Nas and Nelly to perform for 5000 volunteers at Orange RockCorps show

Legendary hip hop artist Nas and celebrated Grammy award winner Nelly are the latest artists to join the stage playing for 5000 volunteers. The Orange RockCorps Gig will take place at the Royal Albert Hall on 25th September 2009.

Volunteers will have given a collective 20,000 hours to improving communities in the London area in order to earn their tickets to the show. More than 60 volunteer projects will have taken place across London by the day of the gig, including Thames 21, Somerville Adventure Playground and Vauxhall City Farm. Projects tackle a range of issues, including the environment, housing and education.

Nas has fundamentally changed and challenged Hip Hop, since his debut release ‘lllmatic’ in 1994, he has released 9 albums in total achieving global success and huge critical acclaim. He will join hip hop superstar Nelly (winner of three Grammy awards) and other performers including Razorlight, David Guetta & Kelly Rowland, Daniel Merriweather and Chase & Status to perform for 5000 volunteers who have all given four hours to earn their ticket.

Stephen Greene, RockCorps co-founder and CEO comments: "We are delighted that both Nelly and Nas will play the Orange RockCorps show. The line-up was already amazing with such a talented group of artists. But to have both Nas and Nelly join us to celebrate the volunteers is going to make for an incredible night. Hang on!"

8,000 Britons and 5,000 Parisians will take part in up to 150 Orange RockCorps charity projects over the summer of 2009, with gigs taking place at the Manchester Apollo (13th July), The Royal Albert Hall (25th September) and Le Zenith in Paris (2nd October).

The Orange RockCorps programme is supported via a partnership with Sony Ericsson and Channel 4, who are broadcasting the volunteer work and UK gigs during a summer of programming on T4.

Volunteers wishing to take part in Orange RockCorps can register by visiting www.orangerockcorps.co.uk <blocked::http://www.orangerockcorps.co.uk/> .

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For more information, please contact Phil Drew or Gemma Hunt at Unity on 0207 405 0974 or email phil@hellounity.com /gemma@hellounity.com

Notes to editor

Orange RockCorps:

The Orange RockCorps programme, a partnership between Orange and RockCorps, inspires young people to volunteer within their local community by producing concerts for which you can’t buy a ticket. Rather, you must do 4 hours of volunteer work in a RockCorps volunteer project to earn a ticket to the gig. All volunteer projects are completed in partnership and for the benefit of local charity partners. Research has shown that over 96% of the participants would volunteer with Orange RockCorps again, and 57% would volunteer in their local community without the incentive of a ticket.

RockCorps:

RockCorps launched in 2005 to affect social change and act as the bridge between communities in need and the young adults who want to make them better. Since that time, RockCorps has combined the power of music, community and volunteerism to expose young people to simple ways they can proactively contribute.

This is much more than a series of volunteer events and concerts; it is a way to connect young people with dynamic charities already doing great work in the local community.

For more information: www.orangerockcorps.co.uk, www.rockcorps.com

Orange:

Orange is the key brand of the France Telecom Group, one of the world’s leading telecommunications operators. With 123 million customers, the Orange brand now covers Internet, television and mobile services in the majority of countries where the Group operates.

At the end of 2008, France Telecom had consolidated sales of 53.5 billion euros (12.7 billion euros for the first quarter of 2009) and at 29 April 2009, the Group had a customer base of almost 184 million customers in 30 countries. These include 123 million mobile customers worldwide and 13 million broadband Internet (ADSL) customers in Europe. Orange is the number three mobile operator and the number one provider of broadband Internet services in Europe and, under the brand Orange Business Services, is one of the world leaders in providing telecommunication services to multinational companies.

In the UK, Orange provides high quality GSM coverage to 99% of the UK population. At the end of March 2009, Orange had almost 17 million customers in the UK – 15.8 million active mobile customers and close to one million fixed broadband customers.

Orange and any other Orange product or service names included in this material are trade marks of Orange Personal Communications Services Limited.

For more information: www.orange.com, www.francetelecom.com, www.orange-business.com For further information, call the Orange press office on 0870 373 1500 or email: Orangepr@golinharris.com.