I watched the Band Aid and Live Aid concerts 20 years ago, back when MTV was just starting. Musical showcases like these make me wish sometimes that I was in the First World, just to enjoy these bands. At any rate, technology has made it easier for us to watch these things. So from the website http://www.live8live.com/, check this out:
TODAY IS THE DAY
Every single day, 30,000 children die, needlessly, of extreme poverty.
On July 6th, we finally have the opportunity to stop that shameful statistic.
8 world leaders, gathered in Scotland for the G8 summit, will be presented with a workable plan to double aid, drop the debt and make the trade laws fair. If these 8 men agree, then we will become the generation that made poverty history.
But they'll only do it if enough people tell them to.
That's why we're staging LIVE 8. 10 concerts, 100 artists, a million spectators, 2 billion viewers, and 1 message... To get those 8 men, in that 1 room, to stop 30,000 children dying every single day of extreme poverty.
We don't want your money - we want you!
WATCH IT
Join the global experience: watch the LIVE 8 concerts live and on demand, only on:
www.aolmusic.com
www.aol.co.uk
www.aol.fr
www.aol.de
Live 8, the biggest music show on Earth, to kick off in Japan
TOKYO, July 2 (AFP) - Japan on Saturday was to launch the biggest music show on Earth, the same-day series of Live 8 concerts by the world's top musicians aiming to pressure G8 leaders to eradicate African poverty. At 2:00 pm (0500 GMT), Japanese band Rize was to sound the first notes in the extravaganza by some 1,000 artists performing at 10 gigs across the Group of Eight economically most powerful nations, and South Africa. Mega-stars, from industry legends Madonna, Paul McCartney and U2 to younger crowd pullers Coldplay, Beyonce and Robbie Williams, will play in same-day gigs in Berlin, Johannesburg, London, Moscow, Paris, Rome, Philadelphia, and Toronto plus an Africa-themed event in southwest England. Organizers led by rocker-turned-activist Bob Geldof, who was behind the Live Aid fund-raising charity concerts for Africa in 1985, hope the event will focus a huge global effort into pressuring the G8 leaders to strike a deal on debt, aid and trade for Africa. The leaders are meeting at a summit in Scotland on Thursday and Friday. "The whole point of this is to bring people to action," Live 8 spokesman Bernard Doherty told AFP. "It is a political statement, it is not a fund raiser. It is to get people focused on those eight men sitting in that room in Edinburgh starting on July 6 and we want people to join the long walk to justice," Doherty said. Scheduled to take the Tokyo stage after Rize were other Japanese performers including Dreams Come True and Def Tech, Icelandic star Bjork, British rockers McFly and American band Good Charlotte. Organizers said the event would be broadcast to a potential television audience of 5.5 billion viewers, though coverage in Japan and most of Asia will be limited to pay TV or satellite channels with limited audiences. A record crowd of more than 200,000 were expected in London's Hyde Park for Live 8's main event featuring a dream cast including pop-rock giants Coldplay along with Ms Dynamite, Snoop Dogg, Dido and legends led by McCartney along with Madonna, Annie Lennox, Sting, The Who, U2, REM and a special reunion of psychedelic rockers Pink Floyd, among others. Youssou N'Dour, Craig David, Placebo and Shakira were among the stars scheduled to shake the Paris stage. In Philadelphia, eight hours after the Tokyo concert begins, Beyonce and Destiny's Child along with Will Smith were to headline another lineup loaded with stars including Stevie Wonder and Bon Jovi. To press home the message about Africa, each concert was expected to fall silent for a period while artists and fans clicked their fingers at three-second intervals to symbolise the fact that a child dies due to extreme poverty every three seconds. Critics in Britain have argued Live 8 will simply serve to boost the profile and sales of pop stars and their record labels while the lineup featured relatively few black acts. G8 organisers have given permission for Geldof and his delegation to attend the summit, although it remained to be seen what specific role they would play besides delivering the message -- make poverty history. Geldof hoped the event will raise awareness of African aid issues, although he and other activists have admitted doubts over whether the G8 leaders will meet their demands to cancel debt, double aid and facilitate a fairer trade system for Africa. G8 finance ministers meeting in London earlier in June agreed to a landmark deal to immediately write off all multilateral debt owed by 18 countries, 14 of them in Africa.
No comments:
Post a Comment