cake or death: an eddie izzard site

British Celebrities Defend Gay Rights in Egypt
REUTERS [ MONDAY, MARCH 18, 2002 11:46:00 PM ]

BRUSSELS: Rock star Sir Elton John, Lord of the Rings star Sir Ian McKellen and other British celebrities joined a campaign on Monday to defend gay rights in Egypt.

The campaign, led by Michael Cashman, British Labour member of the European Parliament, seeks freedom for 23 Egyptian men sentenced in the so-called Cairo 52 case for "habitual practice of debauchery" after they attended a boat party in Cairo.

Cashman, a former soap opera actor who along with some of the other celebrities is openly gay, said John and others had signed a petition calling for the men's release.

It was due to be handed over to the Egyptian ambassador to the European Union on Tuesday.

"If there is no satisfactory response, we will launch a worldwide petition, rolling from country to country," Cashman said in a statement.

He called on the EU to suspend a trade and aid agreement with Egypt if Cairo failed to pardon the men or grant them an appeal in the case, which it said was a "flagrant example of persecution of homosexuals".

"If dialogue fails to achieve a resolution then we must cease aid and trade. We cannot bankroll human rights abuses...If we do nothing, then we condone these abuses of fundamental rights."

The men, who received prison terms of between one and five years' hard labour, were arrested after a raid on the floating Queen Boat nightclub, known in Cairo as a popular gay venue.

Homosexuality is regarded as a taboo in mainly Muslim Egypt, but not expressedly prohibited by law.

Among other celebrities to sign the petition were British Oscar-winning actress Emma Thompson and comedians Eddie Izzard, Graham Norton and Maureen Lipman.

COMEDIANS at the Edinburgh Festival are celebrating the release of two Burmese comics who were sentenced to seven years’ hard labour for telling jokes about the military regime.

For five years Amnesty International campaigned for the release of U Pa Pa Lay and U Lu Zaw with events at the Festival.

Amnesty had planned to highlight their case again with a benefit performance tonight. But news of the comics’ release filtered through from sources in Burma and the Stand Up for Freedom event at the Assembly Rooms will now be a celebration.

Andy Hackman, of Amnesty UK, said he had been contacted by a former Burmese prisoner of conscience who works for the BBC World Service. She told him that comedians at the Edinburgh Festival, and others worldwide, had had a definite impact on the prisoners’ release.

Through the Red Cross, Amnesty was told that Lay’s spirits had been raised in jail when he heard of an Eddie Izzard show for Amnesty.

Lay, 49, and Zaw, 45, were arrested during the 48th Independence Day commemorative ceremony in 1996. The Government accused them of spreading “false news”.

Torture Based On Sexual Identity - An Unacknowledged Global Shame
Amnesty International

Tortured, ill-treated, sexually assaulted, forcibly subjected to medical or psychiatric treatment, forced to flee their home countries in terror -- the world over, lesbians, gay men, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people are at particular risk of human rights violations because of their sexual identity, Amnesty International said today.

In a new report launched today the organization describes the plight of the thousands of people who are tortured and ill-treated because their real or perceived sexuality is seen as threatening social order. The report includes documented examples from some 30 countries, but the full extent of the problem is undoubtedly much larger. In over 70 countries same-sex relations are considered a crime, and in some instances they incur the death penalty.

"Despite being a widespread occurrence across continents and cultures, the torture and ill-treatment suffered by LGBT people is surrounded by a conspiracy of silence," Amnesty International said, stressing that this is due to the social stigma often attached to homosexuality and transsexuality.

Generalised tolerance of abuses against LGBT people, fear of retaliation and reluctance by the victims to gain exposure, are some of the factors contributing to this silence. Incidents of sexual identity-based ill-treatment remain largely unreported and under investigated, and those responsible are seldom brought to justice.

Alongside the heightened risk of torture and ill-treatment LGBT people run at the hands of state agents in police stations and prisons, they are also vulnerable to physical and psychological violence -- often amounting to torture -- in the community and even in the family. The prevalence of sexism and homophobia in society means that lesbians are at particular risk of abuse, including being forced into marriage or sexual relationships with men.

"While some governments take an active role in fuelling homophobic violence in society through inflammatory statements and institutionalised discrimination, many more share responsibility for it through lack of action," Amnesty International said.

"To combat this phenomenon, a clear message must come from the authorities -- the torture and ill-treatment of people on the basis of their sexual orientation cannot be tolerated, all instances of it will be properly investigated and those responsible brought to justice," the organization continued.

"Discrimination -- be it based on sexual identity, gender, race, ethnicity or any other factor -- provides a very fertile ground for the persistence and proliferation of torture," Amnesty International said.

"Fighting torture based on sexual identity is an integral part of the overall struggle towards a truly torture-free world," added the organization, whose million-strong worldwide membership is carrying out a global campaign to eradicate torture and ill-treatment.

Amnesty International supports the efforts of the many movements which have emerged throughout the world to break the wall of silence surrounding human rights violations against LGBT people.

The organization also welcomed the recent initiative by the special mechanisms of the UN Commission on Human Rights -- including the Special Rapporteur on Torture -- to encourage the submission of information on human rights abuses related to sexual identity. "However, UN human rights bodies should give more attention to LGBT issues," Amnesty International said.

For more information please call Amnesty International's press office in London, UK, on +44 20 7413 5566/5562. For more information on Amnesty International's global campaign to stamp out torture, please visit the campaign website: www.stoptorture.org Amnesty International, 1 Easton St., London WC1X 0DW web : http://www.amnesty.org

(this was received by Dorene recently)

Dear Ms Burdick,

Thank you so much for coming to"We Know Where You Live,Live!' on Sunday 3 June. It was fantastic to share this historic evening with you and so many others, and to share the laughter and the tears when faced with the stories of prisoners who are free now.

