Metallica concert in 1991. Monsters of rock'91: a feast during the putsch, or a farewell chord of the USSR

25 years ago, on September 28, 1991, the international rock festival “Monsters of Rock” was held on the Moscow airfield in Tushino. The most people came to see it famous rock bands world, whose concert was attended by more than a million people - so many did not gather either for protest rallies against the State Emergency Committee or in defense of the USSR, which was dying before our eyes. Because of the copious libations, that concert was also nicknamed the “Tushino massacre,” and because of the beatings of guests by the police, the “Tushino massacre.”

Editor LJ Media

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Festival “Monsters of Rock” in Tushino 1991. The festival was included in the Guinness Book of Records... And was happily forgotten a few years later... The concert took place shortly after the turning point of the August putsch of the State Emergency Committee (August 19–21) and was the final one in the concert tour of the festival “ Monsters of Rock." The festival was attended by the “superstars” of world rock music - “AC/DC”, “Metallica”, “Pantera” and “Black Crowes”, the Soviet stage was represented by the metal band E.S.T. The number of visitors reached a record level - taking advantage of free entry, rock lovers from all over the country came to the festival: various sources estimate the number from 600 thousand to 1 million people.

The Tushino concert was held under the protection of almost 11 thousand military personnel (according to other sources - 20-25 thousand) of internal troops, police officers, riot police officers and about 300 traffic inspectors. However, the unrest could not be prevented: 51 people were hospitalized, about 100 went to medical centers, 50 were detained with bladed weapons and drugs, 1 firearms. Since the carrying of any alcohol (including in bottles and cans) was not restricted, a significant number of spectators were present at the concert and actively consumed it, and soon the phrase “Tushino drinking party” arose among the people.

Metal rock ruled that day over the Tushino field. The metal aces laid dizzying musical turns, and the people, listening to Metallica and AS/DS, thought they had gone crazy - real monsters of rock had come to Moscow! Who would have thought that just a month after the largest annual hard rock event - the Monsters of Rock festival in Castle Donington (England), three of the five bands performing there would come to Moscow.

It’s nice - now our capital will not be considered a rock periphery. In addition, we saw the legendary Angus Young with our own eyes - and he lived up to all expectations. In a fit of manic rock madness, he was hysterical on stage, spraying saliva and sweat in all directions. This is precisely what our rockers lacked during the years of totalitarianism - to see with their own eyes, to become involved, to “touch with their hands.” Well, now it has become a reality. Among other things, we were once again convinced that THEIR equipment is better, that THEIR musicians are more professional, that THEIR technicians work with white gloves. We looked at real show business. Looked in Once again from the outside. The organizers did not bother to hold even a semblance of a press conference. The accreditation was purely symbolic in nature, and half of the law enforcement officers had no idea what passes would be used to let whom and where. But there is something more general and serious that diminishes the euphoria.

Dozens of wounded and maimed? Completeness! What gathering of several hundred thousand young people can do without such sad statistics? In the same Castle Donington in 1988, two people were crushed to death. But show business immediately drew conclusions: the next year the festival was canceled, and experts puzzled over the construction of such structures for the safety of spectators, so that there would be air and it would be comfortable to watch the spectacle. In our country, in my opinion, no matter how many concerts you hold, no matter how many victims you make, nothing will change. And now the old song was heard again: “Ban!”

After the concert, the idea began to be developed that even 11 thousand law enforcement officers were not enough for such a show. But there wouldn’t be enough of them, even if we brought in one policeman for each spectator. Because THIS police cannot maintain any order, does not inspire respect or even fear. The police on the Tushino field personified different values ​​than in front of the White House in the August days. In Tushino she personified the BAN, which immediately alienated the majority of those present.

Imagine, already at 12 noon - two hours before the concert - free movement on the side of the stage was blocked: everyone was driven to the center. The gloomy cadets did not see people around them: riveted jackets, ripped jeans, unshaven stubble - why stand on ceremony with such punks? In the front rows, people pressed against the metal fence and squeezed on all sides stood face to face with the police chain. The fence held firmly. They pressed into her. Good policemen pulled out those who were losing consciousness from the crowd, evil ones used their batons. Soon bottles flew at them. What did you think? I don't want to say that police officers are bad. But due to our objective reality, the difficult and boring life on the Tushino field, as elsewhere in the country, a spirit of bitterness was invisibly present. Not even a spirit - more like a scent. After all, this time no one was killed. But they could.

No, no matter how you say it, in the very word “Tushino” you can still hear something fatal - “carcass”, “stew”... And in our history - either the “Tushino thief”, or the incomparable “Tushino’s Pulse”... It’s heavy and you are dark, Russian rock.

Try to conduct such an experiment sometime - ask several randomly selected people from your circle of acquaintances a simple question: “Where and when did the greatest rock concert in the history of mankind take place?” The most common answer you will receive, of course, will be “I don’t know.” A few more advanced citizens will delve into the annals of their own memory and remember the “three days of peace and music” in the American Woodstock. And only one or maybe two people will say that this event took place 23 years ago and not somewhere “with them,” but in Moscow...

Moscow that month did not yet know about any monsters and did not want to know - armored vehicles were driving through the streets, the State Emergency Committee and “Swan Lake” were on TV, and the USSR, which seemed unshakable, suddenly somehow suddenly began to “burst at the seams”, and on its in the outskirts they stopped waving sticks and began to shoot slowly. It seemed that history itself suddenly began to rumble and clang with Kalashnikov bolts and tank tracks so that no Metallica would be able to drown it out...

The musicians demanded the usual this kind events of residential trailers with household sections and showers. There simply weren’t any of those in the USSR, and it was decided to put up converted army tents instead. Hammers for assembling the stage were exchanged for vodka at the nearest military unit. To provide Americans with the food familiar to their stomachs, “Chaikas” were mobilized from the garage of the Council of Ministers, and they were driven by “shuttle flights” to the first Moscow McDonald’s on Pushkinskaya.

