Music News
Macca hopes to give peace a boost
Wednesday 24 September 2008
PA reports that the Friendship First Concert is to take place tomorrow in Tel Aviv with tens of thousands expected to attend despite terrorist threats.
McCartney, 66, said on his website that: "The world knows about the conflicts that have been in that region and I like to think that if I go to a place it becomes evident that my message is a peaceful one and I hope that the idea will spread.
"It often does happen you know - you'll go to a place and it can affect the audience. It reawakens the idea - so that is definitely my message and when I am talking to people, that will be my message and I am sure it is a message shared by a lot of the audience too."
He added: "People ask this question through the years. 'Do you think music can change things?'
"I think it can. I think it's good for people's souls. I think without music it would be a seriously bad world, we would have more problems. Music can help people to just calm them down. I also think it can be very interesting for change.
"I always cite a John (Lennon) song 'Give Peace A Chance'. If you watch the footage from back then, about a million people outside the White House chanting that song to Nixon inside the White House, I think that had an effect.
"On that occasion, obviously for them to have that song to portray how they were feeling I think was very important. So yes, I think it can change things. Songs like 'We Shall Overcome' have been very important for the civil rights movement so yeah, I think music is great and it can make changes."
Israel banned The Beatles from performing in Israel in 1965, fearing it might corrupt their youth.
McCartney said: "They said we were bad for the youth of Israel, and I think that was a mistake - I don't think we were that bad. But you know what ... we took it as fun, it didn't really worry us we just went off and played somewhere else.
"Our manager, Brian Epstein, who was Jewish, was, I think, more insulted than we were. He said: 'They won't let you play, they think you are bad for their youth' so we moved on to the next gig."
Click here for Terms of use
|
Top 10 Most Read
Must Watch TV
-
- The Real Mr & Mrs Assad: Channel 4 Dispatches
Channel 4 Dispatches reveals a portrait of a golden couple who have become global hate figures. The programme shows intimate footage of President Bashar al-Assad and his wife Asma as they've never been seen on British television before, and images that help explain why the West bought the idea they were true modernisers. When Bashar took the reins of power after his father's death in 2000, the West was drawn into a hope and belief that Syria would be a new force for change in the Middle East. The Assads were seen as a glamorous couple with modern Western morals and values; he was hailed a reformer, she was the 'Rose of the Desert'. Key leaders and figures in the West welcomed the young couple, convinced that the softly spoken London-trained ophthalmologist and his beautiful British-born former investment banker wife would bring reform and modernisation to a country that had been run by an iron-fisted dictator for nearly 30 years. But it seems the West was duped. Instead of a transparent and progressive leadership, what has emerged during a year-long bloody uprising is evidence of the regime's gross systematic human rights abuses, including widespread killings and torture, while the Assads look on. Channel 4 Dispatches investigates the extent of the Assad family's culpability and the chains of command that link the President and select inner circle to the brutal crackdown.
-
- Afghanistan: The Great Game - A Personal View By Rory Stewart
Afghanistan: one of the most isolated and barren landscapes on earth is a strange place for an empire or superpower to invade. But for three of the greatest powers the world has seen, it became an unlikely target and an enduring obsession. The 19th century British invasions into Afghanistan, immortalised by Rudyard Kipling as "The Great Game", ended in huge loss of life and British retreat, and set a template for the perils of incursion in this mountainous country. In this two-part series, author, journalist and former Deputy Governor during the coalition's occupation of Iraq, Rory Stewart MP travels to Afghanistan to uncover the fears, the paranoia and perceived threats that led three very different Ssperpowers: Britain, Russia and the United States into Afghanistan from the 19th century to the present day.
-
- 56 Up
Michael Apted's landmark documentary series following the lives of ordinary British people from childhoiod to adulthood and old age continues. Over the past six decades, the series has documented the group as they have become adults and entered middle-age, dealing with everything life has thrown at them in between. The series is back to discover what has happened to the group over the last seven years. And one of the original characters has decided to re-join the series after leaving almost 30 years ago.