- Rusakov Workers' Club : Another example of Soviet Constructivism, this building designed by Konstantin Melnikov looks like a huge gear wheel with three teeth. It was built in Sokolniki as a club for workers at the nearby tram depot and named after Bolshevik revolutionary Ivan Rusakov. The "teeth" hanging over the ground hold the main hall's balconies. Located at 6 Ulitsa Stromynka, the club's building is currently occupied by the Roman Viktyuk theater, as well as a restaurant. Sadly, the building is in poor condition and could be lost unless funding for major reconstruction works is found. -

Some other ‘weird and wonderful’ buildings are listed here:
http://www.mnweekly.ru/feature/20090625/55381167.html

I don’t know if Russia is still like this?
  - Father and son are standing outside the elephant's cage in the Moscow Zoo. Father tells son, "If we stand around here long enough, one of them will throw some food at us." –

Or this, a kind of satirical questions and answers format that can be heard on the radio over there? –
Q: Is there a difference between capitalism and communism?
A: In principle, yes. In capitalism, man exploits man. In communism, it's the reverse.
Q: Is it true that there is freedom of speech in the Soviet Union the same as there is the USA?
A: In principle, yes. In the USA, you can stand in front of the Washington Monument in Washington, DC, and yell, "Down with Reagan!", and you will not be punished. In the Soviet Union, you can stand in the Red Square in Moscow and yell, "Down with Reagan!", and you will not be punished. –

Of course evidence of how people’s good judgement is damaged when the power of censorship goes to their head is on view much closer to hand.

For now though, let’s hear about the revelling that’s just been happening in B1 Maximum Club, Moz-cow…

morrissey stage invades you!

Just got back from the show..Morrissey entered the stage and announced to the crowd "i must break you"..then the band launched into "you're gonna need someone by your side"..amazing!

What are the videos on screen after The Doll and the Kicks:
Sparks’ video for “Lighten Up, Morrissey” and Shirley Bassey singing on RAI TV.
New York Dolls live at “Musik Laden”,
Jobriath
But the rest: what band from 60s with a female singer?

-W

- Morrissey Throws Arms Around Moscow, St. Pete; By Kevin O'Flynn, The Moscow Times

It's taken Morrissey a long time to get to Moscow, but the former frontman from The Smiths finally makes his debut in the city on Wednesday at B1 Maximum... -

This is a scene-setting piece that introduces us to a playful Russian Morrissey fan e-zine, and more: http://pda.moscowtimes.ru/article.php?aid=193022 [moscowtimes.ru]

Morrissey made nice comments about Russia! The club Maximum was amazing as all the buildings in Moscow and St Petersburg! Poka,Sasliva...

Any chance of an actual review of the show?

Or is everyone too busy bear-wrestling and downing vodka? (Sorry about the stereotyping!)

The same set-list as two days earlier. Moz did not played YGNSOYS, Vulgar Picture etc!
Crowd was very active and sang all the words. On encore i've even lost my voice)

Worser than at St Peterburg but anyway very good show!

This Charming Man
/ Billy Budd
/ Black Cloud
/ How Soon Is Now?
/ Irish Blood, English Heart
/ Ask
/ I'm Throwing My Arms Around Paris
/ How Can Anybody Possibly Know How I Feel?
/ The World Is Full Of Crashing Bores
/ Girlfriend In A Coma
/ Let Me Kiss You
/ Some Girls Are Bigger Than Others
/ Life Is A Pigsty
/ One Day Goodbye Will Be Farewell
/ Sorry Doesn't Help
/ When Last I Spoke To Carol
/ The Loop
/ I'm OK By Myself // First Of The Gang To Die

Pictures from the show by Elena Komissarova (aka Catch). Enjoy it!
http://catch.gallery.ru/watch?a=bUI-cPq8
P.S. It was a very good show! I still ill! :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8VDeJZz1kl8 [youtube.com]

Any signed LP's for sale?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKAqQ6i1jR4 [youtube.com]

The show was very emotional (the first gig ever in Moscow.) At some point Morrissey had a running nose and made a joke about it, but that did not slow him down at all. I have to add that his band was very tight all the way through the show. Sound in the venue was ok, but who cared about it, when everybody was singing alone and celebrated our beloved romantic hero? As a gift to Moscow, Morrissey made a historic one liner. He looked at the Myspace banner hanging on one of the walls and said “What the Hell is Myspace?”

