Nikolai Noskov
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Nikolai Ivanovich Noskov (; born 12 January 1956) is a Russian singer and former vocalist of the
hard rock Hard rock or heavy rock is a heavier subgenre of rock music typified by aggressive vocals and Distortion (music), distorted electric guitars. Hard rock began in the mid-1960s with the Garage rock, garage, Psychedelic rock, psychedelic and blues ...
band Gorky Park (between 1987 and 1990). He is a five-time winner of the Golden Gramophone Award. He was also a member of the Москва (Moscow) ensemble in the early 1980s, the band Гран-при (Grand Prix) in 1988 just before joining Gorky Park, and much later the band Николай (Nikolai) in the 1990s. Starting 1998, Noskov had a solo career releasing six solo albums. In 2015, he served as a jury in second season of the reality TV series '' Glavnaya Stsena''.


Early years

Born on January 12, 1956, in
Gzhatsk Gagarin (), known until 1968 as Gzhatsk (), is a types of inhabited localities in Russia, town and the administrative centre of Gagarinsky District, Smolensk Oblast, Gagarinsky District of Smolensk Oblast, Russia, located on the Gzhat River, n ...
(now renamed Gagarin), Nikolai Noskov comes from a working-class family. His father, Ivan, worked at a meat-processing factory, and his mother, Yekaterina, worked as a milkmaid and construction site worker. Noskov's boyhood gave him his first musical impressions, mainly from folk music played on traditional Russian instruments or sung by his mother. At the age of eight, Noskov and his family moved to a bigger city –
Cherepovets Cherepovets ( rus, Череповец, p=tɕɪrʲɪpɐˈvʲets) is a city in Vologda Oblast, Russia, located in the west of the oblast on the banks of the Sheksna River (a tributary of the Volga River) and on the shores of the Rybinsk Reservoir. ...
,
Vologda Oblast Vologda Oblast (, ; ) is a federal subjects of Russia, federal subject of Russia (an oblast). Its administrative center is Vologda. The oblast has a population of 1,202,444 (Russian Census (2010), 2010 Census). The largest city is Cherepovets, t ...
. There Nikolai finished school and afterwards served his term in the army. Curious to explore, Kolya tried to play
bayan Bayan may refer to: Educational institutions * Bayan Islamic Graduate School, Chicago, IL Places *Bayan-Aul, Pavlodar, Kazakhstan *Bayan Mountain, an ancient mountain name for part of Tarbagatai Mountains at Kazakhstan in Qing Dynasty period *B ...
, but as he was growing up, his attention shifted more and more firmly to singing – first in the school choir, then as a solo performer, winning one of his first awards at a local singing contest at the age of fourteen. As the lead singer of the school band, he performed the hits of Western rock bands like
the Beatles The Beatles were an English Rock music, rock band formed in Liverpool in 1960. The core lineup of the band comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are widely regarded as the Cultural impact of the Beatle ...
and
Creedence Clearwater Revival Creedence Clearwater Revival, commonly abbreviated as CCR or simply Creedence, was an American Rock music, rock band formed in El Cerrito, California. The band consisted of lead vocalist, lead guitarist, and primary songwriter John Fogerty, h ...
, bending to the wave of
rock 'n' roll Rock and roll (often written as rock & roll, rock-n-roll, and rock 'n' roll) is a Genre (music), genre of popular music that evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s. It Origins of rock and roll, originated from African ...
music, which was then surgent amid the Soviet youth. Posters depicting the members of
Led Zeppelin Led Zeppelin were an English rock music, rock band formed in London in 1968. The band comprised vocalist Robert Plant, guitarist Jimmy Page, bassist-keyboardist John Paul Jones (musician), John Paul Jones and drummer John Bonham. With a he ...
and
Pink Floyd Pink Floyd are an English Rock music, rock band formed in London in 1965. Gaining an early following as one of the first British psychedelic music, psychedelic groups, they were distinguished by their extended compositions, sonic experiments ...
came to relieve Shalyapin's portrait hung over Nikolai’s bed. His English was then undeveloped, and Nikolai simply transcribed what he heard on the original recording, transcribed it in Cyrillic letters. Later in his life, circumstances invited him to pay more attention to the language of rock 'n' roll. A self-taught instrumentalist, Noskov plays the guitar, the piano, and the drums at a general versatility level. He even played the trumpet while in the army. Noskov never received an official vocal education, although he applied to the Gnesinykh state musical college. His knowledge of musical notation is also self-learned. After being invited by an entrepreneur to an audition in Moscow, Noskov participated in several Moscow-based musical bands, then routinely dubbed "VIA" (Vocal-Instrumental Ensemble). However, none of these early engagements held him for long – ''Rovesniki'' (Peers) and ''Nadezhda'' (Hope) were soon left behind.


