well you know it's easy to remend to size a country that you have never visited and in fact the song that i mentioned goodbye america bridge road in one thousand eighty five fifteen just one year after your first visit to the soviet union he speaks sickly sad as the none of us have been there and we have sort of started growing out of our old gene simply because you know our youth was coming into contact with reality and as i was researching for this program. i was struck by one productive thought and i wonder if it's actually true but it seemed to me that for you a very rare person but still for you that dahl soviet reality was also to some extent. the place where you found that freedom because the russians do not think about the later years of the soviet union in that sense but to me it seemed that you're actually falling imaginative or imagine the replays where it where you felt alive and free was that accurate that is very accurate you know it was all about

timing and when i went to the soviet union i had just had this record out in the states but we had kind of a lawsuit with the guy that put it out because there were some issues and i was at a crossroads i wasn't sure what i was going to do and i felt a little bit lost and i was inspired and so i went to the soviet union with my sister on this week trip a school trip that she was going on and i thought it would just clear my head i can come back and regroup and lo and behold everything that i saw there in leningrad with boris and then the rest of people i met changed my life so it was just the perfect time of me being young enough not really understanding it who i was not understanding life and being very naive and all of a son i meet these people that are so inspiring i mean i think it would be similar if young is some young person here at that time and eighty's happened to be a friend and hang out with bob dylan or david bowie you know i was just blessed to me the artist and leningrad. we're just as inspiring and exciting and as these

these famous western musicians so for me it was just fate now john as you said just a moment ago every time you traveled to the soviet union you used to bring all sorts of musical supplies which were difficult to find in landing back then but i know that you also smuggled the records out you were absolutely key to releasing a russian rock music in the united states beach was mad with some interest but never made it big is russian rock to country specific to engage western audiences you know it was big in the sense. of the purpose we put it out for and when it came out it was unbelievable the amount of press we got it exploded again it exploded because nobody ever thought this could possibly be behind the iron curtain the way that kenya looked the way that boris moved the way it was the way that they saying was it was equal to any of the rock n roll going on in the united

states it just was in russian so it became so big it was written in every kind of newspaper magazine television shows morning talk shows it was everywhere so what that did which is what the purpose of the record was was it showed americans look there are people in russia that you can relate to that look just like people where you live and so it really was sixty six success on that level i think it sold maybe fifteen or twenty thousand records which maybe in the in the big scheme isn't that many but for a record that's recorded on two track that's in the russian language it was huge but their videos were aired on m.t.v. the videos were shown on some other t.v. programs it was just written about all over the place that i think i felt that it was very successful i was totally happy with the results now fast forward thirty five years and some of those musicians that you used to hang out that used to be

monitored by the k.g.b. have now been awarded with medals for their service to their motherland we have a former k.g.b. agent as the russian president who is also said to enjoy russian rock music i wonder if you still followed russian rock. to this day what do you think about what it has become thirty five years later and do you think it would still fascinate you if you were twenty four years old today i think not in the same way and the difference is that now the world is connected we have the internet and no matter what our politicians are doing or if they're fighting or if they're try. to make some conflict between us the box is open we people american people russian people know what's going on in each other's countries through the internet we can see everything so it's a little bit different than it was in the eighty's but i was in russia two months ago for the first time since two thousand and four and i saw a few people i saw my first husband euro caspari and i loved what he was doing with

his music and the same fun the keno symphony and i hung out with boris a little bit and what i love about boris he's exactly who he was thirty years ago and all he wanted to do thirty years ago was record albums and play as much as he could and he's never wavered he's never change thirty years later he's exactly the same and the amazing thing with that with group in chicago when i met him thirty or more than thirty years ago and when i would listen to him talk about philosophy and his his views on life and it just affected me the same thing happened two months ago with my daughter we were sitting is the part and boris was talking about life and and some of his thoughts on it and i could see my daughter just melting and taking it all in and she says missed my eyes by boris today as i was thirty or so well yes he's a special someone he definitely is but i know very little about. new rock bands in russia you know i left russia in one thousand nine hundred six and back

then there really wasn't the internet so i came here i had my my daughter and i really was just connected pretty much by russian all the music and it only came back a few years ago when i decided to make this archive website with all my photos and basically it started that i just had thousands of photos i had made from my russia days all over my house and in boxes and i thought you know i'm going to scan them so that i can throw them away and have them all digitally and when i started to scan them i thought wow maybe i should make a website maybe russians might like this so i did make my website site joanna sting ray dot com and when the website came out within the first two or three weeks there were one hundred million i have. a million people that went on the web site looking at all the old photos and then i saw how everybody was for that time and it was interesting but you know everything in the arts sometimes in life is cyclical and so i think it's just natural that it's about twenty five years thirty years after the saw happened in the eighty's that that i'm not surprised by the interest being

