GRIFFITHS: Moscow is more open to fresh ideas than ever before. If it's new, Muscovites want it.
Music
GRIFFITHS: Charlie McMahon has made their wanted list. To them, he is a unique performer from an exotic country.
He plays his own invention - a cross between a didgeridoo and a trombone.
Charlie: My approach is experimental, my music is experimental.
I got this experimenting with rockets when I was 16, so I really like a different place, a real challenge, you know. And this is here, this is exciting.
GRIFFITHS: Here is just about as far away from his bush home south of Sydney as is possible - a bikers' club in the middle of Moscow.
It's an other worldly experience for both Charlie and his young Russian audience.
Biker: This is the sound of mechanisms.
This is the sound of air being sucked into the carburettor, a knock of valves rocking shafts and a generator.
Julia: It's exciting that he is a man from another world,
he feels in a different way sees differently. You can be a kid, listen to him and be a kid, express yourself the way one can. I express myself by dancing.
Music
GRIFFITHS: Charlie owes his blossoming popularity in Russia to this man. Businessman Sergei Bezugliy is a rare breed, a Russian Australia-phile. He's accessorised with ugg boots, bleached blonde assistants and a leathery cane toad.
Music
Sergei: I in Sydney airport exactly one year ago. I just walk in and out to kill the time and just catch this sound. Such an unusual sound.
GRIFFITHS: It was the sound of this man, Charlie McMahon.
Sergei: Charlie! So pleased to meet you. Charlie: Good on you, Sergei. Thanks, mate. Sergei: Welcome. Welcome again. Pleased to meet you.
GRIFFITHS: Sergei is Charlie's biggest Russian fan and now, his promoter. This is the beginning of the Australian's third tour of Moscow, his first in winter.
Charlie: What's this?
Sergei: First very symbolic touch of the Russian snow, please!Charlie: There we go. (laughs) You've got ugg boots on, Sergei.
GRIFFITHS: It's an unexpected twist in a long musical career.
Charlie: Ugg boots! Yeah they are!
GRIFFITHS: Charlie McMahon is one of Australia's leading didj players.
But what really gives Charlie street cred with the Moscow crowd is his work on the soundtrack of the third Mad Max movie.
Mad Max music
GRIFFITHS: For many Russians, Mad Max was a seminal movie.
The film's apocalyptic scenario struck a chord with millions struggling in a post-soviet reality.
Sergei: Actually it was first real movie which catch your interest, because it's really about us.
No law at that moment, you remember the system just changing, no police, only your family, your kids and you.
GRIFFITHS: For Charlie, the appeal is obvious. Charlie: I think it's the freedom of the outback that's portrayed in Mad Max. I think that's an essential Australian characteristic that people really take to.
And just the tough guy thing, you know.
GRIFFITHS: The owner of all of this is the Russian tough guy from Central Casting. He's the leader of the Nightwolves biker gang and the founder of the Sexton Club - Charlie's Venue.
He's known as Alexander the Surgeon - he claims it was his profession in Soviet times. Dr Alexander is a fan of both Charlie McMahon and Mad Max.
Alexander: I was really impressed by all these post-war designs. On the one hand, splinters of civilisation that are really high-tech, but on the other hand, something primordially -- everything intermixed. That, to some extent, was used in the design of the club.
GRIFFITHS: Alexander stages these massive spectaculars as a tribute to Mad Max. With himself, of course, in the starring role.
Alexander: Then the land became covered with ash and soot from one to the other.
GRIFFITHS: The fact that Charlie McMahon played on the Mad Max soundtrack was a dream come true for his Russian promoter.
Sergei: Fifty-five square metres of Australia in the middle of Moscow.
GRIFFITHS: It's not the first time Sergei Bezugliy has seized an opportunity.
In the financial free-for-all that was 1990s Russia, he went into business and now owns several Australiana shops.
For sale, T-shirts, wide-brimmed hats and more toads.
GRIFFITHS: So what do you use the toad for though, Sergei? Sergei: Well, you can use it for mobile, you can use it for your key. For the last one, bullet. Or wherever you want to use it.
GRIFFITHS: He's a great salesman, and the Russians are buying it.
