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Earlier this year, the Edge was one of a number of Western rock artists to visit Moscow on behalf of the campaigning environmental organisation Greenpeace. The occasion was the launch of an album of songs aimed at raising funds and awareness in the fight against global destruction. Here we carry a report by Bill Graham of the Irish music paper Hot Press, who wrote about the proceedings and talked to the Edge about his trip.



Now there's a bizarre party even Old Hayden's Almanac could never have divined in his cracked crystal ball. The scene: the Irish Embassy in Moscow, early this month. The attendance: embassy staff and senior Soviet scientific and environmental officials. So far, so straight, but also nibbling the diplomatic canapés were members of Greenpeace and a covey of rock stars -- Peter Gabriel, Annie Lennox, Chrissie Hynde, Talking Heads' David Byrne and Jerry Harrison, World Party's Karl Wallinger, Brinsley Forde from Aswad agus an duine noble, an t-Edge. [@U2 note: This roughly translates into "...and the noble person, the Edge."]

The reason for this incongruous social set -- unprecedented not just in terms of post-glasnost Russia but also in both rock and Irish diplomatic history -- was the world launch of a compilation double-album, Greenpeace Breakthrough, in aid of the aforesaid environmental action group and to which all the Moscow rock visitors had contributed.

Released in Russia on the state's Melodia label and throughout the world on BMG, except Ireland where Mother [Records] have the distribution, other acts with tracks include Sting, Belinda Carlisle, Bryan Ferry, INXS, the Grateful Dead, Thompson Twins, Huey Lewis and the News, R.E.M., the Waterboys, Simple Minds, Basia, Bryan Adams, John Farnham, Sade, John Cougar Mellencamp, Dire Straits, Martin Stephenson and the Daintees, Bruce Hornsby and the Range, and Terence Trent D'Arby.

Greenpeace's original plan had been to present a full concert extravaganza in Moscow. "We were approached a year ago to do a show to launch Greenpeace in Russia," Edge relates. "We were interested and said we'd do it. But then someone in the Party axed the idea. Greenpeace came back to us with the record as an alternative. It only took us five minutes to say yes."

The project's history seems symptomatic of the battles currently being fought within the Soviet bureaucracy. If one set of unreconstructed paper-pushers axed the Greenpeace concept, others elsewhere -- notably at Melodia and in the scientific ministries -- were sympathetic to the record. A similar tension arose in relation to the visitors' media coverage. They appeared on a late night television programme, the Soviet equivalent of the Late Late Show. Apparently some encrusted bureaucratic barnacles had sent down a directive that decadent Western rock be barred -- but the programme's producers ignored the decree and went ahead with the primetime interviews.

Promo activities included the standard scam -- signing sessions at Melodia's three (yes, only three) Moscow record stores. 3,000 queued round the block at the one where Annie Lennox and the Edge officiated. The authorities were taken by surprise. Only 20 security officials had been assigned to the event and such was the scrum that after 20 minutes, the session had to be abandoned. Understandably nobody wanted an international rock incident.

"Russia was a both a lot freer in some areas and restricted in others than I thought," Edge comments. "We walked everywhere we wanted. We had our guides -- students who could speak English -- but I had thought we'd be tagged everywhere we went. But other things were almost impossible. Like getting around, making telephone calls, finding a restaurant -- these are the sort of things, I suppose, Russia hasn't needed or had the impetus to get together. Getting a cab is almost impossible.

"What I found very refreshing was meeting Velikov, who's the head of the Ministry of Science. He came to the main press conference with ourselves and Greenpeace. He was obviously opening himself up by attending it to be grilled by the press. And they didn't miss an opportunity. I was impressed because no Western politicians would have done that."

There was a surprising response when the London Financial Times correspondent quizzed Comrade Velikov about nuclear dumping sites. "He actually came out and said he would publish details about them," Edge reveals, "which I thought was a very brave political thing to do. That flexibility greatly impressed me, that somebody that high-powered could come along and almost make policy, there and then. He also came along to the reception at the Irish Embassy and announced Greenpeace could open a Russian office, which was something they actually didn't expect for at least another year.

"I'm sure there was a certain amount of PR sewn into that action," he adds, "but Greenpeace are a pressure group and their job is hassling governments, really putting their noses in places where they're definitely not welcome. And in Russia, that's not something they've ever had before, so obviously Greenpeace are going to have to feel their way. But Velikov knows what they're about so I think it's an indication of how Russia is trying to change its policies in these areas since Chernobyl.

