PETER MAMONOV

The biography of the famous musician, poet and artist Pyotr Mamonov is impressive. On stage he created incredible things, not songs, “magic theater”. A rare person is able to lead a bohemian lifestyle until the age of 45, gain fame as a genius, eccentric, tragic poet, all-Russian rock jester, and suddenly leave the world by converting to Orthodoxy. What made this artist change his life so dramatically? How did a hooligan and lawless man manage to tear himself out of a vicious environment and become almost a righteous old preacher claiming to be the conscience of the country? How sincere is he in his faith? The artist answers all questions with his biography.

Childhood and youth of a rebel and hooligan

Pyotr Nikolaevich Mamonov was born on April 14, 1951 in Moscow . He spent his childhood on the legendary Bolshoy Karetny, about which Vladimir Vysotsky sang and lived. His mother was engaged in translations, and his father was a blast furnace specialist.

Even in childhood, the phenomenal artistry of the future rock musician manifested itself. He wrote poetry from a young age. In the mid-1960s, as a high school student, Peter organized his first musical group, “Express,” and performed hits with them from the Beatles, Rolling Stones, etc., and performed at school parties. Friends said that he had no equal in dancing: neck, rock and roll, twist.

Not everyone liked such creative inclinations of the teenager. And there was a reason. One day he caused an explosion near the chemistry classroom, after which he had to leave school No. 187. For such a “circus” he was kicked out twice. The rebel and hooligan was among the first Moscow hippies. Although he did not particularly welcome this subculture, he even often clashed with informals and fought. One of the fights almost cost the boy his life when a sharpened file pierced his chest.

After graduating from school, he studied at the Moscow Printing College . In the same 1979, he entered the Printing Institute at the editorial department, but studied only until the third year. He mastered English and Norwegian perfectly.

In young age

early years

Acquaintance with the early biography of Pyotr Mamonov makes it possible to understand that he was an extraordinary person almost from birth. The artist himself talks little about his childhood, but numerous recollections of contemporaries and friends allow us to learn about this period in great detail. Pyotr Nikolaevich Mamonov was born on April 14, 1951 in Moscow, into a family of metropolitan intellectuals - his father worked as an engineer, and his mother was a translator, a specialist in the field of Scandinavian languages. The future musician spent his childhood in Bolshoi Karetny Lane - Maria Ermolova and Vladimir Vysotsky once lived in the same courtyard. Thanks to the stepfather of his best friend in the yard, who worked as the personal translator of Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev, Petya had access to foreign music records from childhood. Already at the age of 6-7 he became acquainted with the work of Ray Charles, Miles Davis and Chubby Checker, which remains his favorite music to this day. The author of the biography of Pyotr Mamonov, Sergei Guryev, noted in this regard:

This Negro music laid the magical foundation for the subsequent manifestation of animal, windfall Russian savagery in Mamonov.

Little Peter loved to dance, and did not hesitate to do it wherever he pleased. The red entry “set up a circus in the class” was on the pages of his diaries throughout his school years, and he was even expelled from two institutions for pranks, among which the explosion near the chemistry classroom was especially memorable.

In high school, Mamonov formed his first rock band called “Express,” which included friends from the yard - together they performed songs from the repertoire of Led Zeppelin, The Beatles and The Rolling Stones in a very distorted form. The young man considered himself a member of the dude subculture, but often resorted to extreme forms of shocking behavior - for example, he wore a toilet handle as an earring. Congenital hyperactivity often forced young Mamonov to provoke fights with other informals - in particular, with hippies, whom he openly disliked. In one of these brawls, he received a serious injury from a sharpening blade - his chest was pierced, but the doctors managed to save the young man, who was in a coma and had lost a large amount of blood.

Having reached conscription age, Petya Mamonov pretended to be crazy and avoided the army by undergoing examination in a psychiatric hospital. After graduating from school, Peter first graduated from a printing college, and then entered the Moscow University of Printing. After studying for three years at the editorial department, he decided to quit his studies.

The biography of Pyotr Mamonov during this period consists of continuous gaps - he began to drink a lot, often changed jobs and, as it seemed, forever gave up trying to become a musician. During this period, Mamonov managed to work as a typesetter and proofreader in a printing house, a translator of poetry for collections from English, Swedish and Danish, a head of letters in the Pioneer magazine, a loader, an elevator operator, a fireman and even a massage therapist in a bathhouse. But an endless series of binges ultimately left Petya unemployed, practically destitute, unable to buy a piece of bread from time to time for several days. Only the lack of money allowed him to temporarily give up alcohol, and he was mainly engaged in writing poetry - about seventy of them were created during this period. And finally, Mamonov invited Artemy Troitsky, whom he met in a psychiatric hospital (he also avoided the army, pretending to be insane).

