The Nelson Mandela 70th birthday tribute concert held at Wembley Stadium, London on 11 June 1988 featured an all-star line-up of British and international artists. It was attended by a capacity audience of 92,000 and was broadcast by the BBC to 63 countries.

Musicians, writers and performers were hugely important in publicising anti-apartheid campaigns and winning mass support for the Anti-Apartheid Movement. From the AAM’s earliest years stars of stage and screen campaigned for a boycott of South Africa and took part in events that dramatised life under apartheid. In the 1980s rock musicians spearheaded the campaign to free Nelson Mandela and bands put on fund-raising gigs all over Britain.

THEATRE

In 1963, leading playwrights, including Samuel Beckett, refused permission for their plays to be shown before segregated audiences. The actors union Equity followed suit. Marlon Brando and British actors like Warren Mitchell, Una Stubbs and Ian McKellen took part in fundraising shows in the Royal Festival Hall and Central Hall Westminster. Kenneth Williams, Albert Finney and Sheila Hancock demonstrated outside South Africa House calling for the release from detention of South African actors Winston Ntshona and John Kani.

FUNDRAISING

From the 1960s, artists like Ewan MacColl, Peggy Seeger and Cleo Laine took part in gigs to raise funds for the AAM. South African jazz musicians Dudu Pukwana and the Blue Notes played at ANC fundraising dances and demonstrated to the wider world the vibrancy of music from Southern Africa. Later the Bhundu Boys from Zimbabwe played at the The Brixton Academy and other venues.

ARTISTS AGAINST APARTHEID

Artists Against Apartheid was set up in 1986 and supported concerts featuring hundreds of artists including Billy Bragg, The Smiths, The Pogues and Elvis Costello. Its biggest concert was the Festival for Freedom at London’s Clapham Common on 28 June 1986. A quarter of a million people heard an all-star line-up led by Gil Scott-Heron, Boy George, Elvis Costello and Peter Gabriel. 

FREE MANDELA CAMPAIGN

The Festival of African Sounds at Alexandra Palace in 1983, with Hugh Masekela, Julian Bahula and Osibisa, sparked an explosion of songs celebrating the South African liberation struggle. Jerry Dammers ‘Free Nelson Mandela’ went to the top of the charts. In June 1988 the AAM launched its ‘Free Nelson Mandela at 70’ campaign at a concert at Wembley stadium attended by a capacity audience of 92,000 and broadcast by the BBC to 63 countries. International artists included Stevie Wonder, Whoopi Goldberg, Hugh Masekela and George Michael.

LOCAL GIGS

Concerts and festivals were part of the repertoire of local anti-apartheid groups, often with support from local councils. They spread the anti-apartheid message and raised much-needed funds for anti-apartheid campaigns.