Posts Tagged ‘amnesty international’
The Secret Policeman’s Ball(s):
Martin Lewis, John Cleese, and the Origin of the Superstar Benefit Love-Fest
A conversation with Martin Lewis is a lot like a celebrity benefit show: there’s name-dropping, obligatory roasting, flash and panache, and a definite hint of the self-congratulatory. The man has helped manage Eric Burdon and Donovan, produced records, films, and festivals on both sides of the Atlantic, and served as HuffPo’s resident “least-reserved Englishman.” Hell, when he was 15 he compiled the discography for Hunter Davies‘ Beatles bio; by 19 he was recruiting Pete Townshend to write dust-jacket blurbs.
These days, Lewis is making the interview rounds in celebration of the thirtieth anniversary of the first Secret Policeman’s Ball, an Amnesty International benefit launched in 1979 after modestly successful incarnations as “A Poke in the Eye With a Sharp Stick” (1976) and “The Mermaid Frolics” (1977). (It was the 1981 SPB that inspired an initially skeptical Bob Geldof to found Live Aid four years later.)