At that time, Troitsky had already become a famous music critic, so Peter decided to perform his recently composed songs for him. This is how Artemy Kivovich spoke about this in his book “Rock in the Union”:

It was incredibly funny, powerful and unusual. Manic-intense polka rocks on one or two chords, performed with screams, wheezes mixed with silence.

It was Troitsky’s praise that inspired Pyotr Mamonov to continue his work - he decided to create his own rock band. As a result, it included his younger half-brother Alexey Bortnichuk, best friend Alexander Lipnitsky and his acquaintance Pavel Khotin.

Main events of life

Somewhere in 1971, in order to avoid joining the army, Peter quite successfully pretended to be crazy. He is examined in a psychiatric hospital and declared unfit for service. In that same hospital, they met Artyom Troitsky, who would later play an important role in Mamonov’s career.

Over the next ten years, he managed to change many professions: typesetter at the Krasny Proletary printing house, proofreader and head of the letters department at the Pioneer magazine, loader, bath attendant-massage therapist, fireman, elevator operator. Knowledge of languages ​​allowed him to translate English, Danish, Norwegian and Swedish poetry. They can be found in many poetry collections. And all this time I had problems with alcohol.

But the 80s came, and Pyotr Mamonov returned to rock and roll.

1. 1980 – actively writes poetry. In total he composed about 70 songs. Peter presented the most successful things to A. Troitsky and earned praise.
2. 1983 - created his own musical group. At first he rehearsed with Alexei Bortnichuk (his younger brother), then they were joined by keyboard player Pavel Khotin and bass guitarist Lipnitsky. A rock band under the ridiculous name “Zvuki Mu” regularly participates in apartment concerts with other underground groups in Moscow and Leningrad.
3. 1984 – the first performance of the musicians on the big stage took place at school No. 30, where Mamonov and Lipnitsky once studied. The assembly hall accommodated more than 300 people. Among the spectators were well-known representatives of the Moscow underground.
4. 1985 – everything could have ended much worse. Mamonov drank solvent with a friend. He was lucky to survive. And the drinking companion died. A month later, Mamonov made an important decision: he decided to come out of hiding and give officially sanctioned concerts - his family, wife and children needed stability. And “Sounds of Mu”, after listening to the jury of the Moscow Rock Laboratory, could go on stage legally.
5. 1986 – with his group Mamonov participates in two rock laboratory concerts. Their trip to Latvia took place on the initiative of the Riga rock club. The festival “Movement towards Spring” brought them recognition as the best group in Moscow. After such success, Peter and his musicians are actively touring.
6. 1988 – film debut took place. The supporting role he played (a drug lord doctor) in the film “Needle” was remembered by the viewer. The albums “Simple Things” and “Crimea” were recorded. Mamonov and the musicians gave concerts in Hungary and Italy.
7. 1989 – the group’s first album was released in England. The contract for the release of the album Mamonov and his “Sounds of Mu” was concluded a little earlier with the famous English producer Brian Eno. He also offered the musicians a tour of Europe and the USA. The success was huge. Upon returning from the States and recording the last 20th album, “Transreliability,” Peter disbanded the group.
8. 1990 - founded his own recording studio “Mamonov Branch”. Played one of the main roles (saxophonist Alexey Seliverstov) in Pavel Lungin’s drama “Taxi Blues”
9. 1991-1995 – the rock musician decided to change the format of his performances, forming the duet “Mamonov and Alexey” with his guitarist brother.
10. 1991-1997 – another change of hypostasis. Mamonov is now a show director and theater actor. “The Bald Brunette” (1991), “Nobody Writes to the Colonel” (1995), “Is There Life on Mars” (1997) were successfully performed on the stage of the Theater. Stanislavsky, are also presented at festivals in Europe and the States. In the last performance, the actor voiced his adamant decision to give up drugs and alcohol completely.
11. 1994-1995 – less and less music, more and more acting work. The films “Terra incognita” (1994) and “The time of sadness has not yet come” (1995) with the participation of Mamonov were released:
12. 1994 – not a very successful attempt to revive “Sounds of Mu”. After recording several albums with the participation of bassist Evgeny Kazantsev and drummer Yuri Kistenev, this lineup also disbanded in 1996.
13. 1995 – after “Zvukov Mu” completely disbanded, Mamonov experienced deep depression, hiding in the village. He has already built a house in Efanovo. The artist converts to Orthodoxy, attends church and prays fervently. Here he creates the album “The Life of Amphibians as It Is.” But he rejects any offers and requests to act in films.
14. 2001 – Peter is starting a new project - the play “Chocolate Pushkin”, which was released first as a musical album, and then appeared to the audience as a one-man show. A year later, “Mice, Boy Kai and the Snow Queen” and “Ballet” were presented to fans. The literary text was read from the stage in a style that the actor himself called “lit-hop.”
15. 2003 – the former rock musician performed some of the old “Sounds of Mu” songs live on the Earth-Air TV show with a guitar and talked with music critics. For his contribution to the development of live music he was awarded the PoboRoll award. At the Psychiatric Clinic named after. Korsakov, he had to undergo a rehabilitation course for alcohol addiction when he fell and fell into a coma right on stage during a performance. He was on the verge of death. There were no firm intentions to “quit” alcohol.
16. 2005 – Mamonov, after a long break, reappears on the silver screen in the role of a professor in the film “Dust.”
17. 2006 - a significant year for Mamonov. The role of the elder healer Anatoly in the film “The Island” brought him cinematic awards - the Nika and Golden Eagle awards, “Own Track”, “Georges”, etc. When the film was being filmed, the musician himself had already turned into a hermit in his village far from civilization. The elder, atoning for a terrible sin, made him extremely popular.
18. 2008 – new hobby – poetry. Several collections of poems were published. His “Squiggles” with short sayings on a religious theme have already been published in four volumes.
19. 2010 – takes part in the “Igla Remix” project.
20. 2011 – the actor is filming again. Appears in the film "Chapiteau Show", video "Mamon + Loban"
21. 2012 – there was a return to the theater stage. The audience is presented with a new one-man show “Grandfather Peter and the Hares.”
22. 2015 – the revival of the rock musician. Mamonov assembles a new group and calls it “Brand new Sounds of Mu”. Starring in the film “Priest-San: Confession of a Samurai” in the role of Shatun.
23. 2017 – Pyotr Nikolaevich returns to the theater stage and presents in Moscow a new one-man play “How I Read St. Isaac the Syrian.” The reverend's works are presented to the accompaniment of electric and rock music.
24. 2019 – heart attack. Two operations and triple bypass surgery were successfully performed. Life goes on.

