Dallas Man Putting on "Highest Concert Ever." But It's For a Good Cause, Swear.
James Chippendale is the president of Dallas-based CSI Entertainment Insurance, which provides liability coverage for concerts -- among them, Pearl Jam, the Dixie Chicks, the Austin City Limits Music Festival and Lollapalooza. CSI's offices are on Taylor Street in Deep Ellum, but you won't find him there in coming days: Chippendale, who survived an aggressive form of leukemia after several rounds of treatment, is also co-founder of Love Hope Strength Foundation, an international cancer charity he started up with Mike Peters, frontman for The Alarm.
And beginning Saturday, Peters, Slim Jim Phantom (of the Stray Cats), Dave Wakeling (of The English Beat), Squeeze's Glenn Tillbrook, two dudes from The Fixx (Cy Curnin and Jamie West-Oram) and other musicians will perform at Base Camp on Mount Everest and in Kathmandu for what's being billed as "the highest concert ever performed." So much for those Grateful Dead shows, right? Right. The 14-day event called "Everest Rocks," which Chippendale's leading, is a benefit for Bhaktapur Cancer Hospital, which is in desperate need of funding and equipment.
Several Dallasites are going on the trip -- among them, One Ton Records' Aden Holt -- and you can follow the trekkers along their journey. Daily journal entries and video clips are readily available, as the event is being produced by the same man responsible for MTV's Unplugged series. They left yesterday -- and, of course, Chippendale had his luggage lost between Los Angeles and Nepal. --Robert Wilonsky
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