It’s the day before Madonna’s first ever Moscow show, and the atmosphere around the gig is tense. Many Muscovites say they are sure something will go wrong, and the gig will be cancelled. There is a sense that there is more riding on this concert than just music. Forget the G8 summit in St Petersburg – Madonna’s gig is, in the words of Arthur Fogel, chairman of Live Nation’s global music division and the top tour operator in the world, “easily the biggest show that’s ever been held in Russia”.

Rumours and controversies have swirled around the Moscow show ever since it was announced in August. Two weeks ago, a group called the Union of Orthodox Flag-Bearers staged a noisy protest in downtown Moscow, where they declared a “Holy Inquisition” against Madonna, and drove a stake through a poster of the singer. The aim of the inquisition, said chairman Leonid Simonovich Nikshich, was to “fight against slander, rather than kill people”. That’s a relief, then.

But religious protests against Madonna are nothing new. More seriously, the Moscow show had to change venue in controversial circumstances. Live Nation originally wanted to hold the show at Luzhniki Stadium, where the Rolling Stones played in 1998. However, it appeared Spartak Moscow football club would be playing there, so they opted for another location, near Moscow State University. Their local operator, NCA, hired a state-owned company called Kreml to get permission for the venue.

It appeared permission had been successfully attained, and Live Nation gave the approval for 35,000 tickets to be sold. But then it became clear that permission had not, in fact, been given by the Moscow police force. “The process had not been concluded”, admits Vladimir Kiselyev, general director of Kreml.

But Live Nation certainly thought, and thinks, it was. Fogel says: “We were shown a letter saying approval had definitely been given. We would never have advised for tickets to be sold if approval hadn’t been given. It’s distressing to hear that it might not have been.”

In which case, were they lied to, or was it a problem with communication? Kiselyev of Kreml says the latter: “There were so many different partners involved, it was a problem to coordinate everything.”

Luckily, at that point it became clear that Luzhniki Stadium, the original choice for the venue, would in fact be free, and the concert was moved there. The local operators were saved from a highly embarrassing, costly and potentially litigious situation.

Even the Luzhniki venue was not without its pitfalls. The architect of the roof, Nodar Kancheli, who this month narrowly escaped criminal charges after a water-park he designed collapsed and killed 28 people in 2004, told Russian radio that the Luzhniki roof could also collapse if the vibrations of the show were too strong.

Local rock critics say these controversies, on such a high profile concert, could spoil Moscow’s reputation as a place major bands should visit. “They’re risking everything”, says Artyom Troistkii, who helped organize the Live8 gig here. “All these scandals have pushed Moscow back. It’s because the American tour operators were greedy, and wanted to do the tour themselves, rather than selling the rights to a major local operator. They pushed all the wrong buttons, didn’t know who to talk to or who to bribe.”

Unfortunately, the situation is not unique. Last month, Eric Clapton was booked to play on Red Square. However, three days before the gig, his management team abruptly cancelled the show, when it became clear they were actually playing in a venue just outside Red Square. Clapton’s management declined to comment.

These set-backs have led to a bout of typically Russian soul-searching among the local press. Russian Newsweek, one of the best news magazines here, wrote a cover story entitled ‘Sorry Madonna’, in which they apologised that her tour had to encounter all the obstacles of playing in Moscow: “Terrorist threats, greedy police, bureaucratic idiocy, religious condemnation, and simply chaos”.

Fogel, who has organized tours all over the world, says: “It’s around 50% more expensive to do shows in Moscow than in any other city in the world.” That’s partly because of geography – it costs a lot to move 35 trucks from Poland, as Live Nation had to do for Madonna’s one Moscow show.

But partly, it’s corruption. Fogel says: “It’s the culture of everyone looking to be taken care of.” So you have to pay the customs guards to get your trucks through the border, you have to pay to get all the different licenses. Two members of the crew even had to pay off the police when they ventured into Red Square to go sightseeing.

That puts off many artists from coming here, says Fogel. Some of his other acts, such as U2, still haven’t played here. Bands only seem to play here when they are well and truly passed it – it’s like a musical elephant’s graveyard. Where does T-Rex play 20 years after Marc Bolan died? Moscow. Where does Run DMC play when it has lost 50% of the band? Moscow. Where does St Etienne go when they want to play a come-back gig? Moscow. “Is Belinda Carlisle playing here?” asks an incredulous Fogel, after he sees a huge billboard announcing her upcoming gig. “Of all the people…”

Those hot acts who do make the effort to come here sometimes do so in the face of commercial common sense, because they dream of playing in such an exotic location. Jack White of the White Stripes told the audience for their gig last year: “Our manager told us it was too expensive to play in Moscow. So we fired him and got a new manager.”

It’s strange that Moscow shouldn’t be more on the music map, when the city is swimming in petro-dollars. That oil wealth means, at least, that the oligarch class can afford to hire the world’s top acts to play for their own private parties. Thus earlier this year, Christina Aguilera was paid $1 million to play three songs at the birthday of Daghestani billionaire Suleiman Kerimov. She’s never done a public show here.

The local population, meanwhile, has to rely on tribute bands to keep them amused. One of the most frequent acts on the Moscow live music scene is Billy’s Band, a tribute band for Tom Waits. Another poster for a big festival in November proudly announces ‘Creedence Clearwater Revival’, and underneath, in tiny letters, ‘Tribute Band’. Local bands casts a longing eye at the distant western scene, and try to imitate, with occasionally amusing results. One of the hits of the summer was ‘Depressed Gangster Rap’, which combined a Dr Dre beat with a sprightly polka accordion.

Local tour operators, it should be said, disagree with my gloomy view of the Moscow music scene. Nadia Solovieva, head of SAV Entertainment, which has brought acts like Paul McCartney and Roger Walters to Moscow, says: “Most of the biggest acts have played here. Which acts come here is totally driven by public taste.” She agrees the local music scene is moribund, but blames that on CD piracy, which means Russian record companies are too weak to invest in local talent.

The situation is certainly not all bad. More and more good acts are making the trip east – next week, Missy Elliott makes her debut here. Some oligarchs, like the Alfa Group, have been helpful in bringing acts like Madonna to the Russian people. Moscow is already firmly on the map for international DJs. And those bands that do make it out here can be guaranteed a rapturous reception, because they audience are hugely grateful they have made the effort to come.

And the Madonna gig did happen. The expected crisis with forged tickets didn’t occur, though the venue and date switch meant the stadium was only three quarters full. The star wasn’t kidnapped. The 7,000 police were, on the whole, a help rather than a hindrance. And the roof didn’t collapse. 

“I’ve wanted to play in Russia for 25 years”, Madge told the adoring crowd. “I’d like to thank mayor [Yuri] Luzhkov for making it happen.” In fact, the actual show went off more or less without a hitch, and mayor Luzhkov, who was at the show, ordered the tube to run an extra two hours to take us all home. “I got the feeling that the authorities right at the top wanted to make this run smoothly”, says Fogel. Moscow is establishing itself on the international gig circuit, albeit slowly.

Julian Evans, a British freelance journalist based in Moscow.

September 15, 2006