Sergei: Everyone looking for hats from Australia because it's deep mentality product.
Music
GRIFFITHS: Sergei's latest endeavour could be the most successful of all.
Charlie: I think Russia itself is a very go place, they're open to new ideas, new sounds. And Sergei is a very, very determined promoter.
People here say its connections, but I really think it has to do with having a lot of front.
GRIFFITHS: Charlie says Sergei has already saved him from some slippery situations.
Charlie: This is a marvellous bloody place to walk around. How do you do it, mate?
GRIFFITHS: To be successful in business in Moscow means staying one step ahead of the Mafia. CHARLIE: There are places where you play and the people that run them are part of groups that you don't normally have association with.
I think here it's probably a bit like it was in Australia in the 50s and 60s.
Music
Sergei: Welcome to Sexton's Charlie, please. Charlie McMahon. Didgeridoo!
Music
GRIFFITHS: Patrons of the biker club are entranced by the man and his music.
Charlie: Welcome to what I call Mad Max wonderland.
Alexander: I can imagine those deserts. But in general I get images of the road --a connection with the road where everything plays a certain role -- a running road and a desert with nothing in it as if it were a burnt land.
GRIFFITHS: Sergei Bezugliy believes Charlie will be a big star in Russia.
He's already slated to play at one of Moscow's largest dance parties and star in a Russian TV documentary. Charlie: For me, it's not so much how hard it is to get into Russia, but it will be how hard it will be to get out of it, because there's been that much commitment.
Sergei: Thank you Charlie.
Sergei: As you know, there is Mr Mozart, but nobody can touch him.
There is Mr Tchaikovsky. He is great, but nobody can touch him. But there is Mr Charlie McMahon, he is great and I can visit him right now. He's still alive.
Music
GRIFFITHS: But drinking buddies don't necessarily make good business partners. Not long after this toast, the friends fell out. Charlie told me he hadn't been paid for the tour - that Sergei owes him a lot of money But in Russia, that's showbiz.
Charlie: No worries.
Reporter: Emma Griffiths
Camera: Louie Eroglu
Editor: Simon Brynjolffssen
Music
GRIFFITHS: Charlie McMahon has made their wanted list. To them, he is a unique performer from an exotic country.
He plays his own invention - a cross between a didgeridoo and a trombone.
Charlie: My approach is experimental, my music is experimental.
I got this experimenting with rockets when I was 16, so I really like a different place, a real challenge, you know. And this is here, this is exciting.
GRIFFITHS: Here is just about as far away from his bush home south of Sydney as is possible - a bikers' club in the middle of Moscow.
It's an other worldly experience for both Charlie and his young Russian audience.
Biker: This is the sound of mechanisms.
This is the sound of air being sucked into the carburettor, a knock of valves rocking shafts and a generator.
Julia: It's exciting that he is a man from another world,
he feels in a different way sees differently. You can be a kid, listen to him and be a kid, express yourself the way one can. I express myself by dancing.
Music
GRIFFITHS: Charlie owes his blossoming popularity in Russia to this man. Businessman Sergei Bezugliy is a rare breed, a Russian Australia-phile. He's accessorised with ugg boots, bleached blonde assistants and a leathery cane toad.
Music
Sergei: I in Sydney airport exactly one year ago. I just walk in and out to kill the time and just catch this sound. Such an unusual sound.
GRIFFITHS: It was the sound of this man, Charlie McMahon.
Sergei: Charlie! So pleased to meet you. Charlie: Good on you, Sergei. Thanks, mate. Sergei: Welcome. Welcome again. Pleased to meet you.
GRIFFITHS: Sergei is Charlie's biggest Russian fan and now, his promoter. This is the beginning of the Australian's third tour of Moscow, his first in winter.
Charlie: What's this?
Sergei: First very symbolic touch of the Russian snow, please!Charlie: There we go. (laughs) You've got ugg boots on, Sergei.
GRIFFITHS: It's an unexpected twist in a long musical career.
Charlie: Ugg boots! Yeah they are!
GRIFFITHS: Charlie McMahon is one of Australia's leading didj players.
