Live 8
Sunday, July 3 2005
Live 8
[IT WAS billed as 'the greatest show on Earth' and it duly delivered.
Live 8 saw musicians coming together on an unprecedented scale to perform a series of global concerts that were designed to send a message to world leaders that global poverty will no longer be tolerated.
Based around the appalling statistic that a child in Africa dies every three seconds, the concerts - which took place across the continents - were designed to put pressure on G8 leaders to cancel world debt and to make trade fair.
The London event was undoubtedly the most significant and saw 200,000 people packed into Hyde Park to see some of the greatest musicals acts appearing on one stage.
Proceedings were opened and closed by Sir Paul McCartney, who was joined on-stage at 2pm for a rousing version of The Beatles' classic, Sgt Peppers' Lonely Hearts Club.
They were followed by the likes of Coldplay, Dido, Madonna, Snoop Dogg, Robbie Williams, The Who and a reformed Pink Floyd - most of whom provided individual moments to savour.
What effect it has remains to be seen but there is no denying that this historic event - on the 20th anniversary of Live Aid - will have forced world leaders to think very seriously about making poverty history.
The London event was undoubtedly the most significant and saw 200,000 people packed into Hyde Park to see some of the greatest musicals acts appearing on one stage.
Proceedings were opened and closed by Sir Paul McCartney, who was joined on-stage at 2pm for a rousing version of The Beatles' classic, Sgt Peppers' Lonely Hearts Club.
They were followed by the likes of Coldplay, Dido, Madonna, Snoop Dogg, Robbie Williams, The Who and a reformed Pink Floyd - most of whom provided individual moments to savour.
The night over-ran by almost three hours in London, culminating at midnight, when the focus switched to Philadelphia and music on the other side of the Atlantic.
But as the people drifted away from the Hyde Park arena, they were left to reflect on one of the most momentous occasions in history.
It was, indeed, one of the greatest shows on earth and a tribute to the efforts of people like Sir Bob Geldof who had rightly been hailed by Coldplay's Chris Martin as 'a hero of our time'.]
My god, yesterday was undoubtedly one of the best experiences I have ever had in my life. the whole thing was surreal, right up until the very end.
Michelle and I didn´t get there until 11 or so, we decided to walk, and it took us a good forty minutes or so, even though it did not seem like it because it was the first time we walked to Hyde Park, and from where we live, all we have to do is make one right and go all the way down this street, Edgware Road. We were so busy feasting on all of the new sights that it seemed as though we where at Hyde Park in no time.
By the time we got to the corner, we realized just how huge this event was.
There where THOUSANDS of people lined up just waiting to get in, I had never seen so many people in one gathering in all of my life, it was insane, and because we didn`t have tickets to the concert, but rather the screens on the other side of the park, we decided to get as far away from that huge crowd as we can so we can make it to the other side in a timely fashion. Around Hyde Park, and maybe this is just everywhere there is a huge intersection, they have these pedestrian subways, which are labyrinths of tunnels that people walk through to get to the other three corners of the highly vehicle populated streets. But this subway took us to the other side of the road and then some, it was insane to know that I can walk underground at one place and end up at a different road a couple a blocks away.
We had no trouble getting in and decided to set up shop close to the front of the first screen, towards the left. By this time it was a round noon, so we relaxed, ate, read, I wrote my writing assignment for my class, and tried to memorize lines, which I ended up doing throughout the day. We both went to the merchandise at different times and it was so packed of people that it took about a half an hour for each of us to go over by something and come back. Michelle got a cool blue t-shirt and I got a program. The pre-show ended at two, and then the moment came. By this time there was a pretty big crowd. The place where we where at held 55,000 people and it looked like there was a reasonable amount of people there.
At a couple of minutes past two, It started. Paul McCartney came out and began singing Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band with Bono, it was phenomenal to see and to know that a quarter of the worlds most popular band, and one of my favorites, was singing so close to me. After that, everything went like a breeze. The whole concert seemed so short, because everyone played 4 songs at most, with an average of three, and in between acts, (which was only around 10 minutes or so) we were entertained by interviews and the like.
The line up and set list is as follows:
1. Paul McCartney/U2 - Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band-the queens guards themselves came out, it was wonderful, and the lyrics rang true, “We hope you will enjoy the show...sit back and let the evening flow¨.
