POP/ROCK - March 17, 1988

David Bowie, U2 and other Western rock groups will join such Soviet groups as Aquarium, Bravo, Brigade S and Black Coffee in Moscow next month for a series of benefit concerts to help fight drug addiction. The concerts, originally scheduled for this month, are to take place in late April, the Novosti Press Agency said. No date has been set yet, but the agency said the three six-hour concerts will be held at the 30,000-seat Olympic Stadium in Moscow. George Harrison, Paul McCartney and Julian Lennon were also said to have been invited, but there’s no word yet on whether they’ll participate. Revenue from ticket sales will be donated to the United Nations fund for the struggle against drug addiction and to a Soviet toxicology research center. Soviet officials denied reports of drug abuse in the country until Mikhail S. Gorbachev’s campaign for greater openness. Now, newspaper stories have disclosed that some 50,000 diagnosed addicts live in the Soviet Union.