scene. Since the mid-80s Russian rock was also influenced by the Russian art group Mitki. The lyrics of the Soviet rock bands often dealt with the darkest sides of 1980s Soviet life, such as domestic violence, alcoholism (an infamous song by Nautilus Pompilius contained the lines "Alain Delon drinks a double bourbon/Alain Delon doesn't drink eau de cologne" as a sarcastic contrast to the alcoholic father described in the song and an indictment of the escapist attitudes of state-run media) and crime, and often carried a hidden political message. In consequence, the mainstream Soviet radio and television ignored Soviet rock bands, which often reached audiences only through word of mouth. The monopoly for music publishing in the USSR belonged to Melodiya, the Soviet record label owned and operated by the Council of Ministers through the Ministry of Culture. Melodiya had a strict policy against publishing rock music or underground musicians, while promoting VIAs, whose members as well as the composers and writers who worked with them were members of the Union of Composers. Some rock musicians (Yuri Shevchuk, Yegor Letov and many others) had problems with the KGB due to their public activities. During the early 1980s, Soviet authorities started to exert heavy pressure on amateur bands, banning underground concerts as a sort of illegal commercial activity and imprisoning some music promoters and sound engineers for earning money from underground concerts. Many of the 1980s bands remain active and popular among Russian youth. The term Russian rock is often used to refer to the particular sound of these bands. Various music scenes In the early- to mid-1980s, rock clubs were founded in Moscow, Leningrad (now Saint Petersburg) and Sverdlovsk (now Yekaterinburg). These three cities had their own rock scenes and friendly collaborations between artists were commonplace. The Leningrad Rock Club, founded in 1981 and supported by the CPSU, Komsomol, and the city and federal governments, was probably the biggest venue, featuring "classic Russian rock" by Aquarium, Kino, Zoopark, Piknik, Alisa, DDT, Televizor, N.E.P., etc. It also included the nascent Russian art-rock movement, typified by bands such as Auktyon. The important figure of Leningrad Rock scene, Sergey Kuryokhin, the well-known piano/keyboard player of different music genres including rock and free-jazz, and leader of his ambitious multimedia project Pop Mekhanika, one of the first Soviet underground musicians who released his albums in Europe and USA. Bands from Sverdlovsk, such as Nautilus Pompilius,