The question of choosing a site also turned out to be far from so simple. Initially, the festival was supposed to be staged on Khodynskoye Field, but the producers were haunted by the historical context. If something had happened, the next day the press would have been full of details of the “new Khodynka”. And then the editor of the metal fanzine Zarazza, Alexey Trofimov, remembered the Tushinsky airfield. And, as it turned out, it was successful. As a result, for the next 20 years this place became one of the most important points on the Moscow concert map - subsequently the Wings and Maxidrom festivals were held there.

The public began to appear on the field at night. About one and a half thousand people pitched tents on a field still wet from yesterday's rain and burned fires. Some spent the night in the entrances of nearby houses; the police kicked them out, but they returned. At the same time, the first fights happened - a group of unidentified citizens overturned a car with food for the service staff... And in the morning, the public poured onto the field, in which metal fans from all over the country were mixed with Moscow region gopniks, attracted by freebies, booze and the prospect of breaking someone... some nose... “Free entry” meant the absence of any cordons at this very entrance. Of course, everyone who wanted to bring with them the notorious “drinks in glass containers” carried them, and the bottles then flew to the police... On the field were seen: special forces, marines, conscripts of the Soviet army and internal troops, foot and mounted police, cadets of Moscow police schools and military schools, traffic police inspectors, American and for some reason Hungarian “security” and domestic “fighters” from the security cooperative “Alex”.

The ones who “distinguished themselves” the most were ordinary soldiers, many of whom were given a rubber baton in their hands that day for the first time, but without really explaining how and in what cases it should be used. Some of them rushed to beat people for any action they thought was wrong, others, on the contrary, left their post, drank from other people’s bottles and finally mingled with the crowd of spectators.

One of them, stunned, took off his jacket and climbed onto the tower with the equipment. A second later a bottle flew at his head. The police managed to keep the situation literally one step away from disaster, breaking the sea of ​​people into separate conventional sectors.

The main “mash” began during Pantera’s performance and looked so terrible from the stage that representatives of Warner Inc demanded to immediately stop the concert and close the festival out of harm’s way. They were persuaded with difficulty... By the way, the police report on the results of the “Tushino Massacre” turned out to be not at all impressive: in total, 76 people sought medical help, 53 were hospitalized, mostly with traumatic brain injuries (of which 16 were military personnel and police officers), 50 people were detained with bladed weapons and drugs, one firearm was seized.

All the way from the metro to Tushinsky Field, glass bus stops - illegitimate descendants of Gorbachev's failed Prohibition Law - were completely destroyed. Moreover, Komsomolskaya Pravda journalist Dmitry Shavyrin got into a little fight with Rosmuzimport presenter Artemy Troitsky. In a word, for such a large number of people, who were also warmed up by all kinds of drinks, the result was extremely ridiculous. Especially after the famous “black Woodstock”, organized Rolling group Stones in Altamont, where after a mass brawl staged by the Hells Angels, five corpses were taken from the field, and the number of wounded has not yet been established... As for Metallica, the musicians themselves consider this concert to be the best in the history of the group ever 90s...

The fest featuring Metallica and AC/DC became significant event'91. Yeltsin, food shortages, State Emergency Committee and Swan Lake Over time, they became trendy sketches of that time. And for many, it is a symbol of the redivision of the world in which they all grew up. It was there so long ago that it seemed eternal - and suddenly it collapsed.

It was impossible to imagine concerts of these groups in that world. The International Music Festival of Peace in Luzhniki in 1989 (Bon Jovi, Scorpions, Ozzy, Motley Crue, Cinderella, Skid Row and our Gorky Park) remained in memory as a tribute to glam rock fashion - both Ozzy and Bon Jovi, not to mention the apologists Motley Crue style sounded too soft. It's either trash - the music of real men, in the understanding of a teenager!

By 1991, thanks to several stalls with cassette tapes in the area, I studied both the creations of visitors to Moscow-89 and future conquerors of the airfield, although not all. And still, the news about the Tushinsky fest literally knocked us off our feet - for the first time, not “veterans of the third freshness” came to us, as they called Uriah Heep(88th year, Olympic), Pink Floyd(89th year, Olympic) or Yngwie Malmsteen’s Rising Force (88th year, St. Petersburg, very cool at that time!), and the “freshest”! In the juice!!!

Of course, we were talking about Metallica. I wasn’t too interested in who would be before and after. Information was leaking out (I already went to Gorbushka), Queensryche were traveling around Europe with them... So, September 28, 1991 arrived, Saturday, a fine autumn day. In the morning I went to a Basic Military Training (CVT) lesson, and around 12 o’clock my brother and I arrived at Tushinskaya station. It was clearly not the same here as always. On the one hand, there is electricity in the air and the expectation of a miracle, on the other - frowning looks, as if at hooligans.

Went outside. Traffic along Volokolamka was blocked, police, parapets... Through a large hole in the fence on the site of the Tushinsky market (there was no trace of it at that time) we walked onto the field (entrance was free) and immediately saw a huge stage in the distance and a crowd of people in front of it . It became clear that the autograph magazine taken from home was unlikely to be useful. And how was I supposed to know the mysterious words backstage, accreditation, security, and others? barrage detachments on the way to people on shining Olympus! (irony)

Indeed, there were a lot of drunk people, roughly 30%. In the range from “I’ll fall” to “Give it to him!” And this is two hours before the concert starts! Something didn’t grow together in their minds - is it really that the music at the concert is NOT IMPORTANT for all these people?!

