Not this time. And not this crisis.

There won't be many platitudes coming from the stage when Congress House opens its doors for the Concert for Haiti this Wednesday.

Not when it'll be occupied by the no-holds-barred likes of Tony Benn and the radical dub poets Benjamin Zephaniah and Jean "Binta" Breeze.

And this'll be no Live 8-style festival of back-slapping, much hyped and quickly forgotten, when the musicians include Billy Bragg and the great jazz violinist Omar Puente.

This gig is "an act of solidarity with Haiti," Puente says simply. He's still shaking off jetlag from a trip to his native Cuba but comes crackling to life at the mention of a cause close to his heart for more than one reason.

International aid "is part of the Cuban tradition," from Angola in the '70s to the 2004 tsunami, Pakistan after the 2005 earthquake - and now Haiti where Cuba has sent drugs and doctors to bolster the medical teams who were already present, working alongside Cuban-trained Haitians, before the quake hit.

"We are all human beings and we have to help each other" but, Puente explains, there's a special reason for Cubans to reach out to their neighbours.

Centuries of immigration from Haiti to Cuba have also left their mark on the Cuban tradition in language, religion, culture and music, with the Cuban danzon style - an ancestor of Latin jazz - evolving out of French dances via Haiti.

Now it's time for the world to give something back to Haiti. Not just money and aid, although that's desperately needed as the death toll climbs towards 200,000.

Haitians need "the right tools to advance," says Puente, the knowledge and the ability to prepare for future disasters.

It's a theme Zephaniah picks up and runs with. He, like many public figures, was asked to do any number of benefit gigs.

But "I wanted to do one with people that really cared," who knew about Haiti's problems before the quake, and will still be fighting its corner after the media spotlight has moved on.

He doesn't yet know what he'll be performing, but one thing's sure - there will be no patronising talk of the "poor helpless people of Haiti."

The country is still iconic around the world as the first Latin American nation to free itself from colonialism and the first black republic anywhere.

"These were people that really did help themselves in the most revolutionary way you can think of," Zephaniah enthuses.

"And it's sad how it's turned out," with Haiti "sold out by the colonialists," subjected to decades of debt and occupation, the US-backed coup against Aristide - and now "it's being occupied by the Americans" again.

So, though a good time is guaranteed by crowd-pleasers like Bragg, Puente and rising Cuban sensations Son Mas, no-one at the Concert for Haiti is going to turn their back once the party's over.

"I want to inspire people to keep thinking about it," says Zephaniah.

He points out that a girl has just been found alive in the ruins, days after the search for survivors was officially called off.

"They completely underestimated the power of the human spirit to survive."

Haitians have done the unthinkable before. Once, says Zephaniah, they "showed slaves all over the world that you can revolt and win."

Now, with the eyes of the world on them, they have a chance to once again take control of their own fate.

It'll be a fight which will continue long after the last notes of Wednesday's gig have died away. But hopefully the Concert for Haiti will inspire people here to stand beside them in that fight, long after the media hype too has faded.

The Concert for Haiti runs from 7pm-late, Wednesday February 3, Congress House, Great Russell Street, London WC1. Tickets £10 from (020) 8800-0155 - more details at www.concertforhaiti.co.uk