For years I’ve known that our personal interests have paths that will often never cross. Sometimes, however, they do. I admit it. I am and will always be a rock ’n’ roll fan. I am talking about real rock ’n’ roll here — not popish-californian pseudo punk rock. As Keith Richards put it, "Everyone talks about rock these days; the problem is they forget about the roll."
To my greatest surprise, during my stay in Armenia last year, I discovered that I have a real enthusiasm for this type of music. Let me just say that the wonderful Beatles bar on Pushkin Street and the Irish Pub on Parapetsi Street in Yerevan became my nightly headquarters.
But what would you say if I told you The Rolling Stones and Armenian composer Aram Khachaturian have something in common? Believe it or not, they do. In 1968, The Rolling Stones, tired of not being able to record tracks whenever and wherever they wished, conceived their own Rolling Stone Mobile Studio. Led Zeppelin, Frank Zappa, The Who, among others, recorded albums in this high-tech facility.
Initially brought to Europe in 1971 for the Montreux Festival, eight years later this studio was transported to the USSR (now Latvia). The purpose of this trip was to record Khatchaturian’s ballet Gayaneh, performed by the Latvian ballet company Riga. And this was one year after Aram Khachaturian had passed away. This ballet became famous worldwide when it was used for the soundtrack to "2001: A Space Odyssey."
So now if you hear this live record, think of The Rolling Stones. Or vice-versa.