FREE CONCERTS IN STAROMESTSKA NAMESTI1
Old Town Square. Paul Simon played ‘The Sound of Silence’, ‘The Boxer’ and ‘Bridge Over Troubled Water’. This was part of the Trans-Europ SOS Racism concerts. There were other concerts in Moscow and Paris. Paul Simon had sung to Havel during his Presidential visit to Washington on 22 February 1990 (at the concert “The America Tribute to Vaclav Havel and Celebration of Democracy” held in the Cathedral of St. John the Divine). (They organised that quickly, didn’t they? Given the revolution took place on 17 November.)
French band Les Negresses Vertes also played. Here’s a news report on the whole thing —
Also Marta Kubišová, Iva Bittova, Lenka Filiopová, Murray Head (‘One Night in Bangkok’) and Dee Dee Bridgewater.
I wasn’t sure I was there, but I can remember seeing Murray Head from a distance of perhaps twenty metres. Perhaps I left the crowded square before Paul Simon came on — though I remember being at a gig by him, too. Probably in June the following year.
The older I get, the more I admire his exquisite neatness and balance. ‘The boy in the bubble and the baby with the baboon heart.’ Like Chekhov with a catchy tune.