Friday, October 2, 2009

Remake of "Beds Are Burning"

Lily Allen, Kofi Annan remake "Beds Are Burning"

ABC October 2, 2009

A revamped version of a classic Australian rock anthem is the soundtrack to a new campaign aimed at drumming up support for upcoming global climate talks.

Sixty musicians and celebrities from around the world have put their voices to a reworked version of Midnight Oil's 1987 hit Beds Are Burning to highlight climate change issues ahead of the United Nation's talks in Copenhagen in December.

The song, which features pop singer Lily Allen, Simon Le Bon from the '80s group Duran Duran and charity single stalwart Bob Geldof, has been released today as a free download.

The former United Nations secretary-general Kofi Annan, Archbishop Desmond Tutu and French actress Marion Cotillard also added their voices to the cover version.

The song is part of the "tck tck tck" project, which aims to draw attention to the urgency of the global warming crisis.

It is considered a "musical petition" that can be "signed" by downloading a copy.

Mr Annan, who now heads the Geneva-based Global Humanitarian Forum, says the Copenhagen agreement "must be ambitious, it must be universal and it must be fair".

"For there is gross injustice at the heart of climate change. The countries and people who are most damaged by its impact are those who have done least to create it," he told a news conference when the song was launched.

"Our task is to ensure that their voices and those of future generations are heard so loudly over the next two months or so, that the political leaders are forced to listen and to act."

Midnight Oil's former frontman, Peter Garrett, is currently the federal Environment Minister and declined to take part in the re-recording.

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