Viktor Tsoi at the wedding of Joanna Stingray and Yuri Kasparyan (guitarist and one of the founders of the Kino group), 1987.

I always knew that it was better to be one of the guys than to be with one of the guys. Yes, I had two Russian husbands and a couple more fleeting affairs with my Russian friends, but throughout the twelve years of my almost non-stop stay in Russia - from the beginning of 1984 to 1996 - I remained “my guy”. Coming from Los Angeles, a city that literally stands on unbending stereotypes (including ideas about gender roles), I began to imitate these men with all my passion - smart, handsome, talented. I merged with them in harmony - instead of cooking their lunches; broke bottles with them - instead of breaking hearts. I plunged into an atmosphere of euphoria in the company of young gods.

Artist Timur Novikov (left), Stingray and Kino drummer, artist Georgy “Gustav” Guryanov. 1985.

It is generally accepted that if a woman for a long time revolves in the society of men, she inevitably acquires masculine traits and becomes overly masculine. I, on the other hand, have never felt more feminine in my life. Our communication consisted of endless hugs, kisses, and the exchange of frivolous but sweet jokes. I had no relationship with any of them, there were no emotional barriers, so I felt incredible freedom: there was no need to hide my tenderness and I could just giggle stupidly and not think about the consequences. None of them tried to impress me or pretended to be anything in front of me; I behaved just as freely and uninhibitedly with them. Our relationship was pure, there was no tension between us, and I was never disappointed in them.

Men are at their best when they don't risk disappointing you.

Since childhood, I have been told: “Think before you speak.” I have always cared about the opinions of others. With these guys I thought a lot less and did a lot more and just lived. Our actions were instinctive, largely dictated by the body rather than the mind - obeying a sudden impulse, we smeared paint on the canvas, plucked guitar strings or began to pound the keys.

With Konstantin Kinchev (“Alice”) on the set of the video “It’s All Rock and Roll”, 1992.

Let's be honest, who wouldn't be proud to know Boris Grebenshchikov, the Kino group, Sergei Kuryokhin, Kostya Kinchev and many of my other friends - Russian rockers, artists and poets? Yes, I had many opportunities. Another one in my place would have fallen at Boris’s feet, deifying him until she lost touch with both reality and himself.” godfather Russian rock". How many women have I seen fawning over him, who did not realize that the higher they put him on a pedestal, the more they distance themselves from him. And while they reverently prayed for his appearance soaring into the heavens, I easily slipped into Boris’s room and quietly took him away.

With musician Sergei Kuryokhin in the Leningrad apartment of a Swedish diplomat, 1986.

I developed a unity with my Russian friends that I liked to call a “mutual admiration society” or simply a “love festival.” I loved their strength, confidence and style; they liked my passion and rebellion. Nobody took anything seriously, which is probably why we ended up taking each other so seriously.

Today the gap separating men and women is wider than ever before. We look at each other as enemies, strangers, as a means to an end, or as something unknown and terrible, like a shadow flashing through the doorway. Latest events have given rise to fear, distorting and disfiguring our understanding of humanity and preventing us from communicating calmly and comfortably with the opposite sex. The time I spent in Russia and the relationships I developed there constantly remind me of how each of us can give inspiration and friendship to the other.

With Boris Grebenshchikov in the bathroom of the Moscow Cosmos Hotel on the set of the I Got You Babe video.

Boris remains for me guiding star, a pure and bright poet. When we met, he was a spiritual hippie with long blond hair and piercing blue eyes that could light up the entire city.

Viktor Tsoi had enormous charisma. He had magnetism. When he smiled, his kindness embraced me with its warmth.

He was always cheerful, it was easy to be with him, he was alien to artificiality, but he had sensuality and alluring eroticism. In other words, he was sexy. We could talk, laugh, dance for hours, and his soul was always on fire.

Sergei Kuryokhin - with thick dark hair and perky puppy-dog eyes - had a youthful seductiveness that easily turned into otherworldly genius. We loved to sit on the sofa, arms and legs crossed, like tree roots greedily sucking up water. He was the piper-pied piper, whose voice everyone obediently followed. He was bold and fearless.

From left to right: musician Viktor Sologub, Boris Grebenshchikov, Joanna Stingray, Viktor Tsoi, Konstantin Kinchev - a still from a photo shoot for the Red Wave album in the Mikhailovsky Garden, 1985.

Yuri Kasparian (one of Joanna's husbands - GQ note) can only be called Adonis - and not only because of the divine perfection of his face and body, but also because of the musicality of his soul. He was made of magic - calm, bright and strong.

