Look To The Stars News: Blur

British Bands To Play For Youth Music Charity

Mon, 28 Sep 2009 12:00:00 -0000

British band The Enemy and singing sensation Little Boots are to play gigs as part of a forthcoming exhibition project by photographer Rankin for children’s music charity Youth Music.

Youth Music is the UK’s largest children’s music charity, set up in 1999 to promote and support music making opportunities and to provide advice to children from birth – 18 with the least access, including some of the UK’s most disadvantaged young people. Youth Music works alongside the formal and community-based sectors to support music-making and training.

The acts are set to play at London’s Phillips de Pury Gallery on November 12 and 13, and are part of a week-long series of music and art events.

Photographer Rankin has asked a host of top musicians and acts – such as Blur’s Alex James, Alanis Morissette, Beth Orton, Kylie Minogue, Keane, Jarvis Cocker, Kasabian and REM’s Michael Stipe – to customise a picture of themselves for the exhibition, titled Destroy.

Tickets will go on sale on September 28 from here.

Celebrities Make Their Mark For Save The Children

Wed, 08 Jul 2009 14:00:00 -0000

Celebrities including KT Tunstall, Blur guitarist Graham Coxon and Franz Ferdinand front-man Alex Kapranos are calling on G8 leaders meeting in Italy this week to stop millions of children dying from preventable diseases.

The musicians, along with TV personalities Andrew Marr and Carol Vorderman and 200,000 people from across the UK and Africa, have pledged their support for a Save the Children campaign which urges world leaders to deliver on their promises for children.

Earlier this week, Save the Children and MPs handed in a petition to Gordon Brown, urging him and other G8 members to increase aid to developing countries.

More than 9.2 million children die every year but only 3% of aid G8 countries give to the developing world goes into maternal, newborn and child healthcare. This is $3.5 billion a year – half of what we’re calling for.

Save the Children is calling on the G8 to double their money for child and maternal healthcare to at least $7 billion in order to try and reach their target of cutting child deaths by two thirds by 2015.

Steve Haines, Save the Children’s Head of Global Campaigns said: "Gordon Brown must push fellow world leaders to deliver on existing promises — and go one step further and double aid for developing countries.

“Ten million children under the age of five die every year — many of simple, preventable causes like diarrhoea, pneumonia and malaria. If we know how to prevent these deaths, why are children still dying?”

People across the globe showed their support for Save the Children’s “Make your Mark” campaign by printing their thumbprints on a petition.

Join the global movement and Make your Mark today by clicking here.

Win Tickets To See Blur And Support Charity

Wed, 03 Jun 2009 12:30:00 -0000

Written by Tim Saunders

Brit Pop band Blur are back, and you have the chance to win tickets to their comeback shows with proceeds going to charity.

The band – who released their last album in 2003 – have donated 46 pairs of tickets to “sold out fan-club only shows” to be held later this month as part of a special charity raffle. For only £5, fans can enter a competition to win the tickets to the shows at Goldsmith’s College in London (June 22) and the Colchester East Anglian Railway Museum (June 13).

Proceeds will go to the Aldham Village Hall, East Anglian Railway Museum and the Teenage Cancer Trust.

The competition runs until June 9 and can be accessed here.

Celebrities Kept Busy With Charity Initiatives

Thu, 24 Jan 2008 11:34:57 -0000

Written by Tim Saunders

Philanthropic celebrities have been more than busy lately, helping charities through a series of unique and exciting initiatives and events.

Although the current Hollywood writers’ strike is keeping the 2008 Academy Awards up in the air, model Heidi Klum has announced she will press ahead with her plans to donate the red dress she intends to wear at the Oscar ceremony to charity.

The donation is part of the Red Dress Program, an initiative between Diet Coke and the National Institutes of Health’s The Heart Truth to raise awareness of heart disease in women.

“Heidi Klum’s participation helps make this program even bigger, and gives consumers a great way to become involved and learn more about a crucial women’s health issue,” said Caren Pasquale Seckler, Group Director for Coca-Cola North America. “Through the Diet Coke Red Dress Program, we’re asking consumers to help us support women’s heart health and giving them the chance to win a one-of-a-kind red dress worn to the Oscars by Heidi Klum.”

The dress will be made available as part of a contest at www.mycokerewards.com, and for every sweepstakes entry, Diet Coke will donate $1 (up to a total of $250,000) in support of women’s heart health research and awareness.

Klum will also hit the catwalk on February 1 during The Red Dress Collection Fashion Show at the Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week in New York. The show will feature a range of dresses created by top fashion designers to show their support of the Heart Truth campaign.

Comedian Stephen Colbert has also recently made a donation to charity, with $171,525 being gifted to the Yellow Ribbon Fund, a charity that assists injured service members and their families.

The mock talk show host raised the money through the sale of his “WristStrong” bracelets, which were made available as part of his “Wrist Awareness” campaign started when he broke his wrist last June.

The tongue-in-cheek campaign saw celebrities such as Katie Couric, Brian Williams, and New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg wearing the bracelets. It followed the sale of the cast from Colbert’s broken wrist, which raised $17,000 for the Yellow Ribbon Fund.

Another well-known figure to make a donation to charity lately was Hip Hop mogul Russell Simmons, who gifted $300,000 to the Diamond Empowerment Fund last week.

Simmons established the Fund in 2007 to provide resources for education programs designed to motivate Africans in countries where diamonds are mined. The donation comes from money raised from the Simmons Jewelry Green Initiative, a collection of bracelets made from green malachite and rough diamonds. Beyoncé Knowles, Vanessa Hudgens, and Mischa Barton are all reported to be owners of the bracelets.

In a completely different sort of initiative, singer KT Tunstall and Blur bassist Alex James are among celebrities teaming up to write an upcoming children’s book for charity.

The musicians will join a host of stars recruited by the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children for the initiative. Each celebrity will write ten lines of the story before passing it on to the next person to continue.

The final product will be revealed in a one-off reading session before being auctioned off later in the year.

And finally, British television personality Jonathan Ross has challenged comedian Jimmy Carr to a celebrity doubles tennis match that will see the entertainers paired up with 1997 US Open finalist Greg Rusedski and 1987 Wimbledon winner Pat Cash.

The match – which will take place at London’s Albert Hall on March 14 – is part of Sport Relief 2008, a fundraising initiative from Comic Relief. Money raised will go towards helping vulnerable people living in the UK and the world’s poorest countries.

Look To The Stars News: Blur

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