4 April at 9-45 pm watch us in "Folk-Music" program on First National TV channel. This time our ukrainSKA is upgraded with real ethnic singing.
Recently we appeared on British TV news, BBC channel. The reporting was dedicated to crisis in Ukraine, so, the long interview about the decisive importance of optimism in overcoming all kinds of problems was cut down to just a few most depresive phrases. However it looks positive anyway.
On 1 March MAD HEADS XL will participate in the concert dedicated to the 60th Anniversary of Volodymyr Ivasyuk. Specially for this event the band has prepeared 2 songs of the prominent Ukrainian composer ("Balada pro dvi skrypky" (The ballad of two violins) and "Zymova Kazka" (Winter tale)) in their own arrangements. The concert could be seen live on 1st National TV channel.
We are currently working on a new concert program. In fact it's going to be a new project which will exist simultaneously with MAD HEADS XL and perform separately. The repertoire of this project will consist of Ukrainian folk songs in our arrangements, which means folk ska punk with no definite style limitations. So far a working name for this future project is "UkrainSKA", but we are still looking for other possible names. That's why we encourage our fans to propose names for the new project. Please send your ideas to madheads@madheads.kiev.ua or post them on our website's forum. Thanks in advance for everyone who cares, presents from the band for the best name :)
It is already possible to hear some songs from the future project at our club shows. In March we plan to visit Zhytomyr and Lviv, which will be additionally announced. In Kyiv we wait for you at the Docker's. In Obolon's Docker Pub we now perform on Thursdays. Giving you the possibility to leave earlier before working Friday, these concerts will be starting at 21-00 without delays.
Please take notice that our shows in Docker Pub and
Docker's ABC in February will be on diffrent days of the week. 7 (Saturday) -
Docker Pub, 13 (Friday) - Docker's ABC and 19 (Thursday) - Docker Pub
again.
On Saturday 17 January our drummer Volodymyr Zyumchenko will change his social status. A bachelor will become a husband. All the band sincerely congratulates Vova and Yulia with this important event in their lives, wishing love and harmony.
In the year that is passing, MAD HEADS XL got a new record of band's own. This time it's about mobile content. Over 50 000 people have placed Ring-back tone of the song "A ya na mori" to their cell phones, as informs our recording and publishing company COMP MUSIC. While there are no ring-back tone charts officially published in Ukraine, it is clear that this song have become one of the biggest national mobile hits of 2008.
The New Year's Eve with MAD HEADS XL. At about 10 in the evening 31 December we will enter the New Year stage at the main square of Ukraine. This show is going to be the last in the current line up. The saxophone player Bogdan Gumenyuk is leaving the band, from now we are going to perform as a quintet.
We are planning to resume our concerts in Kyiv's Docker Pub and Docker's ABC in February 2008.
The most prominent recent news that we have is that on 10 December our bass player Maxim Krasnooky has become a dad - in his young family a boy was born, named Kyrylo. Everybody in the band wishes all the best to the young parents and the newcomer inhabitant of planet Earth!!!
Now about our concert plans: on 27 December we play the last gig in 2008, in traditional for us Kyiv's Docker Pub. This one is also going to be the last in a sequence of succesful, well attended, cheerful and crazy shows that we performed almost every week during 5 years in Docker's family venues. In January 2009 we are not playing in those clubs. The plans are to resume concerts in Docker Pub and Docker's ABC in February.
Meanwhile we are going to check the new places and invite you to join us. The brand new club CHESHIRE CAT is still under construction at the moment, but on 2 and 16 January we gather up there to see how good it is. Then, the young bike rock'n'roll club ROUTE 66 awaits for us and all of our friends on 9 January. And by the end of the month we plan to play clubs in Lutsk and Kostopil.
Mad Heads' XL frontman Vadym Krasnookiy has taken part in a chat conference with the readers of a popular Ukrainian online newspaper "PiK". Replying to the questions asked, Vadym congratulated the Americans with the new President, suggested that people in Kyiv leave metro for bikes in response to the rise in public transport fare and told some interesting things about his personal life. Complete text is available here (Ukrainian only).