Kostya Kinchev is a black panther with dark, thoughtful eyes, the look of which deeply pierces the soul. He was able to climb into the very depths of your consciousness in five minutes, but at the same time he was ready to offer all of himself in return. Mesmerizing, hypnotic and profound, he could be crazy and devilishly frightening at the same time. Fyodor Bondarchuk is a magician of directing. He exuded power, but the artistic vision never outweighed the humanity of the actors. Today, unfortunately, this balance has almost been forgotten.

With Vyacheslav Butusov (“Nautilus Pompilius”), 1991.

Gustav Guryanov is an artist to the core. He transformed every street in St. Petersburg where he set foot into New York's Madison Avenue. The geometry of perfection was visible in his face; he was courageous and playful.

Artem Troitsky said that he was thinking without smoothing out his thoughts. Witty and casual in its snobbish cool. His knowledge of the West was encyclopedic, far greater than mine, and, like an ancient storyteller, he shared it in stories and tales, like a fashionable New York journalist.

Yes, there were vicious, dark and destructive men among us. Yes, a woman’s constant presence among men also has its downsides. But there is also beauty and charm. A woman should not be afraid to become “her guy.” All my Russian friends are beautiful, regardless of the size of their shoulders, the width of their chest or their sexual power. These are the people who gave me love and support simply because I was there. And, I tell you, existence without such people loses its meaning.

Joanna Stingray (1960 -) American singer, popularizer of Soviet rock culture in the West. Some consider her to be a simple girl, fascinated by the rockers of the USSR, and others consider her to be an intelligence agent, a career CIA officer.

1960, Joanna Fields was born into the family of the owner big business in land and real estate trade (Beverly Hills, Los Angeles, California). Nickname Stingray (Scat) she took it later, according to the singer herself, to confuse KGB and FBI workers.

1981, a Rock club opens in Leningrad (USSR) on Rubinshteina 13. Its direct organizer, according to former general- KGB Major Oleg Kalugin, was the GB Committee. The goal is to identify leaders and idols of informal youth and monitor them. Of course, this phenomenon also interested our American colleagues.

Everyone knew, although the newspapers did not write about it then, that the Leningrad rock club was created by the KGB to keep under control this entire St. Petersburg dissident rock community, along with your beloved BG. How did you feel under the hood of the KGB for those seven years until the Soviet Union collapsed?

“Of course, my friends in Leningrad immediately told me about this. Indeed, everyone knew about it. But no one panicked or dramatized anything, because everyone understood that this could not be avoided. Such a country and such a system. For us it was more game. They knew that we knew, but they pretended not to know. It was even fun. There were agents in suits at all the concerts. And once I was even kidnapped. That is, they detained. At a rock club festival. During one of my first visits. Right in the hall they took me by the arms and took me into the room. I didn’t speak Russian at all yet. They asked me something for about twenty minutes and didn’t believe that I didn’t understand Russian. When I started loudly demanding the ambassador, they got scared and let me go. And then we had to go to the same apartment, hang out, and Grebenshchikov said to me: “Let’s take a walk, otherwise the tail will follow us.” And then it’s like in a movie. It was so funny. We are walking, and behind us is a spy. We stop - so does he. We look around - he immediately lifts his head up and begins to count the roofs. Straight up James Bond. Then these KGB agents came to the apartment where we were and interrogated the owners: why were foreigners visiting them, what did they want, what did they do, what did they say?” (Joanna Stingray)

1983, Joanna's first album Beverly Hills Brat (1983)

1984, Joanna goes to Leningrad to get acquainted with illegal music.

1986, the Australian record company Big Time Records releases the disc "Red Wave" in a circulation of 10 thousand with a recording of the groups Aquarium, Kino, Alisa and Strange Games. Joanna secretly took the materials for recording the disc to the West.

"- The world is open today. We can communicate freely via a computer. I don’t think that Red Wave is needed again in this sense. But when we talked with Yuri Kasparyan during this visit to St. Petersburg (2018), we thought about creating “Red Wave 2 . Russia". We will ask about the participation of our friends in the project. Both Shevchuk and Grebenshchikov. Kasparian can do something with his project “Symphonic Cinema”. Maybe my daughter will be there, who sings and writes songs. Maybe , Sasha Tsoi will be there. He began to sing his songs like “Ronin”. But this “Red Wave” will cover you after the book." (Joanna Stingray).

