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LONDON, July 2: Live 8, the biggest and most ambitious series of rock concerts ever held, sent a musical and political message around the globe on Saturday, intended to pressure industrialized nations into ending African poverty.
The main event was in London’s Hyde Park, where a duet between Irish rock giants U2 and ex-Beatle Paul McCartney kicked off what an announcer promised would be ‘the greatest rock show in the history of the world’.
People power rose up across four continents as Irish rocker Bob Geldof urged music fans at Live 8 gigs around the globe to cry ‘No more excuses’ to the G8 leaders of the world’s leading industrialized nations.
“Mahatma Gandhi freed a continent, Martin Luther King freed a people, Nelson Mandela freed a country. It does work. They will listen,” Geldof said.
U2 frontman Bono, another key celebrity campaigner, fired up 200,000 fans in London’s Hyde Park by joining Paul McCartney to launch the show with ‘Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band’.
The Beatles classic offered an echo of Live Aid with its first line, “It was 20 years ago today”.
Just after midday in Philadelphia (1600 GMT), the US leg of the event began with rapper-turned-actor Will Smith taking the stage in front of a crowd, put at nearly one million by the organizers, to deliver the Live 8 message.
“We cannot forget that right now a child in Africa dies every three seconds,” Smith said. “We are calling on the eight most powerful leaders to end this tragedy with the stroke of a pen.”
Put together by Irish campaigner Bob Geldof, the 10 Live 8 concerts are intended to focus the world’s minds on African poverty before the summit of the Group of Eight (G8) rich nations’ club in Gleneagles, Scotland, beginning on Wednesday.
Unlike its predecessor, the Live Aid concerts of 1985, also organized by ex-pop star Geldof, Live 8 is not intended to attract donations from a global television audience expected to run to the billions.
“We’re not looking for charity, we’re looking for justice,” said U2 singer Bono, himself a noted aid activist.
MUSICAL ODYSSEY: The global musical odyssey began at 0500 GMT in a concert hall in Tokyo as video screens showed footage of African street children.
Johannesburg joined next, the only concert staged outside nations belonging to the G8, which groups together Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia and the United States.
The centrepiece of the day was the event in London, where 150,000 people crammed in front of the stage and a further 55,000 watched giant television screens showing coverage of stars, including Madonna, Elton John and REM, all limited to a few songs each.
Among surprise guests were software billionaire and philanthropist Bill Gates, and UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, both of whom pledged their support for the Live 8 cause.
“This is really the United Nations coming together in solidarity with the poor. On behalf of the poor and the voiceless and the weak, I thank you,” a smiling Annan said in a brief address.
Geldof also briefly reprised his former role as a pop star, singing “I Don’t Like Mondays”, a 1979 hit for his band, The Boomtown Rats.
“Thank you for letting me do that,” he told the appreciative crowd at the end.
Elsewhere in Europe, the front court of Versailles, the vast palace outside Paris, shook to music for the French leg of Live 8. An estimated 200,000 people attended the show.
In Rome, singer-songwriter Francesco De Gregori opened events inside former chariot-racing amphitheatre, the Circus Maximus, while German group Die Toten Hosen kicked off the German leg in Berlin before around 100,000.
An initial crowd of about 5,000 gathered near Moscow’s Red Square for the Russian concert, added at the last minute. Just outside Toronto, a far bigger event featured the cream of Canadian music talent, among them Neil Young and Bryan Adams.
The Philadelphia concert was strong on black talent such as Jay Z and Kanye West, something critics noted was conspicuously lacking elsewhere for an event supposed to help Africa.
To address this, a 10th concert was held in Cornwall, southwestern England. Dubbed ‘Africa Calling’, it featured a host of stars from the continent.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair, who is hosting the G8 summit, has pledged to make moves to eradicate poverty in Africa a main focus of the meeting, but some activists are sceptical as to how much will be achieved.
Adding to the pressure on Saturday, more than 100,000 people marched through the streets of Edinburgh, Scotland’s capital, to demand bold action on poverty by the G8 leaders.
In London, those who massed hours before the gates opened admitting their motives for attending were a mixture of idealism and a desire to see the stellar line-up.
“I am really excited about the concert, but I care more about the music,” said Rachel Davis, 26, a civil servant from North Wales who travelled to London the previous night.—AFP/Reuters
