The King and the Jester listen to all tracks. King and the Clown

“The King and the Jester” is a punk rock band created in Leningrad in 1988. True, then it was called “Office”. But she already had the most important thing - creator, soloist and literally the face of the group, with creepy makeup, inspiring fear, but that makes it even easier to recognize.

History of creation

In 1988, a student at an unremarkable Leningrad school, Mikhail “Gorshok” Gorshenev, and his classmates Alexander “Lieutenant” Shchigolev and Alexander “Balu” Balunov decided to take up music. The newly created band played punk rock, the melodies and lyrics were fully consistent with the chosen direction.

Mikhail Gorshenev

A year later, the usual punk was washed away by a wave called Prince. I met the pot at the restoration school. A new acquaintance wrote very original texts. Each was a complete work, albeit of a small format. The author borrowed plots from folklore, mythology, and fantasy.

The Prince liked the sound of the music created by the group, and Pot liked the Prince’s poems. From that moment they count down general history activities in the "Office".

The name "King and Jester" appeared in 1990. The guys sorted for a long time different ideas: “The Slaughtered Dandelion”, “Armageddon”, “Apocalypse”, “King of the Jesters”. The last name, with minor variations, was eventually adopted.

“KiSh”, as fans are now used to saying, wrote tracks in a semi-professional studio in 1991-1992. Then the guys first appeared on stage and took part in the radio broadcast.

In 1994, the album “Be at Home, Traveler” was released in small quantities, exclusively on audio cassettes. Considered a rarity among fans, it is not part of the canonical discography.

“The King and the Clown” “toured” only to the clubs of St. Petersburg, until in 1996 they filmed a thirty-minute program about them. It was shown more than once on Channel 5. The shooting resulted in 4 videos for the compositions “Fool and Lightning”, “Sudden Head”, “Gardener”, “Shadows Wander”. Distinctive feature all four - an extremely small budget.

Music

Song “horror stories” allow us to call the style of “The King and the Jester” horror-punk, but it would be wrong to limit ourselves to this definition only. Folk rock, art punk, hardcore, and hard rock can be traced in the work of “KiSh”.

In 1996, the performers brought the first official collection“A stone to the head”, later recognized as “programmatic” for the early “KiSh”. A year later, listeners were able to enjoy the album “The King and the Fool,” which included tracks from the unofficial “Be at Home, Traveler,” recorded in better quality.

1998 was marked by the release of the third album. More melodic, less punk-like, the Acoustic Album, as they say, “shot.” The ballad “I’ll Jump from a Cliff”, which quickly rose to the first line of the “OUR Radio” hit parade, brought the performers all-Russian popularity. In the same 1998, with the help of director Boris Dedenev, the first normal video appeared for the composition “Men Ate Meat,” which also ended up in the “Chart Dozen.”

In 1999, “The King and the Clown” played a solo album for the first time in its history and created the album “The Men Ate Meat.” Having survived the meeting of the millennium, the group created another record - “Heroes and Villains”. Burst into the charts new track- “The Drevlyans remember with bitterness.”

In 2000, a collection appeared best works“KiSh” - “Meeting”, and in 2001 - one of the most famous albums “As in old fairy tale" In it and in the sixth album “It’s a pity, there is no gun!” (2002) anarchy permeates the texts. But “King and Jester” has an “undignified” reputation among Russian punks; many believe that Pot and Prince do not belong to the punk environment.

Nevertheless, “Cursed Old House” has been at the top of the “Chart Dozen” for a long time; the video of the same name by Valery Khattin is played on “MTV Russia”. In the early 2000s, "KiSh" collected a bouquet of recognition: the PoboRoll and Ovation awards, the title of the best group in a survey conducted by Fuzz magazine.

Among other things, “The King and the Clown” recorded three live album and eight video albums. “Mutiny on a Ship” (late 2004) stands apart in the “KiSh” discography – it was written “live”, as a live album.

Fans of “The King and the Jester” became excited in 2005: the records “I am an Alcoholic Anarchist” and “Love of a Scoundrel” were released, solo albums of Pot and Prince, respectively. But the excitement turned out to be premature: at the end of 2006, “Seller of Nightmares” was presented.