1987 - 1991, married to Yuri Kasparyan (Cinema)

2014, Joanna is the executive director of the Beverly Hills School alumni.

2014, deputy Evgeny Fedorov (United Russia) accused Joanna and Tsoi of anti-Soviet activities.

“There was such a brilliant singer Tsoi. Indeed, super popular in the Soviet Union. And so they say: “We found on some kind of stage that he began to sing songs completely different from before.” Before that, he was singing about aluminum cucumbers, but then suddenly he started singing about change. Not his style. It's like two different singers. And they found out that Choi couldn’t write all the last songs himself; he wrote them in a group. They were brought to him from America" ​​(Evgeniy Fedorov)

2018, Stingray comes to St. Petersburg.

What made you return to St. Petersburg after so many years of absence?

"- In parallel with the analysis of photography, I began to work on a film script about my life in Russia. And about six months ago I began to write a book where the whole story will be. And I came to Russia to meet with those who will make the film, and who will help make a book. I took my daughter with me. I wanted her to see this beautiful city. The last time I was in Russia was in 1994. But I was in Moscow almost all the time then (father of daughter Joanna Stingray, Madison - in those years, drummer of the group "Center" Alexander Vasiliev - editor's note). Now we had a special guide to show the historical places of St. Petersburg. I don't know how, but "Africa" ​​(participant of the Leningrad art party, regular participant in all kinds of cultural events, artist and actor Sergei Bugaev - editor's note) found out that I was coming. And we all eventually met. And with Seva Gakkel (musician of the "golden line-up" of the group "Aquarium", in the 90s the head of the cult club "TaMtAm" - approx. .ed.) and Yura Kasparyan (guitarist of the groups “Kino”, “U-Piter”, participant in the “Symphonic Cinema” project - ed.)." (Joanna Stingray)

March 28, 2019, Joanna Stingray presented her book "Stingray in Wonderland" about his life in Leningrad and meeting Boris Grebenshchikov, Viktor Tsoi, Sergei Kuryokhin and other stars of the Leningrad underground. Thanks to the album Red Wave, in which Stingray collected compositions by the groups “Kino”, “Aquarium”, “Alice” and “Strange Games”, the Western world learned about Russian rock.

Joanna Stingray is little known to the generation of the new millennium, but for the Russian masters of rock she is a cult personality, and for his St. Petersburg school she is almost a muse. The American singer and actress in the 80s became, in fact, the first Western producer for the groups,.

Childhood and youth

Joanna Stingray, née Fields, was born in July 1960 in Los Angeles. The father made a million-dollar fortune from real estate trading, the family lived in prestigious Beverly Hills.

early years Joanna's biographies did not suggest that she would become a rocker and a celebrity in a country with opposite foundations than her homeland. The girl studied at Beverly Hills High School, where she was a member of the school cheerleading team. She was a serious swimmer and won competitions.

Music entered Fields' life when she attended the University of Southern California. The first songs appeared there, and in 1983 the aspiring singer released her first album, “Beverly Hills Brat,” with four compositions. Only the girl's name was indicated on the cover. Joanna took the pseudonym Stingray later, so she disguised herself in front of intelligence agents on both sides of the ocean.

Music

Joanna's work is closely connected with the USSR, the time of “love, poetry and romance.” The singer met the country thanks to her father, who made an anti-Soviet film. And Stingray’s perception was stereotyped – dull people, the all-powerful KGB. In the mid-80s, the singer’s sister, who was studying in England, suggested that Joanna go to Moscow for a week. Mutual friend, emigrant from Soviet Union, was friends with , gave him his phone number and advised him to visit Leningrad.

Three days spent in the city on the Neva broke the stereotypes of Stingray. According to the artist, she had never seen such magic. Not only were there virtuosos performing rock and roll in the USSR, but the people themselves turned out to be more open and welcoming. Joanna still admires the talent, modesty and unconventional behavior of Sergei Afrika Bugaev.

The first Stingray record in the USSR was released in 1989 under the name “Stingray”. It includes 4 compositions, for one of them - “Turn Away” - a video was shot in which the future film and television star appeared.

Joanna Stingray's song "Turn Away"

Joanna dedicated the album “Walking Through Windows” to the deceased Victor Tsoi. Among the tracks on the album is “Danger!”, which is a rehash of his “Gloomy Song”. The video for “Tsoi Song” is somewhat similar to the video for “The Queen is Dead” by the British band The Smiths. In 1996, the singer presented a film from archival films “ Sunny days", prepared with Alexander Lipnitsky from in memory of Victor.

