Major Rock Acts Set to Salute Mandela From London Today

Aid fatigue!

Even before the cheering for such charity projects as Live Aid and U.S.A. for Africa faded a few years ago, there was grumbling in certain pop circles about how all this “social conscience stuff” was being overdone.

Rather than see the campaigns as signs of the return of the ‘60s’ idealism in rock, many observers were predicting that these highly publicized projects were simply passing novelties on a materialistic, business-as-usual pop landscape.

There was even a hint of impatience in the term “aid fatigue”--as if enough was enough: Let the pop stars just go back to entertaining.

Yet pop has not abandoned the spirit of Live Aid and U.S.A. for Africa.

Besides such flashy national programs as the Willie Nelson-led Farm Aid concerts and the six-city, 1986 Amnesty International tour, there has hardly been a weekend in Los Angeles in recent months when musicians haven’t staged benefits to aid political or social causes.

And today in London, a major event that will reach around the world will feature rock stars from all over. Wembley Stadium, the site of the British segment of Live Aid, is the setting.

A capacity crowd of more than 72,000 is expected for Freedomfest, a 10-hour concert saluting and promoting the release of Nelson Mandela, the imprisoned South African leader of the outlawed African National Congress. He’ll be 70 on July 18.

Portions of the concert--featuring more than three dozen pop and rock attractions, including Dire Straits, Sting, Whitney Houston, Simple Minds, Eric Clapton, Harry Belafonte, George Michael and Phil Collins--will be telecast to more than 61 countries, including the United States, Europe, the Soviet Union, India and East Germany.

Fox Broadcasting Co. (Channel 11 in Los Angeles) will broadcast at least six hours of the show beginning at 5 p.m.

Wembley will also be the site of the start of the second Amnesty International tour on Sept. 2. Though the itinerary and complete list of performers won’t be announced until later this month, the 20-city tour is expected to include at least one stadium show in Los Angeles in late September. Sting and Peter Gabriel are among the artists who have volunteered their services for part or all of the tour.

Regarding the benefit emphasis in pop music, concert promoter and television producer Neville Bolt said, “In the years since Live Aid, there have been so many benefits that I think some people have become a bit fatigued.

“The same is true of many of the performers,” he continued during a phone interview from London. “When we were putting the show together, there was an initial stage where people say, ‘Oh, no . . . not another benefit.’ But then you sit down with the performers and you explain the concept to them and they see the importance of the project and they see how much influence they can (generate), they say, ‘OK, I want to be involved.’ ”

While Live Aid and U.S.A. for Africa were strictly non-partisan projects, Freedomfest--like Steve Van Zandt’s 1985 “Sun City” recording, a stinging attack on South African apartheid--is unabashedly political.

“We see Nelson Mandela (who has been in prison since 1964 on charges of sabotage) as a symbol of man’s inhumanity to man, much in the same way Martin Luther King (Jr.) was a symbol,” said Bolt, a guiding force behind today’s Wembley concert and telecast.

“We are trying to focus the world’s attention on Mandela and the system in South Africa, where people are oppressed simply because they are born with black skin.”

In aiming for the rock ‘n’ roll global village achieved by Live Aid, Bolt and associates have lined up an international radio and TV network. But the show itself will be considerably different.

Where Live Aid was typical of the multi-star benefits where each performer does a short mini-set, the key Freedomfest artists--including Simple Minds, Whitney Houston and Dire Straits--will do 45-minute sets. They will also be joined by special guests. Simple Minds, for instance, will be augmented by Van Zandt, Jerry Dammers and a surprise guest.

There have been rumors of Mick Jagger and Keith Richards doing individual sets or--perhaps--teaming up for a reunion of the Rolling Stones, but Bolt suggested the reunion was unlikely. There was, in fact, no guarantee that either artist would be part of the show. “We are hoping they will join us, but it may be a last-minute decision.”

While proceeds from the worldwide telecast sales and the concert itself will go to various anti-apartheid groups, the main purpose of the event is to raise awareness, Bolt said.

“Live Aid is history in the sense it was a moment that summed up a whole generation--just as Woodstock did,” Bolt said. “It also firmly planted rock ‘n’ roll music’s appeal in the satellite age. That (platform) is still there to be used and we think we have another (issue) worth a worldwide audience.”

QUOTE OF THE WEEK: Among outspoken Irish singer-songwriter Sinead O’Connor’s replies when asked by Musician magazine about “hates”: “I hate people asking me what I mean in my songs, ‘cause it’s none of their business.”

LIVE ACTION: Tickets go on sale Sunday for Steve Winwood’s engagement at the Universal Amphitheatre July 26-29. . . . Tickets will be available Monday for Rod Stewart’s Forum date on Aug. 9. . . . Leonard Cohen will be at the Wiltern on July 11, and 10,000 Maniacs will be at the same theatre on July 18. Tickets for both go on sale Monday.