Could use a Google expert to help me find a [Russian Rock] poster

Cafe Society
1

I’ve owned a poster from the 1991 Monsters of Rock concert in Russia. I’ve had it for 16-17 years now and just got it framed. I’ve looked a few times on Google for more information on the poster itself, but have yet to come across any other photos of it.

While looking around again this past week I came across one bootleg record that has a black and white copy of half of the poster. I can get plenty of information on the concert, but the poster is what I’m interested in. I would have thought that with it being such a big concert there would have been other posters floating around out there.

I know it’s a real copy as I saw it hanging in the Moscow State University’s geology department in the early 90s when I was there. A couple of years later my ex-father-in-law brought me the poster along with a few other ones hanging on the wall, one of which I sent to Anaamika for a white elephant a couple of years ago. Now that it hangs in my living room I’d like to know more about it but I haven’t been able to find anything.

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Whew. I thought I might have been the poster you were looking for. I have a lot of enemies.

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Well I’m pretty sure you’re not hanging on my wall. At least I hope you’re not!

4

I can tell you that the concert was on 28 September and that it was the only time the Monsters Of Rock show was done in the Soviet Union. I can tell you that the New York Times wrote about it.

I found this blogger who uses the black and white image from the bootleg that was linked in the OP.

But I was unable to find the poster you have anywhere.

And then I found this.

That compilation was released in 1992 by Alien Records/BIZ Enterprises, a Moscow company owned by a guy named Boris Zosymov. The compilation’s catalog number is BIZ 0001 MR 1/ 2 (my computer keeps trying to change that to ½ but it’s just 1 slash 2; I added the space to stop the autocorrect). Copies go for about $5 these days and can be found on eBay, Discogs, etc.

Anyway, the thing that struck me about the cover was that the logo for Monsters Of Rock was the same as on your poster.

So I did some checking and found that the cover (and likely your poster) was done by an artist named Vladimir Grishetchko who also goes by the name V. Gree. He did a lot of album art and related stuff (like concert posters, etc.) back in the early '90s, but all in Russia. He may also be a world-class cyclist, but I haven’t been able to find any contact info for him to email him and ask.

I have a couple of inquiries out to friends in Russia; I’ll let you know if they can find anything else.

Is there something in particular you want to know about that poster?

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That’s what I’ve been interested in, I’ve seen footage of the concert, that’s no problem to find.

Now looking at it, and a few other things, I Googled his name and came up with a few other album covers he did. Seems he did the E.S.T. covers, which was one of the Russian bands at the concert so it makes sense that he might have been contacted to do the poster as well.

I guess now, since you might be able to find more information, is was this an official poster, or was it one done after the show. Besides one bootleg I’m just surprised at the lack of any images of the poster at all. I would have thought there would have been at least a couple of thousand made. I don’t think I’ve seen any posters at all for this concert and it would be kind of strange to have one of the few remaining ones sitting in my house for so many years.

V. Gree Sure did seem to like his skulls as they are on every album cover he’s done. And thanks for the help, that’s far more information then I’ve ever had on the poster.

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I’m going to give this one bump, especially since some kind mod was nice enough to change the title a little bit.

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And also because Bo kicked some ass in finding out what he did.

Impressive.

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Yes, yes it was.

I also see a signature on the poster, but it’s obscured by the frame, there was little boarder around it, but it does say '91 on it.

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Good job Bo!

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Aw, thanks y’all. Y’all know I love a good research challenge, especially one that’s music related and ESPECIALLY one that’s about metal!

I was just gonna update that I’ve reached out to a very high level source. It might take me a while to hear back tho.

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Okay, so I reached out to Boris Zysomov, the guy who owned Alien Records (and who later became head of Polygram Russia, part of MTV, etc.) and he remembers V. Gree but doesn’t know anything about him that is current. He said he’d see if he could find anything and let me know. Hopefully I can get his contact info and we can ask the artist directly about the poster (that’s my goal).

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A trick for searching google for foreign things is to translate key words/names (in this case into Russian), then search for that.

Also be aware there are foreign versions of Amazon, Yahoo, Google?, Ebay, etc. Try finding those and search using a foreign word/name.

And to translate, of course search google.com for translate!

13

Sweet, that would rock. \m/

And if you do hear from him tell him the poster has been nicely framed and in a living room being enjoyed.

14

Bumping this thread with some new information.

I just heard back from one of my contacts in Russia:

This gave me two new leads; I’ll post when I hear back from them.

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I am so excited right now I can barely contain myself.

I FOUND HIM!

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Mr. Grishetchko is very cool! We spent about an hour chatting in an impromptu interview tonight via Facebook, which he was kind enough to allow me to post here (minor reformatting for clarity):

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I have to say that this conversation was among the most thrilling I have ever had in my life! I was shaking so hard at first it was difficult to type!

ETA: I realized that I had forgotten to include the artwork he sent with the comment “One more cover”. It was for the Finnish band Oz, for their album Roll the Dice. http://www.allmusic.com/album/roll-the-dice-mw0000212092

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Moving over to CS.

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Dude, you fucking rock! \m/ Thanks so much. It’s cool to know that it was an official poster for MOR and one of the few remaining. What a story that poster has, might be more interesting then my life.

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/bow

You’re welcome, Edward; it was an honor and a pleasure to meet Gospodin Grishetchko and talk to him. I’m very grateful that his English is so good; my Russian is limited to only a handful of phrases and terms.

I’m still hopeful that he’ll turn up here and post something, but I went ahead and asked your questions in case he wasn’t so inclined.

I wish I didn’t have to go to work this morning so I could have stayed up talking to him. If I ever head over to Russia I’ll have to look him and my contact who gave me the new lead up and buy them dinner or something.