Before we tell you how it all happened, we must tell you about a band that was so impressive, that Imagine Dragons’s management did in fact agree to have them opening for them. The Emergenza international management team first heard about the band from Saint Petersburg, Russia, early last year after our local man over there started bragging about “some young rockers with an amazing stage presence and brilliant songs”. 

PRAVADA, a 4 piece rock band with some of the greatest pop melodies we’ve heard in a long, long time were actually playing around the traps in and out of their city, developing as musicians and songwriters. They formed in Saint Petersburg and came from different parts of the country and decided to move to the city to commit to their project. Pravada had a solid little fan base in Saint Petersburg but we saw the guys push themselves to the limit with a combination of shameless promotion and high concentration of their stage show. It paid off for them in the end.

The boys went all the way to their local final winning it through the different stages and eventually getting to the national final in Moscow where the panel of judges which comprised of many music industry professionals, voted unanimously for this 4 piece combo. Many to choose from but only one wins and it was Pravada in the end that went to the Emergenza International final at the Taubertal open air Festival in Germany.

Having different musical background, from the classically trained guitarist to the jazz trained drummer, this group of guys in their early twenties did say they wanted it so bad that they had to take into account that “we are the only ones that can make it work”. In the end, they did go all the way but their remarkable story wasn’t finished. In Germany they took part in our open air festival that had The Offspring as well as other headliners play over the 3 day fest and the fact that they were from Russia wasn’t a deterrent for them. They used their hard work ethics and great rock & roll performance to impress the German public and the judges. The band got 4th place out of 24 international bands and the drummer was voted by his peers as the best rock drummer over the week-end. Let’s consider we’ve had amazing band from Sweden, Canada, Australia and Britain where the Music scenes are actually thriving. Even the headliners peeking from the side of the stage were commenting on their skills.

After the August gig at the Taubertal, the boys went back to Saint Petersburg still buzzing from the experience of playing to thousands of German kids and set sights on becoming local celebrities by contacting every radio and television station available. Admiring their right minded approach, we could only help them at this stage, so we bombarded our very good friends in London with agencies contacts with emails and eventually got through Imagine Dragons and their representatives. Not holding our breaths, we got on with organising smaller support gigs and other things around the world until they replied with a “yes!” not realising the size of the gigs. 

I suppose you have to take into account that the exposure Pravada will get is somewhat mind-blowing but the numbers are even more staggering. The 2 Russian dates alone have some 50,000 tickets sold out. Imagine Dragons are an american sensation and a top 40 band around the world but in the commercial world of music business these are huge numbers. Following their world tour around Europe you realise that the venues have an average 15 to 30,000 audience capacity. At this level, we can safely say that only and exclusively signed or even established smaller acts usually open up and support bands of this stature but not in our case. This is a feat in itself. 

The Imagine Dragons team wanted the boys. We at the International management team pushed them……yes, but eventually it was a great band that they wanted….and Pravada fit their description. Consider the amount of management and record companies willing to prostitute themselves over these slots. We got them for Pravada.

I will close this piece by saying that nothing comes easy, it is almost rhetorical to discuss this topic but good old fashion hard work and a pinch of self belief will always do wonders.

Work hard bands, you’ll get great opportunities too.

Long live rock and roll……long live Emergenza festival