Blocking, pressure of the center "E", dismissal from work, fines, beating, mail hacking. Who and how is in fear on young rock groups

Nobody touched them for ten years. Well, almost. They played for themselves and played cheap unpretentious clubs, “basements”, as they say. The troubles began last summer and continued all year.

In July, several groups boycotted the invasion festival for pacifist reasons. At first they were told that there would be no tanks on the field, and they agreed. Then what will be, and they refused. “Jorsh”, “Porn films”, “Elysium”, “Distemper” performed a united front, the scandal was rather loud.

“To play on the“ invasion ”is a dream of many,” says Dima Sokolov, the leader of Jorsha. -This is a pass to the world of show business, a short path to popularity. But we had a position: if the Ministry of Defense puts draft points there, we are not going. ”

In fact, there were no draft points, this is a legend. Like the fact that volunteers are recruited at the festival to the Donbass. In reality, it was different: a tent stood, where the major told everyone who wanted how to go to serve under a contract. No more.

"May be. But this is like telling how great it is to accept heroin. I would not play at such a festival either. Or at the festival with Kolovrats on the posters and slogans “Our Crimea!”.

For reference. In 2019, the “Invasion” will be held without the participation of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation. It is unlikely that this is the result of the Pankovsky boycott, although who knows, who knows ...

Immediately after the Jorsh festival, the clip for the song “God, King of Trini!”, Which unexpectedly becomes popular. In the first day - 200 thousand views. A million listens of the album “Netputinazad!”, The first place in the top of Google Play and so on.

And here, seeing that the audience of the group is growing exponentially, competent authorities took up them.

Video clips

From the very beginning, the clip was perceived as Antiputin, although it was a little about another. About kvass patriotism. About people who live badly, but are sure that the Western powers are to blame for all their troubles. Roads are gifted, prices are rising, officials are producing murdered decrees, but we are still well done, and the Americans are craping us. The clip precedes the notification, or, as they say, the disc shi: “This video is exclusively parody and has no goal of offending anyone.” But in less than a few days, it was blocked.

Block the video often. For extremism, for propaganda of drugs, for insulting people who want to be offended. Usually this happens by a court decision, but in this case there was no decision. The Jorsh group acted elegantly, so you won’t dig up.

“One morning I woke up and saw that my Google account was hacked. And he was attached to our channel in Yetube. I went to the channel and I see that instead of our videos there are several videos with songs of foreign performers: “Motley Cry”, “Hans-n Rouses”. And the Struits, warnings about copyright violations are thrown. That is, they purposefully loaded pirate content, and then they themselves filed complaints against it. So there was a blocking. A few weeks later, we restored the channel, but it was in the knockdown, did not display in search engines, all the views flew, and many subscribers unsubscribed.

The same garbage took place in VKontakte. It is generally simple there. A year ago, before the elections to the State Duma, all the tracks that are critical towards power were blocked. The window pops up before listening: this track was taken either for copyright violations, or simply closed for listening at someone’s application. They seized the songs “My Program” and “Black Flag” from us. The “program” is a really tough thing, but it is tough in relation to all, including Navalny. We flew a lot for her from the audience. And the “Black Flag”-with the chorus “above, the black flag, the state is the main enemy”. How not to block here? "

Post dated to March 2018:

“They block the entire“ purgen ”group, songs in the name of which have the word“ choice ”. Letov (not completely), something from the "Jorsha", as well as the anthem of Ukraine. "

Everyone understands that VKontakte is visible through the special services. It is there that they draw information about suspicious, from their point of view, events. He started a meeting, invited friends, and the next day a call is heard in the club: we strongly do not recommend.

But it is difficult to abandon VKontakte, it is there, and not on Facebook, a target audience is sitting, which actively attends concerts. All music promotion activities are focused on this resource.

Everyone is afraid. The main risk group is the owners of promoted publics, giant communities on the network. Jorsha albums calmly exist on iTunes, Google Play and even Yandex Music. Neither mat nor protest texts embarrass anyone. But there the situation is different, there the author signs the document according to which he is responsible for the tracks, not the service. And if the album lays a public, responsibility on public administrators.

They directly say: yes, the music is good, the group is well -known, but, excuse me, we are afraid.

Punk for survival

Simultaneously with the locks, the abolition of concerts began. In the mass consciousness, autumn abolitions of rappers were fixed, but it all started earlier, and everyone, despite the genres.

“In the summer, a concert in Moscow was transferred to us three times. He had to go on a ship like Sex Pistols when they rode along the Thames and sang the song God Save the Queen. But no one assumed that mass events would be prohibited in connection with the football championship. Already the tickets were well sold, and in the end the organizer wrote to us that some people turned to the owner of the ship and said in open text: there will be no concert or you will have problems. We transferred the whole thing to the Gogol club, again began to sell tickets, but did not take into account that on the same dates - the election of the mayor of Moscow. They came to the club in the same way and said: "It is undesirable to hold a concert." It is not clear to me: well, elections and elections, how do we hurt them? After the third transfer after a few months, the concert still took place, but three transfers were reflected in the audience very much. People twice handed over tickets and twice purchased them again. ”

I don't know how in the regions, but it is known for sure that

In Moscow, there is an institution of curators from law enforcement agencies that follow the concert venues of the city.

