Placebo: Alt.Russia

British band Placebo were a little nervous when they started their 2014 tour of Russia. After all, the Crimea had only recently been annexed. The band members’ worries included possible obstruction by the authorities. Would they, for instance, be arrested for promoting homosexuality? Would they draw big enough crowds even in darkest Siberia? Things weren’t as bad as expected,
and the ten-city tour was a success. This could have led to a boring recording of an easy tour. However, the film’s makers linked the band members to a local artist, architect, musician, journalist or activist in every city they visited. Bassist Stefan Olsdal meets these Russians who represent an alternative culture. They talk about their work and share their ideas on the state of their country. These interviews alternate with concert footage and a behind-the-scenes impression of Placebo’s Russian tour.

Afterfilm: ROENTGENIZDAT
‘The Strange Story of Soviet Music on the Bone’
“Leningrad 1946, the Cold War: All culture is subject to the brutal control of a totalitarian state censor. But music-mad bootleggers devise an incredible and risky way to listen to and share the music they love, copying forbidden songs onto used X-ray film and creating their own records..”It features interviews with Soviet era x-ray Bootleggers, musicians Marc Almond and Stephen Coates and extraordinary archive footage telling the story of one of the strangest eras in vinyl, music, forbidden culture and cold war history. An award winning documentary by Stephen Coates and Paul Heartfield.

Free admission.

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