In this edition of RB’s listeners’ letters, we read your letters and hear you voices and we also pay a musical tribute to legendary Bulgarian rock musician Petar Gyuzelev passed away on April 25th. About six years ago, he was diagnosed with brain tumor, but never stopped working, composing new songs and dreaming of releasing two new albums by the end of the year. He is one of the founders of the legendary Bulgarian rock band Shturtsite (The Crickets), prominent on the musical scene since the distant 1967.  Gyuzelev not only authored some of their biggest hits, but some of the biggest Bulgarian rock hits ever. In 2004, Shturtsite reunited and released since then two new albums. They also performed together in several cities in Bulgaria. The band has had more than 2600 concerts and is still a popular music act.

“The Crickets laid the foundations of rock music in Bulgaria. We followed the European pattern but also used elements form the Bulgarian music”, Gyuzelev said in an interview for RB just a couple of months ago. “We were little boys at the beginning. We were usually listening to the Beatles, Rolling Stones… We played covers of these popular bands. Slowly, we grew up and started to create our own songs, where we talked about the principles of life and all things which turn against us. We were constantly developing and gradually we chose our music style. It was extremely difficult to make progress in these days, especially in the rock music field. We even had problems with the name we chose. When we picked the name “The Crickets”, we were told that we wanted to be like “The Beatles”. We set this name through a music contest at the BNR. We made our friends write letters about the Crickets, because the Cricket in the Bulgarian epos was the musician himself. Despite all hardships, we laid the foundations of a music which sends messages. Our message said: Choose good rather than evil, love each other and help the needy”.

In memoriam - all songs in the show are works of the Crickets band.