But what really gives Charlie street cred with the Moscow crowd is his work on the soundtrack of the third Mad Max movie.
Mad Max music
GRIFFITHS: For many Russians, Mad Max was a seminal movie.
The film's apocalyptic scenario struck a chord with millions struggling in a post-soviet reality.
Sergei: Actually it was first real movie which catch your interest, because it's really about us.
No law at that moment, you remember the system just changing, no police, only your family, your kids and you.
GRIFFITHS: For Charlie, the appeal is obvious. Charlie: I think it's the freedom of the outback that's portrayed in Mad Max. I think that's an essential Australian characteristic that people really take to.
And just the tough guy thing, you know.
GRIFFITHS: The owner of all of this is the Russian tough guy from Central Casting. He's the leader of the Nightwolves biker gang and the founder of the Sexton Club - Charlie's Venue.
He's known as Alexander the Surgeon - he claims it was his profession in Soviet times. Dr Alexander is a fan of both Charlie McMahon and Mad Max.
Alexander: I was really impressed by all these post-war designs. On the one hand, splinters of civilisation that are really high-tech, but on the other hand, something primordially -- everything intermixed. That, to some extent, was used in the design of the club.
GRIFFITHS: Alexander stages these massive spectaculars as a tribute to Mad Max. With himself, of course, in the starring role.
Alexander: Then the land became covered with ash and soot from one to the other.
GRIFFITHS: The fact that Charlie McMahon played on the Mad Max soundtrack was a dream come true for his Russian promoter.
Sergei: Fifty-five square metres of Australia in the middle of Moscow.
GRIFFITHS: It's not the first time Sergei Bezugliy has seized an opportunity.
In the financial free-for-all that was 1990s Russia, he went into business and now owns several Australiana shops.
For sale, T-shirts, wide-brimmed hats and more toads.
GRIFFITHS: So what do you use the toad for though, Sergei? Sergei: Well, you can use it for mobile, you can use it for your key. For the last one, bullet. Or wherever you want to use it.
GRIFFITHS: He's a great salesman, and the Russians are buying it.
Sergei: Everyone looking for hats from Australia because it's deep mentality product.
Music
GRIFFITHS: Sergei's latest endeavour could be the most successful of all.
Charlie: I think Russia itself is a very go place, they're open to new ideas, new sounds. And Sergei is a very, very determined promoter.
People here say its connections, but I really think it has to do with having a lot of front.
GRIFFITHS: Charlie says Sergei has already saved him from some slippery situations.
Charlie: This is a marvellous bloody place to walk around. How do you do it, mate?
GRIFFITHS: To be successful in business in Moscow means staying one step ahead of the Mafia. CHARLIE: There are places where you play and the people that run them are part of groups that you don't normally have association with.
I think here it's probably a bit like it was in Australia in the 50s and 60s.
Music
Sergei: Welcome to Sexton's Charlie, please. Charlie McMahon. Didgeridoo!
Music
GRIFFITHS: Patrons of the biker club are entranced by the man and his music.
Charlie: Welcome to what I call Mad Max wonderland.
Alexander: I can imagine those deserts. But in general I get images of the road --a connection with the road where everything plays a certain role -- a running road and a desert with nothing in it as if it were a burnt land.
GRIFFITHS: Sergei Bezugliy believes Charlie will be a big star in Russia.
He's already slated to play at one of Moscow's largest dance parties and star in a Russian TV documentary. Charlie: For me, it's not so much how hard it is to get into Russia, but it will be how hard it will be to get out of it, because there's been that much commitment.
Sergei: Thank you Charlie.
Sergei: As you know, there is Mr Mozart, but nobody can touch him.
There is Mr Tchaikovsky. He is great, but nobody can touch him. But there is Mr Charlie McMahon, he is great and I can visit him right now. He's still alive.
Music
GRIFFITHS: But drinking buddies don't necessarily make good business partners. Not long after this toast, the friends fell out. Charlie told me he hadn't been paid for the tour - that Sergei owes him a lot of money But in Russia, that's showbiz.
Charlie: No worries.
Reporter: Emma Griffiths
Camera: Louie Eroglu
Editor: Simon Brynjolffssen