Jul 02, 2005 15:45
3 hours ago
Hundreds of thousands of spectators fill the Benjamin Franklin ...
LONDON - Bono effortlessly worked the crowd. Bjork strutted the stage. Celine Dion was beamed via satellite. And Bill Gates was treated like a rock star. Live 8's long, winding road around the globe Saturday was an eclectic, unprecedented extravaganza.
From Johannesburg to Philadelphia, Berlin to Tokyo, Rome to Moscow, about 700,000 fans gathered for a global music marathon designed to pressure the world's most powerful leaders into fighting African poverty when they convene at the Group of Eight summit next week.
Organizer Bob Geldof promised to deliver "the greatest concert ever," broadcast live around the world on television and the Internet.
On Independence Day weekend in the United States, Will Smith, host of the Philadelphia show, said people had united for a "declaration of interdependence."
"Today we hold this truth to be self-evident: We are all in this together," Smith said. Via satellite, he led the global audience in snapping their fingers every three seconds, signifying the child death rate in Africa.
Taking the stage in Africa, Nelson Mandela elicited bigger cheers than any of the musical acts there.
"History and the generations to come will judge our leaders by the decisions they make in the coming weeks," Mandela told the crowd of more than 8,000 people. "I say to all those leaders: Do not look the other way, do not hesitate ... It is within your power to prevent a genocide."
Paul McCartney and U2 opened the flagship show of the free 10-concert festival in London's Hyde Park with a rousing performance of "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band." A thunderous roar erupted from the crowd of about 150,000 as the two iconic rock stars belted out the first line: "It was 20 years ago today..." - a nod to the mammoth Live Aid concerts that raised millions for African famine relief in 1985.
Bono, dressed in black and wearing his trademark wraparound shades, wrapped the crowd around his finger, enticing tens of thousands to sing along to the anthemic "One" and "Beautiful Day." The crowd cheered when a flock of white doves was released overhead.
"So this is our moment. This is our time. This is our chance to stand up for what's right," Bono said.
"We're not looking for charity, we're looking for justice. We cannot fix every problem, but the ones we can, we must."
After a brief delay - testament to the complexities of the eight-hour London extravaganza - Coldplay soothed the crowd with their hit "In My Place."
Geldof appeared onstage to introduce Microsoft billionaire and philanthropist Gates, whom the crowd greeted with a rock star's roar.
"We can do this, and when we do it will be the best thing that humanity has ever done," Gates said.
The crowd joined in as REM sang "Man on the Moon," then heard U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan declare: "This is really the United Nations."
"The whole world has come together in solidarity with the poor," Annan said.
Organizers' estimates of the crowds and broadcast audiences seemed overblown, from Geldof's claim that 3 billion people were watching around the world to talk in Philadelphia that a million people were at that show. But Live 8 was huge nonetheless, with a mile-long crowd stretching from the front steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art and more than 5 million page views on America Online's music site, www.aolmusic.com, which broadcast all 10 concerts in their entirety.
AOL said more than 150,000 people concurrently streamed its video, the most ever.
"There's nothing more to do now," Geldof said backstage in London. "It's either crap or it's great. And so far it's great."
The day's first concert kicked off in Japan, where Bjork and Good Charlotte joined local bands for a show that failed to generate much interest in Asia's only G-8 nation. Iceland's Bjork made her first live performance in two years. But the crowd of 10,000 people was only half of what the hall in the Tokyo suburb of Makuhari was capable of holding.
"People are willing to go out of their way, because we believe passionately in what this is about," said Bjork. "Just the acknowledgment of the problem is an important step."
Live 8 then rolled on to Johannesburg, South Africa, where 24-year-old Zambian singer Lindiwe opened before a crowd of about 500 people that was expected to swell to 40,000. Former President Nelson Mandela was expected to address the crowd.
Johannesburg and a concert featuring African artists in southwestern England were organized following criticism that African artists had been left out of the Live 8 concerts, despite the event's aim to raise awareness of the continent's plight.
"Africans are involved in helping Africa, which doesn't happen too often," Cameroonian singer Coco Mbassi said before the England concert. "We're presenting a different image of Africa - showing that Africa has good things to give."
German crowd-pleasers Die Toten Hosen kicked off Berlin's show - which attracted about 150,000 people - with a string of power anthems while reminding revelers that helping Africa stood above the music.
"This is no rock concert, it's a reminder about next Wednesday," singer Campino told the crowds, referring to next week's G-8 meeting in Scotland.
In an open letter to the G-8 leaders, which appeared in several British newspapers Saturday, Geldof said the summit will disappoint the world if it fails to deliver an extra $25 billion in aid to Africa.
"We will not applaud half-measures, or politics as usual. This must be a historic breakthrough," the letter said. "Today there will be noise and music and joy, the joy of exuberant possibility. On Friday (the end of the summit) there will be great silence as the world awaits your verdict. Do not disappoint us. Do not create a generation of cynics."
London concertgoer Tula Contostavlos, 19, said she was there to see Mariah Carey - and to send a political message.
"Obviously some people are here for just music," she said, "but they're forgetting what's important and what they're here for."