Forum member dzhemini did contribute a short review to the forum so I thought the main board would like to hear a review too.
I quote her/him and copy it in here hope its okay for her/him.

Re: Russian shows roll call
Just got off the train from Moscow and I am still glowing from happiness from last night !!!..
Better gig than Spb imo. Saint-Petersbourg was my first Morrissey gig and it was an amazing and surreal experience, but for me, it pales in comparison with Moscow... It was everything I dreamed about Morrissey concert!
Morrissey was perfect and the crowd was great!

Some M's words from my fuzzy memory...

- (after seeing myspace ad on the wall inside the b1 club) - "tonight this is MY space!"
M: did you enjoy Doll and The Kicks? (crowd: yes!) M.- thank God!
(btw DatK was received very warmly and the singer even got flowers from someone in the crowd)
He said smt about Moscow and Russia, can't remember exact words right now... He spoke some words in Russian but struggled with 'do svidanja' ))

He shook a lot of hands and seemed very happy and touched by our reception...
3 shirt changes, brownish, electric blue and purple... when he threw a shirt after LMKY there was a good fight in the crowd so the security had to interfere...

Maybe I remember some more details later...
All in all, it was an amazing night!!! Bought a t-shirt after the gig... missed the last train and had to spent the night at the Moscow railway station but it was sooo worth it.

and now I am going to sleep for the next 48 hours!

it was brilliant show!!!!!!

http://ivangogh.livejournal.com/1027167.html#cutid1

To think this show almost never happened.
http://www.allmylittlewordsonline.com [allmylittl...online.com]

Everything is correct except for Billy Budd that was actually replaced by Find Out for Yourself.

Morrissey entered the stage crying out 'prive-e-et!' (hello) and then added a couple of words I didn't get. In a couple of songs he made a point about 'your majestic city and your beautiful culture'. Later he asked 'Did you like Doll and the Kicks?' The whole show was very uptempo, without a spare talk or pause, very unlike 'Manchester' DVD (though he has had an anniversary earlier, as well as in 2004). As if he was in a hurry to end it ASAP. Three shirt changes and a lot of handshakes. He gave his mic to someone in the front of him and I heard a female screaming some banalities like 'welcome to Moscow', etc.
What else? I will add if I remember anything.
The main disappointment for me was the sound quality. When the DatK were opening, I said to my wife that I hoped Mozz's sound would be better... And it was not. The whole thing sounded to me like some inarticulate roaring. Very often I even missed tune and the harmony, especially in the overpumped HSIN. The reason may be the poor acoustic features of the venue, but I can't say it for sure because it was my first time in B1.
In the faraway 1995 I heard David Byrne in then legendary Moscow club 'Gorbushka'. The sound was perfect, I enjoyed every word and note. A year later I was disappoined by David Bowie's sound in the Kremlin Palace of Congresses, but that place is renouned for its bad acoustics.
The other loss for me were arrangements of Some Girls - the song that means a lot for me personally - and Charming Man - presumably, one of the greatest songs ever written by the mankind (other nominees may be Laurie Anderson's Superman and Leonard Cohen's Suzanne). Both originally sad and tender, those Smiths' chez d'oevres were turned to punkish pulsations with Boz doing overdrived rhythm guitar. I did't expect that from him. And, whatever you tell me, Mr. Tobias is not the right person to be elected to imitate inimitable Johnny Marr's arpeggios. Maybe Alan Whyte would do it better...
Yes, and before it all began, there had been DatK that I thought would never end, some 'conceptual' antique videos by the New York Dolls, Shocking Blue and sombody else... and an eager waiting for the one who took a child inside each of us and made him old.

Yes, this was first time Moz in Moscow. But on the other hand this was my second Moz concert and second gig in B1 club. Also I can count B1 club as the second best organisation in Russia, where the railways take the first place. It was quite surprising for me that an event in Russia was scheduled 6 months ago and just happened on time.