It was impossible to get close to the stage - the first half-ring of the cordon had been there, as they said, since early morning, the second, with a wider coverage, had just been installed - to avoid a crush. We stood at the screen farthest from the entrance and periodically observed attempts to break through the second cordon. Approximately 100-200 people took part in the breakthroughs, most of them scumbags, lined up in a “pig” formation. Several times the pig rolled into the soldiers of the cordon, they drove them back with batons and then bottles flew from behind. When the formation managed to be shaken, the batons began to flash twice as fast, and police support was pulled up to the site of the breakthrough. There was no sign of any riot police, so the police had a hard time.

There were a lot of police in general. Some may think it's too much. But they were not engaged in patrolling in small groups, but in maintaining the aforementioned semi-rings around the stage. In a word, if the term Tushino massacre somehow corresponds to the truth, then the massacre is hardly true. Of course, it was picturesque to photograph the rows of cordon and the bloody broken heads - for Europe and America this is a novelty. But go deal with a drunken crowd rushing past - if you run over someone, they will ask you for it!

Local conflicts were quickly exhausted, and by the time the unknown American group Pantera entered the stage (this time without irony - no one really knew them then) they had ceased. The grimaces of the bald vocalist, the jumps of the curly-haired guitarist and the bassist, also with rather large hair, around the stage were adjacent to the sound a la soundcheck: the kicks (only the kicks!) occupied approximately 50% of the sound, the guitar and vocals took up 20% each, and 10% was allocated for everything else. At first it was impossible to form an opinion, and the audience perceived them as a warm-up. Now, of course, many would howl and jump around - who knows, this is PANTERA-COWBOYS-FROM-HELL!!! But it’s too late to jump - there is no longer a band or a hairy guitarist, only his contribution to music remains - needless to say, impressive!

Panther played for about half an hour, then half an hour to change shifts - and the group E.S.T., which collected the most votes in the telephone vote, comes out. Aria, Master, Black Obelisk, Legion, and a few other heavy groups that had weight among the people were exhibited there, but EST won by a large margin and quite deservedly - with all due respect, imagine there, on this stage, the gloomy Master, or the pretty Aria, or even the Obelisk with the Wall was in no way possible.

The people perked up. The first two songs went so-so, but the third - Old Man, have mercy on the horses - literally raised everyone's ears. The proletarians, who, according to the text, had not read Marx, Bakunin, or anything intelligent in general, resumed clashes with the police, who were intensively defending themselves. True, these events took place quite far from my brother and me, the screen and music.

EST's set ended with Katyusha's choral singing. A simple Tatar, Zhan Sagadeev, played on the strings of the Russian soul, like a harp. Perturbations with the composition did not scare them away, but were left to the mercy of - he knew best what was best! So, neither Misha Sagal nor guitarist Biloshitsky were on stage, but Grisha Bezugly, Pyotr Makienko on bass (which Jean himself played from time to time), another guitarist and Alexander Filonenko on drums were on stage. Everything sounded just right!

Immediately after the end of the EST triumph, Stas Namin came out and said, if you don’t stop rowdying, we’ll close the fest! The threat, oddly enough, had an effect, and even better was the release of a group that was then fashionable in America The Black Crowes - slightly glam blues-rock, or future grunge. They were completely out of place here. The people got bored and stopped punching the police wall with their foreheads - for whose sake? These dunduks?!

I crawled like a turtle for another hour. Out of boredom, I didn’t even notice the end of the Crowes’ performance, but the crowd had noticeably increased. It was five o'clock in the evening with pennies, then the pennies began to rise, and... Suddenly the scene went dark. A rumble of voices passed through the crowd, growing stronger - it was clear that it was about to begin! The intro (Ecstasy Of Gold) brought some unimaginable delight - is it really right now... Here they are!

Hmmm... What else can I say except that it was cool?! However, having started with an unknown song, Metallica slightly squandered the people - if you can squander the attention of hundreds of thousands of people who are interested in you, and some of them came three days from Siberia for the concert and spent days and nights near the stage... Yes - I almost forgot : This song later became known as Enter Sandman from the equally wildly selling Black Album. And the second was, in my opinion, Creeping Death with the polyphonic choir Dai! Give! Give! Give me!... The third one is Harvester Of Sorrow. Also good, but I was so looking forward to the songs from Master Of Puppets... The people around were going crazy. Standing on champagne bottles driven into the ground neck down (there were a lot of them around), I saw the Gods just half a kilometer away from me - small figures in the rays of light - and basked in the rays of aggressive delight that completely absorbed my consciousness. Although I didn’t forget to write down the track list of the concert. I'm afraid that for many, the thirst for information will remain incomprehensible in a world without the Internet, with three newspapers (one - MK - youth), where the Sound Track was published twice a month! Or even just one... My friend and I collected the names of songs from heavy albums - what can I say, if you couldn’t get these albums, and the names were a sign of their (his) presence in your hands - much like magnets can now show where you've been. What's the point of collecting titles (magnets) if the entire Internet (the box on the mezzanine) is littered with them?! And then it was cool... For example, I met Lesha Morozov (Kostya Khoperkin from Conclave, Rockmusic.ru, Zvuki.ru, Paul Di Anno) thanks to the names, as well as the organizer of the first Nazgul concert in Kuntsevo. That's how it happens!

But that was later. And now Metallica was burning, not sparing the musical verb, and people - peak attendance, about 700 thousand! - they spent their energy no less emotionally. It’s hard to call the collective madness of a huge number of people a mystery of the concert, but it was! Amazing feeling...

An hour and a half after the intro, the Gods finished. Based on the events of 1991, it was impossible to predict when such happiness would happen again, and whether it would happen at all, because one could expect anything from time and fate - both one’s own and the country’s...