renewed well john i really have to take a short break now but we will be back in just a few moments stay tuned. for. our . welcome back to worlds apart with jonathan green american musician and a prominent speaker of the sylvia to rock scene in the nine hundred eighty s. john i know that there were long periods. during which you did not visit russia i think it was twelve or maybe even twenty years at a time that you stayed away from this country was there any particular reason for that you know when i left russia i came back to los angeles i had my daughter and i

kind of became a full time mother and again things had changed you know i was lucky that i lived through russia really three three different periods i was there under communism i was there through glass dos and i was there and capitalism and communism was really interesting for me because it was kind of you know closed but behind closed doors there were parties and all this interesting stuff was happening you know the favorite time was when the russian people seen the happiest because nothing had changed much except for they could speak more freely and say things but then the last period was capitalism and that was a difficult time in the ninety's with capitalism it was it was kind of crazy so when i left russia i refocused my life on being a mother and because there wasn't internet and we weren't connected the way we are today. it just felt like like it was over you know many of my close friends had died obviously victor soy had died and it was just the right time for me to come back to los angeles and then i went on with my life and just for

a lot of years i didn't think very often about rush i mean i did get calls two or three times a year to do interviews certainly around victor birthday was death or about my days so i was connected here and there and i would get phone calls from some of my friends unfortunately they would call me to tell me somebody else had passed away which was very sad every time i had you know social of minsk yourself a gaggle called me on the phone i would shake because i was afraid when i picked it up they were going to tell me somebody else passed away and i didn't you know that was just a very hard thing to deal with but you know it just happened that that that periods happen in life and then it's over and you move on and i think there's still a lot of allure in the broker's lifestyle that sense of freedom spontaneity the lack of commitment the lack of league ations excitement i wonder if you if you miss any of that do you angry people who still leave like. you know i do and do that a little bit because again i live a very good life life in los angeles and i have a nice house and i have a car and i can get nice food but i have three different jobs to do that and it's

not as a musician it's very tough to make money and make a living as a musician in the states so i do miss that side of just waking up and you know looking at your and saying what do you want to do i don't know what do you want to do why don't we go see if somebody is there and they don't have a phone so you go and just knock on the door and see if somebody is there and they let you in and they they start making some food they pull down acoustic guitar and everybody starts playing you know the whole world of too soft is is you know is a fun one it's fun to spend your days too soft but i also enjoy you know using my brain and doing work and making good money so it's a balance but yes i do sometimes miss the freedom of being with my friends at that time again i think. i think rock'n'roll are still have that kind of lifestyle but even today would be different than the eighty's you know i was i was part of this time that i don't think could ever be repeated john and i think there is a lot of nostalgia for that period in russia it's avid and in the number of films

and documentaries released all being still being produced about a period of time what do you thing makes the russians dwell on those years so much well i think it's the personality as to who the people were first of all i mean these geniuses boris french cough syrup you curl can coast to kinship. you know victor sawyer they were amazing people and amazing artists and i think the fact that they did everything there did they did and their music even though they couldn't make money there there's something that feels good about that it was so pure and i think that's what people miss is the pureness of it you know now everybody makes money off their music you know there's not really underground bands because there doesn't need to be everybody can try to go and do it but the fact that at that period they were so creative and so inspiring at a time that they couldn't be on t.v.

they couldn't do big tours and they couldn't make money i think again it comes down to the pureness of who they were as people and as artists listen i'm not for some time i am so lucky that i got to be there at that time and live through it with those incredible people now i'm sure you've heard that this new movie directed by carroll said every city every new of cold lives or summer about those years we've got a lot of flak from people who actually lived through that period for example from barry's good bench you go for not depicting the protagonist relationships that live styles accurately and i think that raises a very interesting question about artistic freedom when an artist is making a movie about another arses how accurate. how detailed he should be do you have. any ideas and you know it's a complicated answer most of all because i have not seen the movie but when i was in leningrad two months ago they kept asking me about that when i was being

interviewed wanted to know they were trying to show me a little piece of the film you know for me. again films aren't always accurate they're based on so that's ok i would say without seeing the film so i can't comment exactly on on the summer film but for me i think the most important thing is that when they're portraying somebody that is known and especially somebody that's that's not a live picture choice to me it's important to stay at least to the character of who victor was you know if i saw a film that was based on victor but wasn't a real story and they were trade victor for being some not nice guy or doing bad things that would really be off because he was not like that at all you know he was so sweet and so genuine so to me portraying any of the people that are famous i think it's important to at least keep the aura of who they were of i don't know if you would agree with that but to me personally it's very unique in channeling both