The tracks “Puppets” and “Rum”, like other “KiSh” songs before them, barely got into rotation, stayed in the “Chart Dozen” for a long time. In 2008, according to tradition, at the end of the year, the ninth album, “Shadow of the Clown,” appeared, and in 2010, “Demon Theater.”

In parallel with the creation of more and more new songs and recording albums, “The King and the Clown” gave concerts and actively participated in Russian and foreign festivals and musical projects. In 2011-2012, two albums based on the horror zong opera “TODD” were released - “Act 1. Blood Festival” and “Act 2. On the Edge”. The story for the project was voiced by .

Compound

There were constant castlings in the “King and the Clown” group. Alexander “Balu” Balunov, Yakov “Yasha” Tsvirkunov, Alexander “Renegade” Leontyev, Sergey “Zakhar” Zakharov, Dmitry “Ryabchik” Ryabchenko - guitarists and bass players - came and went. From 1997 to 2014, he worked first as a sound engineer and then as a keyboard player Pavel Sazhinov. Periodically “came in” to help, a member of the group and part-time younger brother Pot.

The “golden” lineup is considered to be those who played in the group in the early 2000s. From the first days of “KiSh”’s existence, soloists Prince and Gorshok, drummer Lieutenant, and bassist Balu worked for the benefit of the group. In addition to them, the “golden” line-up included guitarist Renegat and violinist Maria Nefedova.

In 2011, Andrei Knyazev announced his retirement from free swimming. The result of this was that the composition of “The King and the Jester” began to look like this: Mikhail Gorshenev, Yakov Tsvirkunov, Sergei Zakharov, Alexander Shchigolev, Alexander Leontyev, Pavel Sazhinov.

On July 19, 2013, Mikhail “Gorshok” Gorshenev was at home. He was a little less than three weeks short of his 40th birthday.

"The King and the Clown" now

Having said goodbye to Mikhail Gorshenev, “The King and the Clown” said goodbye to the fans. The musicians of the group, not intending to disperse, organized new company– . This was the name of one of the compositions “KiSh”. Works for Knyazev solo project.

The memory of Pot will forever live in punk hearts, which is why there are group pages on various social networks.

Russian rock band "King and Shut", whose lead singer Mikhail Gorshenev died last summer, ceased to exist.

As stated by the representative musical group Nikolai Sviridenko: “Officially, as of January 1, the group “King and the Clown” ceases to exist, and the guys work under the name “Northern Fleet.” The musicians announced that the group would cease to exist in the summer, but it was decided that farewell tour it will still be held under the old name. The last concert of “The King and the Jester” took place on December 28 in Ryazan.

And in memory of the controversial group, which no longer exists, Bigpikcha offers you a dozen facts about it.

(Total 10 photos + 3 videos)

1. The name of the group “King and Jester” appeared in 1990, when Gorshenev met Andrei Knyazev. They chose between the titles “The Slaughtered Dandelion”, “Armageddon”, “Apocalypse” and “The King of Jesters”. By the way, in 1991 a song appeared that had the same name as the group - “The King and the Jester.” The group's songs are short, complete stories, often in a fantasy, mystical, and also historical vein.

2. The group “King and the Clown” became popular, and along with it Mikhail Gorshenev went eight for long years. They recorded music on cassettes, shot low-budget videos, performed at festivals for little-known groups. Everything changed in 1998, when the “Acoustic Album” was recorded at the Melodiya studio, and the first professional video for the song “Eli Myaso Muzhiki” was shot. The video began to be shown on MTV, and the song was played on the radio.

3. The band's lyrics stood out. fairy tale motifs. The leader of the group, Mikhail Gorshenev, was not delighted with the fact that their songs were called fairy tales. “Fables – that’s what suits me better. We never called our style fabulous. This is normal literary genre, it includes science fiction, fantasy, horror, humor, and even lyrics. But not a fairy tale style.”

4. In the 2011 New Year’s episode of the TV program “Big Difference,” a parody of “Kish” was presented: Pot and Prince in the form of Father Frost and Snow Maiden attended a matinee in kindergarten and sang a song to the tune of “The Men Ate Meat.” The same melody was heard in the 42nd issue of “Cartoon of Personality”, where the hero portraying Gennady Onishchenko sang “Men ate mint.”

