The St. Petersburg rock critic and editor of
rock-n-roll.ru Andrei Burlaka just finished a three volume rock encyclopedia focusing on popular music in Leningrad and St. Petersburg: "Rok Entsiklopediia - Populiarnaia muzyka v Leningrade-Peterburge 1965-2005", Amfora 2007 (the announcement can be found at
rock-n-roll.ru) - so far the first two volumes have been released. Interestingly, the articles in the encyclopedia can also be found online at rock-n-roll.ru (seemingly in the same version).
The entries span "classic" and current groups until 2005, the book's deadline (e.g. Akvarium, Voskresenie, Mify, Reggistan, Iva Nova and Billy's band) as well as individual musicians (e.g. Vsevolod Gakkel', Anatolii "Dzhordzh" Gunitskii, Aleksandr Liapin, Sergei Kurekhin - mostly people linked to the Leningrad Rock Club / from the 1980s). Popular music more accurately defines the styles, since Burlaka not only includes "pure" rock groups, but also cross over projects (e.g. Ole Lukoie, Vermicelli Orchestra, Lia Minor). The articles of varying length include discographies and place the mentioned groups within a wider rock lineage listing other projects the members have been involved in. Pictures from both Burlaka's personal collection as well as from other photographers are also included, however, they have not always been scanned in the best quality / resolution...
All in all the encyclopedias are a worthwhile reference to have if you like owning books and want the pictures. The hard copy is also more secure than the online version, especially since a lot of the site's entries were lost while rock-n-roll.ru migrated to their current server...
As I mentioned and discussed in an earlier post the St. Petersburg Rock critic Andrei Burlaka compiled a three volume encyclopedia on popular music in St. Petersburg from 1965 to 2005 titled "Rok Entsiklopediia - Populiarnaia muzyka v Leningrade-Peterburge 1965-2005". The third volume was finally published by Amfora in November: www.amphora.ru/book.php?id=1355.
