The Ukrainians, Percy, Leather’o

Ticket: £12.00 Buy Now
Doors: 19:30pm
Age: 14+

NEVER MIND THE COSSACKS. HERE’S THE UKRAINIANS …

Founded by ex-Wedding Present guitarist Peter Solowka and his tenor-voiced, fiddle-playing slavophile friend Len Liggins in 1991 – the very year Ukraine regained its independence from the Soviet Union.

Debut single ‘Oi Divchino’ was the first pop video for a western band to be produced entirely in the east (Ukraine), becoming NME Single of the Week and attracting huge music and mainstream coverage.

Word spread across the Atlantic, prompting NIKE to approach The Ukrainians to record the soundtrack for a TV ad. The music accompanied footage of Ukrainian world champion pole-vaulter Sergey Bubka, and was screened globally.

The group next released their ‘Pisni Iz The Smiths’ EP, which included the group’s Ukrainian language versions of four classic Smiths songs (The Queen Is Dead) and set the template for the band’s occasional foray into covering classic Western pop in Ukrainian style. So far, other bands to have been ‘Ukrainianised’ include The Sex Pistols (Anarchy In The UK – awesome!), The Velvet Underground, T Rex, Prince, The Tornados, Plastic Bertrand and Kraftwerk.

In 2009 they released ‘Diaspora’, considered by many to be their best and most mature work. Most of the songs deal with the subject of migration: the heartbreak of leaving family and homeland forever coupled with the excitement of starting a new life. The album had a strong resonance at a time when waves of young Ukrainians, Poles and other eastern Europeans had been flocking to the West in the hope of finding work.

And recently The Ukrainians released their ’20 Years – The Best of The Ukrainians’ album, a collection of their 20 very best recordings from their incredible two-decade history.

Then, as now, the world’s major exponents of a new hybrid of traditional Ukrainian folk and Western rock; and embraced by rock, punk, folk/roots and world music fans alike.

We are so excited to finally bring this amazing band to York – don’t miss it!