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The Concert for Bangladesh (or Bangla Desh, as the country was originally spelled) was the name for two benefit concerts organised by former Beatles lead guitarist George Harrison and Ravi Shankar, held at 2.30 and 8 pm on Sunday, 1 August 1971, playing to a total of 40,000 people at Madison Square Garden in New York City. The shows were organised to raise international awareness and fund relief efforts for refugees from East Pakistan (now Bangladesh), following the Bangladesh Liberation War-related genocide. The concerts were followed by a bestselling live album, a boxed three-record set, and Apple Films' concert documentary, which opened in cinemas in the spring of 1972. The event was the first-ever benefit concert of such a magnitude〔The Editors of ''Rolling Stone'', p. 43.〕 and featured a supergroup of performers that included Harrison, fellow ex-Beatle Ringo Starr, Bob Dylan, Eric Clapton, Billy Preston, Leon Russell and the band Badfinger. In addition, Shankar and Ali Akbar Khan – both of whom had ancestral roots in Bangladesh – performed an opening set of Indian classical music. Decades later, Shankar would say of the overwhelming success of the event: "In one day, the whole world knew the name of Bangladesh. It was a fantastic occasion ..."〔 The concerts raised close to US$250,000 for Bangladesh relief, which was administered by UNICEF. Although the project was subsequently marred by financial problems – a result of the pioneering nature of the venture – the Concert for Bangladesh is recognised as a highly successful and influential humanitarian aid project, generating both awareness and considerable funds as well as providing valuable lessons and inspiration for projects that followed, notably Live Aid.〔〔Interviews with Charles J. Lyons and Kofi Annan, in ''The Concert for Bangladesh Revisited''.〕〔Rodriguez, p. 51.〕 By 1985, through revenue raised from the ''Concert for Bangladesh'' live album and film, an estimated $12 million had been sent to Bangladesh in relief.〔 Sales of the live album and DVD release of the film continue to benefit the George Harrison Fund for UNICEF. ==Background== As East Pakistan struggled to become the separate state of Bangladesh during the 1971 Bangladesh Liberation War, the political and military turmoil and associated atrocities led to a massive refugee problem,〔Lavezzoli, pp. 186–87.〕 with at least 7 million displaced people pouring into neighbouring India.〔Schaffner, p. 146.〕 East Pakistan had recently endured devastation as a result of the Bhola cyclone, and the Bengalis' desperate plight increased in March that year when torrential rains and floods arrived in the region,〔Lavezzoli, p. 187.〕 threatening a humanitarian disaster.〔The Editors of ''Rolling Stone'', p. 42.〕〔Clayson, p. 308.〕 Quoting figures available at the time, a ''Rolling Stone'' feature claimed that up to half a million Bengalis had been killed by the cyclone in November 1970 and that the Pakistani army's subsequent campaign of slaughter under Operation Searchlight accounted for at least 250,000 civilians, "by the most conservative estimates".〔The Editors of ''Rolling Stone'', p. 123.〕 Following the mass exodus to Calcutta, a new threat arrived as the refugees faced starvation and the outbreak of diseases such as cholera.〔Greene, p. 186.〕〔Liner notes, booklet accompanying ''The Concert for Bangladesh'' reissue (Sony BMG, 2005; produced by George Harrison & Phil Spector), p. 7.〕 Appalled at the situation affecting his homeland and relatives,〔〔 Bengali musician Ravi Shankar first brought the issue to the attention of his friend George Harrison in the early months of 1971, over dinner at Friar Park, according to Klaus Voormann's recollection.〔Leng, p. 111.〕〔James Sullivan, ("George Harrison's Concert for Bangladesh Featured Drug Trouble for Eric Clapton, Stage Fright for Bob Dylan" ), spinner.com, 1 August 2011 (archived version retrieved: 12 October 2013).〕 By April, Shankar and Harrison were in Los Angeles working on the soundtrack to the film ''Raga'' (1971),〔 during which Harrison wrote the song "Miss O'Dell", commenting on corruption among the Indian authorities as aid shipments of rice from the West kept "''going astray on () way to Bombay''".〔George Harrison, pp. 220, 248.〕〔 After returning to England to produce Badfinger's ''Straight Up'' album (1971) and take part in sessions for John Lennon's ''Imagine'' (1971)〔Badman, pp. 37–38.〕〔Leng, pp. 108, 110.〕 – all the while, being kept abreast of developments by Shankar,〔 via newspaper and magazine cuttings〔George Harrison, p. 59.〕 – Harrison was back in LA to finish the ''Raga'' album in late June.〔〔Spizer, p. 240.〕 By then, the ''Sunday Times'' in London had just published an influential article by Pakistani journalist Anthony Mascarenhas, which exposed the full horror of the Bangladesh atrocities,〔Mark Dummett, ("Bangladesh war: The article that changed history" ), BBC News Online, 16 December 2011 (retrieved 4 September 2012).〕 and a distraught Shankar approached Harrison for help in trying to alleviate the suffering.〔〔Greene, p. 185.〕 Harrison later talked of spending "three months" on the phone organising the Concert for Bangladesh, implying that efforts were under way from late April onwards;〔George Harrison, p. 60.〕〔Clayson, p. 309.〕 it is widely acknowledged that the project began in earnest during the last week of June 1971, however, five or six weeks before the event took place on 1 August.〔〔〔John Harris, "A Quiet Storm", ''Mojo'', July 2001, p. 74.〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「The Concert for Bangladesh」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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