5. In 2003, a boxing match took place in St. Petersburg between KiSh and the pop group Na-Na, which ended in a draw. Then the leaders of “The King and the Jester” entered the ring: Mikhail “Gorshok” Gorshenev boxed with Vyacheslav Zherebkin, and Andrey “Prince” Knyazev fought with Pavel Sokolov.

6. Mikhail had both upper front teeth knocked out, which is why he had problems with diction. He later had false teeth inserted into himself. As the singer admitted, as a child he decided to try to stay on the horizontal bar with the help of his teeth. The result is four broken front teeth. In the fights, Mikhail was knocked out a few more. Drugs also affected the musician’s health and ruined his remaining teeth.

7. “KiSh” released their “Acoustic Album” (1998) on the pop label “ORT-Records”, which was headed by producer Joseph Prigozhin. In the book “The King and the Fool: And the Living Shall Sing about the Dead,” he quotes his words: “I liked the group. I felt that they were promising and professional. Quality does not depend on genre."

8. For long years existence of KiSh, several books were published, dedicated to the group. In particular: “The King and the Clown... And the living will sing about the dead” and “The King and the Clown.” Punk Angels" by Evgenia Libabova, "The King and the Clown. The most true story about the most incredible group" by Alexey Rybin and others

9. Maria Nefedova - violinist of the group.

Masha performed as a violinist in the group “King and Jester” in 1998-2004. She participated in the recording of the albums “Acoustic Album”, “Men Ate Meat”, “Heroes and Villains”, “Like in an Old Fairy Tale”, “It’s a Pity There’s No Gun”, “Dead Anarchist”. In some songs she was a backing vocalist (“Kuzma and Barin”, “Women make your head spin”).

Currently lives in California with her husband and son.

Group "Cockroaches!" dedicated the song “Masha - the violinist from “The King and the Clown”” to her.

10. After Mikhail Gorshenev suddenly died from drug use on July 19 of last year, fans of “The King and the Jester” began collecting signatures in support of the idea of ​​erecting a monument to Mikhail in St. Petersburg. Within a week, 25,000 signatures were collected online. The idea of ​​​​installing a monument caused a lot of controversy, but as a result, it was not crowned with success. If the story continues in the future, then fans should keep in mind that erecting a monument in Northern capital It won't be that easy. According to existing standards, a monument to the deceased can be erected thirty years after death. But it is still possible to erect a monument in a special order. This requires permission from the governor of St. Petersburg.

Any connoisseur of rock music in Russia will tell you what the abbreviation "KiSh" means. This is how the name of one of the successful teams on the domestic stage. The group "King and the Clown" from its very first album became a landmark phenomenon.

Start

At the end of the 1980s in Leningrad they began their musical activity members of the future famous band. was interested in what he wrote fairy tales and put music on these stories. His friend polished the compositions and also added his own material.

At first, the group played punk rock, designed to perform in clubs. The first demo recording of “The King and the Jester” appeared in 1994 and brought the musicians popularity among the informal youth of St. Petersburg.

The beginning of real recognition turned out to be getting on local television. The group "King and the Jester" recorded several videos for songs from the first album "A Stone to the Head". It was released in 1996, and some of the compositions were included in radio rotation. An interesting and original concept attracted listeners who had not yet encountered such an environment.

These were miniature scary tales based on the rhythm of punk rock songs. Gorshenev and Knyazev were vocalists and often performed parallel roles in a dialogue format. Most often, songs had a beginning and an end, which did not prevent them from maintaining a short duration.

Success

The phenomenon became famous throughout the country largely thanks to rotation on Nashe Radio, where in the late 90s songs such as “I’ll Jump from a Cliff”, “Sorcerer’s Doll”, etc. were played.

The group "King and the Jester" filmed their first full-length video in 1999. The material was the song “The Men Ate Meat.” The video was often played on the Russian MTV channel, thanks to which even people far from music learned about the band.

The songs of the group "King and the Clown" were hits on music festivals, where participants staged entire costume shows. Performances at “Invasion” and “Wings” became regular annual events, which attracted tens of thousands of rock fans.

