AUGUST 12, 1989 – The two day Moscow Music Peace Festival began at The Lenin Stadium in Moscow, Russia. Western Acts who appeared included Motley Crue, Ozzy Osbourne, Bon Jovi, Skid Row, Cinderella, and The Scorpions. This was the first time that an audience had been allowed to stand up and dance at a stadium rock concert in the Soviet Union. Previous to this, all concerts had to be seated. It was part of an era of momentous change in the Soviet Union that led to the fall of the Berlin Wall in November and the end of the Cold War.
The event was held over two days in Moscow’s largest stadium (now called the Luzhniki Stadium), which has a seating capacity of about 100,000. However, as the concert also included spectators on the field, the number of attendees was much greater. The event was the first rock concert to be held at the stadium, which had previously been used primarily for sporting events.
Mötley Crüe have been on record stating they were upset with McGhee at this point in time. They felt McGhee was favoring Bon Jovi, whom he also managed, and whom Crüe disdained. When Bon Jovi closed the show, they used pyrotechnics, which Mötley Crüe had been told they could not do (McGhee claims it was a malfunction on one side of the stadium that he didn’t hear because he was backstage).
