Haiti Telethon, Radiohead, Rock Weekend

Mega-telethon tonight to be followed by auction-only Radiohead event Sunday in L.A., wherein even Ticketmaster gets into the spirit of giving.

By Fred Mills

Tonight's the night, and we're not talking Rod Stewart, either, so how about tearing yourself away from that new episode of iCarly or that scheduled Xbox Live session and tuning in to more than a dozen network and cable channels starting at 8 pm EST for the "Hope For Haiti" telethon.

Unless you've been living in a cave for the past week you may have heard about it. "Hope For Haiti Now: A Global Benefit for Earthquake Relief" was put into motion by George Clooney two days after the Haitian earthquake; the actor lined up Springsteen, Bono, Sting and Wyclef Jean and partnered with MTV Networks, and from there it snowballed. Set to perform during the course of the two-hour telethon are those artists along with Beyoncé, Madonna, Jennifer Hudson, Mary J. Blige, Shakira, Kid Rock, Keith Urban, Coldplay, Alicia Keys, Dave Matthews, Justin Timberlake, Stevie Wonder, Jay-Z, Rihanna and Taylor Swift, from stages in New York, Los Angeles and London.

In fact, pretty much everyone but Kanye West will be playing - as announced yesterday, West was pointedly NOT invited. According to a report at Popeater.com, a source disclosed that the general consensus was that "after what [West] said on the Katrina telethon and the way he behaved at the MTV Video Music Awards, everyone agrees it's just best that he does not participate. Kayne has to make everything about himself. He will do anything to steal the spotlight and, well, this night it's just not about him."

Heck, folks should thrown in some extra cash with their donations by way of saying "Thanks!" for the non-inclusion of West!

Funds raised during the telethon will go to Oxfam America, Partners in Health, the Red Cross, UNICEF, United Nations World Food Programme, Yele Haiti Foundation and the Clinton Bush Haiti Foundation, so come on, folks, and open up your wallets.

Don't forget that money is the most important thing you can donate, and you should do it as directly and as immediately as possible. As we noted last week, organizing your own benefit concert and doing other things on a local level is all well and good - and it gives you a feel-good glow too, of course - such efforts, in the face of the sheer scale of destruction and misery in Haiti, don't really do much good compared to the direct donation strategy.

You can tune in tonight to CNN, BET, HBO, MTV, VH1, CMT, TNT, Showtime, Comedy Central and other stations. Meanwhile, you can make direct donations to:

www.hopeforhaitinow.com

877-99-HAITI (or text RGIVES to 50555)

At some point after the telethon, recordings of performances themselves will be available to purchase as downloads from iTunes, with proceeds going to the relief organizations.

***

Meanwhile, announced yesterday at the Radiohead website: the band will be performing at a special Haiti benefit Sunday night at The Fonda in L.A. The twist is that they are auctioning off the tickets via Ticketmaster, and as the current minimum bid (as of this writing) is clocking in at $250.00 per ticket, better check your credit card balances before bidding, and the auction closes tomorrow, Saturday morning at 11 am PST

According to the Radiohead site:

Radiohead for Haiti

We're doing a show this Sunday (24th January) to raise funds for the relief effort in Haiti. The venue is The Music Box Theatre at The Fonda in Los Angeles, doors at 7pm. All proceeds are going to the Oxfam Haiti relief fund. We're trying to raise as much money as possible, so tickets will be sold by auction at this site from 8pm tonight until 11am Saturday (PST):

http://www.ticketmaster.com/event/09004434FC1C86AC

We're in the middle of recording at the moment, so you'll be catching us on the fly.... but if you're up for it, then we are too.

Just to clarify times for ticket sales

Auction starts Thursday 21st January 08.00 pm PST
Auction ends Saturday 23rd January 11.00 am PST

Well, that's all clear now....

Worth noting: a message on the Ticketmaster page indicates that all proceeds including ticket fees will be donated. So for once, just this time, we won't refer to the organization by its preferred nickname, Ticketbastard.