|
TONICA was formed as a band in the Bulgarian
city Burgas in 1969 by Stefan Diomov who became their the art-director
and producer. In 1969 Stefan Diomov had just returned to his home city
Burgas after graduating from the National Music Academy in Sofia.
In the beginning TONICA was a guitar band with a few
lead singers and performed locally in Burgas.
Inspired by Ricchi e Poveri (an Italian pop band which was very popular in
Bulgaria at that time), the members of TONICA
made the transition from a guitar band to a vocal quartet. The first members
of the vocal quartet TONICA were Eva Naidenova, Sia
Vladowski, Georgi
Naidenov, and Yakim
Yakimov (later replaced by Harry Sherikyan). By 1974 they
became popular nationwide and began winning a string of
awards at various pop song contests in Bulgaria. In
1975 TONICA moved to Sofia and released their first LP. The same year
Harry Sherikyan left the band and was replaced by Ivan Hristov. In the
following two years TONICA
won two prestigious awards at the pop fest Golden Orpheus which further
established their status of pop stars in Bulgaria. In 1978 they released
their second LP which was a new step in their development. The album
featured the best studio musicians in Bulgaria as well as novel art
design. Being the result of perfectionism it is easily one of the best LPs ever released by the national Bulgarian
label Balkanton. TONICA recorded a huge number of songs in the 1970s but
were able to release
only two
LPs because the music industry was not motivated by the market in communist
Bulgaria. TONICA achieved their huge success in
extremely hard conditions behind the Iron Curtain. They were asked to
perform more than 200 concerts a year in the mid 1970s while also
recording songs, appearing on TV, preparing for pop fests, etc. It was
an exciting but also exhausting life and it worsened the atmosphere in the band
by the end of the decade. In 1979 they
went on a tour in post-war Vietnam. In Vietnam they faced extremely bad life
and work conditions and some of them refused to perform. It was considered a strike which was not allowed by the communist
government and the tour ended with a political scandal. After they returned to
Bulgaria they were forced to disband. Their music was banned and never played on radio and TV until the
end of the Cold War. Furthermore, most of their records and TV
appearances were obliterated.
 After a two year penalty, three of
TONICA's members came back as DOMINO with two new
band members. TONICA's original forth member, Sia Vladowski, immigrated to Canada and
later settled down in the USA. DOMINO were very successful at various pop
song contests. In 1985 they won four different awards at the international pop fest in Sopot, Poland,
with a cover of Czesław Niemen's song Dziwny jest ten świat.
Meanwhile, Stefan Diomov formed a new pop band called TONICA SV with band
members Vanya Kostova, Militsa Bozhinova, Ralitsa Angelova,
Dragomir
Dimitrov,
 and
Theodore Shishmanov (later replaced by Emil Vassilev). They
were
chosen from a large number of candidates in
a national contest for a new band TONICA. TONICA SV became hugely
popular with their very first records. In 1982 they won both the first and the second prize in
the TV contest Song of the Year. By 1985 they released three
very successful albums. Again, the success came along with exhausting
work and in 1986 Vanya Kostova and Stefan Diomov left
the band. As a vocal quartet TONICA SV performed until 1991. In 1994 the former members of
TONICA,
TONICA SV, and DOMINO got together for four
reunion concerts in Burgas and Sofia.
 The impossible happened and
TONICA
got together in their cast from the 1970s with Sia Vladowski who came to
Bulgaria for the rehearsals and the four concerts. After the four concerts in 1994, some of
TONICA's and
TONICA SV's members formed the band FAMILIA TONICA. Their latest
LP was released in 2004. On the 6th of May 2005 TONICA's long-time dream came true.
FAMILIA TONICA and their musical inspiration Ricchi e Poveri sang together
at a concert of the two bands in Sofia. A short
video from the
concert is available
here. |
|
Songs of TONICA from the
70s Lado Le
(1976)
S. Dimitrov - Z. Petrov
Let It Be
Summer (1977)
S. Dimitrov - M. Basheva
If I
Caress You (1978)
S. Dimitrov - N. Kunchev
A Farewell (1975)
S. Diomov - S. Gotzov
Sea (circa 1975)
M. Ganeva - A. Yordanova
Day after Day
(live, 1976)
M. Ganeva - P. Stoykov
Light (1974)
D. Mihaylov - N. Andreev
Cover of 'Sugar Baby Love' in Bulgarian
Video
of this song
My Friend
(1974)
S. Gotzov - K. Dragnev
Cover of 'Amazing Grace' in Bulgarian
Songs of TONICA SV from the
80s
My Girl
and I (1981)
S. Diomov - V. Vulchev
Like
a Dream (1981)
S. Diomov - M. Belchev - P. Slavchev
The
Boy from the Barge (1981)
D. Kerelezov - N. Troshanov
Auld
Lang Syne (1983)
Scottish folk song on lyrics by R. Burns
in the Bulgarian translation by V. Svintila
If We
Could (1983)
A. Yossifov - D. Damyanov - S. Marinov
Malayka
(1983)
Tanzanian folk song
S. Diomov
Oh, Malyao
(1983)
Portuguese folk song
S. Diomov
No
Problems (circa 1987)
M. Stoyanov - H. Yotsov
Songs of DOMINO from the
80s
This Wonderful World (1985)
C. Niemen, words by E. Mihailova, arr. by K. Gyulmezov
Cover of Czesław Niemen's song 'Dziwny jest ten świat'
With this song Domino won for different awards at Sopot '85
A Window Still Alight (circa 1983)
Y. Popov - D. Kerelezov - I. Kutikov
Modern
and Retro (circa 1983)
G. Naidenov
|