As a rule, they do not prohibit anything, at least, so until recently. But the very fact of their existence forces many organizers not to declare too sharp artists. Self -censorship in action: Well, why run out. And those who do not understand this have problems. Please play your turkyls, but as soon as you organize a concert in support of the repressed anarchists, for example, the curators are right there. This is a real example from the very recent past: one event did not take place, another under pressure changed the topic - so that no politics is even close.

In the regions, the situation is even tougher.

“To cancel concerts from groups raising social topics began a few years ago. The “nothing good” group from Petrozavodsk takes an anti -fascist position and criticizes power. I was the organizer of their concert in Podolsk. So, the faces in civilian clothes came there, as I understood - from the EE center, and explained that this event was undesirable. There are no any legal acts that would prohibit the concert. They simply exert moral pressure from the series-you can do it all yourself, they will leave, and you live here.

There was the same thing in Kazan, but the group was not at a loss, rented a bathhouse and held a concert there. ”

Pankovs have many such examples. Pressed on “Porn films”, “Elysium”, “Distemper”, FPG, “Purgen”. Well, on the "Jorsh", of course.

“I remember Lipetsk. We chose a private club so that it was more difficult to press the organizer, but the security forces arrived, and two days before the date we had to transfer everything to another place. The most unpleasant thing is that cancellations occur at the last moment, when money for advertising has already been spent, a platform is rented, tickets were sold. We lose at least half of the public, sometimes more. This is tangible material damage to the group and the organizers. ”

Here it should be explained that punks, unlike rappers, are poor people. Each such cancellation hits them very painfully. Dima made a concert for me in an average Russian city. Ordinary, not a millionaire. Hall for two hundred people. The ticket price is 600 rubles. Total: 120 thousand. A group of this money gets about 80. We divide it into four: each musician is 20 each. And this is a “yorsh”, a group quite famous. Many go for much less money.

Now imagine that the concert has been canceled. In this case, musicians and organizers lose not only profit, but also the money spent on rent, advertising, transport, housing. The minus is fat.

And if this happens in several cities? And if in Moscow or St. Petersburg?

The cancellation also has a side effect - fear. He already works at the level of an invitation to the city. Why call a group if it is known that there will be problems? The organizers are simply afraid to make them proposals.

“In Krasnodar, we came up with a life hack, a universal excuse for the inspectors. We are a legal group, registered in copyright. Everything is quite ridiculous there: we must give ourselves permission to fulfill our songs. And so we sign a piece of paper for RAO and hand it to people from law enforcement agencies. As a rule, this document acts on them soothingly. ”

Evaluate the humor of the situation: a large serious office, established at one time by Nikita Mikhalkov, covers with his authority protesting pancks. But actually this is a version of censorship. In Soviet times, the musicians were obliged to lick the texts before the performance, but now this is happening. Another way: they ask to sign a piece of paper in which the artist undertakes to prevent extremist statements. And they sign, although neither the other side understands what kind of statements these are. Just such a ritual.

- Dima, why do you need it at all? Checking all two hundred concerts for two hundred people is a rather tedious job.

- They usually say the same thing. That the position of the group causes their concerns. That people will listen to us and after that they will share our ideology. Well, no matter how no one needs a boat to swing.

In Smolensk, the organizer approached me and said that law enforcement agencies would come to the concert. I asked not to push the hot topics, you can sing, but no propaganda, calls and everything else. Actually, we already have no calls. From the stage, I usually say that all the people are brothers, the Earth is our common house, and nationalism is evil. Is it extremism or not?

In the Nizhny, FeSbashnik cried on my chest: he likes our music, and he is tormented by demons at night due to what he is doing during the day. I don’t know what choice he made, I will not lie, but it’s already good that I thought.

We never called anyone for barricades, we are against the brick revolution out the window. On the contrary: let young people get an education, work and change the system from the inside - this is the right strategy.

Volodya Kotlyarov, the leader of "Porn films" told me about the same thing:

- If you now arrange a revolution, other greeders will be replaced by other greedy. A coup in your head, then barricades will not be needed. Time will pass, you yourself will become a deputy, you will become a police officer. And if you are an honest person, then life in the country will be honest.

Security Service found a negative

Dima and Volodya are strange punks, not the way we are used to. I did not notice any nihilism and craving for self -destruction. Kotlyarov, for example, Stretezer - does not drink, does not smoke, does not take drugs. It promotes healthy lifestyle, and also - you will not believe - the verses of Akhmatova and Mandelstam. Sokolov is a large father, a believer, in the recent past a successful financial manager. What does not suit officials is incomprehensible.

And by the way, where did they come from?

“It's simple,” says Dima. - We grew up in depressed cities near Moscow, where everyone around us drunk, pricked, and I don’t want to talk about crime, he is at every step. We had a company, thirty people. Of these, only five are all right. The rest are either sitting or dead. Our natural desire is to live differently.

