United Nations premieres Spirit Of The Forest
Galaxy of stars -UNITED NATIONS
A galaxy of rock stars attended the video premiere of a new song intended to spark public outrage over the destruction of the Earth’s rain forests.
Thursday night’s preview audience of rock stars, diplomats, and U.N. officials including participating artists Olivia Newton-John, Thomas Dolby, and Taylor Dayne - saw the five-minute video of “Spirit of the Forest,” and heard several speakers stress the importance of awakening the public to the crisis lurking behind the elimination of the rain forests.
“At this very moment, thousands of trees are being cut,” said Paulo Rivera, a resident of Brazil’s rain forest.
“Spirit of the Forest” which will be released Monday, features a Brazilian-punctuated rock beat.
The British band Gentlemen Without Weapons conceived the project and wrote and produced the song, which is in the tradition of the African hunger relief anthem “We Are the World.” As in that video, the camera pans over a chorus of stars, including Joni Mitchell, Deborah Harry, Iggy Pop, Belinda Carlisle, Donna Summer, Ringo Starr, and Brian Wilson, formerly of the Beach Boys.
Star News, June 4 1989.
Olivia Newton-John, Thomas Dolby and Taylor Dayne were among the rock stars on hand at the United Nations for the video premiere of Spirit of the Forest, a new song protesting the worldwide destruction of tropical rain forests. Proceeds from the song, scheduled for release today, will go to rain forest conservation groups, according to spokesmen for Virgin Records.
The project was conceived by the British rock band Gentlemen Without Weapons. Among those ap-pearing in the We Are the World-style video are Joni Mitchell, Deborah Harry, Iggy Pop, Belinda Carlisle, Donna Summer, Ringo Starr and Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys.
The Glasgow Herald, UK, June 6 1989.
LAST NIGHT'S VIEW: Rock and the rain forest
SEXISM has been superseded as social concern of the moment by environmental issues and top of the environmental awareness charts, this week, is the eco-genocide of the Amazonian rain forests.
Spirit of the Rain Forest was the first panel of a worthy tele-triptych on BBC 2 which illustrated what’s going down in the environment trees and polar ice caps mostly. In the now familiar Band Aid fashion, rock stars of the world have united to hammer out the warn-boring-on-vinyl. Inspiring-as-may be the sight of Joey Ramone and Olivia Newton-John (et al) united in a chant of “They’ll never break the spirit of the forest,” the overall impression was one of convenient collective conscience-salving as much as consciousness-raising. If the lyrical message gets across however, the means are less important than the end.
Allegheny Times, June 7 1989.
Singer-actress Olivia Newton John and musician Thomas Dolby listen to a speech during an event introducing a record and video, “Spirit of the Forest,” at the United Nations. The two joined a large number of rock and television personalities to introduce the video and record, produced to help raise money to save the world’s rain forests.
Record Journal, June 3 1989.
Stars turn out for rain-forest benefit. UNITED NATIONS - A galaxy of rock stars attended the video premiere of a new song intended to spark public outrage over the destruction of the Earth’s rain forests.
Thursday night’s preview audience of rock stars, diplomats, and U.N. officials including participating artists Olivia Newton-John, Thomas Dolby, and Taylor Dayne - saw the five-minute video of “Spirit of the Forest,” and heard several speakers stress the importance of awakening the public to the crisis lurking behind the elimination of the rain forests. “At this very moment, thousands of trees are being cut,” said Paulo Rivera, a resident of Brazil’s rain forest. “Spirit of the Forest” which will be released Monday, features a Brazilian-punctuated rock beat.
The British band Gentlemen Without Weapons conceived the project and wrote and produced the song, which is in the tradition of the African hunger relief anthem “We Are the World.” As in that video, the camera pans over a chorus of stars, including Joni Mitchell, Deborah Harry, Iggy Pop, Belinda Carlisle, Donna Summer, Ringo Starr, and Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys.
All proceeds from the record will be donated to organizations dedicated to saving the world’s rain forests, according to Richard Brandstad of Virgin Atlantic and Virgin Records Inc. which is marketing and distributing the record.
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