The Concert For Bangladesh was the event title for two benefit concerts organized by George Harrison and Ravi Shankar, held at noon and at 7:00 p.m. on August 1, 1971, playing to a total of 40,000 people at Madison Square Garden in New York City. Organized for the relief of refugees from East Pakistan (now independent Bangladesh) after the 1970 Bhola cyclone and during the 1971 Bangladesh atrocities and Bangladesh Liberation War, the event was the first benefit concert of this magnitude in world history. It featured an all-star supergroup of performers that included Bob Dylan, Eric Clapton, George Harrison, Billy Preston, Leon Russell, and Ringo Starr.
An album was released later in 1971 and a concert film was released in 1972, with later releases for home video. In 2005, the film was re-issued on DVD accompanied by a new documentary.
The concert raised US$243,418.51 for Bangladesh relief, which was administered by UNICEF. Sales of the album and DVD continue to benefit the George Harrison Fund for UNICEF.[1]
Background:
As East Pakistan struggled to become the separate state of Bangladesh during the Bangladesh Liberation War, the tremendous political and military turmoil and the 1971 Bangladesh atrocities led to a massive refugee problem in India. This problem was compounded by the 1970 Bhola cyclone, bringing torrential rains causing devastating floods and threatening a humanitarian disaster.
Bengali musician Ravi Shankar consulted his friend George Harrison regarding a means of providing help to the situation. Harrison recorded the single "Bangla Desh" to raise awareness and pushed Apple Records to release Shankar's single "Joi Bangla" in a dual-pronged effort to raise funds.
Shankar also asked Harrison's advice regarding a small fund-raising concert in the United States. Harrison took the idea and started calling his friends, persuading them to join him in a large concert at Madison Square Garden. The event was organised within five weeks.
Harrison first asked his fellow Beatles to appear. John Lennon agreed to take part in the concert, however Harrison stipulated that Lennon's wife Yoko Ono not perform with him. Lennon agreed, but left New York two days before the event following an argument with Ono regarding his and Harrison's agreement that she not participate.[citations needed]
Paul McCartney declined because of the bad feelings caused by The Beatles' legal problems on their break-up. "George came up and asked if I wanted to play Bangla Desh and I thought, blimey, what's the point? We're just broken up and we're joining up again? It just seemed a bit crazy," McCartney told Rolling Stone years later[2] . Ringo Starr, however, appeared.
That post was taken from Wiki's page [here], this portion is my comment...
George Harrison gathered some of the greatest musicians of the time, with them thay gathered an audience and that started a movement of sorts in the arts industry. Welcome to the canteen was also a benefit concert that summer set up by Steve Winwood. It is in my mind one of the greatest live albums ever recorded, it is regarded as a Traffic album but it is not. Although the canteen show took place before Bangladesh concert I believe it was influenced greatly by the Bangladesh's upcoming show through the publicity it generated prior to the performance. The movement started by George Harrison was musicians bringing world social issues and needs to their audience along with the suggestion that together we all could improve living conditions for those in need all around the world.
Enjoy the full post of The Concert for Bangladesh...
(Part 2)


One hundred years ago, Ford had a better idea…Henry Ford, that is. And when his idea became a reality, the Ford Motor Company was born and along with it that famous horseless carriage, The Model T. Henry Ford and his new concept car revolutionized not only the way we worked, but also the way we got there. And life on the farm was never the same.
The four-cylinder Model B did not live up to the company's expectations, but the Model C certainly did. By 1907, the Ford Motor Company reaped a whopping $1,100 profit. Ford continued identifying his automobiles alphabetically. Some of the models were never mass produced, but considered only concept cars. The Model N represented a total redesign. Instead of a two-cylinder engine under the seat, the Model N held a four-cylinder engine underneath the hood. By the time Ford was ready to build his most famous vehicle, he had exhausted the alphabet from A through S. His next car represented the most modern automobile to date and he simply called it the Model T.
The 1,200 pound automobile had a four-cycle, twenty horsepower engine. The car measured just over eleven feet long, not including the bumpers, and about five and one-half feet wide with a ten-gallon gas tank located directly underneath the seats. It cleared the ground by ten and one-half inches and could travel up to forty-five miles per hour.
In 1910 he opened a new factory in Highland Park, Michigan where Model T production rose from 19,000 to over 78,000 by 1912. Still, Ford knew he could do better and he began experimenting with a crude assembly line. On October 7, 1913, a chassis was pulled 150 feet across the factory floor by a rope and windlass. One hundred and forty workers stood in designated spots along the path and attached parts to the car. From start to finish, it took them five hours and fifty minutes. Eventually, Model T production was reduced to a mere one hour and thirty-three minutes. This in turn dropped the car’s price down to $360 making it available to more than just the upper class. The price hit an all-time low of $290 in 1924 allowing millions of Americans to own a set of wheels.
Will Rogers once commented: “It will take a hundred years to tell whether, he [Ford] helped us or hurt us, but he certainly didn’t leave us where he found us.” Well, one hundred years have come and gone and it is clear that Henry Ford and his Model T not only shaped the twentieth century, but the horseless carriage will continue to cast its long shadow well into the twenty-first.
