TRACK LISTING
Disc 1
Synposis
As international musicians we are technically apolitical and stateless.”
Summer 1990: When my agent asked me if ASIA would play Russia, I was simultaneously excited, beguiled and dubious.
I said yes (I usually do) to actually playing, but I was doubtful about the logistics; movement of bodies, construction of stage, payment and if there was any genuine interest from the other side of the curtain.
8th November 1990, Carl Palmer, Geoff Downes, Pat Thrall and John Wetton boarded Aeroflot flight 009 from Heathrow to Moscow.
Any misgivings were dispelled when Bob Carruthers announced that he would be filming the project. It seemed a waste to go to Gorbachev’s cauldron of change without an audio/visual record of our visit. At that time, the political regime could have gone either way – there was as much opposition to glasnost as there was support – anger and confusion were rife.
ASIA has been brought up, mainly in America, on a diet of red-hot Thatcher / Reagan ‘80’s capitalism and it was in November 1990 suddenly catapulted into a freezing, penniless, tottering Soviet Union.
The result was two sold-out shows at the Olympic Stadium, a live album, a full-length video and in m studied, but humble, opinion the pinnacle of ASIA’s chequered career, in the very shadow of the Kremlin.
My thanks go to my fellow musicians, to Bob Carruthers (who assembled a film and recording crew in record time), to Neil Warnock for giving my the opportunity to play in Moscow and to Nik Sizer for making it happen.
Please enjoy this in the spirit that it was made. The Russian audience was absolutely marvelous – as you will hear – and I was made to feel welcome during one of the most desperate times that the people of Russia had ever experienced.
This CD has been heavily bootlegged, but now you own the original recording plus 2 bonus tracks.