Within two hours it was completely dark. Making our way to the exit through the pasture of the Tushinsky airfield, dug up by thousands of feet (by the way, it is still in the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation), we suddenly thanked AC/DC again - for the salute to the final song For Those About To Rock! The cannons above the stage fired, thanks to them, the field became light for a short time. When they calmed down, we literally crawled on our hands and knees to the Volokolamsk highway and, inspired, reached the house on foot. House 3, opposite the Hydroproject, I lived there for more than 17 years.

Result of the day: we - in a sober mind and strong memory - without receiving a single blow from anyone, attended one of the best concerts of my life for five kopecks on the metro. This won't happen again - I'm sure of that. What happened recently - in Luzhniki, in the Olympic Stadium - was good, but different. I hope this atmosphere will not happen again. It’s as if the founder of a dynasty and a rock hero came to visit North Korea in one person. It’s as if people raised on semolina were given a bottle of vodka and subtly hinted that there might not be a continuation... Or vice versa.

September 28, 1991, when the once powerful Soviet Union lived out his recent months, on the field of the Tushino airfield the rock festival “Monsters of Rock” took place, which brought together on its stage famous teams given musical direction from all over the world. The festival was attended by from 500 thousand to a million listeners; 11,000 law enforcement officers took part in protecting the festival, but were unable to cope with their task. I propose to recall some interesting moments of that memorable day.

Perestroika - the beginning of a new life and the end of communism

The festival took place just a month after the coup. The organizer on the Soviet side was the future founder of MTV-Russia, Boris Zosimov, who was just beginning his production career. Having contacted Date 2 Warner Inc, the company that transported “Monsters” around the world, he offered to organize a show in the USSR, which would be very symbolic.

“Once a friend came to my birthday party. He said that the “Monsters of Rock” festival is currently taking place all over the world. Metallica, AC/DC, and someone else are participating there. You can, he says, try to drag them to Moscow. Today I wouldn’t even move - the task is unrealistic! But then I didn’t understand this, which is why, apparently, I grabbed onto this idea. I had no connections abroad, nor the Internet. The only thing my friend gave me was the phone number of the son of the president of Warner Bros, Mark Ross. I called him and immediately began to tell stories: they say, a revolution had just happened in Russia, the communists had left power, new life and so on. I immediately realized that I could play on this.” , Zosimov later recalled.

This worked; the managers of “Monsters” agreed to hold a concert in the USSR. Initially there was an idea to perform on Khodynka Field, but they were afraid that in case of beatings the press would compare the festival with the stampede in Khodynka; In the end, the concert was moved to Tushino, but beatings and comparisons could not be avoided.

All roads lead to Moscow

Fans, having learned about the upcoming event, came from all over the Union. Entrance was absolutely free, and not only the organizers were surprised by the number of arrivals, but also the authorities, who did not take care of security in advance. At the last moment, the police and military were pulled to the airfield. A helicopter was circling over the field. People in uniform tried to restore order using rather brutal methods, getting into fights and beating up fans.

“I was shocked when I saw the soldiers hitting the spectators directly on the heads with batons. I walked around and didn’t understand what was happening. Why are they doing that? People came to listen to music, why should they be treated this way? I wanted to stop all this", added Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich.

Only the saints didn’t drink, or the Tushinskoye Poische

Due to the uncontrolled flow of alcohol into the festival, the crowd was completely uncontrollable. Perhaps this is why the law enforcement officers were forced to use brute force.

“About half a million young people came to the rock festival (and not to the philharmonic), of whom only the ulcers and us did not drink. Do you think that among these listeners there will be a few, let’s say, not entirely disciplined people? Yes, that’s right, there were a little more than a few of them.” , writes a cadet of the Military Institute who was cordoned off that day.

The official report indicated that as a result of the clashes, 76 people were injured (16 of them were police officers and military personnel), 51 people were hospitalized, 30 fans were detained while drunk, one was under the influence of drugs, nine metalheads were so drunk that they were sent away to the sobering-up station.

“By 18:00, at the time of Metallica’s performance, at the police headquarters I managed to get the first approximate summary of offenses: 25 people in serious and moderate condition (mostly broken arms and severe bruises) were taken to the hospital, more than 20 were sent to sobering-up stations. Guinness didn't work out with the audience, but according to police reports we were able to outdo Woodstock, White, Central Park, and even concerts Rolling Stones», - says the article in Komsomolskaya Pravda.

Eyewitnesses and concert participants also spoke about the dead. According to some evidence, there were 11 of them (at Woodstock there were only 3, but no one beat anyone there). However, this information has not yet been officially confirmed.

Pantera

The “Tushino massacre” began right off the bat: the concert was opened by the ruthless Americans Pantera. The decision to put the most aggressive band of all the members of the Monsters of Rock on as an opening act still surprises us. Part of the captured performance of the Panther was included in the release 3 Vulgar Videos From Hell, released in 1999 on DVD. The title of the video perfectly reflected the essence of the concert in Tushino. Probably myself big fan There was plenty of “hell and vulgarity” for Spider that day.

The Black Crowes and E.S.T.

The American concert continued group The Black Crowes, whose traditional blues-rock would have been much more appropriate as a warm-up act. Black Crows played only two songs and quickly gave up the stage to the Soviet rockers E.S.T., still led by the legendary Zhan Sagadeev.The latter fact, by the way, is widely used by Jean’s fans, who periodically arrange epic fights and holiwars with fans of Valery Kipelov on the topic “Who is cooler and more metal, Aria or EST?”

Metallica

Then thousands of Soviet followers of the rock cult finally saw the real “monsters” alive - the legendary Americans Metallica. The fans greeted each song of the group with genuine delight, greatly enhanced by alcohol and God knows what else. The people were especially excited about the covers of “Last Caress”, as well as “Am I Evil?”. The police once again unsuccessfully tried to tame the demoniacal public, but bottles and other rubbish flew at the law enforcement officers. The foreign guests did not understand what was happening at all, and only the organizers’ appeal helped to calm the audience: “For the safety of the musicians, we are stopping the concert, listen to Tender May!” By the way, during the performance, Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich injured forefinger, which, fortunately, did not affect the group’s performance in any way.

