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The Human Rights Now! Tour was a truly worldwide series of twenty benefit concerts in behalf of Amnesty International that took place over six weeks in 1988. Held not to raise funds but to increase awareness of Amnesty and to publicise the 40th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the shows featured Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, Sting, Peter Gabriel, Tracy Chapman, and Youssou N'dour.
Background
The tour was conceived by the Executive Director of Amnesty International's U.S. section, Jack Healey, who also served as Executive Producer. Other producers included Martin Lewis, who had first recruited musicians to work with Amnesty years before for The Secret Policeman's Balls series. The tour was run by famed rock promotor Bill Graham, who had also worked with Healey and Lewis on Amnesty's shorter, United States-only 1986 A Conspiracy of Hope Tour. Charles Fulwood, Communications Director for Amnesty International USA, served as media director and chief media strategist for the world tour.
Like most such ventures - there were problems that had to be surmounted. The tour's main sponsor withdrew just weeks before the start of the tour. This motivated Sting and others to solicit a sponsor themselves; new sponsorship was eventually secured from Reebok International, and the tour was announced in April, with Sting and Gabriel as the headlining acts. Jackson Browne and Robert Cray were also at the initial announcement but in the end did not participate. Springsteen joined on later, announcing his role during a July radio broadcast of a concert of his in Stockholm, Sweden.
There were also dilemmas about some of the countries and venues. Certain concerts were planned for remote locations. In some cases host governments were not happy to have the touring superstars preaching freedom and democracy in their backyard. Among Communist countries, Healey was only able to get into Hungary. Concert-goers in the developed nations purchased tickets for the shows. Most concerts in the Third World were free of charge.
In the final event, the tour did indeed go to places rarely if ever visited by Western popular music acts, including India and Equatorial Africa. E Street Band saxophonist Clarence Clemons would later say that being in Africa and seeing black people literally everywhere he went was a relevation.
Performances
- 2 September Wembley Stadium, London, United Kingdom
- 4 September Palais Omnisports de Paris-Bercy, Paris, France
- 5 September Palais Omnisports de Paris-Bercy, Paris, France
- 6 September Népstadion, Budapest, Hungary
- 8 September Stadio Comunale, Turin, Italy
- 10 September Nou Camp, Barcelona, Spain
- 13 September Estadio Nacional, San José, Costa Rica
- 15 September Maple Leaf Gardens, Toronto, Canada
- 17 September Le Stade Olympique, Montréal, Canada
- 19 September JFK Stadium, Philadelphia, United States
- 21 September Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, Los Angeles, United States
- 23 September Oakland Coliseum, Oakland, United States
- 27 September Tokyo Dome, Tokyo, Japan
- 30 September Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, New Dehli, India
- 3 October Olympic Stadium, Athens, Greece
- 7 October National Sports Stadium, Harare, Zimbabwe
- 9 October Stade Houphuet-Boigny, Abidjan, Ivory Coast
- 12 October Estadio Palmeiras, São Paulo, Brazil
- 14 October Estadio Mundialista Mendoza, Mendoza, Argentina
- 15 October River Plate Stadium, Buenos Aires, Argentina
Guest artists
Joan Baez opened the three U.S. dates. Roy Orbison appeared with Springsteen at the Oakland show, and Ravi Shankar played a set at the New Dehli show. Jorge Gonzalez of Los Prisioneros sang along with Bruce Springsteen and Tracy Chapman during one of the concerts.
Musical themes
Each show began and ended with a group performance of Bob Marley's "Get Up, Stand Up", and before that closer, a Springsteen-led group rendition of Bob Dylan's "Chimes of Freedom".
The tour artists generally arranged their individual sets around themes of politics, freedom, and courage; Gabriel previewed the eery "Of These, Hope" from his upcoming Music for The Last Temptation of Christ. Springsteen seemed less sure of his approach and peppered his set with standard concert favourites like "Cadillac Ranch" and "Glory Days".
Tour artists also played some on each others' material. Sting sideman Branford Marsalis played with N'dour; Gabriel, Springsteen, and E Streeter Nils Lofgren joined Sting's set at times; Tracy Chapman sang the Kate Bush part on Gabriel's "Don't Give Up", while N'dour reprised his role on "In Your Eyes"; and Sting took a verse of Springsteen's "The River", while his keyboardist David Sancious staged a mini-reunion with the E Street Band on other numbers. (As it happened, these were the last regular shows the E Street Band would play for more than a decade.) Baez led the Oakland audience in a verse of "Happy Birthday to You" to Springsteen, who had turned thirty-nine the day of the show; the two then performed a duet on Dylan's "Blowin' in the Wind".
Highlights of the final Buenos Aires show were shown on HBO and broadcast on Westwood One radio.
"Human Rights Now! Tour"