UNITED KINGDOM: EDDIE IZZARD, TOM JONES AND OTHERS PERFORM AMNESTY CONCERT IN AID OF PRISONERS OF CONSCIENCE

Record ID: 391591

  • Title: UNITED KINGDOM: EDDIE IZZARD, TOM JONES AND OTHERS PERFORM AMNESTY CONCERT IN AID OF PRISONERS OF CONSCIENCE
  • Date: 3rd June 2001
  • Summary: (JUNE 3RD, 2001) (REUTERS TV - ACCESS ALL) SMV (SOUNDBITE) (English) EDDIE IZZARD SAYING "We know where you live" is what gangsters say to ordinary people and this is ordinary people saying it back to the gangsters who run countries and withhold human rights and put people in prison - prisoners of conscience just for saying what they think."
  • Embargoed: 18th June 2001 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM
  • Country: United Kingdom
  • Topics: Entertainment
  • Reuters ID: LVAC50BC45F5FUTCTJK9WY1BLUN3
  • Story Text: Tom Jones, Stereophonics and a host of comedians pulled in a crowd of 11,000 at Wembley Arena to celebrate Amnesty International's 40th birthday. "We Know Where You Live. Live!"
    raised awareness - and money - for tortured and repressed artists including two comedians from Myanmar who are currently languishing in cells, "jailed for joking".
    While Eddie Izzard, Tom Jones and a team of talent entertain the 11,000 crowd at London's Wembley Arena, two comedians in Myanmar are languishing in jail. U Pa Pa Lay and U Lu Zaw have been "jailed for joking". Musician and filmmaker Ngawang Choephel is in a cell in Tibet, locked up for "espionage and counter-revolutionary activities" whilst collecting material for a documentary. Vanesa Lorna Ledesma was tortured and murdered in Argentina for being an active member of the United Transvestites Association.... prime cases for Amnesty International to get to work on, and the focus of Amnesty's 40th birthday concert "We Know Where You Live.
    Live!"
    British comedian Eddie Izzard, famed for his cross-dressing and crazy mind, was the host for the night.
    "We know where you live" is what gangsters say to ordinary people and this is ordinary people saying it back to the gangsters who run countries and withhold human rights and put people in prison - prisoners of conscience - just for saying what they think."
    Touring the British capital aboard a black London bus, Izzard drew massive attention to the bad human rights records in various countries by pulling up outside the respective embassies and publicising the different cases Amnesty have taken up.
    Izzard has picked up the reigns from Monty Python master John Cleese who hosted Amnesty's legendary Secret Policemen's Balls of the past two decades. Some top music acts join this year's team of comedians, including Stereophonics, Badly Drawn Boy and Welsh wonder Tom Jones. "I was born in 1940 when the Germans were bombing the hell out of us so human rights is a very important thing so anybody who has a chance to speak for other people then we should do that. So this is our way of doing it, doing the show."
    And what better choice of song to entertain the crowd than the Green Green Grass of Home. "The Green Green Grass of Home I think is a good song to do because it's about home, there's no places mentioned in the song, it applies to this I think."
    The right to live in peace and freedom in one's home is what Amnesty International is all about.
    ---ENDS---
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