Denis Drums/Back Vox

Grisha Sax/Back Vox

Andrey Bass/Back Vox

Roma Trumpet/Lead Vox

Vladik Trombone/Back Vox

Ilya Keyboards

Dima Guitar/Back Vox

In 1993 St.Petersburg punk scene became more variegated. A lot of very young and interesting bands playing styles ranging from post-punk to hardcore were performing at the time.

At the beginning of 1993, Spitfire played as a garage rockabilly trio, whose music also included some elements of noise. Their first live gig took place during the St.Petersburg Psycho Festival in February '93. The summer '93 brought new ideas and Spitfire began to do more noise/garage, they decided to give up their double bass for an electric bass guitar. While searching for a new sound, they did a program based on covers of '60's garage music.

At the end of 1993, their music had turned into garage punk and finally into ska-core. Actually, ska had been one of their favourite styles and a big passion for a long time before they decided to play it themselves. A saxophonist and a trumpet player joined the band in the fall '93, and Spitfire transformed from an aggressive punk gang into jolly and humorous mini-orchestra playing punk-ska. The spring '94 brought both their first recording session and a new bassist. Since mastering that first demo, Spitfire has had a number of very successful concerts at various clubs. All these gigs were full of energy and enthusiasm. Spitfire became one of the most popular bands of the St.Petersburg punk scene.

In the spring '95 they released a song on the compilation called "United Colours of Ska", Volume II, on German "Pork Pie" label. A year later they recorded an album at St.Petersburg "Melodia" studio, which was then mixed in Berlin at Pork Pie. This album, called "Night Hunting", was released in the end of 1996.

Spitfire has been touring regularly since that time, playing many gigs and festivals in Germany, Belgium, Finland, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Lithuania and Belarus.

Spitfire has become more and more recognized, particularly on German and Scandinavian music scenes, due to their energetic hardcore-punk explosion and their skilled and tight 3-piece horn section.The band also uses some jazz and funk grooves which makes their music more accessible to a wider audience.

In 1997, a Spitfire song appeared on "Back to the Ska Groove", a Swiss compilation. In the summer '98 another Spitfire song was released, this time on MoonSka's "Ska United: A global Ska Sampler". October '98 saw the release of Spitfire first vinyl limited-edition single, produced in Sweden by Zorch Productions.

In the same year guys take part at the biggest Swedish "Hultsfred" festival, and play together with such acts as Black Sabbath, Misfits, Rancid, NOFX, Mighty Mighty Bosstones, Clawfinger etc. In January 1999 Spitfire had made another recording session at Vielklang studio in Berlin, and the result came out in the spring with new album "The Coast Is Clear". Spitfire continued touring, playing gigs in Holland, France, Germany, Swiss, Slovenia and Scandinavia.

In the spring '01 a keyboard player joined the band making its sound even more powerful. At the same time Spitfire started a spinoff project St. Petersburg Ska-Jazz Review in collaboration with the members of St.Petersburg-based afro-caribbean-oriented band Markscheider Kunst. The initial idea was to make a single-show program comprised mostly of jazz standards such as "Sidewinder", "Corcovado", "Four" and original ska tunes ("St. Thomas", "Man in the street") to perform at Sergey Kuryokhin International Festival (SKIF) in April '01.

The line-up of this band included the bariton-sax and percussion players as well as all members of Spitfire. The show gained much interest and the band went on playing live gigs on Russian club scene. The debut album was recorded in March '02 at Dobrolet studio in St. Petersburg and put out in Russia in the fall '02 on small independent label Zvezda Records.

In November '01 Spitfire musicians were invited to participate in the recording session of the band Leningrad. This band was (and still is) one of the top acts on Russian music scene. The style of Leningrad music is hard to describe, since the regular play-list of their live show includes numbers stylistically varying from ska and reggae to punk and funky hip-hop. The Leningrad album "21st Century Pirates" was released in February '02 and the whole Spitfire line-up was invited to perform at Leningrad album release show at Yubileinyy Sports Palace in St. Petersburg. From that show on Spitfire musicians work together with Leningrad: recorded 4 albums - "For millions" (2003), "Second Magadan" (2003), "Babarobot" (2004), "Huinya" (2005, together with London-based cabaret trio Tiger Lillies) and played many gigs in Russia and Europe.

In November-December '02 Spitfire, St.Petersburg Ska-Jazz Review and Leningrad toured the United States. 15 gigs were performed all over the Atlantic coast from Boston to Miami. All events were of much interest for American audience. The second American tour of Leningrad and Spitfire was in the summer '03. The bands performed live in such cult venues as "Irving Plaza" and "CBGB's" (New York City), "Middle East" (Boston), "The Knitting Factory" (Los Angeles).

In January '04 the third Spitfire album "Thrills And Kills" came out both in Europe on German Vielklang label and in Russia on recently opened independent Shnur'OK label. As the previous one "The Coast Is Clear", "Thrills And Kills" was also recorded and mastered at Vielklang studio in Berlin. This album was more diverse musically and included more tracks which style could be rather referred to as guitar rock with the horn section. The album release was supported by a 5-weeks-long tour: 27 gigs in Germany, Switzerland and Italy.

In April '04 musicians recorded the second St. Petersburg Ska-Jazz Review album "Too Good To Be True". The material was much less based on cover versions and contained mostly tracks composed by the members of the band. The album is supposed to come out in the spring '05 on Shnur'OK label in Russia and on one of the most known European ska-oriented labels - German Grover Records. The first St. Petersburg Ska-Jazz Review album was also released on Grover in January '05 supported by the tour in Germany and Switzerland.

In the spring '04 some members of Spitfire were invited to take part in the project called "The Optymistica Orchestra". This initial aim of this project was to compose a live soundtrack for the short-cut movies compilation "10 minutes older: the violin". As it usually happens, the band went on playing live and even recorded the debut album at St. Petersburg Dobrolet studio. The album is supposed to be released in the spring '05.

At the moment Spitfire is making a new programme for their fourth album and preparing for a new European tour.

Their gigs have lot of energy and maximum support of the crowd. In their music you can hear roared & angry rhythms of a modern punk and hardcore, as well as clear and sharp sound of their three piece horn section with the mix of funk, reggae and, of course, happy and positive ska!

Kostya, who was one of the originators of Spitfire, left the band in '06 and was substituted for Dima Vatov - the true icon of Russian punk scene. Roma became the new lead singer of Spitfire.

Watch out the news!!!

	[main] [news] [history] [discography] [links] [merchandise] [photogallery] [video] [live_dates] [ska-jazz] [rider] [lyrics] [guestbook] [forum]	Managed by Sergey "Freddie" Shulubin © 1998-2008