Anyway, I arrived the place at 19:30, unfortunately I was late because about 100 people already had taken position in front of the stage. Thanks to my Suede tshirt I met some people who have also listened to "Sci-fi Lullabies" and like "Vauxhall and I" as much as I do. I had to make conversation about indie music in Russian, which was quite challenging for me. It was about 9 o'clock when Doll and the Kicks appeared on the stage. They sounded quite nice, very good warm up, the singer has singing very similar to Siouxsie, significant band. Next big surprise was waiting for me that I saw two Turkish guys from Alexandrov, whom I met before and certainly I would not expect to see them in any concert. Shocking thing that one of them was saying that Morrissey was their hero. I took my place back near the stage and start staring to New York Dolls performance video. Suddenly the curtain fell of and the man appeared.

I would not like to listen to this version of CHARMAN but it was a good start since everybody sang along. BUDD and CLOUD were excellent follow ups, everybody really enjoyed. HSIN? was OK, Moz lay on the stage during the song. During IRISH, I lost my glasses, I had to continue without them, anyway I was close enough to see all. Ask was OK, but I was quite surprised I was enjoying PARIS and HOW CAN? really in an extreme way; shouting, swinging, jumping. During WHY DON’T YOU F? I was the only people around enjoying it. BORES, COMA, LEMME KY and GRILLS IS BIGGER were to me just fine, they never lost the momentum and continue rocking the place having everybody singing all together. PIGSTY in my opinion is one of the best Morrissey songs so far. It made the night special for me, the performance was very similar to the one I saw in Istanbul in 2006. Pure beauty. Setlist continued with many fast rocking songs from latest album in the end. I would not say no if ONE DAY GOOD would be replaced but SORRY DOESN’T and CAROLO were excellent, I was ready and continued to shout and jump around. As soon as the upright bass appeared on the stage I surprised myself again about my reaction to the song LOOP which I already knew it would be played. I’M OK was a perfect closer except the annoying bass outro. Encore FIRST was fine as expected but I was out of voice in the end. After the concert I met some other friends who were enjoying the show in my style. One of them took from the stage and gave me one of those setlist papers which song titles were written as in above text. In the end Morrissey same as he did in Istanbul left me with a sour throat, a wet Suede tshirt and a happy face. Of course it was never enough. After the show I met many nice people who were saying they were waiting for tonight more than ten years. The show was just fantastic for everybody. The crowd should be collected again by any means. I can say they were just fantastic combination of middle aged expats like me, skinhead teenager girls, well educated, music loving young women, vegan supporters and drunk, happy lads.

Well, thank you Morrissey, for coming to Moscow. I can say you’ re a real legend and greatest performing artist at the moment. I wish you to see in any place for another gig that both of us will be healty and fit enough to enjoy our time.

http://pics.livejournal.com/oldsister/pic/0000f90w

Here is full concert in audio, but in very, very poor quality:
http://lastfamous.blogspot.com/2009/07/morrisseymoscow01-07-2009.html

ok, will do . . . .

Shoot the moderator!

Well, he didn´t. It were the same original setlist, no changes.

Maybe he'll fade
"you'll never walk alone" into "ferry cross the mersey" now that is a LIVERPOOL welcome!!

snotty nosed bitch wholl plant ya with me walkin stick!

push in front of me ya prick???
dya know who i am
im julia riled up

frustrated baldy stalker who thinks he'll marry me

irene signed and so fuckin what

aka robert plant big log

what a single since he left led zep

Liverpool was the first place I lived in the UK after moving from my USA Homeland at 3 and a half years old. It was traumatic, to find - to my dismay, the liverpudlian icecream man, did not sell . . . 'popcycles'.

'No . . no . . . popcycles?' where on earth had I been brought to? From a crystal blue sky and bright redwood trees to an anonymous land with a seemly permanently grey sky.

Anyway, now I see Liverpool as a link to my homeland so, love it to bits and well, it is the place I first saw someone . . . . .
the rest is . . . for His eyes only. :)

I don't mean any offence.....but how did we get on to Liverpool?

Sheridan