Vladimir Gustov: a guitar player, an arranger, a composer, and a sound producer.

Started to play music when he was 5 years old. In 1972, after he came across the album "McCartney 1", Vladimir put together his first musical group. At that time, he started to experiment with music while trying to mix sound with two antiquated tape recorders "Sonata". In 1975, after the release of the Queen's "A Night at the Opera", Vladimir was so impressed with the album that he decided to dedicate himself to music as a professional.

Gustov's musical career began in the mid-1970s in an amateur group "Cascade Studio". In 1978, when he was 17, he successfully substituted for an ailing guitar player from a touring English band "Tony Monopoly". This performance made him noticed by many in the show business. In 1980, Gustov graduated from the Leningrad Musical College (a.k.a. Musorgsky School) with a major in Jazz Guitar. Later he taught guitar classes in this school as an adjunct for five years. Among his students was Alexander Liapin("Aquarium"), with whom Vladimir Gustov formed a legendary group "Tele U". Vladimir combined his teaching with working at a sound studio, occasional appearances on jazz festivals together with a quartet of a superb saxophonist, Mikhail Kostyushkin ("Pop Mekhanika," D.Goloshekin Band, and "Tea For Two" (Chai Vdvoem), and playing music with several other groups.

An acquaintance with the brilliant young composer Victor Reznikov had a huge impact on Vladimir's professional skills and career. Several recording studio projects with Alla Pugacheva, Larisa Dolina, Mikhail Boyarski, Tynis Miagi, and Jaak Jola have made Gustov's musical work to stand out. Quite a few musical publications placed Vladimir among the best musicians of the Soviet Union. At that time, Alla Pugacheva has made Vadimir an offer to work in her musical group called "Recital." Unfortunately, this plan did not get through because of a number of bureaucratic obstacles: to get the job, Gustov must have obtained a Moscow residence permit, which could have resulted in his 2-year compulsory military service. Several years later, Alla and Vladimir performed a song together ("A Flame in a Hand") during the Christmas television show "Rozhdestenskie Vstrechi".

In 1986, Alexandr Revzin, now a well-known show business director and producer, founded a group named "Rendezvous" and asked Gustov to join it. The group performed for two years and attracted scores of Russian and foreign stars who would come to see the group's live performances. In 1988, Vladimir and several other musicians from this group started their own rehearsals that ended up in a creation of a new band, "Radio-Rock".

The changes that occurred in Russia in the beginning of the 1990s have broken down the Iron Curtain. As a result, Gustov was invited and he accepted an invitation of Victor Reznikov to play in a new group "SUS" (Soviet Union-United States). Consisted of two American and three Russian musicians, the band was just taking off, when Victor Reznikov died in a tragic accident. SUS gave several concerts to commemorate Victor's music and then seized to exist.

After recording with Radio-Rock his third album, "The Crime and the Punishment", Vladimir gave several instrumental concerts together with guitarists Alexandr Liapin and Igor Romanov. In 1997, Vladimir Gustov creates his own recording studio, in which he puts together his own music and songs as well as music of other composers and performers.

As a guitar player, a multi-instrumentalist, and an orchestrator, Vladimir has managed more than 2,000 studio recording sessions. Eight times (1983, 1984, 1985, 1987, 1996, 1997, 2000 and 2007) Vladimir was named one of the best Russian musicians by various printed and online musical magazines. In 1990, Gustov's song, "New Day" performed by Larisa Dolina, has climbed to a second place in French musical charts.

Today Vladimir Gustov is a musical director and sound producer of the Maxim Leonidov group Hippoband. At the same time, Vladimir continues to work on a new instrumental project "Cool Fire" and a new pop-rock group "Be Good" together with a St. Petersburg vocalist and composer Igor Balakirev. These two projects are being recorded in his Favourite Studio.