Perhaps the most moving feedback we have had after the show is a letter addressed to Eddie Izzard that was written on behalf of U Pa Pa Lay, a prisoner of conscience in Burma,Comedian U Pa Pa Lay was sentenced to seven years' imprisonment following one of his comic performances, where reportedly jokes were made which portrayed government cooperatives as thieves and he sang a comic song about Myanmar's generals.

He had heard of 'We Know Where You Live,Live!' from his brother and was able to communicate how important this event was for him and Amnesty International's campaigning efforts to free prisoners of conscience. I have enclosed a copy of this letter so that you can see for youself what a difference you made just by being there.

This was brought home so powerfully at the end of the show when former prisoners of conscience, Carlos Reyes,Prinz Yurdatapan, Nicole Drouilly, and Mahasin Abu-Ghasin joined Eddie Izzard, the entire cast and other former prisoners. He stood beneath his own words which were on the massive screen behind him. "Your little letters and cards are like bombs when they drop into the offices of ministers and government officials. When the cards and letters arrived into our barracks they were like rays of sunshine. We need the sunshine,please keep up your work for Amnesty International!"

If you would like to send a ray of sunshine into the dark,please join-up today. (I have-DB)

Yours sincerely, Kate Allen-Director

The letter to Eddie from --another Doreen! on behalf of U Par Par Lay.

Dear Sir

I met Lu Maw, the brother of the imprisoned U Par Par Lay (Moustache Brothers) recently in Burma. He knew about many of the previous campaigns on behalf of his brother but he had not heard about your visitto the Burma Embassy or about the upcoming AI concert. He was very pleased to hear details about what you had done and he asked me to write to you to thank you as he cannot write to you himself-the government destroy all letters destined for England. Lu Maw has a list of all of the comedians who have helped his brother, he asked me to add your name to his list.

Lu Maw also told me his brother will know what is being done on his behalf as the Red Cross have now arranged for his wife to see him in prison,even though it is very far from Mandalay,where they live. Both Lu Maw and his family wish to thank everyone who has sent postcards and they have campaigned to free U Par Par Lay.

Lu Maw says he requires as much publicity as possible to help free his brother and the family are very grateful for every effort made.

It seems to me that the most important thing is the hope that these campaigns bring to the prisoners and their families even if they are not immediately successful.

Lu Maw also asked me to say "Hello" to all of the comedians in Britain.

Kind regards

Doreen Manning

There were 3 pre-printed postcards with the Amnesty programme which you could send in support of political prisoners. Here's the wording in case you want to send some postcards of your own!

The stars come out for Amnesty's birthday

We Know Where You Live: Live!
Wembley Arena
****

Brian Logan
Tuesday June 5, 2001
The Guardian

When Alan Rickman is joined on stage by Vic Reeves, Eddie Izzard and Harry Enfield, you know that - unless the National Theatre's fad for star casting has spiralled out of control - there's a good cause abroad. For Amnesty International's 40th birthday, the quartet recreate Monty Python's famous Four Yorkshiremen sketch, the one in which they boast about childhood hardship.
It's among the evening's highlights, partly because the performers make one another giggle, partly because the moment recalls the illustrious history of the John Cleese-devised Secret Policeman's Balls and resonates as Something Special. Suddenly, in what first-on-the-bill Phill Jupitus refers to as just another benefit gig, we're watching a routine that wouldn't have been created for any other event.

Elsewhere, the extent to which the performers should adapt to the context is unresolved. While no one present would wish to be harangued, the show's status as a fundraiser for human rights - candles burning onstage post a constant reminder - makes certain acts look unfortunately trivial or complacent. At one stage, Jonathan Ross jokes about Geri Halliwell and Victoria Beckham's non-appearance. But when you've got Denise van Outen purring a Monroe-esque "happy birthday", you're in no position to jib at celebrity's superficial excesses.

Van Outen appears in a sequence of recorded inserts, alongside a gaggle of film stars and footage of U2 performing in Toronto. Back on stage, Tom Jones makes a tenuous claim for the appropriateness to the occasion of The Green, Green Grass of Home - after which one of the surprise stars, Sean Lock, quips: "I should get him to open for me more often." The peerless Harry Hill cracks a gag with a frisson, in which he shares a plummeting hot-air balloon with Hitler and Churchill. Well, who would you throw overboard? His uniquely manic energy illuminates the show's first half.

Hill's set is so enjoyable, you momentarily forget the Amnesty issue. A few performers broach it. Jeremy Hardy offers an unfashionable reminder that engagement with the real, as opposed to the surreal, world can be funny too. His asylum seekers material corrects the myth that human rights abuses all take place overseas. Mercury prizewinner Badly Drawn Boy strikes a welcome note of humility with two fragile ballads, the second of which is tailored to the evening's agenda. "There is no way to change the world in a day," he sings, then starts a Mexican wave. There may not be - but by uniting entertainment and cause, Badly Drawn Boy comes as close as anyone on the evening's bill to kickstarting the process.

The program started us laughing before the show had even started. All the other headliners had long biog sections. Eddie's just said "Eddie Izzard has done a bunch of different stuff over the years. Some of it good. Some of it crap"

So - showtime! Eddie in Bloke mode. Long sideburns
and a bohemian looking goatee beard. Red satin jacket, black t-shirt and trousers. In between the other acts he went through the entire (but in many parts updated) favourites of his acts over the years from Pavlov's cats to Covered in Bees. Almost a complete career resumee in one show. Clearly some of the audience knew his stuff but for many it was new. Still fresh though and still with Eddie's wanderings in between. Phil Jupitus did a very funny skit on how to be Eddie - just wandering around the stage saying "Yeah, Sooooo" until Eddie threw a bottle of Evian over him. The acts just rattled on.

Jeremy Hardy (very funny, very anarchist) the Fast Show Gang , Harry Enfield and Paul Whitehouse as Frank and George yelling "Izzard - NO! Don't come here dressed like a bloke, Fuck off and put a dress on and show us just what a
nonce you really are!!!"