Collaboration with Tukhmanov and work in Gorky Park

In 1980 Noskov met composer
David Tukhmanov David Fyodorovich Tukhmanov PAR (, was born July 20, 1940) is a Soviet and Russian composer. People's Artist of Russia (2000), State Prize of Russian Federation (2003, 2019). Biography Tukhmanov is a son of an Armenian engineer Fyodor David ...
, who was then considered to be one of the most progressive in Soviet Union. Tukhmanov decided to create a hard rock band, ''Moskva'' (Moscow), with Noskov as lead singer. However, the band did not last long. After a few live performances and a recorded album called ''NLO'' (UFO) the band was suppressed and crushed by the authorities and the press. The sound of the band proved too hard for the Soviet listeners of the time. Importantly though, this was Noskov's first experience with professional studio work, led by Tukhmanov. In 1987 Nikolai sang a few songs for musical film '' Island of Lost Ships''. After some eight years of searching and singing at Moscow restaurants and clubs, a significant breakthrough occurred in Noskov's life: ''Park Gorkogo'', loosely rendered as " Gorky Park", was formed by
Stas Namin Anastas Alekseevich Mikoyan (born November 8, 1951, known professionally as Stas Namin) is a rock musician known as the leader of the popular Soviet music group Tsvety (). He is also a composer, actor, record producer, and director, and len ...
. Warming relations with the West and the era of mutual fraternizing enabled the creation of a Russian rock band that would sell in the USA. After playing in a festival headlined by the
Scorpions Scorpions are predatory arachnids of the Order (biology), order Scorpiones. They have eight legs and are easily recognized by a pair of Chela (organ), grasping pincers and a narrow, segmented tail, often carried in a characteristic forward cur ...
, Gorky Park signed a contract with Polygram records. With
Bruce Fairbairn Bruce Earl Fairbairn (December 30, 1949 – May 17, 1999) was a Canadian record producer. He was active as a producer from 1976 to 1999, and is considered one of the best of his era. His most successful productions are '' Slippery When Wet'' ...
as producer, Gorky Park started recording their eponymous debut album. The concept of the album was to win the hearts of the American audience with reverence to the Russian cultural roots while still playing hard rock/heavy metal. The album's lead single, " Bang!", was written by Noskov. The album (1989) went on to win some high-ranking places on the radio and MTV, and in Denmark it even acquired gold status. Gorky Park – Noskov included – toured in the USA and received interviews. However, due to financial difficulties, tensions inside the band, overstrained vocal cords, incessant sleepless nights, and a pregnant wife at home, in 1990 Noskov left the band to return home to Moscow. Alexander Minkov assumed the role of lead vocalist, while still playing bass.


Solo career

In 1994 Noskov was at crossroads. Starting a solo career from level ground again was a deliberated decision. Noskov gradually underwent some major changes of inner vision. Throughout his solo career his hard rock likings slowly but steadily transformed into deeper music closer to ethnic ballad art rock; and though in his most recent albums hard rhythms are discernible, they may be more precisely characterized as funk. After his album ''Mother Russia'', Noskov dropped singing in English and started singing in Russian for Russian audiences with no "foreign bloke" pretenses.
... on my anniversary it was I who gathered Gorky Park for a reunion – Marshal excluded though ... And when I started singing " Bang!" I suddenly felt so far aloof from this song ... I felt that it did not stir my heart at all. I finished singing and asked myself: what was that for? Something from my past life, unbidden, some foreign language words ...
In 1998 he released his debut solo album '' Blazh''. In 2002, he established a foundation for the support of ethnic music ''Wild Honey''. In 2006, he released his fourth album, ''Po poyas v nebe''. Some songs from this album are eastern musical motives performed on the ''quray'', a Bashkir reed flute. In 2011 he sang Magomaev's song ''Мелодия'' on the television music show ''Property of the Republic'' and won the competition. In 2012 he recorded the album ''Без названия'' in Germany in the studio of producer Horst Schnebel. During the same year he sang in the 25th anniversary concert of Gorky Park. In 2015 he was a member of the jury in second season of reality TV series '' Glavnaya Stsena.'' Now he is recording his seventh studio album, which is to be released in 2019; songs from the upcoming album are ''Нет ни годы'', ''Оно того стоит'', ''Седые дети'' and upcoming duet with singer
IVAN Ivan () is a Slavic male given name, connected with the variant of the Greek name (English: John) from Hebrew meaning 'God is gracious'. It is associated worldwide with Slavic countries. The earliest person known to bear the name was the B ...
. In 2022, Noskov supported the
Russian invasion of Ukraine On 24 February 2022, , starting the largest and deadliest war in Europe since World War II, in a major escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War, conflict between the two countries which began in 2014. The fighting has caused hundreds of thou ...
.


