It was a cold wet winter´s night in Hamilton and if it wasn´t that we liked Keith we would have stayed home. Instead we ventured out into Biddy Mulligan´s to hear Alexey Medvedev.

I use to fell sorry for the people who missed these events now I just let them prattle on about what ever was on their agenda. There are people who like going to things and some who don't. Who cares. Alexey delivers to the audience and he had a very pleased one that night.

Sitting amongst a brood of analysing musicians aged spotty to grey and wrinkly, it was clear that envy was top on the list of the seven deadly sins that evening. Equipment wise he was down to less than the bear minimum yet he utilised well. I admire guitar players than can keep up a thumb bass lines over chords but to see someone playing bass, chords, melody and a harmony on top is something I'll never forget. And to add humour and vocals in a very slick but relaxed show just gave the crowd and a very special evening. Back in the U.S.S.R will never be the same for me again. "Oh! Let me hear those balalaikas’ ringin' out. Take me to your daddy's collective farm"

Alexey would have to be one of the most versatile players I've ever seen. He started the show with a nice mellow jazzy style instrumental and then proceeded through the most eclectic mix of music I've ever heard. He satisfied the die hard traditionalists with Russian folk tunes and stories mixed up with songs by the Beatles, Hendrix and Pink Floyd all played in his own unique but accessible style.

With a very listenable C.D. out there for those who wanted a souvenir I sit and wait impatiently for the D.V.D.

Step aside Tommy Emanuel. Alexey Medvedev is in town and he lives in Good Ole' Dunedin.

John Maydon

SCIENTIST SEEKS SCENIC SIMPLICITY

Popular music is not rocket science, but Russian-born Alexey Medvedev presents an interesting anomaly.
Originally from Moscow, Mr Medvedev was in Hokitika this week during a four-show tour of the West Coast, Picton and Nelson.
Mr Medvedev, 44, was a nuclear physicist during perestroika, the period of economic and political restructuring in the Soviet Union in the 1980s.
He said he had always thought of himself as a musician and not a scientist, despite his reputation as a brilliant mathematician.
He had always been a keen musician and had grown up listening to pirated tapes of western pop and rock giants The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Kinks and Deep Purple.
It was not until he saw first-hand the effects of nuclear explosives on a Kazakhstan mountain when he decided to forgo a promising scientific career for music.

Mr Medvedev played at the Blackball Hilton on Monday evening and yesterday travelled to Nelson (Yaza Club), Picton tomorrow (Le Cafe) and to Greymouth for Friday's performance at DP:One Cafe on Mawhera Quay.

While in Hokitika he treated local reporters to an impromptu rendition of British band Mungo Jerry's 'In The Summertime'.
His New Zealand 'discovery' came after Dunedin's Keith Tonkin heard him play. Mr Tonkin was travelling with the Russian guitarist this week as his tour manager.
'As a stand alone performer he has made quite a name for himself in Dunedin, and really I just help him out on the road,' said Mr Tonkin.
He blends traditional acoustic guitar with his two-note/three-string balalaika, and sings in both English and Russian.
When Soviet premier Mikhail Gorbachev introduced perestroika, Mr Medvedev, who was trained at the Moscow Studio of Musical Improvisation and Moscow State University of Culture, could expand his talent freely.
Before he left Russia in 2001, Mr Medvedev played at Mr Gorbachev's 70th birthday.

Despite a typically mad-scientist hairdo, Mr Medvedev's easy-going nature and down-to-earth yet childlike musical enthusiasm was as attractive as his deft fingerwork.
Touring New Zealand playing solo gigs was a far cry from the mundane nature of calculating mass destruction on paper, and something Mr Medvedev relished.
"Playing is good fun and the travel to me is very interesting because we go around and get to see magnificient things as well."

Mr Medvedev explained how his first CD Home Spirit was produced, in his own charming and clipped words.
"All the songs were recorded live because I want people to buy what they hear."
"And next, it was just a little bit of cut and a little bit of paste," he said.

Those wanting to catch Mr Medvedev before he returned to Dunedin can see him around 9pm on Friday at DP:One Cafe, Greymouth.

Luke