The original sources for the compositions “Ashes” and “Rock’n’Roll is Dead” were the songs of “Aquarium” - “Ashes” and “Rock and Roll is Dead”. “Yerosha” is copied from “The Sorceress” performed by “Strange Games”.

Another “Soviet album” by Stingray – “Thinking “Till Monday”. The frontman of “The Untouchables” and “Brigade S” starred in the video “Dancing in the Sky”. The video “Baby Baby Bala Bala” included footage from the film “Freak” , in which Joanna is the first and last time acted as an actress.

In 1998, the singer recorded the studio album “Shades of Yellow”. Among the session musicians were members of the bands Atomic Rooster and The Parrots. Joanna has already returned to the United States for 2 years, frightened by the crisis of the “dashing 90s” that broke out in Russia. Therefore, this album is considered the only truly American one in the artist’s discography.

Joanna Stingray's "Danger!" (“My sad song”)

Joanna’s main hit is not her own work at all, but the album “Red Wave 4 underground bands from USSR”. The record with the songs of the groups of friends “Strange Games”, “Aquarium”, “Kino” and “Alice” was released in only 10 thousand copies, but then it was a huge breakthrough. Stingray took out the sources, hiding the tapes in her clothes and shoes. The Soviet authorities did not forgive the American for such a demarche, banning her from entering the country for six months and thereby jeopardizing Joanna’s wedding.

In 2004 and 2009, Stingray came to Russia with concerts, in between she released the album “May There Always Be Sunshine,” the name of which is the words from the song of Soviet children “Let there always be sunshine.”

Personal life

In the Soviet Union, the American woman developed not only a successful business life, but also a part of her personal life. In 1987, Stingray became the wife of the guitarist of the Kino group, whom the singer calls the first real and most strong love. But the couple quickly divorced. Later, the artist married Alexander Vasiliev, a member of the rock group Center. The marriage produced a daughter, Madison, and this family also fell apart. The reason for this, as Joanna admits, is her reluctance to raise a child in a rock environment.

The bass guitarist of the same band, Vasily Shumov, married Judy, Joanna’s sister, left for the USA in 1990, and returned in 2009. The singer believes that a Russian person can only create in his homeland, which his compatriots simply did not understand, because Americans are essentially immigrants from other countries.

According to rumors, Stingray also had an affair with Grebenshchikov, but Joanna claims that her love with the lead singer of “Aquarium” did not go beyond platonic, and besides, she knew Boris’s wife, Natalya, well.

The artist’s last husband was a certain Stephen; the singer, according to unconfirmed information, also broke up with him.

The musician's daughter is well aware of how famous her parents were in the Soviet Union. The girl has already been to Russia and dreams of getting Russian citizenship, because “it’s incredibly beautiful here and wonderful people" And, as Madison admitted in an interview, she will marry a “handsome Russian.” She inherited her mother’s creative genes – the video “Don’t Come Down On Me” has been circulated on the Internet, in which Joanna and Madison sing and play together.

Joanna Stingray now

The singer, who was close friends with the leader of the Kino group, had heard a lot about the director’s film “Summer” and the assessment that Boris Grebenshchikov gave to the film: everything that was shown was a lie. According to Joanna, there is some fiction in the film, but the director’s imagination should not distort the facts about Viktor Tsoi. And to tell the whole truth, you need to live and communicate in the environment and time about which the story is being told.

Joanna Stingray now

In May 2018, the singer and her daughter visited St. Petersburg, introduced Madison to the leader of Aquarium and announced that she was preparing two books for release and plans to make a film about the years spent in the Union and the people she met during this period . In the books, Joanna wants to publish photos with, and other musicians now known to listeners.

A couple of years before the trip, Stingray posted some of the rare photographs on the Internet, including "Instagram". The singer was told that she could make money from such a rarity, but Joanna wanted to give a gift to fans who had not forgotten her.

Discography

• 1983 - "Beverly Hills Brat"
• 1987 - "Save Stingray"
• 1988 - “Reggae From Around the World”
• 1989 - "Stingray"
• 1990 - “Thinking Till Monday”
• 1991 - "Walking Through Windows"
• 1991 - “Joanna Stingray Greatest Hits”
• 1993 - "Greenpeace Rocks"
• 1993 - “Rock Me But Don't Disrupt My Mind”
• 1994 - “For a Moment”
• 1998 - “Shades of Yellow”
• 2004 - “May There Always Be Sunshine”