AC/DC

The culmination of the Tushino carnage was the hurricane set list of Australian AC/DC. Angus Young in a school uniform, drunken fans urinating on stage... Yes, the Soviet Union had definitely never seen anything like this before. The concert ended with the firing of cannons and fireworks to the recognized rock anthem of all times and peoples, For Those About To Rock.

Results

Of course, no one could have imagined before that so many stars of the world rock scene would perform at once within the framework of one festival in Moscow. Having marked the advent of long-awaited freedom in the Soviet Union, the Monsters of Rock in Tushino are still actively discussed on the Internet, having become a byword for several generations of rockers in Russia and the CIS countries.

• Boris Zosimov (head of Biz Enterprises, concert organizer): One day I wrote down in my notebook - “to organize a big concert in Moscow”, like a plan for the future. This was my personal plan, my ambitions. We had to start somewhere. Well, I wrote it down and recorded it, several years passed. One day a friend came to my birthday party. He said that now there is a festival going on all over the world - “Monsters of Rock”. Metallica, AC/DC, and someone else are participating there. You can, he says, try to drag them to Moscow... Today I wouldn’t even budge - the task is unrealistic! But then I didn’t understand this, which is why, apparently, I grabbed onto this idea. I had no connections abroad, nor the Internet. The only thing my friend gave me was the phone number of the son of the president of Warner Bros, Mark Ross. I called him and immediately began to tell stories: they say, a revolution had just happened in Russia, the communists left power, a new life began and all that. I immediately realized that I could play on this.< …>At first there were also problems with the government - they did not take this event seriously. Yuri Nikulin, thank him very much, arranged a meeting with Luzhkov for me. He says: “Yes, you will have a hundred cripples at the concert, what are we talking about...” But I still convinced him. They gave me the police, and for a couple of boxes of cognac I negotiated with several military units. After the show, of course, people abroad began to treat me differently; they already recognized me. “Monsters of Rock” became my calling card.

• Zhan Sagadeev (group E.S.T.):(in response to a question about whether they were personally selected to participate by AC/DC musicians) No, the organizers on our part arranged a vote, people called on the phone and said which of the Russian bands they would like to see in the same program with AC/ DC and Metallica. At the last moment we got ahead of the Black Obelisk. As for AC/DC, we didn’t communicate with them, but they say that after watching the video, Angus Young said that if they come to Russia again, they will only play with the EST group.

• Phil Anselmo (ex-Pantera): Moscow shocked me - you had a real revolution here. I saw a lot of young people as we walked around the city. For them, our arrival was something wonderful and extraordinary. And this huge crowd at the concert - you won’t forget this! I am happy that I became part of these events. But we were horribly impressed by the actions of the police. They behaved very harshly. It seemed that their goal was not to help the concert go well, but to suppress and put pressure on the audience...

• Jason Newsted (ex-Metallica): We received a letter with an offer to perform in Moscow in order to thank the youth who stopped the tanks. To be honest, on the way to Russia I imagined very gloomy picture. But on the spot I saw a lot of young guys - the same as we have in America, they were very happy to see us. Then I realized that there is no difference between the fans, and in Russia the people are exactly the same as ours.
• Lars Ulrich (Metallica): We were taken to Red Square and the White House, we saw the barricades, people came up to us and told us how it all happened. These trips made a huge impression on me. As for the concert, I was shocked when I saw how the soldiers were hitting the audience directly on the heads with batons. I walked around and didn’t understand what was happening. Why are they doing that? People came to listen to music, why should they be treated this way? I wanted to stop all this...

• Brian Johnson (AC/DC):(from an interview taken immediately after the concert) We are absolutely indifferent to who we play with and where we play. We just performed in Paris, today in Moscow. This is our job, for which we are paid good money. We don’t notice the audience and don’t look at their reaction. We don’t see the cities we visit at all. It’s not interesting to us. I repeat, we work and get paid. In the windows between tours we relax and spend what we earn. That is life…
• And again Brian Johnson:(from the book Rockers And Rollers - A Full-Throtte Memoir) Our tent had a boardwalk and the same two 11.5-watt light bulbs. The tour manager constantly stopped by and said: “Half a million spectators have gathered on the field, and people are still arriving.” Mom Dear, how many comrades! Then, half an hour later, a new message: “Guys, people more than a million. The authorities are starting to get nervous, so they had to hire 30,000 armed soldiers for security.” I decided that they were making fun of me? This is dangerous! I urgently needed to take a leak, so I came out of the tent and pissed on some concrete column with a rusty ball on top. I stood and admired the old and new planes at this air base in the gathering dusk, and at that moment two assholes with huge guns screamed at me: “NO, NO!!!, rocker-capitalist, NO!!.” The guys were noticeably nervous. After pissing, I almost shit myself from fear. After the translators calmed them down, talked to them and gave them a carton of Marlboro cigarettes, I asked what actually happened? “You just pissed on Sputnik!” Well, enough about the wet stuff, this was the largest concert ever in terms of attendance. At first, the crowd that had gathered was somehow cautious, but then they got excited, and then, when rock and roll began, for these people this music was a symbol of victory.

