Armenian (Rock) musicians

The Kings Cross

1986 -	Two kids Henry and Koryun, who happen to live in the same building, become friends.
1988 -	Three boys, which are Henry Karagyozyan, Souren Sargsyan and Koryun Bobikyan, enter Yerevan secondary school # 114. Luckily it turns out that they all are in the same class.
1993 -	Henry starts to take guitar lessons. Meanwhile Koryun studies violin at Yerevan musical school after Spendiaryan. At the same time Souren attends Yerevan musical school after Sayat-Nova (which he did not finish, although). Being childhood friends Henry and Koryun start to make attempts to play together: Henry plays guitar while Koryun plays piano. Soon Henry suggests Koryun to form a band. Koryun changes piano for guitar and during the whole year 1993 they actively change the band's name, playing together and shortly afterwards with Hayk Gyolchanyan (guitar) and Tigran Avetissyan (percussion). Among the various names are: The Beat Birds, The Snakes, Guitarmen etc.
1994 -	The year 1994 was bound to be a turning-point… Henry and Koryun are a guitar duo again. They pertinaciously improve their playing, do home-recordings… On September 21, The Independence Day of Armenia, their classmate Souren comes to Henry's place (where they mainly rehearsed). They were in good relations with Souren, because they all loved "The Beatles", skipped the classes together and loafed about the city. Koryun and Henry start to play their favorite songs by The Beatles and Souren, who had a good voice, starts to sing along. In late October Koryun's father, famous Armenian bard Ararat Bobikyan offers them to participate in regular concerts, which he held every Friday at The Architect's House called "Candlelight concets". A few days before the concert the boys suggest Souren to join them as a singer and on October 7, 1994 they go on stage for the first time and perform The Beatles' "The Night Before".
1995 -	During this and the coming years the band continues to play at the Architects' House almost every Friday on the "Candlelight concerts". With Koryun's and Henry's help Souren learns to play the guitar. Soon Hayk Gyolchanyan joins the trio and, after playing guitar for a short time, takes up drums. The band takes the name The Beetles. The year was marked with the first concert (at the Architects' house), which was held on September 22. The boys still remain a band, which performs exclusevely "The Beatles".
1996 -	Fridays' performances are still intact. During May concerts for the first time the audience began to react on band's performance wildly, the usual applauses changed into bawls and screams. In spite of this, in June Henry and Hayk make a decision to leave the band, and after that the band practically falls apart. At the same time "initiating couple" - Henry and Hayk turn into electrical sound, gather a rock-band (which also has changed a lot of names). The band's members are: Henry - guitar, Hayk - drums, some guy named Aram plays bass, and Masha plays keyboards. Rehearsals take place in Hayk's basement. They rehearse their own compositions. In few weeks Souren joins the band as a rhythm-guitar player. In July Masha leaves the band, and a guy called "Scar" becomes a lead-singer and an author of lyrics in Russian. The others write music. The band is called "Amortizatori" and starts rehearsals in housing and communal services, where the guys are given a small room. The band gains an acceptance in rock-gangs, however, it falls apart in August without performing a single concert. In September The Beetles is reunited and performs few concerts at Architect's House, as well as at Art School during October. On December 14 the band gives the first electric concert at Officers' House, heroically performing 43(!) The Beatles songs. The band ceases to exist afterwards. After the concert all the instruments are taken to Henry's place (the main base of the band). On December 30 Koryun comes to Henry's place and starts to play drums which he tried to play before. Henry takes his guitar and they start to play whatever that comes to their minds.
