In the life of Peter Podgorodetsky, creativity occupies the main place. The general public knows the musician as a member of the Time Machine and Resurrection groups and the author of his own projects. He is also known as a writer, actor and showman.
Early creativity
Pyotr Ivanovich Podgorodetsky is a Muscovite, born in 1957. In his family, music played a dominant role. My grandmother was a professional pianist, my mother sang at the Mosconcert all her life. Talking about his biography, Peter never mentioned his father's name, and in one of his interviews he shared that his grandmother and mother gave him his patronymic Ivanovich to hide his Jewish origin.
Petya continued the family tradition: he sang in the boys' chapel of the Gnessin Institute, graduated from a music school. This was followed by studies at the music school at the Moscow Conservatory. By 1976, the graduate had a victorious participation in a competition and an international tour with the choir.
Peter spent the next two years in the Internal Troops of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. The young man did his military service in the Song and Dance Orchestra. He not only played, but also tried to compose music. Passion for lyrical compositions led to the creation of the song "Turn", which later became a hit of all time. During this period, an unpleasant story happened, which later led Podgorodetsky to the operating table. A colleague threw a loaf of bread and hit Peter in the eye. There was a detachment of the retina, so he temporarily lost his sight.
After demobilization, Podgorodetsky got a job as an accompanist at the Yudenich Theater. At the same time, he played in restaurants - earning a living. His fee at that time was quite high - five hundred rubles a month.
"Time Machine"
Podgorodetsky's professional career began in 1979 in the Leap Summer group of Alexander Sitkovetsky. Together with Chris Kelmi, Peter played keyboards. But their cooperation did not last long, about two weeks, as there was an offer from Alexander Kutikov to become a keyboard player for the Time Machine. In those days, the group was going through hard times, so the arrival of a new artist was very welcome. The choice fell on Podgorodetsky not by chance, he impressed Makarevich with his efficiency and ability to play any music. In addition, of all the members of the group, he alone had a special education and completed military service. The new program brought the Time Machine an unprecedented success. In addition to the beloved song "Pivot", Peter wrote several more compositions with a humorous bias, which he himself performed. The collective was revived largely thanks to the efforts of the musician. The new "Time Machine" competed in popularity with Vysotsky, Pugacheva, Leontyev.
The film "Soul" brought all-Union glory to the group. The main role in the film, which was released in 1981, was played by Sofia Rotaru. Her heroine is a young, talented singer who experiences ups and downs in her creative career. Once, in a difficult moment, she met a stranger on the Baltic coast, who told her important words that “the singer's songs will live as long as her soul is alive”. I must say that participation in the film led to disagreements over finances among the group members, and in May 1982 Podgorodetsky left the Time Machine.
Further career
For the next several years he played for the SV team. The collective was based on the fragments of the old line-up of "Voskresenya" and in many respects adopted its character of performance. This was followed by work in the Granov group, the Kobzon and Miguli ensembles. An interesting experiment was with the participation of Podgorodetsky in the folklore group "Kukuruza".
In 1990, the musician was again invited to the Time Machine. By that time, the collective's fees had grown several times, this was due to the collapse of the Union and the political situation in the country. The air of freedom and easy money led to the fact that Petya began to use drugs and spend huge sums in casinos. He was often late for concerts, and sometimes even skipped the tour altogether. Nine years after returning to the famous team, its director announced to Podgorodetsky that the group "no longer needs his services." A new performer Andrei Derzhavin took the place of the keyboardist. The disagreements, as Makarevich said, "over musical tastes and human qualities" aroused the indignation of the former participant, he called his colleagues "amateur and non-professional musicians." He expressed his attitude to what happened in his book "Machine with Jews", which was published in 2007.
In the 2000s, Podgorodetsky worked as a DJ at the Silver Rain radio station and presenter of a number of television projects. But he soon realized that live communication with the audience was still important for him. For the last decade and a half, the musician has been performing in clubs, performing his favorite hits and new songs. Today he goes on stage together with the musicians of the Bambey group.
Personal life
Podgorodetsky enjoyed success with the opposite sex, as evidenced by his numerous marriages. The first time Petya got married very young. His chosen one, student Lyuba, studied pop art at a circus school. The second marriage with Natalia was very short-lived. For the third time, he started a family with Natalia, a graduate of the Bauman School. The wife gave her husband two daughters. The elder Anastasia died of oncology at the age of sixteen, a junior philologist, she teaches Russian. With his fourth wife, Peter created an alliance in 2005. By profession, Irina is an architect, but she became the director of the "Kh. O." group, with which Peter spoke at one time. The host at their wedding was Roman Trakhtenberg, who to this day is considered Podgorodetsky's best friend.
Speaking about the work of Peter, I would like to note that his solo discography consists of five collections. In addition, one and a half dozen more albums were released with his participation as part of various musical teams. He appeared in seven Russian films, where he performed small cameo roles. The first book was followed in 2009 by the second work “The Russians are Coming! Traveler's Notes”dedicated to compatriots who found themselves outside the country.
The figure of the musician causes controversial opinions in musical circles. Some remember his scandalous past and hold a grudge for the stories described in the books. Others remember his contribution to the revival of the Time Machine group and continue to be loyal fans of his talent.
