Fresh booking for band that’s out of this world
Music has been played on space station
ANEW book celebrates the history of a Cossask folk punk crossover band formed by a Middleton guitarist who left behind a legendary indie group.
The Ukrainians are the band whose guitarist is from Middleton and whose music has been played on the International Space Station.
Now a new book, The Ukrainians: Taking Kyiv to the Kosmos, celebrates the 35-year career of the Cossack folk-punk pioneers.
Written and compiled by Peter Solowka from Middleton and bandmate Len Liggins, The Ukrainians: Taking Kyiv to the Kosmos tells the story of the band who brought Ukrainian music and culture to the attention of the West and took it to people of Ukrainian heritage across the globe.
The Ukrainians were founded in 1991.
Peter had previously been in indie band The Wedding Present with Middleton schoolmate David Gedge, but left to concentrate on The Ukrainians with Len.
Performing only in the Ukrainian language, they brought a Western rock attitude to Ukrainianinfluenced arrangements.
The Ukrainians have reinterpreted traditional Ukrainian folk songs and covered songs by The Smiths, The Sex Pistols and The Velvet Underground.
They also write their own songs in Ukrainian, some of which have been since included in the repertoires of bands, choirs and folk musicians in Ukraine.
The band has strong fan bases in the United Kingdom, Poland, Germany, Ukraine, the USA and Canada.
Len said: “We’re very excited about this book as it gives us the opportunity to look back at how our music has influenced so many others. We’ve taken our music to North America and across Europe and even had two of our songs played by a NASA astronaut on the International Space Station.
“We truly have taken Kyiv to the cosmos!’
Peter Solowka said: ‘When I first started learning the folk tunes of my father’s homeland on a guitar, remembering the songs I heard as a lad sitting in the Ukrainian Club in Middleton, I could
never have envisaged it would lead to being in a band and playing those songs to people with Ukrainian heritage around the world.
“We’ve touched so many people’s lives in different ways and the stories in the book reflect that.’
Len was playing in a band called The Sinister Cleaners in Leeds in the late 1980s when he met Peter Solowka
Their mutual love of music, along with Len’s knowledge of Slavic languages and Peter’s passion to unearth the culture of his Ukrainian heritage, led to them combining to form The Ukrainians in 1991.
Over 30 years later, Len and Peter continue to perform their music to audiences around the world as
The Ukrainians.
The 288-page large format hardback book, with over 200 full colour images from the band’s archive, is packed with stories from current and former band members along with fans, friends and musical collaborators, including David Gedge (The Wedding Present), Jan Wobble (Invaders of the Heart, PIL), Andrew ‘Whitey’ White (Kaiser Chiefs), Harri Kakoulli (Squeeze), TV Smith (The Adverts) and Shaun Charman (Jetstream Pony, The Wedding Present).
The Ukrainians: Taking Kyiv to the Kosmos will be published in August 2024 priced at £27.50.
It is available to order now from Spenwood Books at spenwoodbooks. com