) * ''Kultura'' (1994) * ''Radioactivity'' (Single) (1996), a cover of the

Kraftwerk Kraftwerk (, "power station") is a German band formed in Düsseldorf in 1970 by Ralf Hütter and Florian Schneider. Widely considered innovators and pioneers of electronic music, Kraftwerk were among the first successful acts to popularize t ...

song, in order to raise money for the Children of Chernobyl charity and to mark the 10th anniversary of the

Chernobyl Chernobyl ( , ; russian: Чернобыль, ) or Chornobyl ( uk, Чорнобиль, ) is a partially abandoned city in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, situated in the Vyshhorod Raion of northern Kyiv Oblast, Ukraine. Chernobyl is about n ...

nuclear disaster. * ''Drink to my Horse! The Ukrainians Live'' (2001) * ''Anarchy In The UK'' (EP) (2002) (three songs originally by the

Sex Pistols The Sex Pistols were an English punk rock band formed in London in 1975. Although their initial career lasted just two and a half years, they were one of the most groundbreaking acts in the history of popular music. They were responsible for ...

translated into

). * ''Respublika'' (2002) * ''Istoriya: The Best of the Ukrainians'' (2004) * ''Live in Czeremcha'' (2008) * ''Diaspora'' (2009) * ''20 Years'' (Best of) (2011) * A History of Rock Music in Ukrainian (2015) *Summer in Lviv (2018)

References

External links

The Ukrainians
official site
The Ukrainians
at

Discogs Discogs (short for discographies) is a database of information about audio recordings, including commercial releases, promotional releases, and bootleg or off-label releases. While the site was originally created with a goal of becoming the ...

English folk musical groups English rock music groups Musical groups established in 1991 Ukrainian rock music groups Ukrainian-language singers 1991 establishments in England {{UK-band-stub