Monika Sargsyan (Yerevan)- On 1st October, 2009, rock legends Ian Gillan and Toni Iommi visited music school N6 in Gyumri within the framework of the Armenia Grateful 2 Rock project, realized by Mediamax and the Do Something organization from Australia. The director of the school, Harutyun Asatryan, stated in a talk with the rock stars that the pupils would very much like to have good guitars and a drum kit. Hence, this is how everything started:
March 29, 2010. It's 09:30 a.m and I'm searching the Wikipedia. Done, here it is: “Rock Aid Armenia was a humanitarian effort by the British music industry to raise money to help those affected by the Gyumri (at that time Leninakan) Earthquake of 1988 that struck Armenia. Initiated by the international charity campaigner Jon Dee, the project comprised a number of singles, compilations and a documentary. The project is most remembered for a re-recording of one of Deep Purple’s famous hit songs, "Smoke on the Water", with different vocalists singing each verse. The single made it to the British Top 40. The track was recorded by an elite group of contemporary hard rock and heavy metal musicians who gathered at the historic Metropolis Studios in Chiswick, London. Recording began on July 8, 1989 and was completed over 5 different sessions. The rock musicians involved in the recording of the song included Bryan Adams, Geoff Beauchamp, Ritchie Blackmore, Bruce Dickinson, Geoff Downes, Keith Emerson, Ian Gillan, David Gilmour, Tony Iommi, Alex Lifeson, Brian May, Paul Rodgers, Chris Squire and Roger Taylor. John Paul Jones and Jon Lord were credited as "helping" behind the scenes with the track. The track's producers were Gary Langan and Geoff Downes. Talent co-ordination for the record was overseen by Jon Dee, with David Gilmour being the first to join up after a call from Dee. Ian Gillan's manager Phil Banfield also helped out with talent recruitment.”
Meanwhile, any initiative is especially appreciated when it has continuations and here is the continuation of our story:
March 26, 2010: Ian Gillan is in Armenia again and gives a concert with the Armenian Philharmonic Orchestra in Yerevan: “The Orchestra with no experience in playing rock music demonstrated professionalism and I was surprised that musicians knew all songs in the program,” Gillan told a news conference on Saturday. “Armenia is my spiritual homeland. It has nothing to do with religion… I just like you, Armenians”.
The concert organizers (the director of Mediamax Ara Tadevosyan and Jon Dee, the Founder and Chairman of the Australian Do Something organization and Rock Aid Armenia project initiator) informed that the Smoke on the Water single recorded 20 years ago as the 1988 earthquake relief, as well as the Yerevan concert will be put on a DVD.
March 28, 2010, 9:30 pm: Deep Purple lead singer and a rock legend in his own right, Ian Gillan is an honored guest on local TV program “Hay Superstar,” known as the Armenian version of the hit British TV show Pop Idol. Three of Hay Superstar’s participants, Raysa Avanesyan, Suren Arustamyan and Iveta Mukuchyan, are going to sing songs by Deep Purple. This is the moment when different generations are standing hand by hand to create the future; this is the day, when different generations make our day brighter.
Those young singers definitively could not image that someday, just in the beginning of their career, they would have a chance to sing with the Legend. But sometimes dreams can become reality. And those dreams can bring others people's dreams closer to reality. I am talking about many children studying in the music school N 6 in Gyumri which was destroyed during 1988 earthquake and is still hosted in temporary shelters. Children who are dreaming about big concert, about playing with their own legends… dreams born in shelters turned into schools…
March 28, 2010, 11:30 pm: Meanwhile, the music hall was exulting from the sounds of music and from the applauses of the public. Even the space was not enough for the Legend to spread his emotions born by the whole nation’s gratitude towards his work and love. And maybe it was especially those emotions that made Suren to “smoke the water” and made the Legend, Ian Gillan, to ran to the stage and let his emotions fly and sing with Suren: that was their moment, their own story created at that very time when they were standing together and “smoking the water” with each other….
Emotions, nice impressions, congratulations, appreciations and lots of smiles were the masters of that day; a day that will remain in the memories of many people and will give birth to new dreams…
I don’t know if the world will learn about those three talents singing the songs of their parents’ time and feeling those songs as if they were sending their own statements to the heaven, but I know for sure, that Ian Gillan will remember that once he made with his presence and singing the eyes of those three talents to shine and I know defiantly that at that very time the hope knocked again the doors of thousands people cause we are:
“Making our music there
With a few red lights and a few old beds
We make a place to sweat
No matter what we get out of this
I know we'll never forget
Smoke on the water, fire in the sky”
March 29, 2010: 11:30 am: I do hope that together we can overcome everything and I do hope that after 20 years one can say “this is just the beginning of continuation, cause we are together and we are making our music there…”
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