• And finally - Sergei “Spider” Troitsky (group “Corrosion of Metal”, was present at the concert as a spectator): It was absolute hell, Rubilovo, for example. We stood in a somehow fenced-off VIP area (I remember Yuri Aizenshpis, Boris Zosimov, the Surgeon were there), in front of us were soldiers who were holding hands and could hardly restrain this crowd of thousands. Underfoot there is dirt, for example, a hellish mess. The fans were rushing in one direction, then in the other, someone was killing someone. A very scary atmosphere, for example - all the time it seemed that the crowd was going to break through and sweep us all away. Bottles were flying and hitting someone in the head. They didn’t sell any booze unless you brought it with you. The sound is still very powerful - and it was difficult to be a hundred meters from the stage; for example, you were throwing up your guts.

A grandiose concert, remembered by Muscovites as the “Tushino Massacre,” took place in Moscow exactly 25 years ago.

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Exactly 25 years ago, on September 28, 1991, the Monsters of Rock rock festival took place at the Tushino airfield in Moscow, which went down in history as the largest rock massacre in the capital. The Black Crowes, Metallica, AC/DC and not yet so popular Pantera came to Russia. Joining the famous metalheads were the now almost forgotten E.S.T. — “Electroconvulsive Therapy.” According to unofficial data, the festival was attended by about 500 thousand people, according to some eyewitnesses - up to a million. The capital's authorities decided to raise the police, army, riot police, cadets and traffic police inspectors in order to prevent clashes and mass fights. As a result, 11 thousand guards (according to other sources - up to 30 thousand) not only did not prevent it, but also became part of the riots. This event was nicknamed the Tushino Massacre precisely because of the brutal clashes between listeners and law enforcement agencies.

“The communists left power, a new life began”

The festival took place just a month after the August coup. The organizer on the Soviet side was the future founder of MTV-Russia, head of BIZ Enterprises Boris Zosimov, who was just beginning his production career. Having contacted Date 2 Warner Inc, the company that transported “Monsters” around the world, he offered to organize a show in the USSR, which would be very symbolic.

“Once a friend came to my birthday party. He said that now there is a festival going on all over the world - “Monsters of Rock”. Metallica, AC/DC, and someone else are participating there. You can, he says, try to drag them to Moscow. Today I wouldn’t even move - the task is unrealistic! But then I didn’t understand this, which is why, apparently, I grabbed onto this idea. I had no connections abroad, nor the Internet. The only thing my friend gave me was the phone number of the son of the president of Warner Bros, Mark Ross. I called him and immediately began to tell stories: they say, a revolution had just happened in Russia, the communists left power, a new life began and all that. I immediately realized that I could play on this,” Zosimov later recalled.

Initially, the festival was planned to be organized on Khodynka Field, but the producers were afraid that in the event of unrest, the press would associate this show with the stampede on Khodynka. Despite the fact that the concert was eventually moved to Tushino, comparisons with the massacre could not be avoided.

The endless human sea

Fans came to Moscow from all over the country. Entrance to the festival was free in every sense of the word - people came to the airfield for free and brought any alcohol with them. The musicians who arrived in the post-revolutionary capital were amazed at the scale of this event.

“It was a crazy performance. Crowd of people all the way to the horizon. It was the first time bands of this caliber came to Russia, and the local audience was clearly hungry. I can’t say how many people came then according to official data, but they told me the figure was 1.6 million.<…>This alone was quite enough to give an impression of Russia. Performing in front of an endless sea of ​​people, it was beyond comprehension,” Metallica bassist Jason Newsted told Kerrang magazine.

The Moscow authorities did not expect that the festival would cause such a stir, so no one took care of security in advance. At the last moment, the police and military were pulled to the airfield. A helicopter was circling over the field. People in uniform tried to restore order using rather brutal methods, getting into fights and beating up fans.

“We were horribly impressed by the actions of the police. They behaved very harshly. It seemed that their goal was not to help the concert go well, but to suppress and put pressure on the audience,” said former leader Pantera Phil Anselmo.

“I was shocked when I saw the soldiers hitting the spectators directly on the heads with batons. I walked around and didn’t understand what was happening. Why are they doing that? People came to listen to music, why should they be treated this way? I wanted to stop all this,” added Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich.

“Only people with ulcers didn’t drink”

It is obvious that the police did not attack the fans without cause. According to eyewitnesses, the crowd was completely uncontrollable.

“Under your feet there is dirt, like a hellish mess. The fans were rushing in one direction, then in the other, someone was killing someone. A very scary atmosphere, for example, all the time it seemed that the crowd was going to break through and sweep us all away. Bottles were flying and hitting someone in the head. They didn’t sell any booze unless you brought it with you. The sound is still very powerful - and it was hard to be a hundred meters from the stage,” the leader of “Metal Corrosion” Sergei “Spider” Troitsky describes his impressions.

“About half a million young people came to the rock festival (and not to the philharmonic), of whom only the ulcers and us did not drink. Do you think that among these listeners there will be a few, let’s say, not entirely disciplined people? Yes, that’s right, there were a little more than a few of them,” writes a cadet of the Military Institute who was in the cordon that day.

Many eyewitnesses believe that the fights were provoked by law enforcement officers.

“There was not the worst company on the field. University students coexisted with those whom we have long been accustomed to call “working youth”, the so-called “pure” amateurs metal music mixed in a huge sea of ​​adolescence and youth with “gopniks”, “lubers” and “punks”. In this sea there were also islands of absolutely peaceful companies, gathered mainly around large external screens. But God forbid, if one of them, some couple, inspired by the event, suddenly, suddenly, unexpectedly, in ecstasy, kissed or merged in an embrace. A police baton was waiting for them. For what offense? - Oleg Pshenichny, the author of an article published in the Krugozor magazine in 1991, is surprised.

The official report of the Ministry of Internal Affairs indicated that as a result of the clashes, 76 people were injured (16 of them were police officers and military personnel), 51 people were hospitalized, 30 fans were detained drunk, one was in a state of drug intoxication, nine metal workers were so drunk that they sent to the sobering-up center.