1997 -	In January Henry and Koryun are still rehearsing together. Koryun has strengthened himself as a drum player. Henry writes many songs, some of which later will arise in "The Kings' Cross" repertoire. So does Souren. In February a concert takes place at "Balaganchik" bar. The band's name is H2S and it includes Henry - guitar, vocal; Souren - guitar, drums (in second part), vocal; Hayk - drums, guitar (in second part), vocal. Due to personal issues Koryun does not participate in the concert. Henry and Koryun continue to rehearse at Henry's place. At the beginning of summer a rehearsal place the basement of GDHK "Patuhan" pantomime theatre is given to the guys. All together they start to rehearse their own songs. Souren starts to play bass. On August 15 their good friend comes to the rehearsal with a guy named Ashot Arakelyan, whom she has brought in order to hear the guys' music. Soon they become friends (besides everything else, Ashot and Henry were soon united in friendship for the love of art-rock), and Ashot comes to the rehearsals every day. Soon some discrepancies arise between Hayk and the rest of band's members, as a result, Hayk leaves the band together with "If" name (which was an object of discords). Being democratic up to that point the band finds a leader on behalf of Henry. In the middle of autumn the band leaves "Patuhan" theatre. At the beginning of December Henry offers Ashot (which is already their good friend) to become a member of the band as rhythm-guitar player.
1998 -	Henry continues to write poems and songs (alone and in co-authorship with Souren). Taking turns the band rehearses at Henry's, Souren's and Ashot's places. Ashot offers to call the band King's Cross. Henry suggests to change the way of writing to The Kings' Cross. In March Henry is called up from NPAK (The Center of Contemporary Experimental Art) with suggestion to organize a concert there. After some rehearsals in NPAK the band together with Hayk Gyolchanyan's "If" band, which opens the concert, performs its first concert under the banner of The Kings' Cross. The debut is a huge success. The Kings' Cross finishes the concert under the bawls and rousing cheers. It is important to notice that with this concert The Kings' Cross opens a new era in the history of Armenian rock-music development (as from 1996 to 1998 a few rock-concerts were held in Yerevan). With its performance in NPAK the band not only becomes the first band of so called 5-th generation of rock-music in Armenia, opening a new path for other bands, but also signifies the beginning of rock-activity, which was common for 1998. After the debut The Kings' Cross becomes the most popular and favorite band among Armenian youth. A week later the band gives another successful performance in "Sahinyan" club (making "Sahinyan" a new place for other bands to perform). The audience is in ecstasy. Besides their own compositions the main part of repertoire consists of famous rock-standards. At the beginning of June a grandiose festival is organized in NPAK. On this occasion The Kings' Cross decides to release a studio record from Henry's early songs "Madman's Thoughts" and their hit "The Pillows On The Grass". On June 4 they come to Brevis recording-studio located in Composers' House and record two above mentioned songs during six hours. All recording costs are covered from their own pockets (all future records are also paid by their own means). During recording works the guys make friends with their older colleagues from Vostan Hayots (the band started to play in the middle of 80's and was considered to be the best Armenian rock-band at that time) since the band's bass and drum players work in Brevis as sound producers. On June 14 a big rock-festival called Rock'Npak is held in NPAK. The action takes more than 12 hours and 23 bands from all over Armenia participate in it. At the festival, willing to emphasize their passion to psychedelia, the band performs an improvisation on Henry's new theme (which will later arise in band's magnum opus - "Odyssey"). Soon after the festival the band gets an invitation from "Vostan Hayots" to open their concert in NPAK, and in two weeks after the festival Vostan Hayots/The Kings' Cross concert is held. In July the band also gives a second performance in "Sahinyan". At the end of July and in the beginning of August The Kings' Cross temporarily reduces its activity as Souren and Henry enter Yerevan State University. On September 6 The Kings' Cross performs "Psychedelic" solo concert in "Pioneer" movie theatre. After the concert there is an idea to enrich Henry's psychedelic theme and to write something "serious and majestic". During the latter half of September and the first half of October Henry and Souren work on the instrumental composition under a working title "Psychedelic". In the morning of October 12 the band reserves Brevis studio for 12 hours and begins to record the new composition. Besides its usual musical instruments the band decides to use violins (which parts were written and performed by Koryun), flute and keyboards. Few minutes before the recording Henry offers to call the instrumental composition "Odyssey" drawing an analogy between the composition's musical theme and general mood and the episodes of Homer's poem. The idea is taken with a great enthusiasm. During twelve hours the band records a composition which is considered to be the best in their own opinion. The composition is eight and a half minutes essence of The Kings' Cross' creative work … On October 30 the band presents "Odyssey" at Rock'Npak-Halloween festival organized by NPAK in "Nairi" movie theatre. The best currently active Armenian rock-bands are invited to participate in the festival. The Kings' Cross is one of the festival members. The premiere has a great success. People are wildly delighted with the band's performance. After the festival the band is officially called "the most promising collective" of "the fifth wave". At the beginning of December the band starts to rehearse and prepares two songs for recording: "Chaos", the old one, which was performed almost at all concerts and a new one, "The Slave". In the middle of December the band begins to record both compositions in already well-known Brevis studio. However, the songs' recording is delayed, and the work on both compositions finally comes to its end only in March of the next year.
