Ruchadze Band - Amsterdam Beyond

The Czech Republic is being taken by storm by Mr. Globetrotter himself, Konstantin Ruchadze,
who has lived and performed in six different countries.

At the end of the sixties, a music group calling itself Ruchadze Band emerged at the Strahov 
Student Club 1, then the most Western-oriented music club in Communist Czechoslovakia. With a
very successful formula of Soul and Blues classics they were immensely popular with the Czech
music audience. After the Warsaw-Pact armies occupied reform-willing Czechoslovakia, the band
was forced to decide whether to change the musical direction or face a performance ban. This
situation resulted in a splitting of the band. Some of the members chose to live in exile in
the free West and others continued to live in Czechoslovakia accompanying officially accepted
singers.

The leader of the band, Konstantin Ruchadze, emigrated and lived in Austria (where he played 
with Peter Wolf - keyboard player with Frank Zappa and today famous producer), Spain (where he
was a welcomed musical guest at Salvador Dali's home) and finally in Holland, where he continues
to live in the capital city of Amsterdam. Along with his own very successful projects, The 
Goblet Band and Hot Bolshevik (fusion, jazz, funk, r&b) he has performed there with stars of
the Dutch music-scene including Jan Akkerman (legendary guitarist of the world-famous Dutch
band Focus, who in 1973 was chosen as world's a best lead guitarist) and Candy Dulfer
(world-famous saxophone player with Prince).

After the fall of the Berlin Wall, Konstantin and the rest of the old band came together and 
decided to return to their common music-roots to continue on the adventurous path of creativity
for which the band was known. The overwhelming public reaction to the first concerts was the 
motivation to stay on course. Currently the band has undergone some personal changes including
great young talent, revitalizing the band's image to establish links to a youthful audience. 
This new phase in the band's current history they decided to name "Amsterdam Beyond". More so 
because almost all Konstantin's compositions and arrangements were made in and under influence
of the melting pot of that most cosmopolitan city of the world.

Amsterdam Beyond is the sole and unique force on the Czech music-scene uncompromisingly 
following the way of creativity and openness towards global music developments. The band
is now working on a new recording project.