And we drive around the country, we see what is happening. Sometimes you give horror: the road from Yaroslavl to Vologda - rickety houses, total alcoholization, drug addiction. In the city of Bor, it was scary to walk the streets: at bus stops in the open, saliva flows, and no one is doing anything, everyone is used to it. Once they will see a drug addict, it seems to be shocking them, and when the second, third, twentieth, it is no longer so scary. But in fact it is scary. "

In February, he was fired from work.

“I made a career for the director of the office. And all the time I was tormented by the issue of household xenophobia. I stopped manifestations of nationalism very hard: I will hear the word “khachik” once again, and you don’t work here anymore. ”

And then the bosses changed. The Russian Capital Bank has become state.

“The security service climbed into social networks, and there my ideology is quite transparently visible. And the pressure began, they wanted me to quit. Well, he quit, and where to go. Invited to another bank. Everything was fine, the interview was interviewed. And at the final stage they called and said: "Security did not miss you." They do not explain why, simply say: "There is a negative." And since February I have been sitting without work. I go for an interview, try to get a job, but the negative has not disappeared anywhere. In the meantime, I earn music. I give the lessons of the game on the guitar and tour with the group. But this is not enough, I have three children. ”

It is not very similar to punk. An ordinary guy, without a ironic, without symbols. And on the other hand, in Moscow there are a lot of people who look quite pankovsky, but have nothing to do with the panka. This is just a fashion, a joke. Thinking about it, you understand how much times have changed. I remember how in Cherepovets they told me about Vologda: “A backward city, there you can still meet a punk with a horsemen.”

“Ten years ago, Dr. Martins shoes meant belonging to antifa-piles. I had red Martins with red laces, this raised questions. And now everyone walks in the Martins, no one pays attention. ”

On the one hand, shaven -headed, on the other - power

“It raised questions” - he put it softly. In case of unsuccessful layout, they could be killed. The middle of the zero is the midst of street wars of the Pankov with neo -Nazis.

“I was in the Point club at the Naiva concert, when the mass battle began. There were people who heard the announcement of our radio, boys and girls, and their crowd of shave -headed pressed. Naturally, they began to think: what did we do bad? Hence the antifa movement and went. I remember “white wagons”, we ourselves fell into them. The White Wagon is when the brigade of the skinheads enters from both sides into the carriage of the train near Moscow and beats non -Russian or those who look Pankovsky. We once hit the Sergiev Posad once. Fortunately, we were not touched, but to be honest, this is very scary, because you understand that you have nowhere to run. ”

Dmitry Spirin from "cockroaches!" told me:

-The opinion of the punk community boils down to the fact that the confrontation with the right, which reached real human casualties, remained in the past. But, of course, this is an illusion. To this day, they monitor the Internet, tracking every concert. They read posters, see that they are crushed by anti -fascist sites - and all, conclusions are drawn. ”

The zero did not end. Right radicals and today from time to time break concerts. The risk is double: you can get from power, but you can - from the skinheads. In capitals, such incidents occur once every few months or less often. In the regions, probably more often, but no one counted.

In Podolsk, where Sokolov is still a lot of right. But the Jorsh is not touching: the group rattles throughout the country, there was still not enough to offend them in their hometown.

And in December, they beat their guitarist in Obninsk.

“They stood at the bar and shouted something racist. He says: "Guys, why, is not worth it." "Are you from Jorsha?" Shavka, or what? " (as they call antifa) And we have a guitarist actually from the world of metal, he used to perform songs about elves. He was surprised: "Why" Shavka "? If a girl of a different nationality on the street falls, you can't give her a hand? I have friends of Armenians, Tajiks, Uzbeks, they are bad people all that? ” Well, I got it. It is difficult to conduct constructive dialogs with radicals, they regard everything from the standpoint of power: who is stronger, is right.

Then he wrote a statement to the police. He was not accepted, they began to dissuade the whole department, like, why do you need it. He spent three or four hours there, all on his nerves, then spat and said: "Well, live here with your Naziki."

That is, all the prohibitions are also.

And on the other hand, they achieved what they wanted. Such a wide audience would never have learned about the existence of “Jorsha”, IC3PEAK, even Husky, if the security forces had not been promoting them throughout the country. The PR method, of course, is peculiar, but here who can do it.

В начале апреля они сыграли в «Главклубе», на одной из самых престижных и крупных рок-площадок Москвы. Логичный результат отмен, блокировок и угроз. Популярность росла, росла и выросла до серьезных масштабов. Спустя десять лет после основания группы она вышла из андерграунда. Другое дело, что у них на душе.

По большому счету, ничего суперстрашного с группой «Йорш» не случилось. В конце концов, никого из них не убили, не посадили. Их песен даже нет в экстремистских списках. Обычная история, будни. Но представьте себе атмосферу, в которой они и другие молодые группы живут последние годы. Страх, постоянное ожидание удара, игра на выживание. Неудивительно, что песни становятся все злее и злее. Панк и без того не самое мирное направление в музыке, но так кого угодно можно довести до протеста.

PS

Когда материал уже был готов, Дима написал мне письмо: «Привет! Мы на Урале сейчас, тур очень успешный, народу много. Пока все проходит без инцидентов».

Ключевое слово — «пока». В любой момент может что-то произойти.