In 2001, the group "King and the Clown" released their most successful album, "Like an Old Fairy Tale." By this time, the band's music had changed somewhat. A violinist appeared in the lineup, and the songs took on a bit of folk. Bright arrangements and signature motifs became the key to the success of the record. It was presented at Luzhniki, where after that KiSh held sold-out concerts several more times.

In 2002, the album “It’s a pity, there is no gun!” was released, which was recorded by “The King and the Clown”. The composition of the group offers the audience such hits as “Dead Anarchist” and “Bear”. These songs will become permanent numbers in the group's programs. At the same time, Gorshenev and the company traveled outside the CIS for the first time. The warmest welcome awaits them in America and Israel.

Career continuation

Subsequently, the group continued to successfully release albums in their usual style. In 2011, Andrey Knyazev left the team, starting solo career. Mikhail Gorshenev continued to perform under the same name. He managed to realize your own dream- he staged the opera within concert program groups.

It was a duology called TODD. Its plot was based on the story of the serial killer Sweeney Todd. Her last act in the studio version was released in 2012. Numerous concerts took place at the same time. The public received the new product with a bang.

Death of Gorshenev

In July 2013, the festival season was in full swing, when KiSh traditionally gave many concerts. Several announcements have already been made, but on the 19th, the lead singer of the “King and the Clown” group, Mikhail Gorshenev, the frontman and leader of the team, was found dead in his own home.

The event shocked absolutely everyone, since the man had no special health problems. An autopsy revealed that the cause of death was a drug overdose due to heart failure.

The existence of a group without Gorshenev would be extremely strange, so the participants announced the dissolution of “The King and the Jester”. Some of them created new project“Northern Fleet” - after the title of one of Mikhail’s songs. At the same time, Knyazev continues his solo career.

In 1987, three classmates created the punk band “Kontora”, which served as the basis for the future “The King and the Jester”. These were “Pot” Mikhail Gorshenev, “Lieutenant” Alexander Shchigolev and “Balu” Alexander Balunov. Your main distinctive feature the group acquired it later, when Gorshok met Prince Andrei Knyazev at school.

The prince wrote unusual texts - small poetic short stories based on folk, fairy tales. In 1990, everyone appears famous name- "King and the Clown". The first performance took place in 1992, and from that moment on it was customary to keep a record of its existence.

The group quickly gains fame in the Moscow and St. Petersburg underground, but does not advance further than that. The album “Make yourself at home, traveler!” is being recorded on your own. and is distributed, also independently, in microscopic editions on audio cassettes.

In 1997, the group made a high-quality recording - the album “The King and the Clown”. An “Acoustic Album” is being recorded, on which the group includes violinist Maria Nefedova.

The popularity did not take long to arrive - the whole country sees the video on MTV. Cheerful punk rock with unusual lyrics sounds like something definitely new, and the song is sung in every yard.

The group begins to receive offers from labels; instead of semi-underground St. Petersburg clubs, the group fills stadiums and headlines major festivals.

The group celebrates a decade, collects armfuls music awards, the songs do not leave the top of the charts. The group continuously tours throughout Russia and abroad.

The peak of the group's popularity began to subside only in 2004. Maria Nefedova leaves the composition, Goroshok and Prince are engaged in solo projects. In the year of the group's 15th anniversary, Baloo passes away. The group changes its composition, continues to perform actively, but the new songs do not receive the former all-Russian love. But in 2008, Our radio calls best song decades - listeners remember and appreciate the first hits of “The King and the Jester”. The group tirelessly participates in more and more new projects - musicals, duets, opera horror TODD", together with Gorshka's brother Alexei, the leader. The group remains afloat, but only fans follow these “horror operas”. Of which, however, “The King and the Jester” had plenty even in this difficult time. Serious problem begins to create drunkenness and drug use.

In 2011, Prince left the group, taking new violinist Dmitry Rishko into his solo project.

In 2013, at the age of 39, Mikhail Gorshenev died from a drug overdose. The group ceases to exist.

This tragedy causes an unprecedented surge in the popularity of “The King and the Jester.” Driven by nostalgia, grown-up fans collect money for monuments to Mikhail in several cities at once, the group acquires “cult” status.

