Selected Miscellaneous Shows

A Pop Night for Human Rights - Peter Gabriel, Bruce Springsteen, and Sting at Budapest's Nép Stadium...

Benefit concerts of all kinds have been a regular and high-profile part of the international pop music scene for several years now. To mark the 40th anniversary of the signing of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, three global stars of the genre joined forces for a tour across three continents to benefit Amnesty International. The most politically significant, and perhaps also the most sensitive, stop on the tour was last Tuesday at the sold-out Nép Stadium in Budapest.

For the first time, then, a major event was held on the territory of the Warsaw Pact in support of that prisoner aid organization whose meticulous demands for human rights must have been a major thorn in the side of the regimes in actually existing socialism for many years: a signal, but what kind? Issued by the new Hungarian government, this signal amounts to an official recognition of Amnesty International and will undoubtedly have significantly increased the organization's profile in the Eastern Bloc. Conversely, the artists' willingness to perform in Budapest for this occasion signals all the Western respect for and goodwill towards Glasnost and Perestroika.

Pop star Sting also announced during his press conference that they intend to perform in Moscow; a date is available, and they are simply awaiting confirmation from Russia.

The Hungarian organizers, at any rate, had clearly gone to great lengths to offer their domestic and international guests a truly memorable event. The police riot squads, supported by martial-looking "in-house" security teams who believe they have to defend the freedom of the West at similar open-air concerts, were nowhere to be found in or around Budapest's Nép Stadium. No body searches, no guard dogs, no hysteria, none of the harassment that pop fans this side of the Iron Curtain have had to get used to in recent years.

While searching for press material, helpful ushers, certainly against regulations but all the more charmingly unbureaucratic, guided the chronicler through various barriers to competent positions. It's safe to say that a Hungarian colleague would receive similar assistance from the notoriously infamous Vienna Stadthalle stewards. Musically, the Budapest Amnesty concert went according to Following a familiar pattern: Two deservedly unknown Hungarian bands to warm up the crowd, then the new hope of the American folk world, Tracey Chapman. Next up, the stars of the evening, Sting, Bruce Springsteen, and Peter Gabriel, each in one-hour sets. 

Interspersed were "unexpected" duo and trio performances by the greats. The system is absolutely reliable and is designed to give the listener the feeling of having witnessed something unique and unrepeatable. Even the most jaded, cynical observer must admit that the certainly not entirely selfless commitment of these superstars to human rights undoubtedly contributes more than anything else to increasing the popularity of this noble cause.

Such an event has the character of a manifesto; its purpose is to place three famous names and, ideally, all the melodies associated with them at the service of, let's say, good. And when the three of them stand on stage, the pop idols, and sing Bob Dylan's 'Chimes of Freedom', one quickly decides to postpone the question of the artistic merit and quality of what is being offered until the next time, when everyday life has us in its grip again.

(c) Die Presse by Reno Barth