TOK

…the year of 1986. Perestroika is on its peak. Rock in the USSR raises its head and becomes legal. Now it is possible to play and sing loudly. Numerous rock-clubs are opened. Rock bands grow like mushrooms after a rain. In May 1986 the first rehearsal of a band, that did not even have a name at that time, took place. Four people got together having a great desire to play energetic, loud and striking music.
First staff:
Pelenko Gennady— bass
Pelenko Victor — guitar
Romashchenko Igor— guitar, vocals
Romashchenko Sergej-drums
ÒOK carries on rehearsing strenuously and in 1987 they are invited to participate in their first Ukrainian festival of a state level “Rock’n’Roll Tavrichesky” in the city of Nova Kakhovka, Ukraine. The concert of a band had a great success, and the band gets a Prize of audience sympathy. Many festivals and concerts lie ahead. The band gives many concerts in Ukraine, and in 1988 participates in a festval «Hard Rock Days» in the city of Riga, Latvia, where it also receives a Prize of audience sympathy.
In 1988 Sergej and Gennady became 18 and had to go to the military service. It was decided to make a contest for openings of a drummer and a bass guitarist. They agreed to find replacing people just for the time of military service, i.e. for 2 years. It was announced at the concert at DISI culture center. TOK was performing with a band called “Den’ I Vecher” from Rostov. Among the audience that came from Rostov there was a grim guy with big muscles. His name was Roma. Later on, he replaced the drummer. After the band got to know him better, they discovered that he’s a kind, reliable and, the most important, he’s a great musician. After that, a candidate for a bass guitarist opening was chosen. It was Stas Ananchenko.
Since 1989 the band played with the following staff:
Podgajny Andrey– vocal, guitar
Pelenko Victor — leading guitar
Yampol Roman– drums
Ananchenko Stas– bass.
The band keeps practicing and writing new songs. After participating in a festival together with a Finnish band “Sharonez,” TOK changes style a bit from heavy metal to hard rock and rock-n-roll. Back than it was also decided to turn to English – the native tongue of rock-n-roll.
In 1998 ÒÎÊ plans to participate in a festival abroad, for the first time. Numerous big and small festivals are taken in Slovakia. The band was invited to participate in one of them. In Slovakia the concert of TOK had a great success. In the crowd of Slovak audience after the performance there was a saying “ Tok is the bomb” The staff comes back home and carries on practicing and performing.
Participation in festivals: from 1989 to 2002:
«Rock Summer» (1990, Tallinn, Estonia),
«Rock-Bdzola» (1991–93, Dnipropetrovsk) annual,
«Pamyati Gonkevicha» (1994–2004, Odessa) annual;
«Rock_KYIV» (warming up the audience before the performance of «Metallica»— 1999);
«Festering Blood» (1998, Koshice, Slovakia, Brno, Czech Republic);
and many others.
In 2002 ÒÎÊ undergoes considerable changes. Gennady Pelenko starts having serious interest in a band. This is the same first bass guitarist of ÒÎÊ. who actually brought the band together back then. Currently Gennady is the director of TOK band. Also the idea arouse to invite a keyboard player in a band. All the more, they even knew whom exactly they wanted to invite – Stanislav Lyashenko. He participated in recording the album «Girl! Show Your Nature» back in 1994. All the keyboard parts in the album are performed by him. Stas really wanted to play with TOK but there was no real good instrument for him. At that time, the instrument made its appearance. New modern sound and arrangements were added into the music. ÒÎÊ returns to Russian texts and starts working on a new album.
Currently, more than 50 songs were written by ÒÎÊ band. Musicians have a high professional level of playing rock music. Besides musicians use very good instruments and newest devices of sound processing. A distinctive feature of the band is extremely drive music performance at concerts.
The average age of ÒÎÊ musicians for the present day is 34 years.