Harry Hill, Dom Joly with his mobile phone skit in
the next row to us. The cast of Goodness Gracious Me with a fantastic sketch taking the piss out of the English in Indian Restaurants by going to eat
"English" - "have you anything more bland?" Sean Lock who was brilliant doing a skit about his
parents trying to make him gay. Music from Badly
Drawn Boy, Stereophonics and Tom Jones. But probabaly the highlight was the "Four Yorkshiremen Master Class" which was Harry Enfield, Alan Rickman, Eddie and Vic Reeves re-creating the infamous Monty Python sketch. They
just corpsed all the way through it. Vic declared that he was pissed, Eddie nearly fell off his chair laughing - just wonderful.

The show went on the almost 4 hours and ended with a typical Eddie Er? Then some very powerful quotes from Prisoners of Conscience and an appearance by four people that Amnesty had helped to release.

All in all a truly wonderful evening. Despite little or no new stuff from Eddie "It's difficult to think when people are moving the fucking stage
around you" he was as always utterly wonderful.

Censorship beyond a joke (photo in the PHOTOS section)

Dominic Cavendish reviews We Know Where You Live, Live! at Wembley Arena

PSST! Heard the one about the men who tortured a transvestite to death in Argentina? Or the one about those responsible for incarcerating two comedians in Burma?

Eddie knows where you live: Mr Izzard on the campaign trail
No, neither have I. British comedy's top brass paraded for four hours before a packed Wembley Arena in honour of Amnesty International's 40th birthday. Rib-ticklers about human-rights abusers had they none.

We Know Where You Live, Live! is the successor to the hallowed Secret Policeman's Ball series, the Amnesty fund-raisers of the Seventies and Eighties that paved the way for such celebs-for-charity marathons as Live Aid and Comic Relief.

One of the reasons behind the name-change, according to Eddie Izzard, who has succeeded John Cleese as the show's driving force, was to make the thrust of the event clearer. And yet there was little here that would have embarrassed the world's tyrants.

This can be attributed partly to the fact that the evening was being recorded for TV. As the result of an Independent Television Commission technicality so ludicrous you assumed it was one of Izzard's jokes, mention of Amnesty was itself subject to censorship.

But, let's face it, politically-aware comedy has pretty much died the death in this country. To imagine it could rally for one night is as foolish as hoping that the cultural dictatorship of Posh'n'Becks could ever be toppled.

The ever-charming Izzard set the innocuous but stylish tone as compere. Dressed in jacket and trousers, rather than one of his gender-bending frocks, he mused, between acts, on such subjects as bumble-bee dances, hopscotch and the perils of buying toilet paper at service stations.

Harry Hill and Sean Lock provided pithy resumes of their surrealistic shtick. The biggest cheers, however, were reserved for the biggest stars: the Goodness Gracious Me! troupe, reprising their much loved Berni Inn, Bombay sketch; Paul Whitehouse and Harry Enfield in various guises; and Tom Jones, who capped an eclectic musical line-up by duetting with Kelly Jones, the Stereophonics' bashful frontman.

Halfway through, a mobile rang - and a man in shades (Trigger Happy TV's Dom Joly) got up and started screaming into a giant handset. "Hello!" he barracked. "I'm at the gig . . . No! . . . It's rubbish!"

We Know Where You Live, Live! certainly wasn't rubbish, but, with a cause as worth proclaiming as Amnesty's, it wouldn't have hurt to amplify the outrage.

'We Know Where You Live, Live!' will be broadcast on Channel 4 on June 16.

We Know Where You Live: Live!

BY CLIVE DAVIS

Wembley Arena

THE walls of the men’s toilets at Wembley Arena are lined with notices proclaiming the hall as the world’s leading venue. It is nice to know that signwriters are doing their bit to keep the art of comedy alive. Because the arena is, of course, just about the worst place to see a show of any kind, let alone one dominated by stand-up comics. There is nothing quite so pointless as craning your neck to watch a giant screen image of a man telling a joke.
All praise, then, to Eddie Izzard and his colleagues for taking up the challenge of celebrating Amnesty International’s 40th anniversary and going head-to-head with our fond memories of The Secret Policeman’s Ball. By the time Izzard had signed off as droll master of ceremonies he had managed to convince us that we were sitting in the third row of the Comedy Store. Quite an achievement.

Previous Amnesty galas displayed a little more ambition than that, it has to be said, and if you were in the mood to be nostalgic, it was hard to avoid the conclusion that Vic Reeves and Jonathan Ross (yes, him again) were a poor substitute for the likes of Rowan Atkinson and Barry Humphries. The music was thinner too: Tom Jones and the Stereophonics went through the motions; as for Badly Drawn Boy’s shambolic display, it seemed for a moment as if that old hand Neil Innes had sneaked on to the bill half-concealed beneath a tea cosy. Sadly, he hadn’t.

Sketches were banished to the margins this time. The Goodness Gracious Me! team revived their beautifully observed piece about the Bombay yobs’ night-out in an English restaurant. Even though the delivery was terminally laidback, the lines still fizzed. At the close, Izzard and Reeves joined Harry Enfield and Alan Rickman for that Amnesty institution, the Pythons’ Four Yorkshiremen routine. The quartet’s timing was off, the giggling dragged on, and all in all it was a bit of a mess, yet it still gave us the opportunity to mumble the lines under our breath.

Among the stand-ups, Phill Jupitus did his reputation no harm with his swaggering dispatches from the land of parenthood and his disdainful parody of The Blair Witch Project. Harry Hill gave us a gloriously demented snippet from his stage show, while Sean Lock treated us to engagingly low-key one-liners.

