KGB rock

The abolition of Mark Nopfler Mark in Moscow and St. Petersburg was a great disappointment for Russian fans of the musician. The British guitarist and one of the founders of the Dire Straits group explained his solution to the modern political situation in Russia.

“Due to the pressure that the Russian authorities exert on human rights organizations, including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, I am unfortunately forced to cancel the upcoming June concerts. I always liked to play in Russia, I was deeply attached to both the country and the Russian public. I hope that the political climate will change here soon, ”the musiciansaid on his official website.

On the Nopfler page on the Facebook social network , many artist fans supported his decision. Even some Russians, despite regret, made this decision, calling it "honest."

Mark Nopfler

Not all musicians follow the example of the British guitarist. The generous fees for performances can very successfully compensate for the artist’s doubts in the “correct political course” of the country, which he comes to for only a few days. But the rejection of the planned concert entails the payment of the penalty to the organizers of the event.

In the end, the nopfler could, without losing his own money and not regretting the lost profit, make some criticisms about the actions of the Russian authorities directly from the stage or try on some kind of T-shirt “with meaning”, as last year, at the peak of the scandal around Pussy Riot, many visiting musicians made from the Madonna to the Red Hot Chili Pepper .

But he acted differently, and, according to the testimony of musical critic Artemy Troitsky, this case was the first in the latest history of Russia - such demarchees were not observed "even during the Cold War."

Sting

Indeed, in the summer of 2011, when Sting for political reasons canceled a concert in Kazakhstan (due to rough dispersal of demonstrations of striking oil industry workers), this problem seemed very distant from us.

The wary attitude towards Russia, which has intensified in the last decade, until recently, did not interfere with the tour of world stars, even if the “entertainment unit” of the Presidential Affairs Management was involved in the organization of the event. The federal state unitary enterprise with the characteristic name “Kremlin” was led by Putin's old acquaintance Vladimir Kiselev.

With the support of the leadership of the FSUE Kremlin, in spite of any criticism of the Russian government by the Western media, Placido Domingo, Jose Carreras Joe Cocker, Hulio Iglesias, Deep Purple, Status Quo, The Animals and many other performers came to the country. And against this background, the last event can be considered a kind of marker attitude to the political situation.

However, today in Russia politically motivated adoptions of concerts occur not only by the will of musicians. And not all of them are connected with foreign performers. The other day, Yuri Shevchuk announced that the performance of the DDT group in Bryansk was canceled by personal order of the governor of the region Nikolai Denin.

Yuri Shevchuk

“He must congratulate the inhabitants of the city of Bryansk and the region. They have an excellent governor, someone Denin N.V. Zorkhkim, two -headed eagle eye is monitored by this figure in order in the heads and souls of his fellow countrymen. He boldly and courageously calls the directors of concert halls long evenings on the phone, with fundamental persistence not to let the DDT group into his “ principality” , ”the musician wrote on his blog.

And this is not the first such incident, which was announced by the DDT leader. In April last year, Shevchuk in several interviews said that the group’s concerts in Kemerovo, Yurg, Omsk and Tyumen were canceled at the initiative of local officials.

Although there is another option for the interaction of power and musicians. If it is decided not to cancel any concert, then, at least, you can always “take under the wing”. This is not so long ago, for example, in Kemerovo at a concert of the Time Machine group. True, the public reaction in this case will be difficult to predict: after a certain man in a jacket appeared on the stage and announced that the concert was held with the support of the United Russia party, the audience began to scream, whistle and express their dissatisfaction in every way.

Andrey Makarevich

The leader of the group Andrei Makarevich, who a month before, recorded the famous song about Putin and Kholuyevo , a few days later disowned from the support of EP, said that he was not informed about the party’s participation in the organization, and such a step, according to the musician, is called “fuck without warning”.

Obviously, for some reason in modern Russia, music began to intersect with politics too often. Of course, it is too early to recall the revival of the former confrontation of Rock and the KGB, but the “direction of movement”, chosen by our permanent rulers, cannot but be alarmed.

Joseph Kobzon

However, not everyone is inclined to dramatize the current situation. For example, the People's Artist of the USSR and a member of the United Russia party, Joseph Kobzon, speaking of the situation with Mark Nopfler, suggested “sending” the British guitarist and urged musicians to refrain from such actions. “He went to hell. Who is he at all? I also understand if Elton John canceled. I have been on the stage for 53 years, and I have never canceled anything in protest and I do not recommend that others do it, ”Kobzon concluded .