1997 – Radio Stantsiya, Jazz Café and Galereya

Dj Kolya:
«Then, somehow quite unexpectedly, I ended up at the radio station 'Stantsiya'. Here the golden age really began, since with its help we all got incredible all-Russian PR. We had wild popularity, because it was precisely thanks to 'Stantsiya' that the masses were introduced to this music. The radio showed who was really worth what. Top DJs could drive round six or seven clubs in a night, stuffing their pockets full of money. We were simply torn to pieces, and we could choose the clubs where we wanted to play ourselves. Andrey Jangl, Lenya Bell and I started throwing our own parties at 'Gippopotam', at 'Utopia', gathering insane numbers of people there. We used the radio's resource and promoted our parties on 'Stantsiya' with all our might – luckily there was complete anarchy, and nobody controlled the broadcasts. I got into 'Jazz Café' also thanks to 'Stantsiya', since the Yugoslavs who owned the club, Dan and Vlado, were simply shocked by my Stantsiya mixes. Incidentally, they also owned the famous disco '011', the legendary club from which all this Moscow glamour started. It all began with '011'. There was an amazing mix there of foreigners, Russian girls, some bohemian characters. Vlado himself stood behind the decks, playing Stereo MC's, some remixes of Michael Jackson. It was a Russian Studio 54. But not because of the dolled-up stars inside, but by the principle of how it operated. It was simply impossible for an outsider to get in there, the Yugoslavs let in only their own. I started playing at '011' first, Duck and I did one party there and earned really big money in one evening. Then 'Jazz Café' began, and I smoothly moved over there. The place was unique. There was practically no dancefloor, no ventilation, two rooms and a bar counter. But all the people who then had anything to do with money were all there: Chechen gangsters, casino owners, deputies. And everyone had fun like children. To the point that they were ready to put their own underpants on their heads.
However, 'Jazz Café' soon closed – they ran into problems with the lease, and the club ceased to exist. Straight away Sasha Oganezov's 'Galereya' appeared and all the life instantly shifted there. It was an incredibly successful establishment. There, in one night, such a quantity of alcohol was drunk that a herd of thirst-tormented elephants could hardly have drunk it.»