Harry Enfield’s long drought continues: DJs Smashy and Nicey are not supposed to sound quite so desperate for laughs as that, surely? Apart from Jeremy Hardy’s droll Old Left patter, politics hardly had a look-in all evening: for the most part, the nearest we came to social comment was a string of cruel pokes at the Queen Mother. It took the appearance at the close of a group of former political prisoners to remind us that there is a bigger world out there.

Amnesty reignites comedy flame after 10 years

As the minutes counted down before the start of Amnesty’s We Know Where You Live fundraiser, four men in Hawaiian shirts were paying their dues to comedy heritage. “Oo’d have thought 40 years ago we’d all be sat here drinking Ch�teau de Chasselet ?” Harry Enfield says in the broad accent of Monty Python’s famous “Four Yorkshiremen” sketch.

The time-span is not accidental. Who would have thought, he might have added, that 40 years ago an appeal in The Observer on behalf of two Portuguese students would lead to the creation of the world’s largest human rights organisation? Who would have thought, too, that by 2001 a reference to Heinkel would have to be rewritten for an audience who can’t be assumed to know that it was a German bomber?

That wasn’t the only directorial note, either. Eddie Izzard, who has taken on the role or organiser from John Cleese, turned to Alan Rickman and Vic reeves, his co-stars in this classic sketch, and shared an anxiety about pacing: “We don’t want to be lugubrious do we?”

That would hardly be appropriate, since Amnesty effectively pioneered the marriage of satirical comedy and political consciousness-raising with its famous Secret Policeman’s Balls.

This is the first such event since 1991, a 10 year hiatus which testifies to a certain benefit fatigue. It also testifies to a changed view of exactly what satire might achieve. John Cleese said recently: “Growing up in the Sixties when satire started, one really thought this kind of insane behaviour [by dictators] would eventually be laughed off the world stage, but I’m not sure that much progress has been made.”

If dictators have declined to be cowed by comedy sketches, however, the insistence of Amnesty that their activities should not pass unremarked has had its effect. The point of this concert is less to raise funds than to introduce the organisation to a new generation of potential supporters, those for whom acts such as Dom Joly and Harry Hill are more meaningful than Alan Bennett and Peter Cook.

Up on stage, Joly and Hill were rehearsing their contribution to the evening – a pastiche of Stars in Their Eyes. The atmosphere is a cocktail of mild embarrassment and incipient panic, not soothed by the echoing indifference of an empty hall. While previous concerts took place in much smaller London theatres, Izzard had deliberately opted for Wembley Arena – he wanted, he said, to avoid the “rattling jewellery” syndrome that exclusive events can sometimes generate. The show will be broadcast internationally on 16 June.

When Joly finished briefing the giant squirrels, who came on to assault him during his appearance as Black Box (“Careful lads – you’re going to break the box”, he says, his voice muffled by the vast carton he’s wearing as a costume), the cast appears for a photo call.

There is only one man on stage who would even have been heard of at the first Secret Policeman’s Ball – Tom Jones, exempted from a conscious decision not to use older acts by his recent pop reinvention. The rest, from Fast Show veterans to indie stars such as Stereophonics, come from a generation who have still to do their own showbiz version of national service.

The uniform is still the Amnesty T-shirt, emblazoned with the famous emblem of a candle wrapped in barbed wire. The logo’s modesty is appealing, a recognition that there are limits to the illumination the organisation can bring to bear on the darker corners of government power. But the flame that has burned for much longer than anyone could have imagined, has proved that it can still attract the famous to dance around it.

Thomas Sutcliffe – The Guardian 5th June 2001

The cream of British comedy tried to keep up with the Joneses as Amnesty International celebrated its 40th birthday with the return of the Secret Policeman's Ball.

Tom Jones and Kelly Jones of the Stereophonics lent a heavy Welsh flavour to the music as the all-star revue, first seen in the Seventies, returned in front of 11,000 people at Wembley Arena under a new name, We Know Where You Live.

Tom performed his signature tune, The Green Green Grass Of Home, and later returned to the stage to duet with his younger namesake on the soul classic Hard To Handle.

Eddie Izzard hosted the three-hour show which also featured turns by comedians Harry Enfield, Paul Whitehouse, Harry Hill, Dom Joly, Phil Jupitus, Richard Blackwood, Jeremy Hardy and Sean Lock.

Izzard frequently had the audience in hysterics with a stand-up routine that tackled Buddhism, taxidermy, beekeeping and boxing. Jupitus had them cheering wildly at his 60-second adaptation of The Blair Witch Project.

Hill, arriving onstage in the guise of Morrissey, touched on topics from Hitler to vegetarians before singing an unusual rendition of John Lennon's Imagine, with lyrics made up entirely of the names of household adhesives.

Jonathan Ross read out some bogus telegrams from celebrities and Joly reprised his mobile phone gag from a seat in the stalls: "Hello! I'm at Wembley (it's rubbish)!".

Jeremy Hardy offered the night's only real dose of politics with his thoughts on the election.

U2 performed via video link from Toronto before the show closed on an emotional note with the appearance of four former political prisoners freed as a result of Amnesty campaigning.

Highlights will be broadcast on Channel 4 on 16 June.

At 40, Amnesty finds cause for celebration

David Brown
Monday June 4, 2001
The Guardian

Former prisoners of conscience last night joined singer Tom Jones and other stars on stage for an emotional show to celebrate the 40th birthday of Amnesty International.

More than 11,000 people watched the line-up of comedy and music talent at the Wembley Arena.

In a poignant finale four prisoners of conscience who had been released because of the organisation's efforts took to the stage with the families of eight prisoners still held in jails in each of the continents.

The event - We Know Where You Live Live - was described as "the son" of the Secret Policeman's Ball organised by actor John Cleese to raise funds for Amnesty between the 1970s and 1990s.

Amnesty fundraising manager Andy Hackman said: "This has been a wonderful way to celebrate 40 years of success and to mark the work that we still need to do for prisoners of conscience around the world."

