"Neschastny Raschay" is a Soviet and Russian jazz-rock band formed in 1983 by Alexei Kortnev and Valdis Pelsh. In 1983, two freshmen of Moscow State University - Alexei Kortnev from the Faculty of Mechanics and Mathematics and Valdis Pelsh from the Faculty of Philosophy - met at an audition for the Student Theater of Moscow State University. On September 13, they created the duet "Neschastny Chastchat", whose first performance took place on December 30 of the same year at the amateur show of the MSU Faculty of Mechanics and Mathematics, where the debutants performed their first song - "Chasing the Buffalo". Soon Kortnev and Pelsh were joined by saxophonist Pavel Mordyukov, who also studied at Moscow State University (Geography Department).
In 1987 they were joined by another student of the Moscow State University's faculty of geography, Sergei Chekryzhov, who was asked by Kortnev to play the accordion in the song "Vegetable Tango" at a concert at a children's camp. Chekryzhov was later given the position of keyboardist and main composer of the band. In 1988, drummer Vadim Sorokin, who played in the Student Theater, joined Neschastnye Chasnosti.
The group quickly became popular among Moscow students thanks to staging the shows "Interseason", "Garden of Idiots" and "Blue Nights of the Cheka Cabaret". With the latter show the collective traveled to Finland, Germany, Great Britain, Spain and the USA.
In 1987 the songs from the cycle "Mezhsezonie" were published on vinyl in the magazine "Krugozor".
On TV screens the band first appeared in 1988 in KVN with the song "They brought us a computer". At that time "Neschastny Chance" was a member of the MSU team. Later, in 1989, the band took part in the program "Vzglyad", which first showed live performances, and then the first two videos were filmed - "Radio" and "Leave Me". After participation in "Vzglyad" Kortnev and Pelsh were invited to work at ATV, where they shot new clips, wrote music for the title screen saver of the TV company, participated in the creation of the program "Oba-na!". Then they tried to release their own projects - "Debiliada" and "Blue Nights Cabaret", which were not successful.
On October 22, 1994 the debut album "Trody Pludov" was released. Work on the recording lasted about 5 years. The album received the most flattering reviews. "A revelation... The album is remarkably solid and complete... Very competent, clearly played and well recorded," wrote the Obshchaya Gazeta. "The record is a must-have, and if not a must-have, a must-have. It is stylish and distinctive, that is - a phenomenon of sorts," wrote New Hot Rock magazine. The songs "It's Snowing," "Radio," "Corner of the Sky," "Armageddon," "Ouh, baby" and "Hey, Boy!" became popular on radio stations, and fans recognized "Trody Pludov" as the band's best album. Audiences still regularly ask to play the entire album at concerts. Only the strongest hits are played from "Trody Pludov"
Inspired by the success of the album "Trody Pludov", the musicians began to record their second disk. In the process of recording the concept of the album was born - a radio concert with dictated preambles. To realize this idea more than 30 artists and musicians were involved in the recording (including the orchestra of the Merzlyakovsky College at the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory, the group "Kvartal", TV presenters Igor Kirillov and Tatiana Sudets). Recording took place in the studio of the Gorky Cultural Center at night, and seven months after "Trods Pludov" the most eclectic and complex album of "Neschastny Chasniy Chasniy" "Mein Lieber Tanz" was born.
On November 3, 1996 "Neschastny Chasid" released a CD of "old-new" songs called "Mezhsezonie", which was based on songs from 1985-1988, a little later included in the show of the same name.
At the end of 1997, due to the impossibility to combine work in the band and on television, Valdis Pelsh went on sabbatical leave. In the same year bass-guitarist Andrey Guvakov and Pavel Mordyukov created their own label of "Neschastniy Chasniy Chast" under the name "Delicatessen", which released the album "This is Love", which became the most commercially successful album.
In 1999, the musicians opened their own studio "Composer's House", where the fifth album "Prunes and apricots" was recorded. The album was first met by critics rather cool - the band was accused of trying to repeat the success of the album "This is Love".
In 2003, the album "Last Days in Paradise" was released, which included the hit "Na fig, na fig" rotated on radio and television. A few years later Kortnev admitted that at that moment the band was going to end its existence, and before the "disintegration" played two concerts for friends in the theater center. The enthusiastic reception of the audience and the pleasure they received from performing their own compositions convinced Neschastny Chasis to continue their activity. In the fall of 2004 the team presented a big concert show "Zirkus" in the State Concert Hall "Russia" for its 21st anniversary. The program featured NS songs in unexpected arrangements, and vocal parts together with Alexei Kortnev were performed by friends of the team - Maxim Leonidov, Andrey Makarevich, Dmitry Pevtsov and others. The recording of the program was shown on the NTV channel, but was not released on DVD. As a result, the concert recording was released as an audio disk, becoming the only official live album of the team.
