Human rights concerts
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The Human Rights Concerts is the collective name informally used to describe the series of 28 rock concerts presented worldwide 1986-1998 to raise funds for – and awareness of - the human rights organization
Amnesty International Amnesty International (also referred to as Amnesty or AI) is an international non-governmental organization focused on human rights, with its headquarters in the United Kingdom. The organization says it has more than ten million members and sup ...
.Henke, James, "Human Rights Now!: Official Book of the Amnesty International World Concert Tour", ''
Bloomsbury Publishing Bloomsbury Publishing plc is a British worldwide publishing house of fiction and non-fiction. It is a constituent of the FTSE SmallCap Index. Bloomsbury's head office is located in Bloomsbury, an area of the London Borough of Camden. It has a U ...
'', 1 December 1988 ()
The concert series – organized by the US Section of Amnesty - evolved out of the '' Secret Policeman’s Ball'' series of charity galas organized by the UK Section of Amnesty starting in 1976. The British benefit shows had initially been comedy events featuring comedic performers. But from 1979 onwards, the UK shows started to include cameo appearances by some of Britain's most prominent rock musicians - including Pete Townshend,
Sting Sting may refer to: * Stinger or sting, a structure of an animal to inject venom, or the injury produced by a stinger * Irritating hairs or prickles of a stinging plant, or the plant itself Fictional characters and entities * Sting (Middle-eart ...
,
Eric Clapton Eric Patrick Clapton (born 1945) is an English rock and blues guitarist, singer, and songwriter. He is often regarded as one of the most successful and influential guitarists in rock music. Clapton ranked second in ''Rolling Stone''s list of ...
,
Jeff Beck Geoffrey Arnold Beck (born 24 June 1944) is an English rock guitarist. He rose to prominence with the Yardbirds and after fronted the Jeff Beck Group and Beck, Bogert & Appice. In 1975, he switched to a mainly instrumental style, with a focus ...
,
Phil Collins Philip David Charles Collins (born 30 January 1951) is an English singer, musician, songwriter, record producer and actor. He was the drummer and lead singer of the rock band Genesis and also has a career as a solo performer. Between 1982 and ...
,
Bob Geldof Robert Frederick Zenon Geldof (; born 5 October 1951) is an Irish singer-songwriter, and political activist. He rose to prominence in the late 1970s as lead singer of the Rock music in Ireland, Irish rock band the Boomtown Rats, who achieved ...
,
Donovan Donovan Phillips Leitch (born 10 May 1946), known mononymously as Donovan, is a Scottish musician, songwriter, and record producer. He developed an eclectic and distinctive style that blended folk, jazz, pop, psychedelic rock and world mus ...
,
Peter Gabriel Peter Brian Gabriel (born 13 February 1950) is an English musician, singer, songwriter, record producer, and activist. He rose to fame as the original lead singer of the progressive rock band Genesis. After leaving Genesis in 1975, he launched ...
,
David Gilmour David Jon Gilmour ( ; born 6 March 1946) is an English guitarist, singer, songwriter, and member of the rock band Pink Floyd. He joined as guitarist and co-lead vocalist in 1967, shortly before the departure of founding member Syd Barrett. P ...
, Kate Bush and others. The ''Human Rights Concerts'' were developed with the intention of building on this new support for Amnesty among musicians and channelling it into a series of rock concerts and tours.


