vldmr_p
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« on: August 25, 2006, 08:14:13 AM » |
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Recently a movie called “A Concert which Never Happened” has been shown on Russian TV. Many Russian viewers heard for the first time about the remarkable event of the past.
This July day of 1978 could become a historical event of the Soviet era, as the day of impossible for those times “gulp of freedom”. A real open rock-concert was to take place in Leningrad city, on Palace Square, the place where nothing except military parades and May Day working people demonstrations was ever held!
Great foreign music stars were supposed to come to the USSR (‘back in the US, back in the US, back in the USSR!’) and participate in the concert - The Beach Boys (oh yessss!, Paul McCartney (sic!), Joan Baez, Carlos Santana as well as famous soviet stars - The Pesnyary, the Ariel and Alla Pugachova.
But, alas, this concert never happened. At the very moment of signing a contract in London, Soviet government, comprising of old, becoming enfeebled communists like Brezhnev, decided against the concert.
Nika Strizhak, director of the movie, remembers:
It was unbelievable, The Beach Boys, Paul McCartney, Santana have agreed to come! At that time an average soviet music lover could only dream about it! Now it is difficult to understand it, but in the late 70-s soviet people could only buy LPs of the Beach Boys, for instance, secretly, risking to lose their jobs and paying half of their monthly salary for a chance to sing along with California Dreaming in the warmth of their homes. To see some of foreign rock or pop stars on Soviet TV was possible only once per year, on the New Year’s night…
As it was common in the USSR on those days, the date of the coming concert was announced in press, but when the concert was cancelled, nobody was informed about cancellation! So music lovers from all over the country were coming to Leningrad to see their idols unaware of the fact that this concert would never happen! On the day of the concert the Palace square was overcrowded, girls were screaming holding pictures and posters of their sex-gurus Dennis Wilson and Paul McCartney, people were shouting We Want The Beach Boys, Mac-Cart-Ney! etc.
The end of the day was frustrating. There were street riots, clashes between soviet militia and rock fans, hundreds of people were beaten and arrested. Local authorities even used fire engines to disperse the crowd…
But justice prevailed in the end! Both Santana and McCartney have already visited Russia, Macca even gave a concert on the same square, Palace Square! ‘God only knows’, but maybe one day the Beach Boys will visit Russia too?
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