Beach Boys in Leningrad and Moscow 1969

[mrski]

In a 1969 Czech magazine article I read that following The Beach Boys visits to Czechoslovakia and Finland, the group was scheduled to fly to the Soviet Union to play concerts in Leningrad and Moscow...

We are talking 1969 here, not later as per this thread:  http://smileysmile.net/board/index.php/topic,7019.0.html

Has anyone else seen any other mention of these 1969 Soviet Union concerts...?

[smile-holland]

This is what I could find on AGD's website:

http://www.btinternet.com/~bellagio/gigs69.html

May
5th European tour
[all shows w/Paul Revere & The Raiders and Joe Hicks unless noted;
two shows each night unless noted]
30 - Dome, Brighton, England
31 - Hammersmith Odeon, London
June   1 - De Doelen, Rotterdam, Netherlands
  1 - Concertgebouw, Amsterdam
  2 - Radio Bremen TV Studio, Bremen, West Germany
  3 - Amerikaans Theatre, Brussels
  6 - Odeon, Birmingham, England
  7 - Empire Theatre, Liverpool
  8 - King Edward's Nurses Home, Leeds [one show, no support] [3]
  8 - Free Trade Hall, Manchester
  9 - Odeon, Glasgow, Scotland
13 - Jahrhunderthalle-Hööchst, Frankfurt, West Germany* [no support]
14 - Deutschlandhalle, Berlin, East Germany [no support]
15 - Munich, West Germany [cancelled]
16 - Break Away/Celebrate The News single released
16 - Midi Premiere TV Show, Paris, France*
16 - Olympia, Paris, France [no support]

17 - Lucerna Hall, Prague, Czechoslovakia [no support]
18 - Hala Rondo, Brno [no support]
18 - Song Festival, Bratislava [no support]
19 - Ostrava*
20 - Keimolan Juhannus Juhla, Vantaa, Finland*
       [w/The Spede and Simo Show, plus car stunts (!)]
21 - Pop festival, Antwerp, Belgium
22 - Finsbury Park Astoria, London, England [w/The Rainbow People and Marmalade]
?? - NRCV TV Studio, Amsterdam, Netherlands [possibly 21st or 22nd]

No trace of anything Russia here...
There's a 2-week gap after that 22nd of June (on July 8th they perform on the Mike Douglas TV show). But one would think that after 4 gigs in Czechoslovakia and 1 in Finland a trip to Russia would be more logic directly after that then first travelling to Belgium/Holland/England.

I'd be very interested in seeing that Czech article you talk about (if I understand it at all...)

[Ian]

Since I was compiling the gigs info on the site-I bought every thing I could find (Disc and Music Echo, Stars and Stripes Germany, NME, Melody Maker, Fabulous 209, etc, etc)- They did not play there according to any of those and it would have been big news-due to the politics. It didn't happen. You can be sure we'd know about it. If they'd gone there-it would have been brought up in all the interviews. When they appeared on Mike Douglas-they talked about playing  in Czecholslovakia only.  By the way-Mike Love's passport shows he was back in NY on June 29 1969. He stayed in England after that June 22 show. He was staying at Meditation retreat. He and Bruce made an app on the June 25 1969 Top of the Pops to introduce the Leeds footage

[mrski]

I'd be very interested in seeing that Czech article you talk about (if I understand it at all...)

I've got some great articles and stories relating to all of the concerts in Czechoslovakia... I intend to translate these into English so everyone can read them once I get a few more things through/organised.

[mrski]

Since I was compiling the gigs info on the site-I bought every thing I could find (Disc and Music Echo, Stars and Stripes Germany, NME, Melody Maker, Fabulous 209, etc, etc)- They did not play there according to any of those and it would have been big news-due to the politics. It didn't happen. You can be sure we'd know about it. If they'd gone there-it would have been brought up in all the interviews. When they appeared on Mike Douglas-they talked about playing  in Czecholslovakia only.  By the way-Mike Love's passport shows he was back in NY on June 29 1969. He stayed in England after that June 22 show. He was staying at Meditation retreat. He and Bruce made an app on the June 25 1969 Top of the Pops to introduce the Leeds footage

I'm sure the concerts didn't happen, but I wondered if they were actually officially scheduled at some point along the way and cancelled/dropped later... It also crossed my mind that these places were mentioned simply to 'balance' things up given the political situation between Czechoslovakia and The Soviet Union at the time, even if the band never had any intension of going there! (Such was the authoritive 'control' of the Czech/Slovak press at the time.)