Background

There were four distinctive sets of concerts in the series. The series featured many of the world’s leading contemporary musicians including: Bands: U2, The Police,
Bruce Springsteen Bruce Frederick Joseph Springsteen (born September 23, 1949) is an American singer and songwriter. He has released 21 studio albums, most of which feature his backing band, the E Street Band. Originally from the Jersey Shore, he is an originat ...
& the E Street Band,
Radiohead Radiohead are an English rock band formed in Abingdon, Oxfordshire, in 1985. The band consists of Thom Yorke (vocals, guitar, piano, keyboards); brothers Jonny Greenwood (lead guitar, keyboards, other instruments) and Colin Greenwood (bass) ...
, Led Zeppelin's
Robert Plant Robert Anthony Plant (born 20 August 1948) is an English singer and songwriter, best known as the lead singer and lyricist of the English rock band Led Zeppelin for all of its existence from 1968 until 1980, when the band broke up following the ...
&
Jimmy Page James Patrick Page (born 9 January 1944) is an English musician who achieved international success as the guitarist and founder of the rock band Led Zeppelin. Page is prolific in creating guitar riffs. His style involves various alternative ...
, The Neville Brothers,
The Hooters The Hooters are an American rock band from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The band combines elements of rock, reggae, ska, and folk music to create its sound. The Hooters first gained major commercial success in the United States in the mid-1980 ...
, New Kids On The Block, Third World Solo Artists:
Sting Sting may refer to: * Stinger or sting, a structure of an animal to inject venom, or the injury produced by a stinger * Irritating hairs or prickles of a stinging plant, or the plant itself Fictional characters and entities * Sting (Middle-eart ...
,
Bruce Springsteen Bruce Frederick Joseph Springsteen (born September 23, 1949) is an American singer and songwriter. He has released 21 studio albums, most of which feature his backing band, the E Street Band. Originally from the Jersey Shore, he is an originat ...
,
Peter Gabriel Peter Brian Gabriel (born 13 February 1950) is an English musician, singer, songwriter, record producer, and activist. He rose to fame as the original lead singer of the progressive rock band Genesis. After leaving Genesis in 1975, he launched ...
,
Jackson Browne Clyde Jackson Browne (born October 9, 1948) is an American musician, singer, songwriter, and political activist who has sold over 18 million albums in the United States. Emerging as a precocious teenage songwriter in mid-1960s Los Angeles, he h ...
,
Lou Reed Lewis Allan Reed (March 2, 1942October 27, 2013) was an American musician, songwriter, and poet. He was the guitarist, singer, and principal songwriter for the rock band the Velvet Underground and had a solo career that spanned five decades. ...
, Bryan Adams, Joan Baez, Wynton Marsalis,
Sinéad O'Connor Shuhada Sadaqat (born Sinéad Marie Bernadette O'Connor on 8 December 1966; ) is an Irish singer-songwriter. Her debut album, ''The Lion and the Cobra'', was released in 1987 and charted internationally. Her second album, ''I Do Not Want What ...
,
Alanis Morissette Alanis Nadine Morissette ( ; born June 1, 1974) is a Canadian-American singer, songwriter, and actress. Known for her emotive mezzo-soprano voice and confessional songwriting, Morissette began her career in Canada in the early 1990s with tw ...
, Shania Twain,
Little Steven Steven Van Zandt (né Lento; born November 22, 1950), also known as Little Steven or Miami Steve, is an American musician, singer, songwriter, and actor. He is a member of Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band, in which he plays guitar and mandolin ...
,
Bob Geldof Robert Frederick Zenon Geldof (; born 5 October 1951) is an Irish singer-songwriter, and political activist. He rose to prominence in the late 1970s as lead singer of the Rock music in Ireland, Irish rock band the Boomtown Rats, who achieved ...
, Joan Armatrading,
Carlos Santana Carlos Humberto Santana Barragán (; born July 20, 1947) is an American guitarist who rose to fame in the late 1960s and early 1970s with his band Santana, which pioneered a fusion of Rock and roll and Latin American jazz. Its sound featured ...
, Yoko Ono, Miles Davis,
Joni Mitchell Roberta Joan "Joni" Mitchell ( Anderson; born November 7, 1943) is a Canadian-American musician, producer, and painter. Among the most influential singer-songwriters to emerge from the 1960s folk music circuit, Mitchell became known for her sta ...
, Tracy Chapman,
Bono Paul David Hewson (born 10 May 1960), known by his stage name Bono (), is an Irish singer-songwriter, activist, and philanthropist. He is the lead vocalist and primary lyricist of the rock band U2. Born and raised in Dublin, he attended M ...
, Ruben Blades, Fela, Youssou N'Dour,
k.d. lang Kathryn Dawn Lang (born November 2, 1961), known by her stage name k.d. lang, is a Canadian pop (music), pop and country music, country singer-songwriter and occasional actress. Lang has won Juno Awards and Grammy Awards for her musical perfor ...
, Pat Metheny


