All hail the Hypno-Bob!
Myself, Mat, Steve, Mal, Ali and Ernst all went along to Live8 yesterday with some lovely free screen tickets. We were joined by Tai, Relm, Denis, Iain and Kirsty at various points, but they were insufficiently hardcore to manage a ten hour gig :)
On the whole the day was absolutely wonderful with some amazing highlights.
Starting off with 'Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band' was inspired, even if this marked the first example of the sound problems that marred several of the early performances. Given that the crowd were cold, as there'd been no support/warm-up acts first this one got everyone going quite well and was shown several other times during the day during set changes.
After that it was U2 proper, where the sound problems really showed - Bono's vocals were often inaudible, which made it very hard to get into the right mood with these songs. Then it was Coldplay who were Ok, but not great, apart from when the did 'Bittersweet Symphony' with Richard Ashcroft, which was amazing even if the sound was ropy.
The it was onto Elton John - I'd like to tell you what he sounded like, but as we couldn't hear a thing he said... Pete Doherty looked a right state on stage next to him, after we worked out who on earth this wasted fellow in too much make-up was.
Dido was next, and they mostly fixed the sound - we could hear her sing, but only to the accompaniment of some t'umping t'umping bass, which was a tad odd to say the least. Nonetheless, her version of 7 seconds was wonderful, as was the male vocalist singing with her.
Then it was into the Stereophonics, who were alright, though I don't really remember them much.
REM followed this, with the lead singer sporting some fantastic make-up. I was so glad they'd got rid of the worst of the sound problems by now, as REM were one of the bands I really, really wanted to see. The only black note was the mysterious cut to an interview with some random pop stars (who later turned out to be Snow Patrol iirc) during one of the songs; I really hope that was due to a technical fault as it was really, really annoying.
Then I went off for a wander as My Dynamite, Keane (vanilla rock band #3) and Travis came along. It was rather weird seeing all the people around us jumping up and down when Keane were announced, as we were all sat down playing cards and eating, but I guess our musical tastes aren't exactly normal. Travis were alright, with 'Why does it always rain on me?' being nice and singalongable (is that even a word?).
Then it was Annie Lennox who was fantastic - she has an amazing voice and really knew how to work the crowd. 'Sweet Dreams' capped off a great performance from her. Then it was UB40 who I thought did a really good set too - 'Red, Red Wine' and 'I can't help falling in love with you' were both cool - also, more bands need saxophonists!
Snoop Dog was next, so we got a nice little sit down again :) Then it was Razorlight, who were vanilla rock band #5 by my reckoning.
Madonna was next, and my God does that woman know how to work a crowd. While I don't exactly agree with her choice of songs it was a fantastic performance that featured some amazing breakdancing from a dancer, which inspired the drunken people in front of us with hilarious results :)
Then we had some more vanilla rock with Snow Patrol and the Killers, rounded up with Joss Stone. The Scissor Sisters were next and they were pretty cool, not least because the lead singer was wearing a fine pimping hat that only needed a big feather to be perfect.
Velvet Revolver were up next, and while they were perhaps a mite too metal (\m/!) for the rest of the crowd, they were cool and I may well have to download some of their stuff.
By now we were into the home straight, and Sting was up next. The man seems to get younger and younger over time, but gave a nifty performance of some classics including the rather creepy 'Every breath you take'.
Mariah Carey was up after that, and was a bit lame really, compared to the acts around her. Still, she does have a good voice so it wasn't all bad.
Robbie Williams then leapt onto stage and was absolutely great - starting off with 'We will rock you', followed by 'Let me entertain you'. He then got the best part of 200,000 people singing along to Angels which I'm sure has been all over the news by now :)
Then it was into classic rock territory with the Who and Pink Floyd who were both out of this world, and made a great end to the concert.
The finale started off with Paul McCartney doing a few songs, accompanied by George Michael on one. Then all the people that were still hanging around went on stage for a very good rendition of 'Hey Jude' which was a very nice note to end on, at just gone midnight.
There was a bunch of other stuff going on too, such as the various chases around us as people leapt over the fences surrounding our enclosure to get in, and seeing the true power of the Hypno-Bob (the only possibly explanation for how so many big ego's got together and bands like Pink Floyd reformed is that Bob Geldof must have hypnotic powers similar to that of the Hypno-Toad from Futurama. And thus a new meme was born). There was also a lot of reinforcement about why the whole event was actually happening, and I have to say I really hope it makes the G8 listen. It may be that the Make Poverty History campaign simplifies some of the issues besetting Africa, but *something* needs to be done, rather than just sitting around thinking it'll never change. All hail the Hypno-Bob!
EDIT: put back in the paragraph breaks - no idea where they went