Creation of the group and release of the first album

History of the group “King and the Clown” (KiSh) - begins in 1988, in the city of Leningrad. The founders were three classmates:, and. Original name the collective was "Office". When Gorshenev studied in Leningrad, he met Andrei Knyazev and invited him to the group. During the development process, several proposals were made different options names of the group, the name “King and the Jester” was eventually chosen. was the author of most of the songs. It was he who gave them an unusual, fabulous character. Replenishment of the group occurred in 1995, when a guitarist joined the lineup. It was difficult to call the first songs ohm, they were rather new, but this lasted only until the release of the first album “”. It was in style and gained enormous popularity.

Beginning of popularity

The group became popular with the release of their first album, “,” which was released in 1996. In 1997, the next album entitled “” was released. At this time, the group began to participate in various events and actively work with other groups, which only had a positive effect on its development. Also gained good popularity. After the release, a violinist joined the group. This made a change in style - the music became more like. This change brought the “King and the Clown” group fame throughout Russia and beyond. Later, the group's first professional video, based on the song, was released. 2000 – released new album group "". The song “The Drevlyans Remember With Bitterness” was immediately liked by fans and entered the charts. With the new album, the group “Korol i Shut” performs in Ukraine and Russia.

Tenth anniversary of the group

In 2001, the “King and the Jester” group turned ten years old. In honor of this, a collection was released best songs entitled " ". Again a large-scale tour of Belarus, Siberia and Russia was held. After this, the group will be present at all major rock festivals in Russia. In 2002, another important event occurred - one of the most successful albums called. Already at this time the group was very popular and almost every teenager knew it. After the release of the album "" the King and the Jester noticeably moved closer to punk culture. In 2003, the group toured America, Russia and Finland. Then one of the group’s concerts, held on December 18, 2003, was released on DVD. The group’s success in the charts was repeated again - the songs “Dead Anarchist”, “Bear” and “Cursed Old House” topped the top. In 2002, “The King and the Clown” opened the “Invasion” festival, and then in all subsequent years the “Friday the 13th” festival.

Crisis of the early 2000s

In 2004, a disc called “” was released. Three songs from the disc are devoted to the theme of pirates. We can say that the crisis in the group began precisely after the creation of this album. More precisely, during its creation, since Mikhail Gorshenev wanted to record his songs for the album, and his own. It was decided to record five songs of the Prince and nine songs of the Pot. shown on MTV Russia. The new album was a noticeable departure from , and not all fans accepted it. Adding to the problems was the fact that violinist Nefedova, guitarist and bassist left the group. The group's creativity came to a standstill, and its popularity began to decline. In 2005, Andrei Knyazev almost simultaneously completed work on their own solo albums, which brought a lot of worries to the fans of the group, since the albums of both group leaders differed significantly in genre, which meant that there was a possibility of the group breaking up. Solo album"", was entirely made from processed songs of the group, and referred to, or rather to. But the solo project is more likely to be related to. In 2006, the composition of the “King and the Clown” group changed: he became a new bassist, and replaced (the violinist). The members felt that a second guitarist in the group would be superfluous, and decided to abandon him. With the same lineup, the group released a new album called “,” which still remains a favorite among a wide range of fans. The group then performed at a rock festival in the USA.

15th anniversary of the group

In 2007, in honor of her 15th anniversary, she toured Russia. After the tour, the group began work on a new album. A new keyboard player appears in the group - Pavel Sazhinov (former sound engineer of the group). And Denis Nevolin became the new sound engineer. The King and the Clown group also has a permanent photographer - Victoria Viatris. The album " Scary tales", recorded jointly by Gorshk and Prince. It included 13 ominous songs based on Russian folk tales.

New Horizons

Ninth studio album under the title comes out on November 18, 2008. They decided to change the image of the Jester to a sinister clown and his shadow. This album had one feature: the songs from this album were called shadows, and the lyrics and poems were called penumbra. The album was divided into three parts. The first part is the clown penumbra, the second part is the court plot penumbra, and the third part is the zombie penumbra. One bonus track was also recorded called “Prompter”. This track was set to music from the song “Funny Pistol”. Gorshok also wrote the song “13th wound”, which is dedicated to Nestor Makhno and is sung in “surzhik”. Long before the release of the album itself, a track called “Dagon” appeared in the rotation of “Our Radio”, which reached the top.

