Georgi Mintchev has left a bright vestige as one of the pioneers of Bulgarian rock music in the 1960s. To this day his songs have numerous fans and often feature on the repertoire of present-day rock musicians: from the romantic pieces White Silence, The Snow of Memory and Silver Flocks to the masculine ones Beer, Sex & Rock n’ Roll, Alone at the Bar, Sweet Babe and others. Each of these songs comes across with a nice, genuine story in the lyrics, and lovely, memorable music.

For younger generations, Georgi (Gosho) Mintchev is the icon to whom Vasko the Patch has for years dedicated the rock music festival A Flower for Gosho. Young protesters nowadays easily pick some of Mintchev’s rock classics from the 1990s to chant in the streets. Some of those songs were inspired by the very start of democratic changes in Bulgaria. Back at that time Georgi Mintchev was part of the veteran band called Old Faces. It brought together musicians from various leading bands.

Georgi Mintchev also authored a few albums. One of them is A Story with a Guitar.

Now let us revisit the biography of Georgi Mintchev. He was born in 1943 in Sofia where he graduated in foreign trade, and later studied TV directing in Brussels. During his lifetime he recorded a few songs in French, and was a stringer for Radio Bulgaria’s French Language Service. Mintchev rose to popularity in 1967, as a student, when he sang the lovely ballad White Silence. With it composer Boris Karadimtchev won the Golden Orpheus Music Prize. From 1987 until 1997 Georgi Mintchev released the albums Bulgarian Rock, Rock n’ Roll Veterans, Stocktaking and BG Rock. His music biography of kind is the song collection White Silence offering compositions by Petar Stoupel, Atanas Kosev, Boris Karadimtchev, Atanas Boyadzhiev etc. Mintchev has worked with various bands including the Bulgarian National Radio Brass Band led by Villy Kazasyan, Bandaratsite, Jazz Focus 65 and others. Very often the singer wrote lyrics for his songs bringing the themes of love and infidelity, hope and disenchantment, day-dreaming and sadness. He was both a man of rebellion, and of gentleness and finesse. Georgi Mintchev died in 2001.

We wind up Timeout for Music with Stocktaking, music and lyrics by Mario Sabev, singing Georgi Mintchev. 

English Daniela Konstantinova

The audio to this fail contains the following recordings featuring rock legend Georgi Mintchev:

1 - The Snow of Memory, music by Petar Stoupel, lyrics by Alexander Mihaylov

2 - A Story with a Guitar, music and lyrics by Georgi Mintchev

3 - Stocktaking, music and lyrics by Mario Sabev