Vopli Vidopliassova

Ukrainian rock band

Vopli Vidopliassova (Воплі Відоплясова , ), also shortened to VV (ВВ), is a Ukrainian rock band. It was created in 1986 in Kiev, Ukrainian SSR, Soviet Union (now Kyiv, Ukraine). The leader of the band is singer Oleh Skrypka. Vopli Vidopliasova are the founders of Ukrainian rock n roll style and neo ethnic rock. They first sang Ukrainian rock outside Ukraine. Their influences include folk, patriotic songs, punk, hard rock, heavy metal and, most recently, electronic music. Their song Den Narodzhennia is featured in the Russian crime films Brother and Brother 2 by director Aleksei Balabanov. Band member Oleh Skrypka has also produced several solo albums. In 2009, their record label, Kraina Mriy, released all their albums for free as a Christmas present. A lot of their early material (1986 1996) is in Drop C tuning.

The band was formed in 1986 by guitarist Yuri Zdorenko and bassist Oleksandr Pipa, who had played in the band SOS since 1984. It took its name from Vidopliassov, a character from The Village of Stepanchikovo. The band had their first performance at the Kyiv rock club on 30 October 1987, with vocalist and accordionist Oleh Skrypka and drummer Serhiy Sakhno. The name of the new group was suggested by Pipa, who was then reading Dostoevsky: the character Grigory Vidoplyasov, in the novel “The Village of Stepanchikovo" writes compositions, filled with 'howls of the soul,' that he calls “Vopli Vidoplyasova” (the screams of Vidoplyasov, вопли Видоплясова, ). The group have used this transliterated Russian name since, however they adopted the Ukrainian version Volannia Vidopliassova (Волання Відоплясова, ) for the Chervona Ruta festival in 1989. In 1989, the band recorded a session at the Faberge Hall of Culture in Kyiv, and released it as Tantsi. That same year, they appeared on the French compilation De Lenine a Lennon, the soundtrack to a French documentary on Soviet rock. In 1990, they released the album Hey, O. K on Kobza International and appeared on the Canadian compilation This Ain't No Polka (a recording of the 1989 Chervona Ruta) with the song "Tantsi". The following year, they played at the Eurockeennes festival in France, and the recording was released as Abo abo on BSA Records a year later. In 1991, Skripka and Pipa moved to France and would divide their time between it and Ukraine. In 1992, Skripka, Zdorenko, Pipa and Sakhno entered Komora Studio in Kyiv to begin recording what would become their debut album, Kraina Mriy, released two years later. Zdorenko quit the group in 1993, starting his own, YaYaYa, as a side project. He was replaced by Philippe Moja. Stéphane Moufflier would also join VV to replace Sakhno, who had taken a hiatus. In 1996, Skrypka and Pipa, who had just returned from France (having lived there since 1990), moved back to Ukraine with Moufflier and new guitarist Gerard Christophe and began recording the album Muzika, released in 1997. A single was released in 1996 with 4 tracks from the album. Skrypka sang, programmed the drums and played accordion, traditional Ukrainian folk instruments and some guitar, while Pipa played bass. Zdorenko played guitar on the track "Gei, liubo!". On the album, "Hei! Liubo!" is crossfaded with "Bogi", but on the single, it wasn't crossfaded and its natural ending rang out, however on recent compilations, it just cuts off at the part of the end where "Bogi" is expected to begin. In 1997, Moufflier and Christophe left the band and returned to France. Sakhno rejoined the band and Evhen Rohachevsky joined as guitarist. With this new lineup, they began recording their third album, Khvyli Amura, released in 2000. Around that time, Skrypka became interested in Indian music, and the album reflects that, particularly in the song "Den narodjennya". In 2000, the band contributed tracks to tribute albums to Grazhdanskaya Oborona ("Pops") and Kino ("Pachka sigaret" and "Solnechnye dni"), and appeared on the Sprite Driver 2 compilation in 2001 with the song "Osen". The latter three songs were translated into Ukrainian and appeared as B sides to the single "Mamay" that year. In 2002, the album Fayno was finally released, featuring "Solnechnye dni" (by then renamed "Sonyachni dni"), "Osen" (by then renamed "Zoryana osin"), a remixed version of "Mamay", a partially re recorded version of "Pachka sigaret" (by then renamed "Pachka tsyharok") and a censored version of "Pops". The original presses on Lavina Music and Misteria Zvuka contained three bonus tracks: the original Russian version of "Osen", "The Pack of Cigarettes" (an English version of "Pachka sigaret") and "Les jours de soleil" (a French version of "Solnechnie dni"), demonstrating Oleh Skrypka's multilingualism. In 2006, Oleksandr Pipa left the band and was replaced by Oleksiy Melchenko. They then recorded the album Buly denky, a compilation of old songs from the late 80s and early 90s which had never got the studio treatment before, but which had been played live. That year, they played the first "Rok Sich" festival, a festival started by Skrypka with the intent to foster local talent. The rules for the Rock Sich are that any genre other than pop is acceptable and that all bands must sing in Ukrainian, however VV broke their own rule and played "Pops" at the concert in the original Russian and with the original uncensored lyrics. The performance was released on CD in 2008, DVD in 2011 and double LP in 2012. The standard one CD version of the Rock Sich album had two tracks cut due to space constraints, but a two CD version was available with the missing tracks restored. The missing tracks were also on the vinyl and DVD. In August 2009 they played as headliners at the “Be Free” festival organized by the European Radio for Belarus in Chernihiv (Ukraine) together with Lyapis Trubetskoy, Hair Peace Salon, and more Belarusian rock bands. They released the singles "Lado" and "Chio San" in 2009 and "Vidpustka" (a reworking of a track from 1987) in 2010. Their next album, "Chudovy svit", was released on 18 October 2013. "Lado", "Chio San" and "Vidpustka" were included on the album. Between 2013 and 2016, the group carried out a vinyl rerelease campaign. In 2017, Melchenko left the group and was replaced by Mykola Usaty. The group are currently translating old, unreleased Russian language songs from the 1980s and early 1990s into Ukrainian and recording them for a new album, due out at the end of 2019 or the beginning of 2020. On 25 November 2022, the group re released their 2006 song "Buly denky" as a single, to celebrate the recapture of Kherson by Ukrainian forces. 22 April 2023 saw the first official re release of the band's 1989 album Tantsi for Record Store Day, coinciding with a book in the 33 1/3 series about the album. This is also the band's first official release in the West, barring releases sold at the band's French concerts between 1992 6 and their collaboration with Les VRP in 1992.