Personal life

Nikolai is married to his girlfriend, Marina, since 1978. He has a daughter, Katerina (born 1991), and granddaughters Miroslava (2015) and Valeria (2017). In 2017, Nikolai was hospitalized with a
thrombus A thrombus ( thrombi) is a solid or semisolid aggregate from constituents of the blood (platelets, fibrin, red blood cells, white blood cells) within the circulatory system during life. A blood clot is the final product of the blood coagulatio ...
in the cervical section, because of illness he suffered concerts.


Discography


In bands and ensembles

;Ensemble Moscow (Москва) * НЛО (''UFO'', 1982) ;Band Grand Prix (Гран-при) * ''К теологии'' (EP) (1988) ;Band Gorky Park * '' Gorky Park'' (1989) ;Band ''Nikolai'' (Николай) * ''Mother Russia'' (1994)


Solo albums

* Я тебя люблю (''I Love You'', 1998), also titled ''Блажь'' (''Whim'') * Стёкла и бетон (''Glass and Concrete'', 1999), also titled ''Паранойя'' (''Paranoia'') * Дышу тишиной (''Breathing the Silence'', 2000) * По пояс в небе (''Waist-deep in the Sky'', 2006) * Оно того стоит (''It's worth it'', 2011, unreleased) * Без названия (''Untitled'', 2012), also titled ''Мёд'' (''Honey'') * Живой (Alive, 2019)


Compilations

* Лучшие песни в сопровождении симфонического оркестра (''Best songs accompanied by a symphony orchestra'', 2001) * Лучшие песни (''The Best Songs'', 2002) * Океан любви (''Ocean of Love'', 2003) * Лучшие песни (''The Best Songs'', 2008) * Дышу тишиной (DVD, ''Breathing the Silence'') * The Best (2016)


Singles

* " Ночь" ("''Night''", 1984, re-released in 2012) * "Живой" (2019)


Awards

* 1992 – Profi * 1996–2015 – Golden Gramophone Award **1996 for «Я не модный» **1998 for «Я тебя люблю» **1999 for «Паранойя» **2000 for «Это здорово» **2015 for «Это здорово» and 20th anniversary award * 1998 – ''Ревнители русской словесности'' society of Pushkin * 1999 – Ministry of Interior Medal "For Service in the Caucasus" * 1999 – Medal of the Ministry of Defense for Strengthening Military Cooperation * 2000 –
Ovation The ovation ( from ''ovare'': to rejoice) was a lesser form of the Roman triumph. Ovations were granted when war was not declared between enemies on the level of nations or states; when an enemy was considered basely inferior (e.g., slaves, pira ...
(stylish soloist of the year) * 2004 – Medal «For Assistance to the Ministry of Interior of Russia» * 2006 – Medal «For the noble deeds for the glory of the fatherland» * 2009 – ''FSB Awards'' in the category ''Music art'' for song ''Павшим друзьям''. The singer worked with the Symphony Orchestra of the Russian FSB. * 2018 – Meritorious Artist of the Russian FederationУказ Президента Российской Федерации от 16.07.2018 № 431 "О награждении государственными наградами Российской Федерации"
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References


External links

*
Official site

MusLib

Station.ru

YouTube

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Noskov, Nikolai 1956 births Living people People from Gagarinsky District, Smolensk Oblast Russian rock singers Soviet male singers 20th-century Russian male singers Gorky Park (band) Russian folk-pop singers Symphonic rock musicians Russian multi-instrumentalists Soul musicians Art rock musicians Synth-pop musicians Progressive rock musicians Russian baritones Russian new wave musicians Funk musicians Soul singers Rhythm and blues singers English-language singers from Russia Psychedelic rock musicians Alternative rock musicians Folk rock musicians Russian folk singers Trip hop musicians Honored Artists of the Russian Federation Russian National Music Award winners Winners of the Golden Gramophone Award