![]() This flat is their official residence and their home for life. From birth you live with your parents in their flat. All the housing is government owned and operated. ![]() The system worked like this: There are no privately owned homes. We only had gigs in two Russian cities: St Petersberg and Moscow, but they both had the same housing format. There are any amount of reasons and a huge diversity of homes. In every city there are different areas with different vibes and sometimes we look to move to a particular cultural part of town. We flat-share, living with groups of friends. As students we often end up far away from the area we grew up in. When we leave our parent’s home there are all kinds of choices we can make. In the West we are used to a certain amount of choice as to where we live and there are many different ways of finding somewhere to live. The housing situation there is so different to our own. Henk, Fred and Phil and I stayed separately in quite a few flats as guests. These arrangements gave us a unique insight into the lives of the Russian people and the way they lived. Thus saving the costs we would have otherwise have had to find for hotels. Our brilliant and resourceful friend Henk managed to solve this problem by persuading some of the contacts he had made on his previous visits to agree to put us up in their various flats. Unfortunately, in the time it took between receiving the grant and actually going to Russia, the exchange rate had gone through the roof and by the time we left the grant was nowhere near the amount we needed. He was awarded a grant to help with the expenses because Russia was recognised as being a relatively poor country and the proceeds of the gigs would not be enough to cover the costs of such a tour. Applying for the Grant was one of Phil’s first tasks and it was a long process. Phil applied successfully for a grant from the British Council and, with Henk’s help, arranged a tour as a duo with Fred Baker. This was something Henk took care of and he worked through several educational bodies and organised concerts for Phil and Fred in various music colleges in Lithuania and Russia. Before we could make any plans to travel we had to be sponsored by a Russian organisation in order to gain entry into the country. It wasn’t a simple matter of making travel arrangements and setting off. Going to Russia in those days was a complicated procedure. The Berlin Wall between the East and the West had come tumbling down. Perestroika, Glasnost and photos of Mrs Thatcher posing for the press on Russian tanks were the order of the day. He had lifted the Iron Curtain and opened up Russia to the West. In total contrast to Vladimir Putin, President Gorbechov was in power. In the early nineties Russia was such a different place compared to how we know it today. After that he went on to Moscow, by way of Mongolia, where he conceived the idea of bringing Phil and his music to Russia. Then he set off on his travels again to Hong Kong and China where he delivered some lectures in Shanghai and Beijing. Henk was in Australia by then and went back to Japan to tie up all the loose ends. Phil’s 1991 tour came about as a result of this record deal plus an offer of some gigs in Tokyo and Osaka from Akimittso Toki from Music Wonder. After the unveiling of the statue, which was well covered by the Burmese press, Henk carried on his way to South Korea via Japan where he got Phil a record deal with Virgin Japan. He rose to high office to become the most famous person in Burma although he was never allowed to return to Holland. But because he was a very intelligent man he learned the language, was freed from prison and became an advisor to the King of Burma. He had been captured and thrown into prison, and left to languish. This tour was brought about by Henk who had journeyed to Burma with his father to unveil a statue of a distant ancestor of his, who had been a merchant traveller in the era of Marco Polo, and had, in the course of his travels, been shipwrecked and washed ashore in Burma. In 1991 Phil took his band In Cahoots to Japan. The following is an example of his methodology: The idea was the brainchild of the much travelled Dutchman Henk Weltevreden (see above with Phil) Explorer, author, travel writer and broadcaster, Henk has been arranging tours for Phil in various lineups since the early seventies. With Russia’s invasion of Ukraine being so much in the news, I thought the time was right to tell the tale of Phil Miller and Fred Baker’s British Council sponsored trip to Russia.
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