the discontent with the reality and a certain appreciation of live at it is you know the little pleasures the little treasures of life there's a lot of time there in this i think a lot of dignity as opposed to solve depreciation in his lyrics. i wonder if you agree with that and how do you think that was possible to both create teac life and love it seemed to live a you know he was victor was different than the other musicians that i hung out with there was something different about him and i'm not sure why he didn't understand but he was brilliant you know some of the other musicians knew he was a genius and it wasn't egotistical it was like a fact he knew what they know what in some sense forrest in the eighty's you know. he knew that people thought he was a d.d. and that he had these special talents and for me victor i don't think he really understood how great his songs were and i think sometimes he was almost

a little embarrassed and for victor he was the type that you know we'd be in the pop mechanics concert we'd both be on stage with all the other musicians and he would look across the street stage and we could me and smile as if he was saying hey joe isn't this great how cool we get to be part of this pop mechanics era he still always had that little boy in him that was amazed that he got to do all these things and i think that's why victor's music. you know that many so many people can relate to his music because it came from somebody who was in some sense simple not a bad way simple in a good way but by what you're saying he really i think he felt happy and grateful in life and what in the years i spent with him he was very easygoing i never saw him get angry or have some you know big important issues he had to deal with that he was very he was very happy go lucky and enjoyed life to the fullest and i think the songs just came out of him i don't think he was doing anything on purpose to try to write songs that would affect people this way or that way i think it was

just how he felt one thing in general about the musicians that i dealt with in the eighty's and i think when all of the press came out on broadway all the press of course the question at the end of the interview sort of the all want to move here now do they all want to come and i said no they're very tying to russia and mother earth and russia so again i did not feel like the musicians i knew in the eighty's were unhappy being in russia and that they wanted to leave but i found the opposite i thought they were very happy in russia i think they would have loved if they could have made money off their music and could have toured and could have had better equipment but i never found this angriness that they hated living in russia i think they were very proud and very tied to their russian blood let me ask you specifically about that because victor sort sorries widely credited for capturing the desire for change in the soviet union and i think that's maybe why he's he and his personality his music are experiencing

a second comeback in modern day russia but the way that call was expressed in his lyrics i thought was very culturally russian because his most famous song was we are awaiting change rather than we are the change which would be a seam i think for many western musicians and i wonder well whether you agree with the russians are indeed more. massive him in a way of waiting for the change to be delivered to them rather than being the agents of change well first of all i want to bring up that it is not clear that victor wrote that song we're waiting of the change that he meant politically and concrete specific things you know i think i think could be that was almost a spiritual change and i think again what was different from the music in the eighty's and forced british cops music you know it was poetry that you could read things through the line but nothing was concrete nothing was saying we don't like

you know this ruling soviet union we don't like this this is the way it is to russia want this it was more about awakening people and making people feel and making people think you know i think the music in the eighty's in leningrad to me was much different than say pussy riot because to me pussy riot is a blatant a conscious decision to make specific statements about things that they don't like that they want to change and to also shock people it's a very different you know i believe that victor and boris and kosta kinship really roll from the soul and from the heart and i don't think they ever thought well gee i don't like this this thing in russia so i'm going to try to write a song that maybe are inspired people to change and i don't i don't think it came from that concrete place i think it came in in a deeper more spiritual place so again i don't think i'd say there passive but i think they're. different to i am most felt in some ways they were deeper because

maybe of how they had to put up with life back then you know what i mean well john i do know what you mean living in this country after all but we have to leave it there i know that you're writing a book or rather two books on the period good luck with god and thank you very much for coming i encourage our viewers to keep this conversation going in our social media pages and hope to see you again see. waste same time here at olds apart.

well we do some our. that's not what's good for food markets it's not good for the global economy. headlines for. all the world cup. i. long it's about. all expectations to go into the. pool. to people who are in critical condition. and while information on the case is. pointed at russia. well i welcome to the weekly here on r.t.

international on the sunday morning news stories serious well. so old final matches have been played the remaining four teams who will play in the world cup semifinals. while russia is not going anywhere though they are out of the tournament in which they've exceeded all expectations saturday was full of high drama with a. couple. thousand. but . i. i was. a who was. i

was. was god god god was louis. so that's it for the quarter finals off to two more dramatic matches on saturday england sweden the goal hero and some fantastic goalkeeping by jordan pick but while russia fans are mourning the country's penalties defeat to croatia peter schmeichel in the aussie team break down south today's action for you. know who were who.

