Back in the (ex)-USSR: Beatle-mania grips Moscow as McCartney flies in
By Henry Meyer
Ex-Beatle Sir Paul
McCartney performs at his first ever concert in Russia in Red
square, Moscow 24 May 2003 during his 'Back in the World 2003'
Tour. AFP PHOTO/ Alexander NEMENOV
Russian President Vladimir Putin (l) speaks to pop-star Paul McCartney (r). McCartney got red carpet treatment usually reserved for visiting heads of state. AFP PHOTO/Maxim MARMUR
MOSCOW (AFP) - Beatle-mania gripped the Russian capital Saturday, 24 May as rock legend Paul McCartney prepared to give a historic concert in Moscow's Red Square.
Ex-Beatle McCartney, who will be playing
for the first time in Russia, got red carpet treatment usually
reserved for visiting heads of state, invited to meet Russian
President Vladimir Putin inside the Kremlin's bastion of power.
Some 20,000 fans were set to fill Red Square for the concert late
Saturday, in which McCartney will get his revenge at Soviet apparatchiks
who had banned the Fab Four for years.
"I'm delighted that at last I can play
there," said McCartney during an Internet chat session ahead
of his Russian gig.
Banned in the Soviet Union as a dangerous Western influence, the
Beatles always enjoyed a massive following behind the Iron Curtain.
Like his recent US and current European shows, the show will include more than 20 Beatles hits, including the classic "Back In The USSR," together with solo and Wings tracks.
"I've never even visited Russia as a tourist, so it's exciting for me now to be getting to perform there with a band and finally be singing 'Back In The USSR' and all these other songs for people who, I've got a feeling, might just be ready for it," the musician said.
"Back In The USSR," co-written by John Lennon and McCartney, was recorded in August 1968 for the Beatles' "White Album."
It included the lines: "Well, the Ukraine girls really knock me out/They leave the West behind/And Moscow girls make me sing and shout/That Georgia's always on my mi-mi-mi-mi-mi-mi-mi-mind."
Moscow police launched a huge security operation on Saturday morning ahead of the event. More than 1,000 officers have been deployed to ensure security and sniffer dogs were scouring Red Square as police searched rooftops and basements of all neighbouring houses.
Communist and ultranationalist politicians
had expressed fury at the decision to allow McCartney to hold
a concert in Red Square, where communist leaders such as Lenin
and Stalin are buried, branding it "blasphemous."
But tickets for the concert were reportedly changing hands for
hundreds of dollars in a country where the average monthly salary
is just above 120 dollars (100 euros) with the upcoming show dominating
the news on Russian television.
"Paul McCartney's concert in Moscow is a major cultural and political event for Russia," said Alexander Gafin, vice-president of Alfa Bank, which is sponsoring the multi-million-dollar event.
In recognition of his star status, McCartney
was awarded an honorary doctorate on Thursday by the Saint Petersburg
Conservatory in Russia's former imperial capital, where Tchaikovsky
and other composers studied.