DAMIEN RICE & LISA HANNIGAN


SINGLE: ‘UNPLAYED PIANO’

WE’VE REVISITED THIS FEATURE BECAUSE OF THE CURRENT PROBLEMS IN BURMA AND THE RE-RELEASE OF DAMIEN RICE’S ‘UNPLAYED PIANO’ DEDICATED TO AUNG SAN SUU, AND NOW THE MONKS AND CITIZENS ARRESTED, TORTURED, BEATEN AND KILLED BY BURMA’S ILLEGAL AND DREADFUL REGIME. PLEASE BUY THE RECORD, PLEASE!

Damien Rice and Lisa Hannigan are to release Unplayed Piano as a single on June 20 in support of the Free Aung San Suu Kyi 60th Birthday Campaign, a global initiative to free the Burmese Nobel Peace Prize recipient on her 60th Birthday, June 19. Written for Suu Kyi by Rice and Hannigan following a visit by Rice to Burma in July 2004, Unplayed Piano will be released through 14th Floor Records/DRM. All profits from the sale of the record will go to support the US Campaign for Burma and Burma Campaign UK. In addition, as part of a series one off shows across Europe to highlight the campaign and single, Rice has announced a solo concert at London’s Palladium on Monday, June 20. Profits from the live dates will go to the AAPPB (Assistance Association of Political Prisoners in Burma). For further information please go to www.aappb.net. Damien Rice said, “I prefer not to interfere too much with what is going on in the world, but when someone has been thrown into a hole and they ask you to throw down a rope, I am happy to look for a rope especially for a woman of such grace.” From June 1 individuals who wish to register their support and take part in the Free Aung San Suu Kyi 60th Birthday Campaign can go to www.actionburma.com. For those interested in knowing more before June 1 please visit www.burmacampaign.org.uk and www.uscampaignforburma.org.

Mon, June 20 London Palladium 020 7494 5058/020 7403 3331/ 020 7734 8932. 24hr cc hotline: 0871 2200 260 or buy online: www.gigsandtours.com

Aung San Suu Kyi is the world’s only imprisoned Nobel Peace Prize recipient. The new efforts to free Suu Kyi by a number of organisations is modelled on the Mandela at 70 Campaign in 1988. The actions include scores of events around the world, from the USA to Europe, South Africa, the Middle East, and Asia. Since 1988, Aung San Suu Kyi has led an international campaign to end over 40 years of brutal military rule in the Southeast Asian country of Burma.

After a nationwide uprising was crushed in 1988, she led her political party, the National League for Democracy, to an 82% victory in a national election in 1990. The ruling dictatorship refused to recognize the results and has kept her locked up for nearly ten of the past 15 years – on June 19 Suu Kyi will have spent 9 years and 238 days in detention. In the meantime, Burma’s regime has recruited up to 70,000 child soldiers (far more than any other country in the world), instituted a nationwide system of modern-day slavery, and imprisoned over 1,400 political activists. Over 2,000,000 refugees have fled their homes in Burma - many to neighbouring Thailand where they scratch out a living in rudimentary refugee camps.

Always a peacemaker, Suu Kyi and her movement have called on Burma’s regime to agree to negotiations aimed at a transition to democracy. Since the regime refuses to talk, she has called on individuals, nations, and the United Nations to impose political and economic sanctions on the regime until they come to the dialogue table. Even though hundreds of her supporters have been killed she never calls for violence. Said Desmond Tutu, 1984 Nobel Peace Prize recipient from South Africa, “As long as she remains under arrest, none of us is truly free.”

Born in Dublin, Rice achieved international success with the release of his debut album O. Originally released in 2002, O has achieved triple Platinum sales status in the UK and spent over 80 weeks in the UK Top 75 Album Chart. O has now sold more than 1.5 million copies worldwide, and in his native Ireland it is eight-times Platinum. The album includes the hit singles Cannonball and Blower’s Daughter, which is the lead track in the Oscar nominated film Closer starring Julia Roberts, Jude Law, Natalie Portman and Clive Owen. In the US, Rice was awarded the prestigious 2003 Shortlist Music Prize. Rice has spent much of the last year on tour, playing numerous sold out and acclaimed dates in the US, UK and Europe. He has taken time out on recording the follow-up to O to support the Suu Kyi campaign.