1999 -	The band continues its studio work on the songs "Chaos" and "The Slave" in snatches. In January Souren appears in radio "Ardzagank's" night program. On February 12 a festival dedicated to 45th anniversary of "Rock Around The Clock" Bill Hailey and The Comets' first rock'n'roll gramophone record release. The festival is organized by NPAK and takes place in Youth Theatre. The Kings' Cross performance is very confident and full of energy. Yet Ashot is absent on stage as well as during most performances in rock-club… During the whole year the band performs in rock-club practically every week. During this time Koryun also starts to play with Alter Ego band, which leadman Edgar Barseghyan is a good friend of The Kings' Cross' members. Henry also used to play in Alter Ego as a bass-guitarist. After being there for a short time and playing a few performances he leaves the band, and Souren takes his place. At the beginning of October Ashot finds an opportunity to use video tape editing studio for a few hours. During six hours Henry and Ashot arrange "The Pillows On The Grass" video from amateur video materials. In October they start to prepare for recording Souren's new song, which they finally finish off together with Henry, based on latter's "What Would You Do?" poem. However, at the end of October Henry suddenly makes a decision to leave The Kings' Cross motivating it is already for a long time that his songs exceeded the limit of the band and also he "does not want to stay in the band, where is a struggle for authorship". This decision was a result of long lasting months' thoughts. On November 4 Henry plays a farewell performance with The Kings' Cross in rock club (starting from that time up to the band's revival in 2002 he does not acknowledge himself as the "official" member of the band). In spite of Henry's absence the band nevertheless decides to realize Souren's song recording. A day before recording Souren and Ashot write new lyrics in the spirit of "What Would You Do?" and Henry's other early poems. Next day they start to record a song called "What If" in Brevis. Even though Henry has left the band, he is present almost at every recording session, he helps the guys with advices, and even gives an interview together with them for "Prometevs" TV channel. Throughout November The Kings' Cross is inactive, while Henry begins to play his own songs on guitar as a bard. At the beginning of December Rock-club offers The Kings' Cross permanent engagement as a second main band. Together with administration of the rock-club the remaining members of The Kings' Cross convince Henry to rejoin the band as a lead-guitarist, until they find somebody else instead (which never happened). In December the band performs again in its classic complement at the concert in Dino club. There are also some performances held in the rock-club, after which the rock-club changes its location, and after New Year's concert (during which Vostan Hayots and The Kings' Cross are playing) moves to Journalists' House.
2000 -	In January Henry gives an interview for radio FM 107, and for the first time reveals the details about his leaving the band. The statement also becomes the beginning of "Don't call It Unplugged" project. By that time it is obvious that Ashot has finally left the band. The Kings' Cross becomes a trio. In January the band gives another performance in the rock-club, everybody makes Souren's farewell to China. Soon after Souren's departure Vostan Hayots leaves the rock-club. The administration of the rock-club offers The Kings' Cross to become the permanent band of the rock-club and introduces Henry and Koryun with bass guitarist Michael Abazyan (which used to play with many Armenian bands). Next day practically with no rehearsal they play in the rock-club as a trio. Henry, Koryun and Michael play every "club" evening. At the end of March Souren returns to Yerevan. It is one of the best periods in The Kings' Cross' history. The band plays inconceivably well and shows a good technique. Besides, the band performs a great show on the stage, rumours about which are spread all over the city. The band performes successfully during spring and summer. On September 2 Souren leaves for China again. Koryun and Henry go back to playing with Michael Abazyan. On September 16 the rock-club organizes a big The Kings' Cross concert in Tornado club. The performances in the rock-club are intact. On October 27, two days before the second NPAK-Halloween festival Souren is back. At the beginning of October Edgar Barseghyan returns from the army, and till the end of the year The Kings' Cross and Alter Ego play in the rock-club. After Souren's another departure in the end of December Henry, Edgar and Koryun unite and play in the rock-club on New Year's night (Henry and Edgar take turns playing the bass).