“By 18:00, at the time of Metallica’s performance, at the police headquarters I managed to get the first approximate summary of offenses: 25 people in serious and moderate condition (mostly broken arms and severe bruises) were taken to the hospital, more than 20 were sent to sobering-up stations. Guinness didn’t work out with the audience, but according to police reports we were able to outdo Woodstock, White, Central Park, and even the Rolling Stones concerts,” says an article in Komsomolskaya Pravda dated October 1, 1991.

Eyewitnesses and concert participants also spoke about the dead. According to some evidence, there were 11 of them. However, this information has not yet been officially confirmed.

“It’s a pity, this will never happen again”

Pantera took the stage first, and that's when the stampede began. Warner Inc demanded to immediately stop the concert and close the festival, but Zosimov managed to persuade the promoters to continue the show with performances by the only non-metal acts The Black Crowes, and then by the Russians E.S.T., Metallica and AC/DC. Moreover, the latter lit up the stage for two whole hours.

Despite the fact that there is so much major festival was supposed to be a real holiday; many eyewitnesses note that a tense and aggressive atmosphere reigned in Tushino all evening.

“The spirit of some kind of stupid aggressiveness, a universal chaos, I would say, visibly hovered over the Tushinsky field from the very morning.<…>Among other things, the festival was surrounded by some strange veil of secrecy. There were no press conferences, no interviews. The Americans, the organizers of the concert, did not let our journalists go anywhere. And the big guys from their “security” simply threw out especially persistent press representatives like little kittens. All this along with a huge amount military personnel, helicopters, balloons, searchlights rummaging around the field, least of all resembled the promised “rock and roll holiday,” writes Yagodina, author of the magazine “Variety and Circus” (the article was published in the fall of 1992).

Despite the fact that the atmosphere at the festival was tense, many fans who visited the field that day still call Tushino’s “Monsters” the most impressive show. Comments posted anonymously found on social networks:

“I was 18 years old, three-liter cans were flying, which then the cops/military began to break with batons (a friend then jumped home on one leg with his leg punctured by these fragments). 30-year-old guys cried during the performance of "Disi" (AC/DC), imagine, they were forbidden to listen to such music at school, but here they are - alive! Of course, I have impressions that will last a lifetime! It’s a pity, this will never happen again.”

“I was at this fantastic concert - about 20 of us arrived from Kharkov. Straight from the train station in Tushino, so we managed to position ourselves near the first fence, near the stage. But when Pantera began to perform, the crush became catastrophic and we moved back, I stood near the fence of the central console, where a cart with a camera rode along the rails - both visible and audible. The greatest concert in the history of rock."

“I was there, I’m 47 now, I’ve seen concerts, but I’ve never seen anything like this.”

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On September 28, 1991, the rock festival “Monsters of Rock” took place at the Tushino airfield. On the same stage that day they performed legendary bands Pantera, AC/DC and Metallica. Life talked with those who 25 years ago went to listen to rock, and they talked about the features and customs of post-Soviet punk and rock culture, underground performances and apartment buildings, and about that very rock concert in Tushino, which attracted metalheads from all over the country.

Stas has a dyed beard, like Boris Grebenshchikov, and under his sweatshirt is a T-shirt of the Swedish metal band Amon Amarth. He talks enthusiastically about new wave Scandinavian metal and willingly listens to the band Insomnuim, pinpointing its genre as melodic death metal. At the same time, Stanislav Valerievich is 50 years old.

Twenty-five years ago, in 1991, he and another five hundred thousand people saw the real “Monsters of Rock” for the first time in Tushino: they performed at the festival under this name for the first time in Russia Metallica and AC/DC. Years later, Stanislav talks about the culture of rockers in the USSR, about concerts in cultural centers and apartment buildings at the Kolkhoznaya metro station, and about how the main rock concert took place in Russia, which was just recovering from the putsch.

Khimki metal

When asked how Stanislav got into rock culture, he answers that in his case “time, age and fashion coincided successfully.” He was interested in music since childhood, went to music school in piano and learned to play the guitar. I argued with my friends which was better: “Time Machine”, “Cruise” or “Sunday”. I saw other music once a year - in New Year's Eve, when the legendary Soviet program “Melodies and Rhythms of Foreign Pop” was shown on TV.

Having entered the institute in 1983, Stas discovered a new world for himself. “The entire enlightened capital listened to avant-garde Russian rock: “Alice” or Boris Grebenshchikov, went to concerts and apartment buildings, and got rare records from black marketeers at the Malino railway station.

We didn’t go to Gorbushka, we went to Malino Oktyabrskaya station railway. There were people farting there. Naturally, at any moment this could end with a police “goat” arriving and everyone could be tied up

Stanislav

At this time, Khimki was “dragging” heavy metal, for example, AC/DC, Judas Priest, KISS, Ozzy, DIO, Def Leppard and WASP. A progressive music world Abroad, the albums of Metallica Kill "em all and Flick of the Switch of Australian rockers AC/DC roared.

So as not to get confused in just open world rock music, Stas began keeping a music diary. In a small notebook he recorded the concerts he saw and the albums he listened to. Over time, even their own internal charts with monthly top albums and songs began to appear in the book. When asked which album ultimately won this competition, Stas names Back in Black AC/DC, the second best-selling album in recording history after Michael Jackson's Thriller.

Moscow rock

It cannot be said that the rocker or metal movement did not have enemies in Moscow at that time. On one side, the “patlatch” was pressed by activists of Komsomol organizations. Stas recalls a concert in his student youth, where the lead singer of the now unknown group “Boa Constrictor”, taking off his pants and standing in colored shorts, poured kefir on the first rows of the audience. In response to the outburst, Komsomol members ran out of the hall onto the stage with huge sheets of plywood and began to cover the roaring speakers. “Why,” Stanislav thought then, “you could just pull the switch?”

