Moscow Music Peace Festival

The Moscow Music Peace Festival was a one-time gathering of high-profile hard rock acts for a performance in Moscow, Soviet Union on 12 and 13 August 1989 to promote world peace and establish international cooperation in fighting the drug war in Russia. It was part of an era of momentous change in the Soviet Union, in which capitalism was on the march and communism was collapsing. In 1991, the Soviet Union was officially dissolved.

The concert exposed the Soviet Union to western culture and specifically rock music. The concert was also a pinnacle moment in glam metal and the peak in hard rock music's popularity.

Production and crew

The show involved a large production team and logistics provided by Eurotruk. Generators powered the entire event as it was broadcast as a pay-per-view event by MTV. Catering came from the UK. There were direct-dial telephone lines from the production office, and satellite uplink from Bear Lake back to the USA.

The show production radios were the latest from the USA and some were encrypted. There was 6 Megawatts of power available from the generators.

Management

The concert was put together by the Make a Difference Foundation, rock producer Doc McGhee, Stas Namin and other major players in the Soviet Union and the United States. McGhee agreed to bring his artists to Moscow after becoming involved in a drug scandal himself and wishing to avoid a jail sentence.

Mötley Crüe have been on record stating they were upset with McGhee at this point in time. McGhee let Bon Jovi close the show, and use pyro, something Mötley Crüe was told they could not do. Bon Jovi fired McGhee after this show, as did Mötley Crüe. Mötley Crüe claims that this concert was the first time the band performed sober.

Venue

The event was held over two days in Moscow's largest stadium, Luzhniki Stadium, which has a seating capacity of about 100,000. However, as the concert also included spectators on the field, the number of attendees was much greater. The event was the first rock concert to be held at the stadium, which had previously been used primarily for sporting events.

This was the first time that an audience had been allowed to stand up and dance at a stadium rock concert in the Soviet Union. Previous to this, all concerts had to be seated.

Artists

• Cinderella: Tom Keifer, Fred Coury, Jeff LaBar, Eric Brittingham
• Gorky Park: Alexie Belov, Nikolai Noskov, Sasha Minkov, Jan Ianenkov, Sasha Lvov
• Scorpions: Klaus Meine, Matthias Jabs, Francis Buchholz, Herman Rarebell, Rudolf Schenker
• Skid Row: Sebastian Bach, Dave Sabo, Rob Affuso, Rachel Bolan, Scotti Hill
• Mötley Crüe: Vince Neil, Nikki Sixx, Tommy Lee, Mick Mars
• Ozzy Osbourne: Ozzy Osbourne, Zakk Wylde, Randy Castillo, Geezer Butler, John Sinclair
• Bon Jovi: Jon Bon Jovi, Richie Sambora, Alec John Such, Tico Torres, David Bryan
• Special Guest (for finale): Jason Bonham

Performances

Each band performed about a 5-song set, however the time lengths for some of the sets, particularly by Bon Jovi, are substantially longer ( including 8 minutes of improv followed by Wanted Dead or Alive by Richie Sambora.)At the end of the concert was a collaboration of musicians, featuring Vince Neil & Sebastian Bach on vocals and Jason Bonham on drums, equally representing the bands performing a rendition of "Rock and Roll" by Led Zeppelin.

The performances were shown on TV and are recapped in a video directed by Wayne Isham. Bootlegged copies of the performances are also available widespread on the Internet.

Album

Main article: Stairway to Heaven/Highway to Hell

The bands were all featured on the 1989 compilation album Stairway to Heaven/Highway to Hell, put out the Make a Difference Foundation. Each band recorded a song originally by some famous rock artist who had suffered a drug- or alcohol-related death. These included songs from The Who, the Sex Pistols, Jimi Hendrix, Tommy Bolin, Thin Lizzy, and Janis Joplin, along with a collaboration for Led Zeppelin's "Moby Dick" (for John Bonham), and a live collaboration where the bands perform a medley of Elvis Presley and Led Zeppelin songs.

Despite the intended anti-drug message of the album, some bands later admitted in interviews that the Moscow Music Peace Festival period ironically included much drug use. One notable event in that matter was Ozzy Osbourne who strongly expressed his views against drug abuse during the press conference straight after his performance. After having completed the press conference it was that same Ozzy Osbourne who had to be helped through the narrow corridor leading back to the dressing rooms after continuously stumbling into both facing walls, not being able to walk straight.^{[citation needed]}

Problems

Noted in books such as Bang Your Head: The Rise and Fall of Heavy Metal, the concert also showcased the ego clashes which eventually helped lead to the collapse of glam metal shortly thereafter. Many of the bands argued over who went on before whom, and many were envious of Bon Jovi, who not only headlined the event and was far more considered to be pop music among the hard rock and heavy metal community, but also had a much more theatrical stage spectacle and longer set times; each band was supposed to do a stripped-down show with just music and no spectacular theatrics. Jon Bon Jovi supposedly offered his headlining spot to Ozzy Osbourne after Ozzy threatened to not go through with his set (a move many felt was calculated to further JBJ's 'boy next door' persona). Ozzy's set was initially scheduled before Mötley Crüe's set. Apparently, Ozzy felt his band was bigger and he should go on after Motley Crue. To solve the problem, Motley Crue went on before Ozzy but the tape was edited so it appeared Ozzy went on before Motley Crue to the viewers back in the U.S. Those involved in the show's production felt this was an egotistical bush move on Ozzy's behalf since this was supposed to be for charity, and left many in the rock 'n roll community confused since Ozzy and Mötley Crüe toured together for Ozzy's Bark at the Moon and Mötley Crüe's Shout at the Devil albums, respectively, and became fast friends during the tour.

The members of Mötley Crüe were so incensed about preferences shown to Bon Jovi that Tommy Lee punched manager Doc McGhee (who was also the manager for Bon Jovi) backstage at the venue (McGhee was fired shortly thereafter), opting to fly back to the US on their own. The concert was also often chided by the bands themselves as being hypocritical, as many of the musicians were drinking or using drugs at the time despite the ties with the Make a Difference Foundation.

Nevertheless, whatever happened backstage generally stayed backstage, and what went on onstage happened to turn out to be a spectacular rock festival that positively inspired people and epitomized the fall of the Soviet Union, the globalization of culture, and the glory of 1980s glam metal.^{[citation needed]}

The event became known for inspiring the song "Wind of Change" by the Scorpions, a ballad which became a soundtrack to the collapse of the Berlin Wall, the Soviet Union, and communism in general.

Don't Blame Me: The Tales of Ozzy Osbourne states that after the event, Osbourne was given multiple bottles of Russian vodka. Ozzy drank all of them and became "beyond drunk". It was then that Osbourne attempted to kill his manager–wife Sharon Osbourne.

The Make A Difference Foundation was created by "Doc" McGee after his arrest for drug smuggling. As a condition of his parole he was to use his influence in the music world to start an anti-drug foundation. Even though Ozzy Osbourne, Richie Sambora, and most of the members of Motley Crue (particularly Nikki Sixx) were known for drug/alcohol abuse.^{[citation needed]}

Images

• 

  Moscow Music Peace Festival Vol.1

• 

  Moscow Music Peace Festival Vol.2

References

• Moscow Music Peace Festival (1989) (TV)
• Book: Bang Your Head: The Rise and Fall of Heavy Metal