George Harrison’s 1971 ‘Concert For Bangladesh’ live album, featuring Bob Dylan, Ringo Starr and more, is set to arrive across streaming platforms for the first time
Held across two sold-out concerts at New York’s Madison Square Garden back in August 1971, the concerts are considered to be the first major music benefit of its kind and saw the music icon assemble a star-studded event for a common humanitarian goal.
Titled ‘The Concert For Bangladesh’, Harrison organised the shows in a bid to raise both awareness and funds for the 10 million East Pakistani refugees who had fled over the border into India, and were facing challenges including the threat of hunger and disease.
Setting the precedent that music could be used to serve a higher cause, the MSG shows saw the former Beatle team up with Ravi Shankar, and invite Bob Dylan, Eric Clapton, Ringo Starr, Leon Russell and Billy Preston to perform at the non-profit event.
By the point they took to the stage, little public attention had been drawn to the crisis in East Pakistan/Bangladesh and few outside of the region were aware of how to help those affected
“The musicians were great. I mean they completely put down their own egos to play together and to do something because the whole vibe of that concert was that it was something bigger than the lot of us,” Harrison said at the time. The concerts were later turned into a triple album box set and a feature film – raising millions of dollars for UNICEF.
Now, over five decades since it first took place, ‘The Concert For Bangladesh’ is making its way to streaming platforms for the first time.
Not only will it come with all of the astonishing performances from the line-up, it will also contain a new bonus track: the original studio version of Harrison’s song “Bangla Desh”, which was released as a single in July 1971.
All net proceeds after taxes will be donated to the George Harrison Fund for UNICEF at the US Fund for UNICEF. Visit here for more information, and check out both a trailer for the album and the full setlist below.
In other George Harrison news, earlier this year it was confirmed that a blue plaque had been placed at the musician’s childhood home at Arnold Grove in Liverpool.
The plaque marked one of the first official English Heritage blue plaques to be placed on a property outside London, and his widow, Olivia Harrison, unveiled the tribute and described it as “a source of family pride”.
Since then, it has also been reported that the cast of Sam Mendes’ upcoming Beatles biopics had come together – with Charlie Rowe rumoured to be playing the guitarist, while John Lennon will be played by Harris Dickinson, Barry Keoghan plays Ringo Starr and Paul Mescal reportedly portrays Paul McCartney.
