Tutu Peace Concert Lines Up Its Talent

“I’ve seen what the power of music is all about,” Quincy Jones, the record producer behind the celebrated “We Are the World” charity project in 1985, said Thursday at a press conference to announce the talent lineup for the Bishop Tutu World Peace Concert on Sept. 10 at the Coliseum.

“I’ve seen (that power) in ‘Band Aid,’ ‘Live Aid,’ ‘Sun City’ and ‘We Are the World,’ ” Jones added in describing the event, which may be the most ambitious Los Angeles pop charity event since “We Are the World.” The 12-hour concert will feature more than 70 musical acts and TV-movie personalities and will be broadcast live and on tape on radio and TV in the United States and in nearly 40 other countries.

“The concert is a very special opportunity for the whole musical community to (rally around) the spirit of love and justice and freedom at this time of so much suffering for the children of South Africa--and to take the message into the living rooms of the world,” Jones added.

Charmaine Modjadji, a South African model and record producer who has been working three years to stage the concert, said it will feature an international cast from the fields of pop, rock, soul, rap, jazz, Latin and African music. Among the 48 confirmed acts: Manhattan Transfer, Herbie Hancock, Harry Belafonte, Thomas Dolby, Richard Marx, Ozzy Osbourne, Ruben Blades, 10,000 Maniacs, Sly Stone, the Fat Boys, Kurtis Blow, Teena Marie, Kool and the Gang, Morris Day, King Sunny Ade, and Andrae Crouch. Among the guest personalities: Oprah Winfrey, Ted Danson, Joe Piscopo and Morgan Fairchild.

Tickets, priced at $27.50 and $35, are scheduled to go on sale at 8 a.m. today at Ticketron and Ticketmaster outlets, with tickets available Monday at the Coliseum box office. A limited number of $100 VIP seats will also be sold. The estimated $3 million in proceeds from the concert and broadcast rights will go to three Tutu-supervised foundations devoted to helping children in such areas as education and refugee relief.

The concert will start at 11 a.m. and be broadcast live by the ABC Radio Network. Showtime will broadcast the final 3 1/2 hours live and the entire concert on the following day, said Mike Mitchell, executive producer of the event. Radio Express will syndicate the concert overseas.

A similar 4-hour Madison Square Garden concert will be simulcast on video screens at the Coliseum.

Mitchell, who heads a Los Angeles television production company and was executive producer of “Live Aid” in 1986, said that the local concert is expected to gross about $6 million but that about half will go to expenses. The Tutu foundations include the Bursary Scholarship Fund, which provides money for black South African children to graduate from high school and college.

The Rev. H. H. Brookins, chairman of the host committee of the concert, said that additional informational activities will also be held the week of the concert, including TV programs, anti-apartheid essay contests in schools and an art exhibit.

Johnny Clegg, a white South African musician whose integrated band plays songs that are highly critical of the apartheid policy in South Africa, said he believes that the concert will make an impact in his homeland.

“South African middle-of-the-road whites have very strong emotional, cultural connections with (Western civilization),” said Clegg. “And when these condemnations come from (Western civilization), psychologically, it’s something that really upsets their balance and challenges the concept of their moral universe.”

Modjadji said she had tried to stage a similar, though less ambitious concert three years ago in South Africa, but it was canceled by the government.

“The South African government is killing my children,” exclaimed Modjadji. “People (see the conditions of apartheid on television), but until the gun hits home, you can never understand. And this is why it has been my determination to come all the way to America to bring this message to all of you. The children are dying in South Africa. And without American people, there is no way we can do it on our own.”