Cold War Spy meets The Fab Four in the USSR
The Beatles were one of the first (and few) British rock’n’Roll bands to appear on Bone records. Though I like their music, I am not a huge fan, so I’m fascinated by the gigantic global impact they had - on both the culture and the counterculture and on both sides of the Iron Curtain. It really is quite mysterious.
I recently interviewed the award winning filmmaker LESLIE WOODHEAD on the subject - specifically on the transformational effect the Fab Four had on young Russians in the 60s and 70s. I know from my own interviews with many of those who grew up on the 50s, 60s and even 70s how important they were. Actually, ‘Important’ doesn’t really cover it - some have claimed their effect to be more significant than all the cold war western cultural propaganda combined in helping to bring about perestroika
When Leslie was asked by Granada TV to film a new young music group in a club in Liverpool in 1962, he had no idea what he was in for - and neither had the rest of the world. He was witnessing the birth of a phenomenon. But by then he had already had some extraordinary experiences - serving a stint as a cold war spy, learning Russian on a remote Scottish pig farm and spending time eavesdropping on Soviet pilots from West Berlin.
These experiences continued to influence his life as a film maker, finally coalescing with his fascination with the Fab Four in the investigations that resulted in his terrific documentary ‘How the Beatles Rocked the Kremlin’.
You can listen to our interview below.
To hear more oral testimony and tales from the underground Click HERE or on the image for the BUREAU OF LOST CULTURE podcast