Live 8

Live 8 was a string of benefit concerts that took place on 2 July 2005, in the G8 states and South Africa. They were timed to precede the G8 conference and summit held at the Gleneagles Hotel in Auchterarder, Scotland, from 6–8 July 2005. Both events also coincided with the 20th anniversary of Live Aid. Run in support of the aims of the UK's Make Poverty History campaign and the Global Call to Action Against Poverty, ten simultaneous concerts were held on 2 July and one on 6 July. On 7 July, the G8 leaders pledged to double 2004 levels of aid to poor nations from US$25 billion to US$50 billion by 2010. Half of the money was to go to Africa. More than 1,000 musicians performed at the concerts, which were broadcast on 182 television networks and 2,000 radio networks. Live 8 was seen by 3 million viewers in the United States according to Nielsen, with an estimated 30 million viewers worldwide.

Live Aid organiser Bob Geldof announced the event on 31 May. Many former Live Aid acts offered their services to the cause. Prior to the official announcement of the event, many news sources referred to the event as Live Aid 2. However, Geldof and co-organiser Midge Ure have since explicitly said they do not think of the event as the same as Live Aid. On an episode of BBC Two music-based comedy panel show '' Never Mind the Buzzcocks'', which aired on 2 March 2006, The Cribs frontman Ryan Jarman said he had texted Geldof to suggest that a "Live Aid 2" would be a good idea. However, after organising the event, Geldof said: "This is not Live Aid 2. These concerts are the start point for The Long Walk To Justice, the one way we can all make our voices heard in unison." Many of the Live 8 backers were also involved in the largely forgotten NetAid concerts, including Executive Producer Jeff Pollack.

Organisers of Live 8 presented the "Live 8 List" to the world leaders at the Live 8 call that politicians take action to "Make Poverty History". Names from the list also appeared on the giant televisions at each concert during the broadcast.

An official Live 8 DVD set was released on 7 November 2005 internationally and 8 November 2005 in the United States.

Concerts

Broadcaster Jonathan Ross opened the European Live 8 concerts with the words: "It's two o'clock in London on July the 2nd 2005. Hyde Park welcomes the world to Live 8."

There were ten concerts held on 2 July 2005, most of them simultaneously. The first to begin was held at the Makuhari Messe in Japan, with Rize being the first of all the Live 8 performers. During the opening of the Philadelphia concert outside the city's Museum of Art, actor Will Smith led the combined audiences of London, Philadelphia, Berlin, Rome, Paris and Barrie in a synchronised finger snap, meant to represent the death of a child every three seconds in Africa.The Associated Press (2 July 2005)
"Rock, rap, reunions at Live 8 concerts"
Today.

Bob Geldof hosted the event at Hyde Park in London, England where he also performed " I Don't Like Mondays". Special guests appeared throughout the concerts. Then-Secretary-General of the United Nations Kofi Annan and Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates made speeches at the London show, while former South African President Nelson Mandela addressed the crowd in the Johannesburg venue. Guest presenters, ranging from sports stars to comedians, also introduced acts.

Included in the all-star line-up were Pink Floyd, reunited with former frontman Roger Waters for the first time in over 24 years. With the death of keyboardist Richard Wright in 2008, Live 8 was the final time the band's "classic" lineup performed together. Waters stated the band dedicated " Wish You Were Here" to their absent former member Syd Barrett, who later died in 2006.

The final event called Edinburgh 50,000 – The Final Push was held at Murrayfield Stadium in Edinburgh, Scotland, on 6 July 2005. It featured further performances from some of the artists from the other concerts, and was the closest of the eleven to the actual location of the G8 summit.

Tickets

Although the concerts were free, 66,500 pairs of tickets for the Hyde Park concert were allocated from 13 to 15 June 2005, to winners of a mobile phone text message competition that began on Monday, 6 June 2005. Entry involved sending the answer to a multiple choice question via a text message costing £1.50. Winners were drawn at random from those who correctly answered the question. Over two million messages were sent during the competition, raising £3 million. The first £1.6 million raised was given to the Prince's Trust, which had to cancel its own annual Party in the Park concert in Hyde Park that year to make way for Live 8. According to the Live 8 website, funds raised beyond the £1.6 million "will go to pay for the costs of Live 8, as it is a free event".

Some ticket-winners placed their tickets for sale on internet auction site eBay, and were heavily criticised by the organisers of the event, including Bob Geldof. Initially, eBay defended its decision to allow the auctions to go ahead, stating that there were no laws against the resale of charity concert tickets. The site also offered to make a donation to Live 8 at least equivalent to the fees it would make from the ticket sales. Some people, angered by others seemingly using Live 8 to make money, placed fake bids for millions of pounds for such auctions in an attempt to force the sellers to take them off sale. It was later announced that eBay, under pressure from the British government, the public, as well as Geldof himself, would withdraw all auctions of the tickets."eBay prevents Live 8 ticket sales"
BBC News. 15 June 2005.

Similar touting situations arose for the Edinburgh and Canadian shows, and eBay also halted the sales of the tickets.