A Conspiracy of Hope

The ''A Conspiracy of Hope'' US tour spanned six concerts over a ten-day period in June 1986 and culminated in an eleven-hour concert at New Jersey's
Giants Stadium Giants Stadium (sometimes referred to as Giants Stadium at the Meadowlands or The Swamp) was a stadium located in East Rutherford, New Jersey, in the Meadowlands Sports Complex. The venue was open from 1976 to 2010, and it primarily hosted sp ...
that was aired as an all-day ''
Live Aid Live Aid was a multi-venue benefit concert held on Saturday 13 July 1985, as well as a music-based fundraising initiative. The original event was organised by Bob Geldof and Midge Ure to raise further funds for relief of the 1983–1985 fami ...
'' style broadcast on
MTV MTV (Originally an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable channel that launched on August 1, 1981. Based in New York City, it serves as the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group, part of Paramount Media Networks, a di ...
. Artists who played at all six concerts on the tour were: U2, Sting, Peter Gabriel, Bryan Adams, Lou Reed, Joan Baez and The Neville Brothers. On the first three concerts of the tour, Sting played as a solo artist accompanied by his own band. For the last three concerts of the tour, Sting performed as a member of The Police who reformed after a two-year hiatus especially for those three Amnesty concerts. (They were the last public performances by The Police for 21 years until their reunion in 2007.) At the grand finale of the tour in Giants Stadium, the touring artists were joined by an eclectic range of other musical performers including: Jackson Browne, Little Steven, Bob Geldof, Joan Armatrading, Carlos Santana, Yoko Ono, Miles Davis, Joni Mitchell, Ruben Blades, Fela, The Hooters and Third World. The Giants Stadium concert was aired once live on MTV, with a live presentation of the final three hours simulcast on the Fox Network. Neither the MTV live presentation nor the Fox Network special have ever been repeated on TV. Neither the Giants Stadium tour finale concert nor any of the preceding five concerts have ever been available in any home video or audio format.


Human Rights Now

The ''Human Rights Now!'' tour was a twenty concert World tour held over a six-week period in September–October 1988. The tour commemorated the 40th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights that is the virtual manifesto of Amnesty's mission. The tour starred Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band, Sting and Peter Gabriel with Tracy Chapman and Youssou N'Dour. Guest musicians who made appearances during the tour included Bono, Joan Baez, k.d. lang and Pat Metheny. The twenty concerts took place in fifteen countries on five continents (Europe, Asia, Africa, North America and South America). In each country the core artists were augmented at the concert with performances by popular local musicians. A three-hour film documenting the final concert in Buenos Aires together with highlights of the preceding world tour was aired once by HBO in the USA on December 10, 1988 - International Human Rights Day. A shortened version aired once on Channel Four in the UK. Neither the Buenos Aires tour finale concert nor any of the preceding nineteen concerts have ever been available in any home video or audio format.


An Embrace of Hope

The ''An Embrace Of Hope'' concert was a de facto post-script to the ''Human Rights Now!'' tour. It took place in Chile - a country that for political reasons it was not possible for the ''Human Rights Now!'' tour to visit during the 1988 world tour. Following the end of the Pinochet dictatorship in March 1990, the concert was staged in Santiago in October 1990 as a celebration of Chile's return to democracy. The concert starred Sting, Peter Gabriel, Inti-Illimani, Jackson Browne, Wynton Marsalis, Sinéad O'Connor, Ruben Blades, New Kids On The Block and several more South American and Spaniard artists. The concert was televised live in Chile and Spain but never shown in the USA.


The Struggle Continues...

The concert titled ''The Struggle Continues...'' took place on December 10, 1998 - the exact 50th anniversary of the signing of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. It was presented in Paris, France - the city where the original Declaration had been signed in 1948. The concert starred Bruce Springsteen, Peter Gabriel, Radiohead, Robert Plant & Jimmy Page (of Led Zeppelin), Tracy Chapman, Alanis Morissette and Shania Twain. A three-hour film of the concert was aired once via pay-per-view in the USA in 1999. A live radio broadcast of the concert was transmitted by BBC Radio. The concert has never been available in any audio format, other than the four-hour broadcast in the U.S., including backstage interviews that was produced by Richard Flanzer of AtlanticPacific Music. Flanzer also distributed the concert footage and his company produced various portions of the event from Paris. The concerts were all released on CD, iTunes and DVD (as a box set or individually) in 2013 by SHOUT! Factory.


References

{{Authority control Benefit concerts Amnesty International