Band Aid II on the way, and Live Aid finally on DVD
"Today [Sunday] at Air studios in Hampstead, north London, pop and rock acts will raise their voices -- and millions of pounds -- to alleviate disaster in Africa, just as Band Aid did 20 years ago.
"Then it was famine in Ethiopia, now it is Darfur in Sudan. Then it was Boy George, Sting and George Michael. Today it is Robbie Williams, Dido, Justin Hawkins, Ms Dynamite, Jamelia and Chris Martin. Once again the cover will show a black child against a westernised Christmas scene after an alternative by the artist Damien Hirst showing the grim reaper was rejected as "too scary".
"You might think nothing has changed. But since Band Aid there has been a quiet revolution in the way the glitterati of pop have come to understand how fame can effect change.
"It was Band Aid -- and its successor concert Live Aid -- that proved the catalyst. The concert, in July 1985, powered by the righteous indignation of Bob Geldof, raised £110m for emergency famine relief. But although the money was spent wisely in Ethiopia, Chad and other countries, a decade later a simple statistic led to an epiphany about Africa’s poverty.
"That figure of £110m turned out to be the equivalent of what the world’s poorest continent returned to the West in debt repayments -- every week. It was instrumental in U2’s Bono signing up to the Jubilee 2000 campaign aimed at cancelling those debts. It was, he said, 'a chance to revisit that situation -- but this time to look at the structure of poverty'.
"It was also an early signal that the argument was shifting from feeding the world to fixing the world. So when Geldof showed up to launch the Live Aid DVD last weekend, he had just flown in from the Congo, undertaking research for Tony Blair’s Commission for Africa ..."
Full text at The Sunday Times
The 4-disc Live Aid DVD contains over 10 hours of footage from the live concerts held simultaneously in London and Philadelphia in 1985. This is the first time it has been released. The DVD will be available from Amazon from 16 November. Get it at the Cafe Diem Store. You can go now and order it, if you wish!
[Note: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada) only, according to Amazon.com. Me, I'll have to get it through Amazon.co.uk. - Nora]
"Today [Sunday] at Air studios in Hampstead, north London, pop and rock acts will raise their voices -- and millions of pounds -- to alleviate disaster in Africa, just as Band Aid did 20 years ago.
"Then it was famine in Ethiopia, now it is Darfur in Sudan. Then it was Boy George, Sting and George Michael. Today it is Robbie Williams, Dido, Justin Hawkins, Ms Dynamite, Jamelia and Chris Martin. Once again the cover will show a black child against a westernised Christmas scene after an alternative by the artist Damien Hirst showing the grim reaper was rejected as "too scary".
"You might think nothing has changed. But since Band Aid there has been a quiet revolution in the way the glitterati of pop have come to understand how fame can effect change.
"It was Band Aid -- and its successor concert Live Aid -- that proved the catalyst. The concert, in July 1985, powered by the righteous indignation of Bob Geldof, raised £110m for emergency famine relief. But although the money was spent wisely in Ethiopia, Chad and other countries, a decade later a simple statistic led to an epiphany about Africa’s poverty.
"That figure of £110m turned out to be the equivalent of what the world’s poorest continent returned to the West in debt repayments -- every week. It was instrumental in U2’s Bono signing up to the Jubilee 2000 campaign aimed at cancelling those debts. It was, he said, 'a chance to revisit that situation -- but this time to look at the structure of poverty'.
"It was also an early signal that the argument was shifting from feeding the world to fixing the world. So when Geldof showed up to launch the Live Aid DVD last weekend, he had just flown in from the Congo, undertaking research for Tony Blair’s Commission for Africa ..."
Full text at The Sunday Times
The 4-disc Live Aid DVD contains over 10 hours of footage from the live concerts held simultaneously in London and Philadelphia in 1985. This is the first time it has been released. The DVD will be available from Amazon from 16 November. Get it at the Cafe Diem Store. You can go now and order it, if you wish!
[Note: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada) only, according to Amazon.com. Me, I'll have to get it through Amazon.co.uk. - Nora]
Nora posted item above at 4:16 AM | Permalink
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