2001 -	In the following year a band with no name, including Henry, Edgar and Koryun, continues to perform in the rock-club. The performances are remarkable for long lasting improvisations (30-40 minutes), different kinds of shows and wild behavior. The boys have fun with all their might. From the beginning of February the trio also plays with a guy named Hayk Simonyan as a vocalist presenting Paradox Generator reggae/dub project. After Souren's return in March The Kings' Cross renews its activity. However in a few weeks, suddenly, as a result of accident Arthur Malkhasyan (Malkhas) is lost... Becoming orphaned the rock-club is closed. Up to this time there is no club in Yerevan (and probably will never be) with such climate and positive charge. "Malkhas" club was home for all rock-gangs. It was a real Rock-club… And it was one man's merit, a great man's named Malkhas. On April 13 The Kings' Cross and Alter Ego perform a concert named "Love!" dedicated to Arthur Malkhasyan's memory. In May, on The Kings' Cross' initiative the rock-club begins its activity in "Alan" blues-bar every Friday. Together with The Kings' Cross Alter Ego and If also perform there. In the middle of June a big rock-festival is started to be organized in the theatre after Stanislavsky. The Kings' Cross and Alter Ego guys are invited as "scientific consultants" and they help with its realization. Following Henry's suggestion the festival is called Love Summer. The festival takes place On July 8-9, and has a great success. It is one of the best recent festivals. It was full of incredible charge of positive energy and kindness. Admittedly one of the best performances during the festival is The Kings' Cross performance. At the beginning of summer the band performs twice in "Cascade" club. Shortly after the festival the band breaks with "Alan' blues-bar due to fundamental incompatibility with the owner of the bar. In the end of July once again on The Kings' Cross initiative rock evenings are held in "Sahinyan" (which has changed its location up to this time). On September 1 the old rock-club is opened under the direction of Hovhan Kurghinyan. Everybody still hopes that the rock-club would be as the old one (these hopes were not meant to come true). On the opening day The Kings' Cross plays there, and the next day Souren leaves for Peking. In a week Koryun and Henry play together with Misha Abazyan in the rock-club. Even though the performances are held on high level, the musicians are not satisfied… In the middle of September Koryun and Henry make a decision to dissolve the band and let Souren know about it. This is how another chapter in The Kings' Cross' history ends.
2002 -	During the whole year the guys play in different bands. Souren and Koryun play in Alter Ego (apart from that Koryun plays in different newbie collectives). Henry leaves rock and totally dedicates himself to his acoustic ethno folk band Don't Call It Unplugged (Koryun is this band's unchanged violinist) performing his own compositions. In spite of the fact, that the band does not officially exist, the guys have two performances in rock-club just to remember the old good days (in January and July). From the beginning of summer Koryun and Souren begin negotiations with Henry concerning the possible revival of the band. And on September 28 The Kings' Cross has a triumphal return on the stage. The club is overcrowded, unprecedented amount of people is present. The guys are in perfect mood and radiate energy. In autumn The Kings' Cross plays on a couple of festivals, organized by the rock-club. In the end of November they perform as headliners in the festival dedicated to the fight against AIDS. On December 6 there is a concert dedicated to John Lennon and George Harrison. The concert is organized by The Kings' Cross and is held in the big hall of the rock-club.
2003 -	The band celebrates its 10th anniversary!
Henry Karagyozyan - lead-guitar, singer Souren Sargsyan - bass Ashot Arakelyan - rhythm guitar Koryun Bobikyan - drums

nach oben