Amnesty International Aotearoa New Zealand in association with CHART Christchurch Music Industry Trust are presenting ‘A Toast to Freedom ‘ at Al’s Bar in Dundas Street on Friday 1 August 2008 at 8pm featuring the music of Christchurch bands The Undercurrents, Tiger Tones, The Dialtones, Jimmy Zoom and the Beytown Grifters and from Dunedin , Onanon . Tickets are $5 on the door or pre-sales $5 (+bf) at Real Groovy or Cosmic Corner.
‘A Toast to Freedom’ has been organised to cap off Amnesty International’s Freedom Week. Freedom Week is the annual street appeal and promotion campaign for Amnesty to let New Zealanders know about its human rights campaigning on behalf of ‘prisoners of conscience’ – people around the world who have been unjustly imprisoned, harassed, tortured and killed for peacefully expressing their human rights to protest, to associate or even just to express their own opinion.
Greg Crisp, from the Amnesty International Christchurch Regional Team said that “During the gig we will stop to drink a ‘Toast To Freedom’ – a symbolic gesture to celebrate freedom and in honour of Peter Benenson, the British lawyer who started Amnesty International in 1961 when he heard of two Portuguese students who were imprisoned for raising a toast to freedom.” Information on current Amnesty International campaigns will be available on the night.
Amnesty International is delighted to have the support of an eclectic bunch of South Island bands who will ‘rock for a good cause’, or in some cases ‘country -pop- rock’ or ‘electro-punk’ for the cause... Christchurch alternative stalwarts The Undercurrents and The Dialtones are joined onstage by dealers of dance Tiger Tones, the small but perfectly informed rockabilly folk popsters Jimmy Zoom and The Beytown Grifters, and fresh out of an overcrowded car, the crunchy rock-pop sound of Dunedin circa 2008 – Onanon.
Everyone knows that dictators hate dancing. Christchurch lovers of freedom and original music are invited to join Amnesty International Aotearoa New Zealand for a night of apolitical pop and country punkin, in celebrating the freedoms we do enjoy in this country and to drink a toast – to Freedom.
Contact:
Organiser: Greg Crisp, Amnesty International Christchurch Regional Team
Ph.029 200 5565 or 03 980 1884
Email: the crisps@clear.net.nz
Bands Info:
http://www.myspace.com/jimmyzoomandthebeytowngrifters
http://www.myspace.com/onanonnz
http://www.myspace.com/theundercurrentsnz
http://www.myspace.com/nzdialtones
http://www.myspace.com/thetigertones
