Prisoners of Rock and Roll is a bi-weekly podcast about music, the people who make it, and the almighty, ever-lasting power it has over all of us. We've covered everything from Anthrax to Frank Sinatra, the history of the blues to the history of punk, and from Johnny Cash to the Joshua Tree. We also play clips, discuss music news, and sentence a song every week to The Electric Chair for being terrible. Check us out -- you might learn something! Check us out at www.prisonersofrockandroll.com.
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episode 82: The Moscow Music Peace Festival
The Moscow Music Peace Festival was a two-day rock concert held in August 1989.
Held during Mikhail Gorbachev’s period of Glastnost, Russia allowed a handful of western rock and roll acts to perform for the first time in Moscow, and over 100,000 people living in Cold War Soviet Union packed into Central Lenin Station to witness the forbidden fruit of late 80s rock and roll in all of its excess.
Motley Crue, Ozzy Osbourne, Skid Row, Bon Jovi, and the Scorpions shared the stage with some Russian rock and roll acts to promote peace and raise awareness about drug and alcohol addiction….Because Ozzy and Motley Crue are just the people you want promoting the virtues of sobriety.
But the Moscow Music Peace Festival was also an important cultural moment near the end of the Cold War. By the end of the show, stoic Soviet soldiers were throwing their hats in the air and rocking out to the music. The event also inspired the Scorpions to write their hit song Wind of Change, which became an anthem for the end of the Cold War as the Berlin Wall came down just a few months later.
So tune in for this episode of Prisoners of Rock and Roll as we take a peek behind the Iron Curtain for a look at the Moscow Music Peace Festival.
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