3.8.99 - Launch

Jubilee 2000, the worldwide movement calling for the elimination of Third Word debt by the millennium, is picking up steam. The cause, championed by U2 frontman Bono and boxing legend Muhammad Ali (LAUNCH, 2/23), has picked up another supporter, R.E.M..

The band has expressed interest in performing a protest concert in June. Reports have suggested that such a concert would coincide with the G8 summit of leading industrial nations, which is scheduled for June 18-20 in Cologne, Germany. R.E.M., however, has dates booked June 17, 19, and 20 in Spain (LAUNCH, 2/8). The band is scheduled to play a number of dates in Germany from June 26-July 13.

"I can't yet say exactly if we really will appear there or if we'll maybe participate in another form," singer Michael Stipe told the Frankfurter Rundschau newspaper. "That's still being discussed now, who will do what. But we'd like to be there. I was always a political person."

In an essay published last month in The Sydney Morning Herald (LAUNCH, 2/23), Bono hinted that a Live Aid-type event may be in the offing to raise awareness for Jubilee 2000. Aside from R.E.M., Bono wrote in the essay that he has had calls from Lauryn Hill, Pavarotti, Oasis, Smashing Pumpkins, the Beastie Boys, Michael Jackson, and Bob Geldof discussing Jubilee 2000.

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