If being caught by Komsomol members did not promise any serious problems and only threatened educational conversations and warning letters to the university, but people from Lyubertsy posed a more terrible threat. Strong men in checkered pants went on the hunt against informal youth and waited for long-haired guys not far from the metro, so the rockers learned to get to stations in a roundabout way and hide from the jocks in the bushes.

You could see some of the celestials of the Soviet rock scene, for example, Kinchev, Mamonov or Naumenko, at arm's length at apartment buildings. To organize such “closed concerts”, serious conspiratorial techniques were practiced: it was impossible to attract attention. Several dozen people in tweed coats stood along the Kolkhoznaya (now Sukharevskaya) metro station; at a certain moment, the leader of the group gave a signal, and the procession rushed into the courtyards.

There, at one of the entrances, a “ticket attendant”, one of the concert organizers, was waiting for them. Having chipped in three rubles at the entrance and arrived at the apartment, the audience sat down in the living room and listened to the singer. Stas talks about sharing income with " concert activities": 60% was given to the artist, 30% went to the organizers, and the remaining 10% drank together all night long.

The bad rocker is the one who didn’t try to play himself and achieve worldwide fame with a guitar or drumsticks in his hands. Stas played for some time in a group under the prophetic name “Idle Shot”. It didn’t work out to fly to the top of the charts or go on a world tour, but Stanislav is not upset: for him, the process was important in this story and, albeit small, it was still a contribution to the rock scene of eighties Moscow.

Tushino monsters

Stanislav doesn’t remember exactly how he found out about the concert in Tushino. But he tells in detail how he got there. Rockers from Khimki walked along the symbolically named Svoboda Street, which connects Khimki and the northern part of the Tushino district. They decided not to take the metro, which turned out to be the right idea: the metro was already overloaded in the morning, and a crush began at the Tushinskaya metro station. Several thousand people even walked along Svoboda Street. The most prudent people came last evening and spent the night in tents near the airfield.

It is worth recalling that "Monsters of Rock" was free concert, to which absolutely everyone was allowed in, without specifying seats or rows, and they were even allowed to bring in alcohol. An atmosphere of complete freedom, fueled by the most freedom-loving music in the world - rock.

The concert was then greatly delayed, the audience - all 500,000 people - was nervous, but with the first chords of the heavy metal band Pantera, which opened the concert, they realized that the holiday had begun. Pantera was a little “heavy” music even for experienced metalheads, but it was chosen for good reason - not very used to concerts foreign groups the viewer needed to be “warmed up.”

If close to the stage the concert really resembled a concert, then at great distance, where Stanislav’s group was located, it was more like a music festival like Woodstock: people walked back and forth, sat on the grass, got to know each other and talked.

The behavior of the spectators bore little resemblance to a concert. There was movement, a real passageway: everyone walked in different directions, some got up, some lay down. There was no such, you know, single view of the stage. One guy actually lay down next to the speaker, the monitor, he was with the first chords of Pantera and was washed away from there, can you imagine?

Stanislav

All of Russia then gathered for a concert with free entry. For many participants, including Stas, it was a gigantic act of cultural exchange: rockers and punks from all over the country came to show themselves and watch others. Talk about the peculiarities of life of informals in the province. Fight with major Moscow rockers in leather jackets with fox collars. Tear off the collars. Break a bottle of wine in a fight. Be upset until Metallica comes on stage.

The exchange of experiences ended with the very first chords of Enter Sandman Metallica. The cult of Metallica is difficult to overestimate: both then and now the group was truly worshiped, and at the mere thought that it would be possible to attend their concert, people shook with small tremors of excitement.

At the mention of Metallica, everyone was shaking. AC/DC were already considered "oldies" back then, of course.

Stanislav

There are often moments at concerts when the first notes of a particularly popular song are greeted with loud screams, louder than some other, less popular tracks. The Metallica show consisted of 13 super hits in a row, during which the Tushino airfield was shaking. All strife, conflicts and problems were forgotten - all attention was on the stage.

The clash between rock fans and the police happened, according to Stanislav, because of euphoria. Empty bottles were flying in the air, thrown by excited fans, but no one deliberately provoked anyone. Official statistics claim that after the concert there were about a hundred people injured in one way or another, which, when compared with total number participants, a drop in the bucket.

There were fights, of course. But strictly among themselves, not with the police, and only because of misunderstanding. The police or internal troops were not visible at all during the concert itself

Stanislav

The concert ended already dark, after the grandiose fireworks display that accompanied last song AC/DC. Tired, deaf, hoarse, having lost their jackets and hats on a cool September evening, the rockers walked home through the corridor organized by the internal troops. “But very happy, of course. And very sad that it’s all over,” says Stas.

Time to go home

Stanislav Valerievich still sometimes reads articles about that concert, watches videos on the Internet and sees photographs in magazines, but cannot believe that he was there. From his side, the concert looked and felt completely different: he saw the performers on giant screens, did not participate in fights and did not go near the stage - he was protecting his hearing, health and ribs.

“Now, in order to go to all the concerts, you need to earn a lot,” says Stanislav Valerievich. He's right, tickets to the last concerts of Metallica and AC/DC in Russia cost as much as good smartphone. The time for free six-hour concerts at airfields is long gone - following the fashion for jeans jackets and long hair.

“Metalheads are very peace-loving people,” says the fifty-year-old metalhead thoughtfully. Finally, he bitterly notes that from his Khimki “party” half of the participants did not live to this day. Alcohol, drugs, illness, accidents and crime gradually reduced the previously orderly ranks of metalworkers from Khimki. And so it happened, Komsomol members disrupted concerts, Lubers kept watch near the metro, and in the end the most terrible enemy of some metalheads was themselves.