Line-up for South African AIDS benefit concert announced

As revealed by hotpress.com during the summer, Bono is one of the headline attractions at the 46664 Nelson Mandela SOS concert which takes place in Cape Town on November 29.

Originally meant to happen 10 months ago but postponed when a sponsor pulled out, the line-up also includes Anastacia, Ms Dynamite, Beyoncé and the remaining members of Queen.

MTV are broadcasting the fundraiser globally on December 1 as part of World AIDS Day, with a CD and DVD of the concert following in the New Year.

'46664' is the number assigned to Mandela during his detention under South Africa's apartheid regime on Robben Island.

"Millions of people today infected with AIDS are just that – a number," reflects the former South African president. "They too are serving a prison sentence for life. That's why for the first time I am allowing my prison number to be used, to brand this campaign."

The concert will culminate in a mass rendition of '46664', the song co-written in Mandela's honour by Bono and Joe Strummer.

An epic 10-minutes in length, it features such classic Strummer couplets as: "When freedom rises from the killing floor/No lock of iron or rivet can restrain the door/And no kind of army can hope to win a war/Like trying to stop the rain or still the lion's roar/Like trying to stop the whirlwind scattering seeds and spores/Like trying to stop the tin cans rapping out the jailhouse semaphore."

Closer to home, Louis Le Brocquy's newly commissioned portrait of Bono has gone on exhibition this week at the National Gallery of Ireland.

"In the past, I've painted an extensive series of interorised head images of artists such as Samuel Beckett and Francis Bacon, WB Yeats and Seamus Heaney whom I see as extraordinary instances of human consciousness," Le Brocquy says. "In more recent years, I've made a number of similar studies of Bono whose spirit and radiant energy I admire so much."

If you would like to make a donation to the 46664 Campaign, the number to phone in the Republic of Ireland is 1580 715 715, or you can find out more information at the official campaign web site.