Moscow Music Peace Festival: How Glam Metal Helped End The Cold War

Punch-outs, drunken antics and revolution at the 1989 Moscow Music Peace Festival where Bon Jovi, Mötley Crüe, Ozzy Osbourne and others rocked for peace and freedom. In the communist seventies and eighties, popular music was repressed in the Soviet Union, and the hunger for it – particularly Western rock & roll – led Russian fans to extreme measures. Black-market records, bootlegs etched into X-rays and even the opportunity to dub cassettes could easily cost fans a hefty chunk of their monthly salaries. And the opportunity to see Western performers in person? Practically nonexistent. That is, at least until the dawn of perestroika under Mikhail Gorbachev in the middle of the 1980s. Gorbachev’s policy of openness meant that, for the very first time, Soviet fans could attend concerts by prominent American and British artists. Soon artists like Bonnie Tyler, Billy Joel and Elton John made the trip, but hard rock and heavy metal went underrepresented… read more >