Amnesty Tour Starts Today in London

Amnesty International’s “Human Rights Now!” tour is scheduled to kick off a six-week, 35,000-mile journey today amid threatening skies but an optimistic forecast that Moscow will be added to the itinerary.

Bill Graham, director of what is the most ambitious rock tour in history, said Thursday after a press conference at Wembley Stadium that discussions with Soviet officials are proceeding “nicely” and that chances of two Moscow concerts appear “strong.”

The Soviet dates are considered important by tour organizers to demonstrate the worldwide scope of Amnesty’s campaign to free political prisoners.

The tour, which will cost $20 million to stage and includes a Sept. 21 stop at the Los Angeles Coliseum, differs from most benefit concerts because the goal is to rally support behind Amnesty’s activities rather than raise money.

To underscore the international nature of that campaign, the tour includes stops in several cities where Western rock stars are seldom, if ever, seen. Among them: San Jose, Costa Rica; New Delhi, India; Harare, Zimbabwe; and Mendoza, Argentina.

A crowd of 72,000 is expected at Wembley for today’s 4 p.m. concert, which is scheduled to proceed rain or shine. (The weather pattern all week has been rain in the morning, clearing by late afternoon.) The tour moves to Paris for two days, then to Budapest, Turino (Italy), Barcelona, San Jose, Toronto, Montreal and Philadelphia before hitting Los Angeles. Following L.A. are Tokyo, Harare, Sao Paulo (Brazil), Mendoza and Buenos Aires. The Moscow dates, if confirmed, would probably come after either the L.A. or Tokyo shows.

Amnesty International is a nonprofit organization that monitors violations of human rights worldwide, with special emphasis on reports of torture, illegal detention and arrests of people for nonviolent expression of political beliefs. The tour is designed to focus attention on the 40th anniversary of the United Nations’ adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which committed signatory governments to protect human freedoms.

Jack Healey, executive director of Amnesty International in the States, said he hopes to collect 10 million signatures on petitions calling on governments to live up to the declaration’s principles, and to present the petitions to the U.N. on Dec. 10, the date of the 1948 adoption.

“This tour is not about charity, it’s about justice,” Healey said at the press conference, seated next to the tour’s five performers: Bruce Springsteen, Sting, Peter Gabriel, Tracy Chapman and Senegalese singer Youssou N’Dour.

Healey said he hopes the musical message will reach young people, particularly illiterates in Third World countries who have not been reached by his organization’s printed material. After the press conference, he explained, “The people who can’t read or write--essentially the poor young people in many parts of the world--haven’t been touched by most of the printed materials we’ve relied on for years. I’m hoping this tour serves as sort of a musical newspaper that can be heard by everyone.”

The world tour is an outgrowth of a successful six-city U.S. Amnesty tour in 1986, which raised $2.4 million for Amnesty and brought the organization 100,000 new members.

This tour is expected to lose between $4 million and $6 million because ticket prices in some economically troubled countries make it prohibitive to charge anything more than the equivalent of $1 to $5 in U.S. dollars.

Profits from shows in North America and Europe will help offset the expected loss of around $500,000 in such places as New Delhi and Harare, with additional funds to be raised through broadcast rights to an HBO special on the concerts to be aired Dec. 10 and a live worldwide radio broadcast Oct. 15 from Buenos Aires.

Reebok International, the athletic footwear company, is underwriting the tour up to $10 million.

Graham, the San Francisco-based concert promoter who also oversaw the 1986 Amnesty International tour, said he was surprised that tickets are still available in Los Angeles, where 57,000 of a possible 65,000 have been sold since becoming available July 18.

“I thought for sure we’d have an instant sellout,” he said here Thursday. “I think what happened is that some people automatically assumed it was a sellout and other people saw the word benefit and assumed we were going to keep adding acts and each one was going to do 10 or 15 minutes.”

In fact, he pointed out, there will only be these five acts on the show, and Springsteen, Sting and Gabriel will each do an hour set.

Emphasizing the global nature of the tour, Gabriel said during the press conference, “This is not a case of us, the rich Western countries, going to other parts of the world and telling them how to live their lives. Every government has to clean up its act.

“The platform of (the U.N. declaration) is extremely broad. It doesn’t just cover civil and political rights. . . . It also says that any child born on this planet should be able to grow up and expect food, shelter, a job, free education and health care. . . . It really is worth reading because it can provide a frame of reference for many areas of social activism.”

Although the London tabloids on Thursday carried splashy stories about actress Julianne Phillips’ filing for divorce from Springsteen, none of the more than 200 reporters asked the singer about his domestic problems, which was surprising, considering the aggressive reputation of London journalists. Instead, Springsteen was asked if he believes that rock ‘n’ roll can really affect social change.

Springsteen, wearing a few days’ growth of beard that contrasted with the slick look he sported on his recent “Tunnel of Love” tour, replied, “Music can change people’s minds and attitudes and feelings about themselves . . . about their own humanity, and in doing so, that can change the way they look on the next guy.

“When I was younger, I thought maybe we could take a guitar and save the world. I don’t really believe that anymore. But I do believe that we can save a life and save time in someone’s life. Someone comes to the show and hears the message we’re singing about. They then go home and write the letter (petitioning for release of political prisoners) and maybe someone gets out of prison earlier.”