The Concert for Bangladesh was held 43 years ago today. The concert was the name for two benefit concerts organized by George Harrison and Ravi Shankar, held at noon and at 7 p.m. on Sunday, Aug. 1 1971. It played to a total of 40,000 people at Madison Square Garden in New York City. The shows were to raise international awareness and fund relief efforts for refugees from East Pakistan (now Bangladesh), following the 1970 Bhola cyclone and the civil war-related Bangladesh atrocities. The Concert for Bangladesh was also the title of the accompanying live album, a boxed three-record set, released in December 1971, and Apple Films concert documentary, which opened in cinemas in the spring of 1972. The event was the first-ever benefit concert of such a magnitude and featured a supergroup of performers that included Harrison, fellow ex-Beatle Ringo Starr, Bob Dylan, Eric Clapton, Billy Preston, Leon Russell and the band Badfinger. In addition, Shankar and another legend of Indian music, Ali Akbar Khan, performed a separate set. Decades later, Shankar would say of the overwhelming success of the event: In one day, the whole world knew the name of Bangladesh. It was a fantastic occasion ... The concert raised close to $250,000 for Bangladesh relief, which was administered by UNICEF. Although the project was subsequently marred by financial problems — a result of the pioneering nature of the venture — the Concert for Bangladesh is recognized as a highly successful and influential humanitarian aid project, generating both awareness and considerable funds as well as providing valuable lessons and inspiration for aid projects that followed, notably Live Aid. As with the live album, sales of the 2005 DVD release of the film continue to benefit the George Harrison Fund for UNICEF. Here is the complete film. Here is a trailer for the concert film.
Posted on: Fri, 01 Aug 2014 04:06:36 +0000
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