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Anti-Bush concerts kick off
29/09/2004 10:55 - (SA)
Washington - Politically active US musicians have kicked off a highly charged two-week concert tour aimed at rocking voters into ousting President George Bush in November's election.
Singers Jackson Browne and Bonnie Raitt headlined Monday's maiden Vote for Change concert in Seattle, the start of a manic series of shows that will star rock legend Bruce Springsteen later in the tour.
"A vote for change is a vote for a stronger, safer, healthier America," Raitt said. "A vote for Bush is a vote for a divided, unstable, paranoid America."
"It is our duty to this beautiful land to let our voices be heard. That's the reason for the tour," she said in a statement released after Monday night's show in front of around 3 000 ecstatic fans.
The paying concert-goers received pamphlets urging them to vote in the November 2 poll and to cast their ballot against Bush's bid for re-election, organisers said.
"The Boss", Springsteen, and around 20 other acts, including REM, Dixie Chicks, Pearl Jam, Dave Matthews Band and James Taylor, will perform in around 36 cities in nine so-called swing states, culminating in a huge concert on October 11 in Washington, DC.
"We've got a country that has just veered too far away from basic American values and principles. I really feel this is a crisis in democracy, unlike anything I've quite experienced in my lifetime," Springsteen said.
The loose coalition of musical activists is launching the series of mini-tours with "a single goal through the tour: To get people to the polls on November 2 to vote for a change", according to the organisers' website.
The tour will roar through the crucial Midwestern swing states, such as Ohio and Michigan, where Democratic candidate John Kerry and Bush are running neck and neck, before hitting equally critical Florida on October 8.
Other musicians hitching the wagons to Kerry in the Vote For Change concerts are John Fogerty and John Mellencamp.
Proceeds from the tour will go to America Coming Together (ACT), a voter mobilisation organisation committed to defeating Bush.
On October 1 in Philadelphia the 55-year-old Springsteen will make his first appearance.
One of the emotive highlights of the concerts will be "The Boss's" rendition of his stirring anthem, Born in the USA, which is likely to become the musicians' battle cry.
- AFP
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South Africa
