ARTISTS RALLY FOR HUMAN RIGHTS ON ARK 21 SET

Billboard Newspaper January 25, 1997

By Paul Verna

NEW YORK - When then director of Amnesty International Jack Healey wanted to call attention to human-rights abuses in the late '80s, he persuaded Bruce Springsteen, Peter Gabriel, and Sting to participate in the worldwide Human Rights Now! Tour. Nearly a decade later, Healey is still pushing the human-rights cause, now as director of his new Human Rights Action Center.

Healey's organization plans to mark the 50th anniversary of the U.N.'s Declaration of Human Rights by launching a campaign dubbed Rights Now!, which will include a music compilation titled Generations I - A Punk Look At Human Rights.

Due Feb.11 on Miles Copeland's EMI-distributed Ark 21 label, the album features such prominent artists as Joe Strummer, John Doe, Green Day, and Bad Brains, as well as underground acts Pennywise, the Vandals, DFL, and Pansy Division with Tre Cool. Other performers include Red Aunts with Excene Cervernkova [sic], Assorted Jelly Beans, Good Riddance, Me First & the Gimmi-Gimmies, Lagwagon, Swamp Dogg Does Moon Dogg, B.U.G.S., Fetish, Mr. T Experience, and X-Members.

Among other things, the declaration calls for the right to a basic standard of living, the right to education, the right to employment, and the right to political participation, according to Healey.

"The Declaration of Human Rights states that everyone has the right to life, liberty, and the security of person," says Healey. "However, in this century alone, over 150 million people have been killed at the hands of government."

Commenting on the Generations I compilation, Healey says, "It's a punk record that features old-school and new-school punk artists. We want to talk to people through the voices of today, and not go back automatically to the known artists who have helped me before. I want the new voices; I want to give an opportunity to the young bands to be a part of that."

Generations I was compiled and executive-produced by Los Angeles-based Jason Rothberg through his independent label, Lion's Pride Records. It opens with the theme track. "Generations," written by former Clash guitarist/vocalist Strummer and recorded under the band name Electric Dog House. The song highlights the articles of the declaration and salutes Eleanor Roosevelt's role as architect of the document.

Strummer says, "I'm a big fan of Jack Healey's, but I had never worked with him aside from helping with some U.K. Amnesty work at Milton Keynes where I played along with Aswad and others. So when Jason called me up and told me about this, I was inspired to put pen to paper."

As manager of the Police and Sting, Copeland worked extensively with Healey in the '80s and was keen to get involved with Generations I. He says "Having grown up in countries where human rights are an issue - like Egypt, Lebanon, and Syria, where I spent my youth - this was a subject matter I knew a lot about. So when I heard about the Generations concept, it was a natural marriage between my past with Jack and, musically, the kind of material that I started I.R.S. Records with. It's the exact kind of record Ark 21 wants to make."

Copeland agreed to donate 25% of the royalties from Generations I to the Human Rights Action Center. Additionally, Copeland says he plans to remain involved in the Generations series, which will consist of four releases highlighting human-rights activists.

"We haven't decided on the next activists yet, but the first one is purely in honor of Eleanor Roosevelt and her work on the Declaration of Human Rights," says Rothberg.

Many of the artists who recorded material for Generations I will participate in a Feb.11 concert at the Los Angeles Palladium, according to Rothberg. However, Strummer says he will not be available to perform at that show.

Other live activities planned around the Rights Now! and Generations series may include a large concert and/or live broadcast Dec.10, l998 the actual anniversary of the declaration.

"We're still at the primitive stage of planning for the anniversary," says Healey. "We're trying to work out a human-rights event, but we don't want something slick. We want to keep it close to the ground. I think the artists we have solicited will respond, and once that happens then you can go for the TV angle."

Healey adds that the Human Rights Action Center's focus is to encourage each country to honor human rights domestically.

"We want to raise money directly [for] small human-rights group around the world," he says. You can give $10,000 to Amnesty International or you can give $10,000 to a human-rights group in Turkey or Guatemala. To the smaller groups, $10,000 is like a million dollars."

Another of Healey's goals is to translate the Declaration of Human Rights into every language spoken on Earth.

Although not many of the tracks on Generations I specifically address human rights, Healey says that he sees "a social awareness among the young people" on the record and a spirit of defiance consistent with the struggle for human rights.

Copeland adds that the record's punk energy is not only appropriate to the cause, but potentially hit worthy at modern rock radio. However, at press time, a single had yet to be chosen and the album had not yet been serviced to radio or retail. A source at Ark 21 says the label will initially target mom-and-pop retailers through one-stop distribution.

"We don't have contractual rights to every track as a single," says Copeland. "so the decision [on a single] will be partially mandated by the contracts and partially by the music itself."

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