The collection of the best songs "The best is the enemy of the good" was released in 2008 before the 25th anniversary of the band. The anniversary itself was celebrated with great pomp in the best traditions of ironic-artistic shows in the fall of 2008 at the Moscow Art Theater.
In September 2010, after a quarrel with Alexei Kortnev, drummer Pavel Cheremisin, who had played in the band for 12 years - longer than all other drummers of the band, left the band. Usually drummers played in the band for no more than five years. He was replaced by Pavel Timofeev, who had previously been involved in solo projects. On October 13, 2010 the album "Tunnel at the End of the World" was released.
During 2012-2013 the band conducted a large-scale tour in Russia under the name "Thirtyology", dedicated to the 30th anniversary of "NS". The tour ended on November 30, 2013 with a big anniversary concert in Moscow's Crocus City Hall. On the same day the album "Chasing the Buffalo" was released, which included previously unreleased songs from 1983-1993.
In 2014, Neschastny Chance released the album "Kranty" with the subtitle "The Movie That Will Not Be". The entire album is arranged as if it were the soundtrack of a feature film. Between the songs, additional tracks are recorded, performed by theater and film actors. During 2013-2015 three music videos were filmed for the album tracks - "Vanity of vanities", "Robot Vitaly" and "I'm freaking out, mom". In 2013 Sergey Chekryzhov performed the song "Vanity of vanities" at a concert instead of Alexey Kortnev. The audience enthusiastically accepted the experiment, so the album included two versions of the performance of this song.
In 2016-2018, the group released the singles "Patriot" and "Bad Dancer", for which music videos were filmed. The clip "Patriot" caused a wide public outcry, the Cossack community intended to check its content for extremism. The patriotically minded bloggers were particularly outraged. The authors of the clip tried to make the images of the heroes stereotypical, recognizable to everyone. Alexei Kortnev played the role of Nikita Mikhalkov, Roman Mamaev - biker Alexander Zaldostanov, known under the pseudonym "Surgeon". Alexei Kortnev called the song uncharacteristic for his group, since earlier in the lyrics did not sound such straightforward statements.
In 2018, the group conducts another tour called "What did we mean?", dedicated to the 35th anniversary of the collective. The first concerts of the tour began back in 2017, then Valdis Pelsh returned to the group again briefly. This time he participated not only in the concerts in Moscow, but also in the whole tour. The musicians prepared the program for half a year, it included songs that had not been performed for many years. In addition, new ones were written, including a song called "What did we mean?".
In 2019, the band is staging the play "In the City of Lzhedmitrov", the script and songs for which were written by Alexei Kortnev. Maxim Vitorgan acted as the director-producer, the main roles were played by Sergei Belogolovtsev, Christina Babushkina and members of the group "Neschastny Chasis". The album was the second of those that the band's fans raised funds for.
In 2020, the band launched the project "Music on Quarantine" on YouTube. The musicians, while in self-isolation mode, record songs - both new ones, as well as their well-known hits and folk songs - via video link. In addition to "Neschastny Chance", famous artists and musicians take part in the recordings: Andrei Makarevich, Oleg Filimonov, Yuri Stoyanov, Nonna Grishaeva, Leonid Barats, Larisa Dolina, Christina Babushkina.
In 2021 was created entertainment and cognitive program "MuzFak. Department of entertaining song" in cooperation with "RD Studio". The episodes are released on the YouTube channels "Valdis Pelsh" and "Neschastny Chance". The group performs Soviet songs (known and little-known) in new arrangements. The history of the songs is told by Mikhail Chumalov and Vasily Solovyov-Sedoy. Filming of the episodes takes place in the building of the Central Actor's House named after A. A. Yablochkina. The program existed until January 2022.
In 2022, Neschastniy Kaschastny holds monthly online concerts "Wednesday NS", hosted from the "Secret Studio". He performs songs from his repertoire at the request of listeners, communicates with the audience in chat and via video link, invites guests to the group - famous actors, musicians and poets. All songs are performed exclusively in acoustic version, as the idea of the project came after the creation of a new acoustic program "Lamp Concert" at the end of 2021.