Joseph Rotblat Memorial Lecture at the Guardian Hay Festival 2010
May 31st, 2010
Thanks to author Basharat Peer, to Jon Snow and to Peter Florence for making this such a wonderful event yet again, in memory of Nobel Peace Laureate Joseph Rotblat.
To read more about Basharat Peer’s fascinating book Curfewed Night see:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/jun/20/curfewed-night-basharat-peer-dalrymple
Curfewed Night by Basharat Peer
A new star of Indian non-fiction is born with this searing memoir about the bloody struggle for justice in Kashmir
Volunteers needed! Edinburgh Festival Fringe 9-29 August 2010
March 16th, 2010
Do you want to be part of the huge family that is the Edinburgh Fringe, mix with top comedians and musicians, have a laugh and do mad things? Yes – then become part of the Get Up Stand Up! crew.
Call: 01179 412 675 or email: tonypeacejamuk@hotmail.co.uk
For the fifth year running, we will be presenting our hugely successful Fringe show, ‘GET UP STAND UP!’ at the Festival for 2010. We will have four top comedians every night plus the best of Edinburgh’s musicians and Hollywood Award winning film, ‘Anthropology 101’. It’s a different line-up for every show. We work very closely with Mirth Control, a booking agency run by lovely people who believe in what we are doing.
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Get Up Stand Up! at Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2009
August 31st, 2009
The Get Up Stand Up! show had its fourth successful run at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. The show combines a strong politcal message with performances from almost 90 top festival comedians and 50 musicians. It has proven a hugely popular format with sell out nights at the Jazz Bar throughout the three week run.
The film ‘Anthropology 101′ provides food for political thought, raising awareness about the issues surrounding nuclear weapons. We encouraged audiencs to consider the very positive opportunity created by the election of Presdient Obama and the real prospect of acheiving a world without nuclear weapons, as well as whether the UK should be replacing its own nuclear weapons system.
Thanks to all the fantastic comedians, musicians and volunteers for making this a fourth brilliant year.
Big thanks too to the Jazz Bar staff, Mirth Control, Rich Batsford and Kieran Naughton for all their support.
Futureheads storm Get Up Stand Up at Glastonbury 2009!
June 29th, 2009
The Futureheads put in a blistering set as the surprise special guests in the Get Up Stand Up show at Glastonbury on Saturday. Their 30-minute performance was one of the highlights of the show at the Blazing Saddles stage. They ended their set with their top ten hit ‘Hounds of Love’, with the big crowd singing along.
The show got off to a great start with the hilarious Ivan Brackenbury receiving a standing ovation. The young band, Broken Chains also played. They are from Canon’s High school in Edgware and were the winners of the music section of the ‘Peace of Art’ contest in 2008. This was, by far, the biggest crowd they had ever played to and they were great! Glastonbury veteran Tony Benn gave an inspiring speech about nuclear weapons that was a real crowd-pleaser. There was more brilliant comedy from Marcus Brigstocke and a headlining set from Ed Byrne – two of the very finest stand-ups around.
On the Sunday a second show took place in the Cabaret Marquee. Once again, Ivan Brackenbury opened the show. There was an upbeat, positive speech from Robin Oakley of Greenpeace that had a really good reception from the audience. The headliner was Mark Thomas who was, as you would expect, brilliant!
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The Joseph Rotblat Memorial Lecture 2009 at Hay-On-Wye Literary Festival
May 25th, 2009
The Joseph Rotblat Memorial lecture by Lord Paddy Ashdown at The 2009 Guardian Hay Literary Festival received rapturous applause. The event sold out with over 1,300 people listening to Lord Ashdown’s speech introduced by John Finney of Pugwash and chaired by Rosie Boycott.
“Ashdown’s third law; or how the world will never be the same again and what we should do about it”
In this speech, there will be history and poetry. And, on a slightly more prosaic level, I will also unveil for you, tongue in cheek of course, Ashdown’s Third law of international relations in the post Obama world.
Let us start, as we should in a literary festival, with the poetry.
Rabindranath Tagore, the great Indian poet, wrote in his poem “Unity in Diversity” these words:
“We are all the more one, because we are many
For we have made an ample space for love in the gap where we were sundered,
Our unlikeness reveals its breadth of beauty, with one common life,
Like mountain peaks in the morning sun”
We are I think, about to enter an age in which Tagore’s great statement will be one of the few signposts we have for a safe passage through dangerous times.
Three factors make the years ahead completely different from what we have lived through for the last century – and some are of a nature which we have never before encountered.
The first of these factors is not unique.
We are on the edge of one of those periods of history when the gimbals on which the established order is mounted, shift and a new world order begins to emerge. And these are, almost always the most frightening and turbulent of times.
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2008 A Peace of Art Awards Ceremony
November 4th, 2008
Around 130 young people, along with teachers, parents, friends and invited guests gathered at ‘The Venue’ in the University of London for the Peace of Art Awards Ceremony. But it wasn’t just about waiting to see who had won awards in each category. We also heard about the inspiration for the contest, the Nobel Peace Laureate Professor Sir Joseph Rotblat, as this day would have been his 100th birthday.
The video of the Awards Ceremony (in two parts) and the full list of winners and runners-up are below.