Theater

In 1992, Mamonov staged musical performances and performed at the Stanislavsky Theater. His works - “The Bald Brunette”, “Is There Life on Mars”, “Nobody Writes to the Colonel” - were presented at international festivals in America and Europe.

In 2003, the artist staged a one-man show “Chocolate Pushkin”, and a year later presented “Mice, Boy Kai and the Snow Queen”. After this, Mamonov returned to theatrical work only at the end of 2012 with the one-man show “Grandfather Peter and the Hares.”

Personal life

with his Olga Ivanovna for about 40 years. The young ambitious musician met the cabaret dancer in 1982. Their relationship was not serious at first. They even got married unexpectedly. But, 20 years later, in 2002 they got married.

Three sons were born in the marriage . This woman became the most important in his life, and the family became a small church. They live soul to soul, serve each other faithfully. At first, Peter tried to make her a bass guitarist, but Olga became her husband’s personal manager. Together with her, they decided to leave the noise of the city for the village. The children have grown up long ago and have been living separately for a long time. The younger Ivan is a film director. The middle one devoted himself to religion. And the eldest Daniil is engaged in computer technology. Two grandchildren are growing up, Misha (born 2007) and Tikhon (born 2009).

With his wife Olga Ivanovna

But as you know, for both spouses their marriage was not the first. They say different things. But there was definitely one marriage before this one. In 1979, the musician became interested in translator Olga Gorokhova . The romance lasted three years. They even lived together for some time. Peter took the break with her hard. But thanks to her, he began writing songs. And Olga Yuryevna is now a famous Russian artist.

According to some information, Peter, back in the mid-70s, while a student at a polytechnic university, tied the knot of Hymen with a classmate. True, not for long. Pyotr Nikolaevich never talks about this. For him there is only one woman, his wife Olga. And she is always there.