The Irish Embassy reception has been set up manager Paul McGuinness through government press secretary P.J. Mara. Says the Edge: "We always try to make contact with the Irish Embassy, whether we're in Tokyo or whatever. It really was a nice evening, a way to relax, unwind and meet everybody. Pretty bizarre -- but good fun."

The other social high spot was meeting Russian musicians, a contact forged through Art Troitsky, the chronicler of the Soviet rock underground. And the Westerners were impressed by what they heard in a Moscow club. The best weren't derivative, instead using Russia's own cultural traditions. "Everybody was fascinated by the bands," he says.

But much perestroika is needed before there'll be an international explosion of Soviet music. In the grim old times, Melodia used to churn out recordings of the collected speeches of Leonid Breshnev. Now Gorbachev and his reform team have determined that, like all state monopolies, it must meet public demand and make a profit. But this is within Russia. As yet Melodia hasn't thought of earning foreign currency through exports. Besides, the acts that might most attract Western interest could be those that cause friction within the Soviet Union itself.

The country meanwhile boasts all those glorious, early absurdities of an immature pop culture, the sort any Irish person reared on the showbands will gleefully recognise. For starters, the Edge has this tale of a band who scored a recent Russian hit. Donie Cassidy would love it. "They were imitating this syrupy German group and they released this record which sold thousands and thousands of copies and they became the biggest group in Russia. But nobody had seen them, so some bright spark became their manager and promptly put together four different versions of the group to tour. And the fraud was only detected when different newspapers started publishing different photographs of the shows which people compared!"

Kraftwerk and the Yellow Magic Orchestra meet the Russian replicas of the original Drifters? "Yeah. Art Troitsky wrote this piece which was a total piss-take, that it was a logical progression from record distribution to distribute yourselves with different copies of yourself!" In principle they all wanted to continue and straighten the contact. But could a light industry like U2 tour Russia? "Whether a tour is possible, let alone practical, remains to be seen. For my part, and I think for the rest of the band, we'd love to do some shows.

"But getting things done in Russia can be very difficult. Even getting around. Like I wanted to go to Leningrad and couldn't because of visa problems. And rock 'n' roll bands, groups of Western musicians, chasing around the USSR will not be an easy thing to organise.

"One other thing that certainly put us off in the past is that if you go there as a guest of one of the youth agencies you can be guaranteed that the only people who will see your show will be members of that group -- so people who are really fans of ours wouldn't get to the gigs. But hopefully that's changing."

Russia has its U2 fans. Like the other musicians, the Edge wasn't mobbed in Moscow, something he found "refreshing," but among the many autograph hunters who did stop him were a goodly minority who were well informed about the band's history and records.

Edge also insists on the importance of Greenpeace, the other element in the equation. Previously he confesses to what might have been a modish, superficial interest in those issues, but now the Edge attests: "This whole thing about the environment is getting scarier. The penny's finally dropping with politicians that the environment, pollution, nuclear energy, the ozone layer, the ecosystem, all these issues -- rather than just being important -- are now becoming centre stage issues.

"But then you see the hypocrisy of Margaret Thatcher, who's responsible for the worst nuclear power station, the dirtiest reprocessing plant in the world, at Sellafield. And yet, for totally opportunistic political reasons, she can put together this conference on the ozone layer and get away with it -- and then actually get applauded for it. That makes me mad and I start to think this lady's dangerous. I've got kids and that scares the shit out of me because the Irish Sea is the most radioactive in the world.

"It doesn't take long to recognise that these things are becoming political weapons for the various forces in the U.K. and America. That they're not really being dealt with properly. That it's just posturing to get the votes to come out with the green stance." Back finally to that Russian expedition.

"What was great about this trip was the timing," Edge concludes. "That is Russian now, there's so much impetus for change. And as a result, restrictions on musicians and bands are also being lifted. So it was good to make those contacts.



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February 12 2010 09:00 PM - 12:00 AM - ONE - A Celebration of U2 The U2 Incident is now "ONE" 2/19 - 2/20/2010 09:00 PM - 12:00 AM - Elevation, The International U2 Show, 8th Anniversary Party A portion of proceeds will benefit Haiti Full Calendar