The Boys' canceled 4th of July gig in Leningrad, USSR, 1978

[Jason]

Browsing through Andrew Doe's and Ian Rusten's excellent research on Andrew's website, I came across this little bit of information - the Boys in the USSR in '78 with Joan Baez and Santana?

Why was this gig canceled? And what exactly led up to this gig even being planned in the first place? I understand it was one thing for Billy Joel to go there in 1987 when the Curtain was about to fall, but in 1978 I'm sure things were quite different.

[Steve Mayo]

i have an old billboard from 1978 that discusses this very question of yours. i will try to find it and send a copy to you.

[urbanite]

It was a small thing called the invasion of Afghanistan by the Soviet Union, which led to the U.S. not going to the summer Olympic Games in Moscow, the Beach Boys cancelling their concert, and so on.

[Steve Mayo]

the concert had already been postponed a month to july 4th. i have that issue also somewhere in the house. here is the article in the july 8th issue of billboard. i do remember some magazines reported the soviet union had 2nd thoughts about an event with so many soviet youth and seeing/wanted more freedom. don't remember for sure if that was the main reason but i do remember reading some articles stating that. i have more magazines dealing with the event being axed but i have to find them. hope this helped a little.

[Jason]

It was a small thing called the invasion of Afghanistan by the Soviet Union, which led to the U.S. not going to the summer Olympic Games in Moscow, the Beach Boys cancelling their concert, and so on.

That makes sense...totally slipped my mind. And then two years later on the 4th of July Michael and Al were singing the praises of bombing the Afghans out of the sky.

[Andrew G. Doe]

In the otherwise almost useless Dean Anthony book, there's at least one photo of the band wearing silver tour jackets with the venue and date on them.

[Jason]

Shame, though....if I'm correct, this would have marked the second time they played in Eastern Europe, first being the Czechoslovakia stop. It seems like they've made no effort to go back since.

Speaking of concerts in non-Western areas, didn't the Boys play a concert in Israel a while back?

[tpesky]

The Soviet invasion occurred in 1979, pretty late I believe. So, unless the Beach Boys had some top secret KGB intelligence information  a year earlier, my guess is thats not the cause of the cancellation.

[Steve Mayo]

 


save this scan to someplace like desktop then click on it. zoom in if needed. reason soviets axed the beach boys. from aug 1978 bbfun

[Eric Aniversario]

Thanks for posting that scan, Steve.  Wow, toward the bottom it says "A Rap From Mike Love".  Sounds interesting.