Dispatch: Zimbabwe

"On Saturday, July 14, 2007, Brad, Chad and Pete will reunite as DISPATCH for "DISPATCH: ZIMBABWE," a concert at Madison Square Garden in New York City. All of the money raised from ticket sales will go directly to charities that are fighting disease, famine and social injustice in Zimbabwe; a portion will be allocated to local charities that the band supports here in the States as well." www.dispatchmusic.comI'm sure a lot of people have heard of this. I think the news is spreading like fire, but just in case you didn't, here it is. Dispatch is getting back together for a reunion concert this summer at Madison Square Garden in NYC. All the proceeds will be going to benefit Zimbabwe. They had their farewell show in the summer of 2004 in Boston Massachusettes which drew 110,000 people.Chad Urmston, Bradiggan and Pete Francis (Dispatch) have been heavily involved with charities that support various efforts in Africa (Zimbabwe inparticualr, since Chad took a trip their in 1994). They started the Elias Fund in the summer of 2005 which grants educational scholarships to the youth of Zimbabwe amongst other things. It's mission statement reads as follows: To provide hope and opportunity to Zimbabwean youth through community development and education while empowering the American youth culture to embrace their global role and make it an active one.Dispatch also has a song called 'Elias' that they have been performing for years that is about Chad's trip to Zimbabwe in 1994. It's a really good song, I actually wrote a paper on it for an Ethnomusicology class I took last year at the University of Maryland.Anyway, I'm pumped about the concert because I missed the farewell show in 2004 because I was on vacation. Tickets are $39.99 I believe; however, www.dispatchmusic.com and www.eliasfund.org, official sites of the band and charity organization respectively, are not currently up and running. I'm not sure why, maybe too much traffic, but I would assume they'll be up within the next day.