The show was hosted by the comedian Eddie Izzard who encouraged members of the audience to join Amnesty and to take part in the organisation's campaign of writing to prisoners and to governments.

Izzard said: "For people who remember the Secret Policeman's Ball this will be a fresh look but hopefully just as successful."

The comedians Harry Enfield and Harry Hill, the rock band The Stereophonics, the singer Badly Drawn Boy, the cast of the show Goodness Gracious Me and television prankster Don Joly were among the other performers.

Before the show started, comic Vic Reeves said he would be performing a Monty Python-type sketch called The Four Yorkshiremen along with Enfield, Izzard and actor Alan Rickman.

The stars were suitably modest about there reasons for taking part in the event.

Enfield said he had agreed to perform at the show because he was a "trendy lefty". Reeves added: "Because I got asked. I'm all for Amnesty International. I've not performed here but I saw Prince here once."

Enfield was reunited with his former partner Paul Whitehouse to recreate their DJ duo Smashie and Nicey.

Tom Jones hailed Amnesty's work and said he was looking forward to performing again at Wembley Arena. "I think it's great, because they get people out of jail."

STEREOPHONICS frontman KELLY JONES joined TOM JONES for a version of OTIS REDDING's classic 'HARD TO HANDLE' as the musical climax of the AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL 40th birthday celebrations at WEMBLEY ARENA last night (June 3).

The pair also sang their now customary duet 'Mama Told Me Not To Come' as the finale to the show, which was a resurrection of the Secret Policeman's Ball shows organised by John Cleese to raise funds for human rights campaigners Amnesty International in the 70s and 80s.

Earlier in the show, which was organised and compered by comedian Eddie Izzard, Tom Jones had performed a solo set, singing 'Green Green Grass Of Home' and 'Flat Broke And Busted'.

The show also featured Badly Drawn Boy, who was introduced by Smashey And Nicey as "the Bachman Turner Overdrive of Bolton."

After a pause of a few minutes while stage crew set up his equipment, he took the stage in a glittery Adidas T-shirt, commenting: "I really appreciated that long gap there, really calmed my nerves... don't know why I'm nervous, following this bunch of fucking comedians."

Introducing his first song, 'The Shining', he said it went out as a "kick in the arse to any human beings on this planet who think they're bigger or better than other human beings, who put themselves above them."

He then played 'Let The Sun Shine In' from the musical 'Hair', with reference to the Julie Driscoll and Brian Augur version, describing it as "one of my favourite ever songs," and saying there is "also a connection to the way a night like tonight should make you feel." During the song, he spelled out "A.m.n.e.s.t.y.", in reference to an earlier comment by Izzard that the artists were unable to say the word Amnesty, who were classed as sponsors of the gig, as the event is to be televised, and it is against ITC (Independent Television Commission) rules to name sponsors during programmes.

He finished his set by getting the audience to start a Mexican wave around the arena, causing Izzard to quip: "Fuck, why didn't I think of a Mexican wave?" when he followed him back on to the stage.

U2 had specially recorded a version of 'Stay (Faraway, So Close)' for the event during a gig in Toronto, with The Edge on acoustic guitar and Bono on vocals, which was played on the giant screen at the back of the stage before the interval.

Travis had also made their presence felt by video, sending a birthday message and blowing out a candle on a cake.

Stereophonics reopened the show after the interval, with Kelly Jones declaring that they wouldn't be attempting to match the comedians' humour, and singing 'Step On My Old Size Nines' and 'Have A Nice Day'.

The night featured stand-up sets by Phill Jupitus, Jeremy Hardy, Goodness Gracious Me, Richard Blackwood, Simon Day, Jonathan Ross, Paul Whitehouse and Harry Enfield, Sean Locke, Harry Hill - who took the stage as Morrissey, singing a medley of 'This Charming Man', 'Panic' and 'Vicar In A Tutu' with gladioli aloft - and a sketch by Dom Joly in a parody of 'Stars In Their Eyes' as Black Box singing 'Ride On Time'.

There was also an updated, ad-libbed resurrection of the classic Monty Python "four Yorkshiremen" sketch, with Izzard, Vic Reeves, Harry Enfield and actor Alan Rickman.

A host of comedy and music talent took to the stage on Sunday night for a spectacular in aid of human rights organisation Amnesty International.

Hosted by surreal comic Eddie Izzard, the event at London's Wembley Arena marked the 40th anniversary of the organisation.

Among those joining Izzard on stage were Tom Jones, Harry Enfield, Jonathan Ross and rock group the Stereophonics.

More than 11,000 people attended the sell-out event, entitled We Know Where You Live.

It follows in the footsteps of the famous Secret Policeman's Balls, which ran through the 1970s, 80s and 90s under the artistic direction of ex-Python John Cleese.

"For people who remember the Secret Policeman's Ball this will be a fresh look but hopefully just as successful," said Izzard.

The serious message behind the concert is to encourage more people to join Amnesty International, but organisers promised a "seriously funny night".

Singer Tom Jones tried his hand at comedy and Harry Hill, Richard Blackwood and Trigger Happy TV creator Dom Joly were also on the billing.

Last week thousands of people took part in a London parade and street party to celebrate Amnesty's 40th anniversary.

The organisation was formed after a British lawyer set up a campaign to help prisoners of conscience after two Portuguese students were jailed for toasting freedom.

Forty years later, Amnesty International has intervened in the cases of 47,000 individuals, campaigning for an end to their torture, imprisonment or death sentence.

Letters written by supporters are sent to lobby governments and authorities on behalf of individuals or groups of individuals to get them out of jail or prevent them being tortured.