were her away should go through to the semifinals and see thousand and eighteen world cup celebrations of. the piled up on each of the refugees somewhere the bottom of the un i was seeing there the despair of the russian supports and aids being quite a journey the school i spoke in the food dispensing these know can i say. that simon said i don't see things in her that she said i'm going to miss neil's celebrations when russia schools are never seen anything like it in this honest life that was as well so i know i'm right he was he was probably a little of years ago i wouldn't. say speaking of celebrations let's take you through the goals that brought it to us to the drama of this penalty shootout it's nobody really. well for russia thirty one minutes into the match these to the ship really ran out and i guess if we can continue but really the principle is the finish is quite remarkable this second spectacular goal is fulfill the tournament

well outside the area chilled it shaped it into the top corner of the keep but one of the revocation of super six had mentioned when you would so hard to get a spectacular goal to lead to give it away to be successful defending because it's a lack of concentration and you don't leave someone like comrie. with five men five russian flags around in the park don't leave him on my soul for god that was obviously something that. you know it was not a great moment for russia. and again i think on the third goal that they didn't score the both of the goals of a soft goal set is to you you kept saying no no no this start over this and i kept saying because he just can see russia come back in this but that fight a spirit it's five minutes to go freaking sunday allen's are going to substitute

the film on it was personally placed freek'n another pretending to fund this is what. breaking about the kind of shootout for none does have a fantastic game feel the full three had to put it away said in the home crowd and perhaps may consider its scenes of ace this a just really phenomenally focus to them. it was just an incredible journey through to follow and they've got to say everything should be counted and we now have names like sheriff. then sheriff means it's going to be really interesting to see what's going to happen over the next you know we can sue because he's hot property this is a guy who can run play and you know anything you expect from a player but he can stall for scalia finance the sky. probably my favorite player in this issue for the. super. we haven't even mentioned super super human is an astonishing strike of the final score on this very very first charge in saudi

arabia i just kept going and you have this big. guy really big guy in terms of you know if you play well for these technical very good. he's physically very. i didn't see him as tired today but i think it's what managers do they have planned. so he's just the one he takes off and i think in many ways he's yes i would regret taking off because he would have me go in that excess half an hour it's over for russia but the will cup is much bigger than and it continues for teams to my let's see here you say it is. but we had a crowd of about three hundred behind us who were feeding the emotions everybody

else was in this country one hundred forty million plus people all of the emotional roller coaster the go by mario fernandez just sure joy and just the heartbreak of operands you know yeah it's a bit and just a few moments a lot of pops not of it and i mean phenomenas you know he's obviously it was really a most impressive plays and yeah he's will russia during the tournament i mean she's brazilian he's a citizen of russia but he's in these repressed dream the course of the tournament so it's extra heartbreaking that he missed a penalty yeah it is yeah and also from a small of you know he's been looked at as one of the leaders of the team is the leader across the dollar he plays he's filed for us this is the sort of the final now obviously that is. the boss in show business. i am not straight it is like he stayed on. manish my very sagely concedes i go if they are running the crowds. just to go back to the one i can feel my skin is how to

push that onto the post. over. the last scene i. have some confidence that we want to put a shoot on we can go. with this one. the tournament dissolves of course we are disappointed that with one table to get the same final we were so close so they had great support the country united around the team thanks a lot to everyone they looked to us they mean we controlled the game we didn't play well because it is not the worst type player by a long. way to take control in the game and play much better than the first gulf and we deserve but they must take us to russia theme they played very well but if a very strong theme which we had very high hopes for this game but we couldn't

achieve everything we'd hoped but we're sad about it we did well in this championship but in the end when you're here in the quarterfinals you want to go further and we couldn't get the only thing we want is to get better and to take the team to the highest possible level. you know if you do follow the national team football people on overly positive about the russian team there's always a bit of an air. of all negativity you know they're over paid. and not good enough who think they are that's all changed within just a couple of weeks a few matches they've gone all out and. they held out in the match against spain although one of them to shoot out they came out on the field the bottom saying we play for you win for you the fans don't you don't want. to. you know when someone says i'm not saying this my. fortune going to give them the only thing that is not the monday next command there's. little.

doubt the lab. had to remove him with me so also what is the other something beyond these abilities in a post-game interview russian striker. said the team hoped the country was proud of them. donna for that nicole sky is true that's basically the main carer of central and the people you're happy with despite the money. it has been a nail biter of a game and a lot of dreams are being shattered so nice and i have to apologize to every week. my voice that she. finds. there is still very very hard. to carry out to be screaming we've been one with one because they feel like they have won the game like you.