Posted on 06/01/2005 6:10:48 AM PDT by pissant
SIR Bob Geldof yesterday unveiled the biggest musical event of the decade as he announced a stunning all-star line-up for Live Aid II.
The centrepiece of the bash — to be called Live8 — will be a huge free festival in London’s Hyde Park on July 2.
It will star Madonna, Sir Paul McCartney, Elton John, U2, Coldplay, Robbie Williams, Dido, Joss Stone, and Sting — among others.
The 150,000 tickets for the Hyde Park gig will be made available through a special text lottery to be held on Monday.
There will be four other simultaneous live shows in Paris, Philadelphia, Rome and Berlin. Hundreds of thousands of music lovers will attend the five concerts, with billions more watching on TV worldwide.
Live8 aims to raise awareness of poverty in Africa ahead of the G8 summit in Scotland on July 6, when leaders of the world’s eight richest countries will meet.
Sir Bob hopes Live8 will pressurise them into cancelling the debts that cripple Third World states.
The London gig has some of the biggest names in rock and pop. Sir Paul McCartney is to open the show, backed by U2, with a rendition of The Beatles’ classic Sgt Pepper.
It was chosen because the opening lyric “It was 20 years ago today...” echoes the fact that it is the 20th anniversary of the original Live Aid.
Sir Bob yesterday confirmed he has spoken to the Spice Girls about them reforming for the gig — and said the signs were looking good.
It had been wrongly claimed that Live8 promoter Harvey Goldsmith had banned them because they “weren’t rock and roll enough”.
But Goldsmith told yesterday’s press conference at London’s Grosvenor House Hotel: “The Spice Girls are not banned — we would love to have them on the show.”
Sir Bob added: “I spoke to them this morning and it’s looking very good.”
Soul legend Stevie Wonder is likely to be the highlight of the Philadelphia concert.
And Beach Boys founder Brian Wilson will star at the Brandenburg Gate concert in Berlin.
Duran Duran will play in Rome while Jamiroquai are to be one of the big names at the Eiffel Tower in Paris.
Sir Elton John, also at yesterday’s press conference, said: “All the musicians are the creme de la creme.”
Live8 co-organiser Midge Ure said: “There needs to be a change. Someone needs to rattle the cages.”
Sir Bob is calling for a million people to descend on Edinburgh for a mass march to coincide with the summit.
He plans to go there after the Live8 bash.
We have the 2nd Robbie Williams CD, he's pretty good. Joss Stone has a good voice but I wish she would just sing the song instead of all the fancy stuff and Dido is okay but she makes me sleepy. I love Coldplay -great band, they have staying power. While I love music, movies and pop culture, they just don't think like me politically. Some country music stars think like me but I don't really enjoy country music.
"i saw u2 a few weeks ago. they were great. you definitely need to check them out if you can"
Awesome. They put on the best show ever. Saw them in '83 or '84 then in '92 (didn't enjoy the show had bad seats at JFK stadium and was 4 months pregnant) I really like the new CD, its like old U2 nice and spiritual again.....
Well, there's nothing wrong with Williams' performance abilities. It's just that he's a tad high maintenance off the stage.
As for Joss... yeah, but she's 18. She hasn't learned the lesson of vocal restraint yet. Give her 5 years of performing (and avoiding the usual rock star vices) and she should be near the top of the game.
(And I think Dido makes everyone sleepy.)
O Sting, where is thy death?
Long overdue! LOL
hahahah so you aren't so old after all hahahah ;)
Where the heck have you been?
It is summer time and I watch my niece for the whole time. So I don't get to spend too much time on the computer like I do during the school season. But I get to pop in from time to time. How ya been?
Very well thank you. Is it gettin hot in Tejas yet?
(hahaha what kind of stiffness are you talking about from your sleep number bed....)
It is getting hot as hell already tropical storm out in the carribeans........summer is here for sure blah.
stiff back, ya know. ;o)
We have 62 and raining here in Seattle. suprise suprise.
it is 85-90 already and we have hit a few days in the 100's. We can already tell it is going to be a bad hot summer.
that's every summer in Texas, if I recall!
indeed it is honey, indeed it is!
The greatest thing on earth. Yeah Ok, even when it will accomplish nothing it`s still the greatest thing on earth in their minds. I called one big ego fest and there you go, their statements prove it. That douche Chris Martin, man I can`t stand that jackass. Maybe him, that actress from nepotism he calls a wife and that poor kid they selfishly named after a fruit can give up living in "rich countries" for once and see first hand what it is like to live under pure corruption. That whole concert, not one of these a-holes mentioned anything about corruption.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.