Performances

London

* U2 and Paul McCartney opened the London concert, playing " Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band". Later, Bono added a couple of lines of The Beatles' " Blackbird" to the end of " Beautiful Day".
* Mariah Carey performed her hit 1993 single “Hero” and “ Make It Happen”
* Travis performed singles " Sing", " Side" and " Why Does It Always Rain on Me?".
* Keane performed singles " Somewhere Only We Know" and " Bedshaped".
* The classic quartet line-up of the progressive rock band Pink Floyd (Roger Waters, David Gilmour, Richard Wright and Nick Mason) played together on stage for the first time in 24 years. The band performed the songs " Speak to Me", " Breathe / Breathe (Reprise)", "Money", " Wish You Were Here" and " Comfortably Numb". They were the only band not to be verbally introduced. This was also the final performance by the full classic line-up as Richard Wright died of cancer in 2008.
* Pete Doherty joined Elton John for a version of T. Rex's hit " Children of the Revolution".
* Using much of the musical equipment used by rock band Travis, who had just left the stage, Bob Geldof decided on the "spur of the moment" to perform the Boomtown Rats' hit " I Don't Like Mondays".
* Before Madonna's set, Geldof introduced Birhan Woldu, who was the starving child in the CBC News report which prompted Geldof to organise Live Aid. She held hands with Madonna while the singer performed the first verses of " Like a Prayer".
* Chris Martin included the chorus of Status Quo's song " Rockin' All Over the World" in the bridge of Coldplay's song " In My Place". Status Quo had opened the 1985 Wembley Live Aid concert with that song. In addition, Coldplay were joined by Richard Ashcroft to perform " Bitter Sweet Symphony".
* Robbie Williams began his set with a cover of Queen's "We Will Rock You". Williams stated in an interview that he "wanted to bring a bit of Freddie back from the original Live Aid". Williams had often performed the same section of "We Will Rock You" during his own concerts.

Philadelphia

* Kaiser Chiefs opened the show with " I Predict a Riot", " Everyday I Love You Less And Less", and " Oh My God".
* Kanye West performed a three-song set with a twenty-five piece string orchestra, opening with a live debut of his lead single for his then forthcoming album ''Late Registration''. Will Smith and DJ Jazzy Jeff can be seen briefly dancing off stage.
* Will Smith led the crowd in a sing-along to the theme song of " The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air".
* Jay-Z and Linkin Park joined forces to sing their mash-up song " Numb/Encore"
* Mayor John Street announced on stage that there were over 1 million spectators in the audience.
* Closing act Stevie Wonder was joined on stage by Matchbox Twenty front man Rob Thomas and Maroon 5 lead singer Adam Levine. Thomas dueted with him on " Higher Ground" and Levine on " Signed, Sealed, Delivered, I'm Yours". During Wonder's performance, American Idol judge Paula Abdul can be seen dancing off stage right.

Barrie, Canada

Deep Purple made an appearance and performed " Highway Star", " Smoke on the Water" and " Hush". DMC (of Run-DMC) performed with Elliot Easton of The Cars, and Joey Kramer and Tom Hamilton of Aerosmith. The Tragically Hip played a set, just before Neil Young finished off Live 8 in Barrie with "4 Strong Winds", " Rockin' in the Free World" and " O Canada".

Berlin

Some of the highlights of the Berlin show included Brian Wilson who played a set with his band, doing " Our Prayer"/" Gee", " God Only Knows", " California Girls", " Good Vibrations", and " Fun Fun Fun", as well as Green Day, having released their political rock opera " American Idiot" the previous year.

Moscow

Agatha Christie, Bi-2, Jango, Dolphin, Linda, Moral Code X, Red Elvises, Splean, Pet Shop Boys

Separate rally and anti-poverty protest in Edinburgh

On 2 July, the same day as the Live 8 concerts, a rally and protest march was held in central Edinburgh, the nearest major city to the Gleneagles venue, for the G8 conference later that week. This protest was organised by the Make Poverty History coalition as part of a series of events ahead of the G8 conference, and had already been planned before the announcement of Live 8.

An estimated 225,000 people took part, making it the largest-ever protest in Scotland"Thousands flock to poverty march"
2 July 2005. and the largest ever anti-poverty protest in the UK.

Notable absences

In the weeks leading up to Live 8, British newspaper ''Daily Mirror'' began a petition, garnering support for British rock band Status Quo to play at the event. Originally offered a 6pm slot, the band already had commitments in Ireland and therefore requested an earlier slot. Their request was rejected by the organisers as there were no available slots.

There were speculations by the press that English girl group the Spice Girls would reunite for a Live 8 performance, in what would have been their first appearance as a five-piece since May 1998. At the Live 8 launch in May, Bob Geldof confirmed that organisers were trying to get the group to re-form for the event. Ultimately, the Live 8 reunion did not materialise due to a holdout by Spice Girl Mel B. During the Hyde Park concert, British comedian Peter Kay jokingly introduced the Spice Girls while he was introducing The Who.Tilden, Imogen (2 July 2005)
"'Welcome to the greatest rock concert in the world'"
''The Guardian'' (London).

English rock band Oasis

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