Amnesty reignites comedy flame after 10 years
By Thomas sutcliffe |04 June 2001| The Independent

As the minutes counted down before the start of Amnesty's We Know Where You Live fundraiser, four men in Hawaiian shirts were paying their dues to comedy heritage. "Oo'd 'ave thought 40 years ago we'd all be sat here drinking Chateau de Chasselet?" Harry Enfield says in the broad accent of Monty Python's famous "Four Yorkshiremen" sketch.

The time-span is not accidental. Who would have thought, he might have added, that 40 years ago an appeal in The Observer on behalf of two Portuguese students would lead to the creation of the world's largest human rights organisation? Who would have thought, too, that by 2001 a reference to a Heinkel would have to be rewritten for an audience who can't be assumed to know that it was a German bomber?

That wasn't the only directorial note, either. Eddie Izzard, who has taken on the role of organiser from John Cleese, turned to Alan Rickman and Vic Reeves, his co-stars in this classic sketch, and shared an anxiety about pacing: "We don't want to be lugubrious do we?"

That would hardly be appropriate, since Amnesty effectively pioneered the marriage of satirical comedy and political consciousness-raising with its famous Secret Policeman's Balls.

This is the first such event since 1991, a 10-year hiatus which testifies to a certain benefit fatigue. It also testifies to a changed view of exactly what satire might achieve. John Cleese said recently: "Growing up in the Sixties when satire started, one really thought this kind of insane behaviour [by dictators] would eventually be laughed off the world stage, but I'm not sure that much progress has been made."

If dictators have declined to be cowed by comedy sketches, however, the insistence of Amnesty that their activities should not pass unremarked has had its effect. The point of this concert is less to raise funds than to introduce the organisation to a new generation of potential supporters, those for whom acts such as Dom Joly and Harry Hill are more meaningful than Alan Bennett and Peter Cook.

Up on stage, Joly and Hill were rehearsing their contribution to the evening � a pastiche of Stars in Their Eyes. The atmosphere is a cocktail of mild embarrassment and incipient panic, not soothed by the echoing indifference of an empty hall. While previous concerts took place in much smaller London theatres, Izzard had deliberately opted for Wembley Arena � he wanted, he said, to avoid the "rattling jewellery" syndrome that exclusive events can sometimes generate. The show will be broadcast internationally on 16 June.

When Joly finished briefing the giant squirrels, who came on to assault him during his appearance as Black Box ("Careful lads � you're going to break the box", he says, his voice muffled by the vast carton he's wearing as a costume), the cast appears for a photo call.

There is only one man on stage who would even have been heard of at the first Secret Policeman's Ball � Tom Jones, exempted from a conscious decision not to use older acts by his recent pop reinvention. The rest, from Fast Show veterans to indie stars such as Stereophonics, come from a generation who have still to do their showbiz version of national service.

The uniform is still the Amnesty T-shirt, emblazoned with the famous emblem of a candle wrapped in barbed wire. The logo's modesty is appealing, a recognition that there are limits to the illumination the organisation can bring to bear on the darker corners of government power. But the flame that has burned for much longer than anyone could have imagined, has proved that it can still attract the famous to dance around it.

Secret Policeman's Ball videos to be reissued
Updated: June 3, 2001 | from ananova.com

The entire collection of Secret Policeman's Ball videos are to be re-released to mark Amnesty International's 40th anniversary.

The live comedy events were the predecessors to Sunday's We Know Where You Live comedy spectacular at Wembley Arena.

The concert, hosted by Eddie Izzard, features stars such as Vic Reeves, Dom Joly, Tom Jones, Harry Enfield and Stereophonics.

The Secret Policeman's Balls ran through the 1970s, 80s and 90s, under the artistic direction of John Cleese.

The Wembley Arena gig sold out, with over 11,000 people expected at the event that will be broadcast live on cable television.

The message behind the concert is to encourage more people to join Amnesty International and organisers are promising a "seriously funny night".

Izzard says: "For people who remember the Secret Policeman's Ball this will be a fresh look but hopefully just as successful."

U2 will perform at tomorrow's night's (June 3) 40th anniversary Amnesty International show via a satellite link-up from the US.

The 'We Know Where You Live' event at London's Wembley Arena will be hosted by comedian Eddie Izzard. U2, who have resumed their US tour following a break for the birth of frontman Bono's fourth child, will perform 'Stay'.

The Stereophonics will also appear alongside Badly Drawn Boy, Tom Jones and UK comedians such as Harry Hill, Harry Enfield and Dom Joly.

STEREOPHONICS have confirmed they will play at a massive charity concert in LONDON in aid of AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL.

The show, titled 'We Know Where You Live', takes place at the 11,000 capacity Wembley Arena on June 3.

The event is set to feature a combination of live music acts and comedians, and is curated by Eddie Izzard.

Stereophonics will perfom an acoustic set in addition to the previously announced performances from Tom Jones and Badly Drawn Boy.

Comedians involved with the event include Harry Enfield, Phill Jupitus, Dom Joly and Harry Hill.

'On the night We Know Where You Live, for Amnesty International, should be a success. I'm the compere for this interesting event - and although any gig is potentially scary, once it's up and running adrenaline takes over. The
other main people are Harry Enfield, Harry Hill, Richard Blackwood, Dom Joly, the cast of Goodness Gracious Me, Phill Jupitus, Badly Drawn Boy and Tom Jones.

The musical elements will follow the previous format because it's the son of Secret Policeman's Ball, so they're more acoustic than electric. John Cleese started the first Ball and he put my name forward. He'd done enough and this is for and by a younger generation. There's no chance of a Python revival. I'll be running my arse off, as I did at gigs of yore in clubs all over London. I can do my thing but I've got to remember to get off stage and
musn't think, 'Oh, this is going well so I'll stick around'. But it's bound to overrun.

The title is designed to streamline the message of Secret Policeman's Ball, which was a bit more ambiguous. We Know Where You Live is about gangsters or governments who run countries and withhold human rights. We're also linking to the idea that governments should sign up to the message: we will track down the places where people are tortured and imprisoned without cause. We'll find you and bring you to justice. Right-thinking citizens will want that.

