How Victor Tsoi got a T-shirt with the MTV logo in the late 80s
Nowadays, most people would shy to wear a blatant advert for a music channel that has long lost its ratings. But in the USSR, such clothes elevated the status of the owner by leaps and bounds. Especially if the owner was a person connected with musical activity.
In the '80s in this country. no one could have imaginedthat in a dozen years MTV could be switched on by simply pressing a button on the remote control and watching video clips 24 hours a day.
The spoilt Western public did not see anything extraordinary in the channel. Moreover, they would twiddled their thumbsIn the Soviet Union, videotapes of MTV broadcasts were in rabid demand. And for T-shirts with the channel's logo, Soviet music lovers ready to sell your soul.
Viktor Tsoi was the lucky owner the coveted jersey. In it he was captured on camera on one of the Crimean beaches by the singer from the USA Joanna Stingray. It's definitely not photoshopped or bushcrafted from a coloured cover for a book or school diary. Victor Tsoi I certainly wouldn't to do something like this for an MTV jersey photo.
About the appearance of the T-shirt at the leader of the band "Kino" told the author of the photo in one of the interviews. According to Joanna Stingray, the T-shirt to Viktor she gave it to herself. And she didn't even have to spend any money in her home country. At that time, Stingray was actively promoting the Red Wave brand in the West. The interest in this project among journalists was considerable.
Giving out interviews to the American media, Joanna "begged" journalists as a gift for Russian rock musicians T-shirts with the logo of the music TV channel.
The MTV channel was happy to present some of their signature T-shirts. But on the condition that Stingray bring in pictures Soviet rockersposing for the cameras in these clothes. So there was such a thing not just Tsoi's.
Joanna also recalled that representatives of the domestic rock crowd themselves asked her to bring them the American Apparelthat you couldn't get in the USSR. The rockers asked not only denim, T-shirts and fancy leather jackets. You could buy such clothes in the Soviet Union if you wanted to.
The musicians were more interested in punk paraphernalia (bracelets, pendants, earrings, scarves), as well as make-up paints. And Tsoi ordered Joanna felt-tip pens, which she used very much liked to draw. Domestic analogues were blurred and torn the paper.
Besides, Victor once saw in a Western magazine. white boots (go-go boots) and asked Joanna to find some. He wanted to add them to his musical image.
"You could buy it all for next to nothing in Los Angeles on Melrose Street. I was practically ordering in bulk, which is why the guys nicknamed me Sanat Claus," a laughing Stingray said in an interview.
There was another gift for the members of the Leningrad rock club. Joanna met Andy Warhol and persuaded him to sign the famous soup cans for the Soviet musicians. According to Stingray, she brought the artist as many as 25 grandand he patiently wrote out unfamiliar Russian names on them.
