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. * British national identity, the characteristics of British people and culture ...

band, which plays traditional

Ukrainian music Ukrainian may refer or relate to: * Ukraine, a country in Eastern Europe * Ukrainians, an East Slavic ethnic group native to Ukraine * Demographics of Ukraine * Ukrainian culture, composed of the material and spiritual values of the Ukrainian peopl ...

, heavily influenced by western

post-punk Post-punk (originally called new musick) is a broad genre of music that emerged in late 1977 in the wake of punk rock. Post-punk musicians departed from punk's fundamental elements and raw simplicity, instead adopting a broader, more experiment ...

Career

The Ukrainians were formed in 1990 by Wedding Present guitarist

Peter Solowka Peter Solowka or Solovka (, , born late 1959 in Oldham) is a musician of Ukrainians, Ukrainian and Yugoslavian descent. He has been involved in music since 1985, most notably as guitarist with The Wedding Present from their inception until 1991, a ...

, with singer/violinist Len Liggins and

mandolin A mandolin (, ; literally "small mandola") is a Chordophone, stringed musical instrument in the lute family and is generally Plucked string instrument, plucked with a plectrum, pick. It most commonly has four Course (music), courses of doubled St ...

player Roman Remeynes, after all three had played on the Wedding Present's Ukrainian John Peel Sessions recordings (''Ukrainski Vistupi 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 ''New Musical Express'' (''NME'') is a British music, film, gaming and culture website, bimonthly magazine, and brand. Founded as a newspaper in 1952, with the publication being referred to as a "Rock music, rock inkie", the ''NME'' would be ...

. Notably, the video for this release was filmed in pre-revolution

Kyiv Kyiv, also Kiev, is the capital and most populous List of cities in Ukraine, city of Ukraine. Located in the north-central part of the country, it straddles both sides of the Dnieper, Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2022, its population was 2, ...

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

Eastern Europe Eastern Europe is a subregion of the Europe, European continent. As a largely ambiguous term, it has a wide range of geopolitical, geographical, ethnic, cultural and socio-economic connotations. Its eastern boundary is marked by the Ural Mountain ...

. 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 has released seven studio albums as well as various

live albums An album is a collection of audio recordings (e.g., music) issued on a medium such as compact disc (CD), vinyl (record), audio tape (like 8-track or cassette), or digital. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early 20th century a ...

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 extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...

and

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

. They celebrated 20 years of the band in 2011 with a tour of British Ukrainian 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 music, rock band formed in Manchester in 1982, composed of Morrissey (vocals), Johnny Marr (guitar), Andy Rourke (bass) and Mike Joyce (musician), Mike Joyce (drums). Morrissey and Marr formed the band's songwrit ...

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

Kraftwerk Kraftwerk (, ) is a Germany, German Electronic music, electronic band formed in Düsseldorf in 1970 by Ralf Hütter and Florian Schneider. Widely considered innovators and pioneers of electronic music, Kraftwerk was among the first successful a ...

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

Chernobyl Chernobyl, officially called Chornobyl, is a partially abandoned city in Vyshhorod Raion, Kyiv Oblast, Ukraine. It is located within the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, to the north of Kyiv and to the southwest of Gomel in neighbouring Belarus. ...

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 are an English punk rock band formed in London in 1975. Although their initial career lasted just two and a half years, they became culturally influential in popular music. The band initiated the punk movement in the United Ki ...

translated into Ukrainian). * ''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. Database contents are user-generated, and described in ''T ...

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