06 May, 2008 Happy Birthday Nelson Mandela !
There are birthday parties and then there are birthday parties, nevertheless no matter how grand or how intimate I have always felt that it is nice to get an invite.
Being so we were quite touched a few weeks ago when we got the call inviting Simple Minds to take part in the special event that is being organised to celebrate the extraordinary life of Nelson Mandela, all of which is due to take place in Hyde park on the 27th of June – the day of the genuinely great man’s 90th birthday. And from what I hear it seems set to be quite a party!
I recently wrote that if called to take part, we would be there within a heartbeat. Well that is exactly how things worked out when the call came through from the organisers base in Switzerland asking us to turn up and bang out a couple of songs, a whole twenty years to the day after we did almost exactly the same thing in honour of the then ‘imprisoned’ ANC leader.
It was a fairly unique show at the time, but since then of course grand benefit concerts have become much more common. Equally it is hard to disagree completely with the sometime notion, that many of the events have become so bloated and glitzy, that they on occasion seem to bear little spiritual relation to the subject matter that they desire to draw attention to.
That may be so but somehow it is totally different when the call comes through from Nelson Mandela requesting that you come along and in doing so help promote the initiatives of his 46664 charities.
I will never forget how good he made us feel on his release, when he told a room full of us – all artists in some shape or form, “That when no voice was allowed, we could somehow always hear and feel the voice of the artists and the sustenance that came from it offered us so much hope within the most difficult times.”
It’s possibly a bit early yet but I will say it all the same. Happy Birthday Nelson Mandela!
God knows, you deserve it!
Jim Kerr