POPULAR British-Australian pop duo Air Supply performs in Genting Highlands’ Arena of Stars on June 22 in its From The Heart World Tour 2008.

(From left) Wong, Foo and Venkataraman with the WWF panda mascot.

The group’s concert is organised by Star Planet as part of its Save Our Planet, Fight Global Warming campaign.

Proceeds from the concert, which is presented by HTC, will go to World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), to assist its on-going efforts to reverse excessive deforestation, promote the conservation of coral reefs in Sabah’s east coast, promote energy and water conservation and curb water pollution.

At the recent launch of the concert, Star Planet managing director Alan Foo said: “We are confident that an international event that embraces music and entertainment will create greater awareness of the need to fight global warming.”

He also said that a documentary video would be played on the concert day to make the audience aware of what has to be done to curb environmental destruction.
WWF Malaysia conservation director Dr Arun Venkataraman said the organisation wanted to make a positive difference in conserving Malaysia’s vast variety of plants and animals.

Among the country’s conservation areas it is helping to protect include Terengganu’s Setiu Wetlands, the Sulu-Sulawesi Marine Ecoregion in Sabah, Kelantan’s Gunung Stong and Kedah’s Ulu Muda region.

He said the Sulu-Sulawesi region, in particular, was home to more than 500 species of coral, 1,200 species of reef fish, whale sharks, dugongs, and five of the world’s seven species of sea turtles.

The concert promo was unveiled at Berjaya Times Square Hotel, Jalan Imbi, Kuala Lumpur, on May 6. Also present was HTC country manager for Malaysia SK Wong.

Air Supply is a soft rock duo which had a succession of hits worldwide through the late 1970s and early 1980s.

It consists of British guitarist and vocalist Graham Russell, 58, and Australian lead vocalist Russell Hitchcock, 59.

The group is easily recognised by the trademark tone of Hitchcock’s soaring tenor voice and Russell’s simple yet majestic songs.

It released its first album Love And Other Bruises in 1977. In 1979 it released Life Support which contained the major hit songs Lost In Love (Top 10 in Australia) and All Out Of Love.

Subsequent albums such as Lost In Love, The One That You Love, Now And Forever and The Greatest Hits have sold in excess of 20 million copies. Lost In Love was named Australia’s Song Of The Year in 1980.

The Greatest Hits, released in 1983, spawned the hit single Making Love Out Of Nothing At All written by Jim Steinman.

The song was one of the duo’s biggest hits ever, spending three weeks at No. 2 Down Under. The album eventually sold five million copies.

Other major hits by Air Supply include Every Woman In The World, Even The Nights Are Better, Now And Forever, Two Less Lonely People In The World, Lonely Is The Night, Without You, Goodbye, Someone and Always.

Last year, Russell released his first adult contemporary solo album titled The Future.

Air Supply (together with Wham!) was one of the first Western pop groups to tour China. It also visited Taiwan, South America and Cuba. The group’s visit to Cuba in July 2005 saw Russell and Hitchcock play to 175,000 people in a single show.

Time: 8pm. Tickets: RM253, RM193, RM143, RM113 and RM83. Call 03-2718-1118.