Lubeh

Infobox musical artist
Name = Lubeh
Background = group_or_band
Origin = flagicon|Russia Moscow, Russia
Genre = Russian rock
Rock
Folk rock
Years_active = 1989-present
URL = [http://www.matvey.ru/lubeh/ Official website]

Lubeh (Любэ) (also romanized as Lyube, Ljube or simply Lube) are a rock/pop band from Moscow, Russia. The band consists of Nikolay Rastorguyev (vocals), Vitaliy Loktev (keyboars, accordeon), Aleksandr Erokhin (drums), Anatoliy Kuleshov (back vocals, choral master), Aleksey Khokhlov (guitar), Pavel Usanov (bass guitar), Aleksey Tarasov (back vocals), and Yuriy Rymanov (guitar). The band's producer and main songwriter has been Igor Matvienko.

Musical style

Lubeh's music harmoniously combines elements of Western rock and roll, traditional Russian folk music and military bard music. Starting in 1989 with their first release, they have released 13 albums inside of Russia.

The group

The band has six members, led by the singer Nikolay Rastorguyev, one of the People's Artists of Russia. In the mid-1990s, the band surprisingly released an album of Beatles covers. Their latest album, "Rasseya", released in 2004, included a remake of one of their older songs and a rock and roll rendition of the Hymn of the Russian Federation. Lubeh has only produced one English language song, called "No More Barricades", which sings about Russian democracy.

Lubeh is one of the few rock and roll groups whose audience garners a wide listening audience. Concert-goers are typically of any age, including seniors, teenagers, children and their parents. At least one of their concerts was attended by Vladimir Putin.

Their name comes from that of the Moscow suburb of Lubertsy, which during the late 1980s and early 1990s was a center of "gopnik" ("luber") culture, whose values were in part reflected in Lubeh's songs.

Notable songs

*Atas! - a song inspired by the 1979 Soviet TV-miniseries The Meeting Place Cannot Be Changed about criminals in post World War 2 Moscow, which became a hit and made the band famous in 1991
*Bat'ka Mahno - a song on the anarchist Nestor Makhno was made twice, put in three albums
*Ne valyai duraka, Amerika! - a humorous song about Alaska's purchase by the U.S.
*Kombat - A tribute to WWII vets. Commonly mistaken for "one of many songs inspired by Lyube's experiences in Chechnya, where they performed on many occasions, in order to boost the morale of the Russian army"
*Soldat - like Kombat.
*Ty nesi menya reka... - the most popular of Lubeh's many themes to Russian TV series
*Beryozy - a theme from the 2003 TV series "Uchastok," used on two albums
*Davay za - theme from the "Spetsnaz" television miniseries

Albums released

* Atas (Atas- Russian slang for "Alert") (1989)
* Kto Skazal, Chto Mi Ploho Zhili? (Who said that we lived poorly?) (1992)
* Zona Lyube (Lyube Zone) (1993)
* Kombat (Battalion Commander) (1996)
* Sobranie Sochineniy, Vol.1 (Collection of Songs, Vol.1) (1996, compilation)
* Pesni o Ludyah (Songs about People) (1997)
* Iz Koncertnoy Programmi "Pesni o ludyah" (From the concert program "Songs about people") (1998, two disk, concert)
* Polustanochki (Substation) (2000)
* Sobranie Sochineniy, Vol.2 (Collection of Songs, Vol.2) (2001, compilation)
* Davay Za... (Let's do it for...") (2002)
* Yubilej. Luchshiye Pesni. (Anniversary. Best Songs.) (2002, two disk, concert)
* Rebyata Nashevo Polka (Guys of our Regiment) (2004)
* Rasseya (Russia. "note: this word is a rarely used variation of the word Rossiya having a specific patriotic sense") (2005)

External links

* [http://www.matvey.ru/lubeh/ Official website] ru icon
* [http://russia-in-us.com/Music/Rock/Lyube/ History of the group]
* [http://russmus.net/band.jsp?band=Lyube RussMus.Net: Lyube - info, lyrics, tabs and translations]
* [http://russkayagazeta.com/rg/gazeta/fullstory/lube/ News article from Russkaya Gazeta] Ru icon