Vasil Georgiev

or
VASKO THE PATCH
(as he is famous in Bulgaria and abroad)

He was born in Sofia on the 6th June 1959.
He is a driver and car mechanic by profession, but he is a musician by nature.
Self-educated. He plays drums, harmonica and the guitar. Author and blues singer.

In the 1980s he plays drums in different pop-rock groups - Parallel 42, Start and others. At the end of the communist regime he makes his own band - Poduene Blues Band. He writes and sings songs, which would be censured by totalitarian censors - "Bureaucrat", "Sunny Beach Blues", "Communism is Going Away" and others. He is an enthusiastic supporter of the change from dictatorship to democracy in Bulgaria. He can be seen with his guitar and Poduene Blues Band at all demonstrations, barricades and other events, organized by the democratic opposition. In these memorable years in Bulgaria Vasko the Patch writes and sings songs, which truly express the whole generations' striving for freedom and thus he becomes one of the symbols of change. At the same time he promotes his own style and he makes the way of blues in Bulgaria, as he is the creator of the first serious blues formation here. He attracts excellent musicians and his music is an unusual mixture of sincerity, hippie unconventionalism, sharp tongue, serious arrangements and instrumental improvisations. Thus Poduene Blues Band becomes the best post-communist Bulgarian rock and blues formation.

Fame and success are followed by the endless tours all around Bulgaria and abroad - in all kinds of places, where it is possible and impossible to play: from the prison in Buhovo to Hall 1 of the National Palace of Culture, from a roof on "Garibaldi" Square to the basement of "La Strada" theatre, from the barricades in Dupnitza to the concert at Bill Clinton's arrival in Sofia, from acoustic concerts for sick children and orphans to noisy festivals of bikers, from the small Eddy's club to Super Blues Festival -Bucurest 95 with John Mayall as a headliner , where Poduene Blues Band play in front of five thousand people and they are called for an encore three times, from the roof of a moving bus at the festival of old motor vehicles in Plovdiv to Rothmans Blues Fest - Bourgas'99, where headliners are The Blues Brothers Band, from The Festival of Beer in Sofia to the Haineken Brewery in Amsterdam, from the school for diplomats in Bonn to the prison in Koln, from Jazzgalerie in Bonn - Germany to Jazz House in Kansas city, from the basement in Poduene to Buddy Guy's Legends in Chicago...

Rebellious and not swimming with the tide, Vasko the Patch has become one of the most controversial people in modern Bulgaria. One can read about him various things - he is called "a symbol of democracy" and "just an imitator"; "he has broken the stereotypes and inertia of degraded Bulgarian songs, making the way for sincerity in the text and the blues scheme" and that he is "a candidate for most stupid text"; " the wise messages of the songs from the new PBB album inspire hope, vitality and freedom" and "radio and TV programs stink of beer and barbecue because of some stray dogs"; "it is impossible to imagine the awakening of generations of Bulgarians for the daring dream for a New Bulgaria, going on its way of uniting with the free world without Vasko the Patch - the troubadour of democracy" and "a mother can't go to bed and sleep peacefully, knowing her twelve-year-old daughter is somewhere, listening to the unruly songs of Vasko the Patch" and others...

No way. As something is done, it goes hand in hand with characteristics. But the most important characteristic of an author and musician is his work. Only time can decide what there is to decide. One thing is clear - Vasko the Patch breaks the stereotypes and he creates music, which can only be characterized by people who have listened to it...