1. Mikhail Vasilyevich Naumenko, better known as Mike Naumenko was a Soviet rock musician, singer-songwriter and interpreter, leader of the band Zoopark.
16 Facts About Mike Naumenko
1. 2.
Some of Mike Naumenko's songs are more or less faithful translations or remakes of English language source material.
3.
Largely imitative, Mike Naumenko's input was yet very significant as he adapted the Western rock tradition to Russian culture and the urban realities of Leningrad.
4.
Mikhail Naumenko studied at a "school with an intensive English-language program" in Leningrad, where he got his stage name, "Mike", presumably from his English teacher.
5.
Mike Naumenko became interested in music at the age of 8, when he heard a Beatles song for the first time from the street while he was standing on a balcony.
6.
Mike Naumenko worked as a sound engineer in Bolshoi Puppet Theatre, then as a watchman.
7.
Two years later, in the summer of 1980, Mike Naumenko recorded his first solo album called "Sladkaya N i Drugie" with the help of Boris Grebenshchikov and Vyacheslav Zorin.
8.
The album quickly became famous in Moscow, and Mike Naumenko became recognizable as a "Bob Dylan from Leningrad".
9.
In 1981, Mike Naumenko organized the Zoopark rock band in which he was a lead vocalist and an art director until his death.
10.
Mike Naumenko obtained popularity mostly because the lyrics of his songs were full of irony and satire.
11.
Mike Naumenko died in Leningrad on 27 August 1991, at the age of 36, as a result of cerebral hemorrhage caused by an accident in his flat.
12.
Zoopark's drummer Valeriy Kirillov states that the reason for Mike Naumenko's death was cerebral hemorrhage, but it wasn't of a natural cause.
13.
The real reason was a fracture of the skull base that Mike Naumenko received during a robbery attack near his house.
14.
Also, there was allegedly a witness who saw somebody help Mike Naumenko get up from the ground.
15.
Mike Naumenko's memory has been honored with numerous tribute albums and in other creative works including a 2009 novel and a "blues opera" that premiered in 2011.
16.
Mike Naumenko appears as a character in Leto, a 2018 Russian biographical film about Viktor Tsoi, where he is played by Roman Bilyk.