Grand Anniversary Concert Dedicated to the 50th Anniversary of the Ariel Legendary Pop Group

On October 24, the jubilee concert of Ariel, the cult group of the 1970s,  will take place on the stage of the State Kremlin Palace. This year marks the 50th anniversary of the group establishment.

When the world got to know the Beatles, the whole music community went literally crazy. These four guys from Liverpool did not seem to have discovered anything special, but by opposing their songs to classical, they forced everybody to respect them, and it so happened that, thanks to them, any teenager could now sing, having mastered only a few chords on the guitar, despite the  voice being far from classical . The outcome will be cheerful rock and roll. Moreover, the power of electric guitars caused just a crazy reaction from the audience.

In 1968, several young people gathered in Chelyabinsk to play trendy pieces at the evening dancing parties  . Without any hesitation, they borrowed melodies of “The Beatles”, “The Monkeys”, “The Tremeloes”, Polish “Czerwone Gitary”, and other popular foreign bands. They  wrote their own lyrics to these melodies and it was enough to create a real stir around them in the city.

Valery Parshukov, a student of Chelyabinsk Polytechnic Institute and a founder of the band, invented the the original name of Ariel in 1967. The name sounded romantic and even slightly mystical.  In almost all the languages of the world this word means ‘the spirit of the air’, however, in this case Ariel is a reference to the Russian literature, namely, the main character of Alexander R. Belyaev’s science fiction novel ,a young boy able to fly.

The regional hospital was the place where the group found shelter, as this is where the father of Lev Fidelman, the guitar man of the group, worked as a physician. The Communist party officials did not approve of dancing to the local rock-n-roll. They tried to ban the group, especially when during the concertsthe youth started to protest by literally  breaking the chairs in the hall…

In 1970, Ariel accepted two strong musicians who came from the Allegro rock-pop group  and the ensemble began to think about participating in contests and entering the professional level. Now, their base is Chelyabinsk Palace of Culture of Railmen.

Ariel began to search for opportunities to participate in various music contests. The local Talent Show became their chance. To participate in this contest it was necessary to change the repertoire. They did it without compromising the style of the group.

Two Russian folk songs in the modern arrangement of the group leader Valery Jarushin were positively perceived by both fans of the group and bureaucrats from the field of culture.

Thus, Ariel became the first prize winners of the regional talent show . The musicians, inspired by success, went to Sverdlovsk (now Yekaterinburg), where they got acquainted with the  Yalla band from Uzbekistan.

In December 1971, Ariel shared the first place with the Skomorokhi trio under the direction of Alexander Gradsky, at the Silver Strings competition, dedicated to the 750th anniversary of the city of Gorky (now, Nizhny Novgorod)The geography of the band expanded. At the 1972  Amber of Liepaja festival held in Latvia the group was a real smash. Famous Raymond Pauls himself awarded the first prize to the musicians.

However, in Chelyabinsk local bureaucrats continued to treat themnegatively.

An unexpected turn in the fate of Ariel came in 1973 when the musicians decided to leave their hometown and settle in Latvia, where Raymond Pauls promised to support them.

Due to popular at the time of radio show  called Record on Your Tape, a few singles became popular throughout the country.

Nikita Bogoslovsky, a famous composer, heard one of them. He was delighted with the interpretation of folk songs and shared his impressions with the Literary Gazette. That was enough to ensure a lucky break for the musicians.

During the joint tour of Ariel with Pesnyary in Chelyabinsk, the head of Belarusian musicians Vladimir Muliavin advised the group to stay in Chelyabinsk. Thus, the Chelyabinsk band became a professional unit of the Chelyabinsk Philharmonic.

In 1974, the fifth All-Union competition of pop artists was held in Moscow, the 1st prize, received there by Ariel looked very solid. The media of those years noted that three stars appeared at the competition – these were Alla Pugacheva, Gennady Khazanov and Ariel.

By this time the “golden” line-up of the group had been formed that did not change for many years:

Valery Yarushin - bass guitar, accordon, vocals, arrangement - leader (from November 7, 1970 to 1989)

Lev Gurov †[2010] - rhythm guitar, vocals.

Boris Kaplun - drums, violin, vocal

Rostislav Gepp - piano, flute, vocal

Sergei Sharikov - keyboards, vocals

Sergei Antonov † (2008) - solo guitar

Back then in the USSR joint concerts at stadiums and in the big sports arenas were especially popular. This is where Ariel managed to perform with the leading groups of the country of the time, including “Mashina Vremeni” (“Time Machine”), “Autograph”,”Zemlyane” (“Earthlings”), “Arax” (“Aras”), “Samotsvety” (“Semiprecious Stones”),”Carnaval” (“Carnival”),”Poyushchiye Serdtsa” (“The Singing Hearts”)...

The group successfully toured across the USSR and represented the country at various foreign music festivals.

Several albums of the group, published by the Melody company were sold in millions of copies.

In 1989, Valery Jarushin left the band to create a new group by name "Ivanich", which completely preserved the “Ariel” style of the 1970s, and Chelyabinsk "Ariel" continued to perform in a little bit updated line-up. Both groups kept touring around in the country and abroad.

But the audience, the fans of the group, have always dreamed to see the group together in its “golden” line-up, and, at least once again, to listen to their wonderful hits.

The musicians heard their loyal fans and decided to give them a gift.

This autumn, on October 24, 2018, the State Kremlin Palace will host a grand jubilee concert in honor of the 50th anniversary of the creation of the groupfeaturing the "golden" line-up of the group, including Valery Jarushin, Boris Kaplun, Rostislav Gepp, and Sergey Sharikov. The audience will have a chance to admire their favorite songs by Ariel , including  “Winter and Spring”,  “On the Island of Buyan”,  “In the Country of Magnolias”,  “Porushka Paranya ",  “Secret Places”,  “Old vinyl” and many others, and old friends will come to congratulate the musicians, among them Yuri Antonov, Oleg Mityaev, Yuri Loza, Anatoly Kasheparov (Pesnyary band), Yalla, Singing Guitars, Syabry, and Samotsvety bands. 

It will be a really bright and unique concert with the special energy typical of Ariell. They have not performed together for almost 30 years...

Duration: up to 2 hours (with intermission).