On April 10, 2009, the King and the Jester recorded another live DVD. The band then announced that they would be releasing a new album soon, and almost immediately released a single called "Dance of the Evil Genius". In 2010, the group King and Jester releases the second song of their future album called. In February of the same year, the group played a grand concert in Prague. On October 11, the King and the Jester officially present their new album entitled “Demon Theater”. The stock for this album featured many musicians from other bands. You can say that it was something new for the group, since it was recorded in the style of .

On December 21, work was completed on the “Magician” video, filmed for the composition of the same name, which was included in the album “Demon Theater”. The place for work on the clip became old mansion Brusnitsyn, in St. Petersburg. Antique furniture was also specially selected. In this video he starred as a magician famous actor Gosha Kutsenko, and the band members played visitors who watch his performance.

2011 - team leaders Mikhail Gorshenev and Andrey Knyazev decide to independently implement their creative ideas. Knyazev created his own solo project under the name of which a former participant in “The King and the Jester” also joined the lineup. Already in June, Prince and Co. presented the single to the world, and then, in October of the same year, the album was released, which was very warmly received by listeners. At the same time, Gorshenev, as part of “The King and the Jester,” worked hard on creating a zong opera about Sweeney Todd, the barber-murderer. On December 5, 2011, the album was released, which, by decision of the group, was posted on ThankYou.ru. On August 17, 2011, after a long break, he returned to the “King and the Clown” group (guitar). Andrei Knyazev officially announced his break with the “King and the Clown” group due to fundamental creative differences.

December 2011 the group “King and the Clown” gives two big concert in St. Petersburg at the Cosmonaut club and then in Moscow (Arena Moscow). For the first time, the group appeared before the public with a renewed lineup.On April 28, 2012, the group “King and the Clown” organized a big concert at the Luzhniki Sports Palace. The program bore the anniversary title “10 years later”, the musicians of the King and the Jester, together with their fans, remembered the very first anniversary concerts, which took place in 2002, as part of the 10th anniversary of the team.

Group King and Jester - Arena Moscow (25.11.2012)

On May 24, 2012, the second album in the series was released. The album was the logical conclusion of the first “Act 1. Feast of Blood”, but was made in a more lyrical and philosophical style.After the release of the album, the group King and Shut takes part in all major festivals, for example such as and . On August 10, the traditional open air takes place, in which the departed Andrei Knyazev did not take part for the first time.On November 6th and 7th, 2012, the long-awaited Full House took place at the Film Actor Theater and flattering reviews from critics once again confirmed that the group King and the Clown had reached a new level of development, and the leader of the group realized his dream and entered the theater stage .On December 20, in the program, Mikhail Gorshenev (Todd the barber) and Andrei Krasnousov (priest) performed a fragment of a zong opera.The group King and the Clown wins in two categories " the best group" and "best soloist".July 7 group King and Jester in Once again takes part in the main summer festival of the year .

After “Invasion 2013”, the team members unanimously decided to part with, due to his constant problems with alcohol. Zakhara's place at the next performance at the Green Theater was supposed to be taken by.

Group King and Jester (KiSh) - Invasion-2013

“With regret we have to inform you that Mikhail Gorshenev died suddenly on the night of July 18-19 in his home in St. Petersburg” - this appeared on 07/19/2013 in official twitter groups.Mikhail Gorshenev died suddenly at the fortieth year of his life in his home in St. Petersburg. Official reason death heart failure.On July 20, a big concert was supposed to take place in Gorky Park, but after the death of the group leader, the concert was canceled. Despite the cancellation of the performance, hundreds of fans came to sing in chorus the songs of their favorite group.

REMEMBER. LOVED. WE MOURN...

On July 22, from 12.00 to 15.00 in St. Petersburg, at the Yubileiny sports complex, a funeral was held for Mikhail Gorshenev, after which the musician’s body was cremated.

On August 1, 2013, Mikhail’s ashes were interred at the Bogoslovskoye cemetery in St. Petersburg.

On August 14, 2013, the musicians of the group announced that the King and the Jester was ceasing to exist, since the future of the group could not be imagined without Mikhail Gorshenev. Further former musicians The King and the Jester decided to perform under the name "". This is how the story of the legendary Russian punk band Korol and Shut ended unexpectedly and tragically ( KiSH).