Rolling Stones coming to Belarus :: Charter'97 :: News

27 July 2007 morning the delegation of the “Free Theatre” came back from Warsaw where the day before they had met with the leader of the Rolling Stones Mick Jagger. The largest concert of the group’s European tour was given in the Polish capital .Over 60 thousand spectators attended the concert

The invitation for the meeting with the British outstanding musician the Free Theatre received in the early June. The Belarusians were given the possibility to choose among the two European capitals, Budapest and Warsaw, which were to be toured by the Rolling Stones. After a short dispute the Polish capital was chosen where the greatest concert of the Bigger Bang album presentation tour of the group was to be held.
The meeting took place at the make-up room of the Rolling Stones leader an hour before the concert. Along with Mick Jagger and representatives of the Belarusian Free Theatre the musician’s son and wife took part in the meeting.

Artistic head of the Free Theatre Mikalai Khalezin tells how the meeting was organized and what its subjects were. (Fragment of the interview)

-How well is Jagger informed about the state of affairs in Belarus?

-He is sufficiently informed because he is a socially active person, besides he is politically informed and actively affects the political life. We didn’t have to instruct him on the essentials of the recent Belarusian history. We only dwelt on particular subjects.

-What topics did you manage to discuss?

-First, he agreed to become a sponsor of the project ” World Musicians for Solidarity with Belarus” initiated by Lavr Berzhanin and supported by the Free Theatre. And that means that we may rely on Mick’s assistance in making contacts with the higher rank musicians and on his authority in the musical media. Secondly, he is eager to pay attention to Belarus when communicating with heads of the states and influential politicians, so, it actually means a supervision of the country which we dramatically lack. Thirdly, he supported our European march to be held in Minsk this October, having declared that he would attentively follow to which extent the words of the Belarusian authorities about the European choice would correspond their actions.
-Wasn’t the supposed coming of the Rolling Stones to Minsk discussed?
-We have discussed only the probable coming to Minsk only of Mick himself. But as the tour program was very hectic we decided to come back to this issue after it is finished. He himself expressed his desire of coming to Minsk to support the independent musicians and counterculture activists. Unfortunately, the Rolling Stones concert in Minsk is unlikely to become true– in our country there is neither political will, nor resources, nor sufficient wages of the population for such project arrangement. Though the Stones themselves consider that the absence of Belarus in the schedule of the tour is an absolute nonsense.

First moments of the meeting

Andrei Linkevich, Aleg Shafranau , Mikalai Khalezin, Mick Jagger, Natallia Kalyada, Lavr Berzhznin, Uladzimir Scherban

Birthday present

Anna Makovskaya, www.dramaturg.org