On the night I'll mainly be wearing clothes - maybe a tack suit. I'd like to watch the show afterwards on the telly - I'm looking forward to getting it cooking. It's a great place to play once you're in the thick. Nothing's better. It's going to be great fun but the underlying themse is deadly serious'.

Jonathan Ross, Sean Lock, Bill Bailey and Jeremy Hardy have been added to the bill for Amnesty International's 40th anniversary concert.

The full line-up for the We Know Where You Live: Live! event on June 3 has now been finalised.

But organiser and host Eddie Izzard is promising a few surprises could still be in the pipeline.

Other comics appearing in front of the 11,000 Wembley crowd are Vic Reeves, Harry Enfield, Dom Joly, the cast of Goodness Gracious Me, Richard Blackwood, Will Smith, Phill Jupitus and Simon Day.

Music will come from Tom Jones, The Stereophonics and Badly Drawn Boy.

The show will be broadcast on Channel 4 at 11pm on June 16. A video will be available at a later date.

Stereophonics join Amnesty International gig line-up
Updated: May 24, 2001 | from Ananova.com

The Stereophonics have been added to the line-up for the Amnesty International 40th anniversary concert.

The We Know Where You Live comedy spectacular is being organised by Eddie Izzard, who will also host the event.

The concert at Wembley Arena on June 3 will also feature Tom Jones, Dom Joly, Harry Hill and Badly Drawn Boy.

More information is available from the official We Know Where You Live: Live! website.

Simon Day, Reeves and Mortimer lined up for Amnesty show
Updated: May 24, 2001 | from Ananova.com

The Fast Show's Simon Day is the latest addition to the Amnesty International 40th anniversary comedy event, We Know Where You Live.

British stand-up Will Smith is also set to appear, and Vic Reeves and Bob Mortimer are also rumoured to be taking part.

Amnesty announces guests...
Updated: May 15, 2001 | from Ananova.com

"Tom Jones, Harry Enfield, Harry Hill and Dom Joly are all in the line-up for Amnesty International's 40th anniversary gig at Wembley Arena.

The show will be hosted by Eddie Izzard, and also features Badly Drawn Boy, Richard Blackwood, Phill Jupitus and the cast of Goodness, Gracious Me.

Izzard is to play a number of "secret" gigs in London next week as warm-ups to the Amnesty event, called We Know Where You Live, in June

Eddie will appear at the Red Rose club, north London, on May 22 and 29, and at Amused Moose in Soho on May 24.

Tickets for the north London gig will be sold at the venue from 11.30am on Sunday morning only, according to the club's website www.redrosecomedy.co.uk.

Amused Moose Soho is only offering tickets through its site www.amusedmoose.co.uk, though the venue is expected to sell out almost immediately.

Those who do get tickets to any of the gigs will be expected to donate at least �10 to Amnesty. Further artists are also to be added to the line-up for Amnesty's We Know Where You Live event."

Eddie Izzard to Host Comedy Evening for Charity
Updated: April 27, 2001 | thanks Francesca

Comedian Eddie Izzard last week boarded a black bus to help launch We Know Where You Live, Live! event to

mark the 40th Anniversary of Amnesty International.

The Human Rights Organization has revived it's live benefit shows after a ten year gap. The new name, a phrase used by gangsters against innocent people, was suggested by Eddie. "I thought
we should take it and use it against the dictators of the world." he says.

The TV funnyman has taken over as artistic director from John Cleese, who organized The Secret Policeman's Balls that funded amnesty in the 70's and 80's. He will host the event at Wembley Arena on June 3rd. "The event aims to raise awareness and money. It is a big undertaking , but it will be a crazy, fun night." said Eddie.

Beattie joins Izzard for Amnesty campaign
Updated: Wednesday April 4, 2001
Julia Day | MediaGuardian.co.uk

The man behind the controversial FCUK adverts has turned his attention to Amnesty International.

Trevor Beattie has created a new campaign for free with the help of comedian Eddie Izzard.

More used to ruffling the feathers of middle England, Beattie is turning his attentions to rattling governments with poor human rights records.

To celebrate its 40th birthday this year Amnesty is launching a campaign called "We know where you live".

The linchpin of the campaign will be a comedy benefit night at Wembley Arena on June 3 hosted by Izzard.

The event and campaign surrounding it will be branded "We know where you live", referring to Amnesty and its supporters knowing where to find the perpetrators of abuse.

Mr Beattie, who came up with the name of the campaign with Izzard, has created a newspaper, poster and postcard campaign that will break at the end of this week.

A giant-sized poster will be revealed in London and buses sporting the slogan and painted black are already in circulation.

The campaign has been created free of charge by Mr Beattie's advertising agency TBWA London. It is the first time the agency has worked for Amnesty.

TBWA London was approached by Mark Borkowski PR, which has been appointed by Amnesty to work on all of its 40th birthday celebration projects.

The campaign's website also kicks off Amnesty's move in to online campaigning, promoting six cases including comedians jailed in Myanmar, formerly Burma, and a transvestite murdered in Argentina.

Eddie Izzard was riding around London on a double decker bus today (Tuesday) promoting a massive comedy gig he's hosting for Amnesty International.

It'll be at Wembley Arena on June 3rd. There's no line up as yet - but he promises big names in comedy and music.

Meanwhile, Eddie's just finished filming with 'Friends' star Matt Le Blanc for the movie 'All The Queens Men'.

Eddie told Radio 1 he was amazed that Matt gets stopped everywhere he goes: "He was recognised even in Hungary - lots of fans coming up saying 'You're in 'Friends' - you're Joey!' I pretended to be his manager just to give him a bit of space."

The stunt was to promote the Amnesty fundraising concert We Know Where You Live.

