An anti-war frenzy from the music world just now. First up rap mogul Russell Simmons, one of the people behind the US based artist anti-war coalition which took ads in the New York press last week, has told reporters he will help keep the artists' antiwar momentum going. He said he would be rallying support against the war within the hip hop community, explaining: "Puffy is much more well known and liked around the world than George Bush, and Jay-Z is much more well known and liked around the world than Colin Powell. The country should operate more on love and compassion."
Second, Bono has told reporters that Tony Blair's position on the Iraq crisis is "sincerely wrong". Speaking after a meeting with French President Jacques Chirac to discuss the AIDS epidemic in Africa, the U2 man called for a peaceful solution to the Middle East issue: "Tony Blair is not going to war for oil. Tony Blair is sincere in his convictions about Iraq. In my opinion he is sincerely wrong. We must not make a martyr of Saddam Hussein. He is good at working the cameras. We shouldn't make it easy for him."
Thirdly, back to George Michael. After telling the BBC that he would discourage boy band Blue in their plans to get together a bunch of teen pop stars to record an anti-war track, in a TV interview on Friday he seemed more sympathetic to the teen popper's intentions. Meanwhile he confirmed he would be performing a version of Don McLeans’s ‘The Grave’ for MTV as an anti-war protest. The track will be aired on MTV today.
And finally for now, James Lavelle and the people behind Fabric have announced they will be staging a club night on 20 Mar called Wrong War – the aim being to raise awareness of the anti-war movement, and raise funds for CND's anti-war protests. Lavelle told reporters: "It's going to be a similar event to last year's Red Cross Benefit at Fabric. It's a very simple idea: let's pull together a load of people who believe what is going on is wrong and try to keep the momentum going. There will be a range of different people involved, making anti-war statements in various ways."
The anti-war bandwagon is getting very crowded just now – so no doubt more anti-war messages from the music world each day before Bush and Blair inevitably go ahead with the war anyway!