Artist description The YELLOW PILLOW is one of the few bands in St. Petersburg and even in Russia, which plays music at the turn of British big-beat ("British Invasion") and American garage rock ("American Answer") of the Sixties.

Music Style Mod-garage

Musical Influences Big-Beat, American Garage

Artist History After the split of the fabulous grunge band "The NOIZES" its participants Victor FOKIN and Alex YEARSHOW decided to find some peace of mind and clean their brains of noise layers. The way they found was to play their favorite so called "rock non-standards" - rarities of beat classics as well as works of quite forgotten bands - the ranks of the great garage rock army. Keyboard player Andrew KOUPRIYANOV (he was one of "The NOIZES" for some time, but as a matter of fact he participated in innumerable bands of various styles) and drummer Alexander TIKHOMOLOV (ex-"S.P.O.R.T.") were invited as companions, and in September 1997 the group with a strange name "The YELLOW PILLOW" started its regular appearances in small rock-n-roll clubs of St. Petersburg. Their unrestrained energy and non-typical approach to cover versions performance rapidly gave them plenty of admirers. There are strange legends about the band's name. Once they appeared as SURREALISTIC SUBMARINE - guess why... Another version says that YELLOW PILLOW is just modified string "little yellow pill" from The ROLLING STONES' "Mother's Little Helper". The boys decided to replace "pill" by "pillow" to avoid needless acid associations - they were not attracted by new "acid gurus" reputation; though since "The NOIZES" times they were not afraid by scandalous renown. During the three following years the band gave a lot of concerts in all city's rock-n-roll clubs (Corsair, Money Honey, Fireball, Uley /Beehive/, Rio, Dostoyevskiy Art Bar, Spartak); it was invariable representative of beat movement at Mikhail SPITCHKA's Sunday night Rock and Roll Rumbles in the California Grill Club. Abundance of concerts coupled with the musicians' ceaseless willing to present something new to their audience resulted in the fact that continuance of The YELLOW PILLOW's repertoire exceeded five hours. Many songs, especially of garage style, were played as half-hourly psychedelic splits. In that way the band performed also enlightener mission - in the environment of information vacuum they opened for their audience beautiful world of the Sixties' pop culture which is not limited by the notorious "BeatleStones" tandem. Everything was fine - concerts, fans and grouppies, oceans of flowers, money and beer, but... creative discrepancies outlined by the new millennium resulted in the following: 1. The band reduced its stuff to trio (nevertheless Andrew KOUPRIYANOV plays with the Pillows from time to time). 2. Alexander TIKHOMOLOV (now - "HOOX") was replaced by Sergey ANDREYEV - an old friend of Victor and Alex and their colleague from "The NOIZES". 3. Their music took on more modern sound - keeping the Sixties' aesthetics as the basis, the band uses elements of all conceivable music trends in its experiences arising spontaneously during its concerts. At that some so called "style purity adepts" may knit their brows but they are in obvious minority - advanced critics and admirers call the band's style and sound with the word "neobeat". What next? - you may ask. The YELLOW PILLOW is experiencing the new stage of its living. Having sacrificed the number of concerts to their quality ("...shows must be seldom, and each of them must become an BIG EVENT"), the band actively explores new areas (Moscow and other European capitals), continues to work in the chosen style and to extend its set-list which more and more often includes self-penned songs written in the melodic tradition of "sweet sixties" multiplied by energetic sound of the new century.

Group Members Victor FOKIN - black guitarr, kazoo, singing Alex YEARSHOW - big buzz guitarr, singin'-ringin' Sergey "Q-kan" ANDREEV - drums, rarely singin Yuri BIRUKOFF - keyboards and occasionaly guitar

Albums "Stolen Songs. Part I", "...In The City"

Location Saint Petersburg, Leningradskaya obl. - Russia

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