The event at Wembley Arena on June 3 is the successor to the Secret Policeman's Balls of the Seventies and Eighties.

Izzard, who is to host the show, said: "This is the son of the Secret Policeman's Balls.

"Wembley is a lovely place to play. There might be some sketches, but there will be a lot more stand-up than at the Secret Policeman's Balls, because that's the way comedy has gone."

Of today's stunt, he said: "We are travelling around to some of the embassies who have been woeful in their treatment of human rights in their home countries � China, Argentina and Burma, as it was called.

"Gangsters used the phrase 'We know where you live' against ordinary people. But now ordinary people are using it against the gangsters."

"For people who remember the Secret Policemen's Ball this will be fresh new look but hopefully just as successful."

Comedian Eddie Izzard is taking over the baton from John Cleese to head up Amnesty International's fund raising comedy show.

Once called The Secret Policeman's Ball, the summertime gig has now been dubbed We Know Where You Live.

It will be staged to celebrate 40 years of London-based Amnesty's work for human rights around the world.

Izzard announced details of the event from the top of a black double-decker bus which went on a tour of embassies of countries with poor human rights records.

Details of the exact line up for the spectacular are being kept a closely guarded secret, but organisers are promising a show full of British and international comedy and music talent.

The event follows in the footsteps of the famous Secret Policemen's Balls which ran throughout the 1970s, 80s and 90s under the artistic direction of Monty Python's John Cleese.

But now the microphone has been passed to Izzard, who will direct and host the 11,000 seat one-night only event at London's Wembley Arena.

Izzard, famed for his surreal routines and cross dressing antics, explained how he became involved: "I was put up for it by John Cleese who nominated me, I was asked and agreed."

He explained the event, "The whole campaign and the slogan `We Know Where You Live' is about ordinary citizens standing up to tyrants who run countries in illegal ways and who withhold human rights."

"For people who remember the Secret Policemen's Ball this will be fresh new look but hopefully just as successful."

The event, to be held on Sunday June 3 will be broadcast on cable television, and people can also send messages of support to victims of human rights abuses via the event's website.

...we switch you semi-live to Cake or Death's own UK correspondent, the fabulous Mimi, for her up to the minute report!

"I have just finished watching London Today (ITV 13:00hrs)...........here is my up to date, up to the minute, blow by blow, insightful and hard hitting report:

Hair - Blonde, short, slightly messy.

Clothes - Black leather jacket, black jeans and black T-shirt with Amnesty motif.

Look - He had no make-up on and he looks slim, healthy and really young!

HE LOOKS GOOD GIRLS!

Eddie was interviewed by London Today during a press call to launch Amnesty International's 'We Know Where You Live Campaign'. Today he will be traveling around London on a black bus (no.38) visiting embassies who are "woeful at upholding human rights". He was introduced as a 'flamboyant performer' . He explained that the 'We Know Where You Live' campaign was about taking "a direct line against these gangsters" who "unjustly imprison"
people. He used Pinochet as an example saying "he shouldn't have been allowed over here to have his back, or whatever, done".

He said the that the show at Wembley arena was going to be a "big gig" and that the Arena was a "crazy place to play". He was asked if it would be like the old Secret Policeman's Ball, which was full of sketches- he said "comedy is much more geared towards stand-up nowadays but there might be a few sketches" and he pointed out he was the compare."

LONDON (Reuters) - Once Amnesty International put on The Secret Policeman's Ball. Now it Knows Where You Live.

It's all part of Amnesty's plan to use humour in the deadly serious pursuit of human rights.

To mark 40 years in the business, the London-based rights organisation has a new title and a new compere for its fund-raising comedy gig.

Monty Python star John Cleese, the gangly comic genius behind "The Secret Policeman's Ball", has passed the artistic baton to zany transvestite Eddie Izzard who has renamed the show "We Know Where You Live" for its London relaunch on June 3.

At the live benefit gig, Amnesty will turn its global spotlight on the human rights records of Argentina and Myanmar.

"Injustices are still going on around the world," Izzard told BBC radio on Tuesday.

He wants to highlight the case of comedians Pa Pa Lay and Lu Zaw, jailed in Myanmar in 1996.

"They did some jokes about the government, got some laughs and seven years in jail," he said.

Izzard said: "We thought Argentina had gone into a democratic situation. But they still have a big problem with alternative sexuality people.

"There was a transvestite called Venesa Lorna Ledesma who was arrested, tortured and killed after five days in February 2000."

Izzard felt it was time for a name change for the show, which is being staged at London's 11,000-seat Wembley Arena.

As for the new title, Izzard said it was a slap in the face to the world's bad guys.

"'We Know Where You Live' is the kind of thing gangsters say to ordinary people and this is ordinary people saying it back to the gangsters," he said.

The original "Secret Policeman's Ball" shows produced some classics of surreal humour -- from the cast of "Monty Python's Flying Circus" singing their immortal Lumberjack Song to Peter Ustinov playing the Queen Mother at the Royal Ballet.

They were major fundraisers for Amnesty in the Seventies and Eighties and former Python Cleese recalls proudly that they produced "some of the best stuff I've seen on stage."

But Cleese, now living in California, felt too weighed down with parental responsibilities and handed over to Izzard, telling the Observer newspaper "I thought Eddie had the right touch because you cannot put too heavy a hand on it."

Eddie has been named the Artistic Director for Amnesty International. You can read more here in the Sunday Mirror's interview (thanks Claire for typing ths up!) NEW PIC ADDED! and in the Observer (thanks Teri!). And for you lucky Brits, get your tickets now for the special Amnesty International show at Wembley stadium :

Amnesty hopes the event, to be shown on television at a later date, will not only raise funds but also recruit to the cause a new generation who may first hear of Amnesty, as Izzard did, through the shows. 'We Know Where You Live' is at Wembley Arena on 3 June, tickets from Wembley Arena, 0870 7331050