Perkons (band)
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Pērkons ('Thunder') was one of the most important and scandalous Latvian rock bands of the 1980s. The group's lineup was Juris Kulakovs (keyboards), Juris Sējāns (bass, vocals), Leons Sējāns (lead guitar), Ieva Akurātere (vocals), Raimonds Bartaševics (vocals), Dainis Strazdiņš (drums).
At first Pērkons played two completely different kinds of music - instrumental classical music, and wild, fascinating rock'n'roll bordering on hard rock. The band is without doubt better known for the latter. Their songs became the folklore of the youth, speaking about things nobody else dared to speak about. Therefore it comes as little surprise that the band was for no particular reason banned in 1983. They continued to play as an ensemble of the kolkhoz "Soviet Latvia", careful not to mention the title Pērkons again. In 1985, after a concert in Ogre, a group of teenagers demolished two train compartments. After this, the group was banned again immediately, even though it had nothing to do with the incident. After a few more years, in 1987, they arrive to the song festival Liepājas dzintars ('The Amber of Liepaja') as the ensemble of the fishermen's kolkhoz "Selga".
The texts of their music are at least as rebellious as the music itself, mostly written by Māris Melgalvs. These include such at the time unheard-of lyrics as "oh my, what a stupid thing to do/ killing a swan/ but it's still more stupid/ if you regret it afterwards/ it's so damn stupid then - there's a red swan smoldering in every sunset/ smoldering so stupidly/ you have to hit it once more" (there was little doubt as to what exactly the "red swan" was meant to be).