[A FEW minutes after Big Ben chimed 2pm, a voice rang out in the Hyde Park sky stating: "This is our time, this is our moment, this is our chance to stand up for what's right. We're not looking for charity, we're looking for justice. We're not looking to fix every problem, just the one's we can."
The voice belonged to U2's Bono and marked the first significant statement of Live 8 London - the event dubbed 'the greatest show on Earth'.]
2. U2 -Beautiful Day, Vertigo, One
3. Coldplay (introduced by U2's Bono) - In My Place, Bitter Sweet Symphony (duet with Verve's Richard Ashcroft), Fix You
4. Elton John (introduced by Little Britain's Matt Lucas and David Walliams) (ed. note: Little Britain is a popular comedy show in the U.K.) - Saturday Night's Alright For Fighting, Children of the Revolution (duet with Pete Doherty)
5. Dido - Life For Rent, White Flag, Thank You
6. Stereophonics - Bartender and the Theif, Dakota, Maybe Tomorrow, Local Boy in a Photograph
7. REM - Imitation Of Life, Everybody Hurts, Man on the Moon
8. Ms Dynamite - Dynamite, Judgement Day, Redemption Song
Live 8
[IT WAS billed as 'the greatest show on Earth' and it duly delivered.
Live 8 saw musicians coming together on an unprecedented scale to perform a series of global concerts that were designed to send a message to world leaders that global poverty will no longer be tolerated.
Based around the appalling statistic that a child in Africa dies every three seconds, the concerts - which took place across the continents - were designed to put pressure on G8 leaders to cancel world debt and to make trade fair.
The London event was undoubtedly the most significant and saw 200,000 people packed into Hyde Park to see some of the greatest musicals acts appearing on one stage.
Proceedings were opened and closed by Sir Paul McCartney, who was joined on-stage at 2pm for a rousing version of The Beatles' classic, Sgt Peppers' Lonely Hearts Club.
They were followed by the likes of Coldplay, Dido, Madonna, Snoop Dogg, Robbie Williams, The Who and a reformed Pink Floyd - most of whom provided individual moments to savour.
What effect it has remains to be seen but there is no denying that this historic event - on the 20th anniversary of Live Aid - will have forced world leaders to think very seriously about making poverty history.
The London event was undoubtedly the most significant and saw 200,000 people packed into Hyde Park to see some of the greatest musicals acts appearing on one stage.
Proceedings were opened and closed by Sir Paul McCartney, who was joined on-stage at 2pm for a rousing version of The Beatles' classic, Sgt Peppers' Lonely Hearts Club.
They were followed by the likes of Coldplay, Dido, Madonna, Snoop Dogg, Robbie Williams, The Who and a reformed Pink Floyd - most of whom provided individual moments to savour.
The night over-ran by almost three hours in London, culminating at midnight, when the focus switched to Philadelphia and music on the other side of the Atlantic.
But as the people drifted away from the Hyde Park arena, they were left to reflect on one of the most momentous occasions in history.
It was, indeed, one of the greatest shows on earth and a tribute to the efforts of people like Sir Bob Geldof who had rightly been hailed by Coldplay's Chris Martin as 'a hero of our time'.]
My god, yesterday was undoubtedly one of the best experiences I have ever had in my life. the whole thing was surreal, right up until the very end.
Michelle and I didn´t get there until 11 or so, we decided to walk, and it took us a good forty minutes or so, even though it did not seem like it because it was the first time we walked to Hyde Park, and from where we live, all we have to do is make one right and go all the way down this street, Edgware Road. We were so busy feasting on all of the new sights that it seemed as though we where at Hyde Park in no time.
By the time we got to the corner, we realized just how huge this event was.
There where THOUSANDS of people lined up just waiting to get in, I had never seen so many people in one gathering in all of my life, it was insane, and because we didn`t have tickets to the concert, but rather the screens on the other side of the park, we decided to get as far away from that huge crowd as we can so we can make it to the other side in a timely fashion. Around Hyde Park, and maybe this is just everywhere there is a huge intersection, they have these pedestrian subways, which are labyrinths of tunnels that people walk through to get to the other three corners of the highly vehicle populated streets. But this subway took us to the other side of the road and then some, it was insane to know that I can walk underground at one place and end up at a different road a couple a blocks away.
We had no trouble getting in and decided to set up shop close to the front of the first screen, towards the left. By this time it was a round noon, so we relaxed, ate, read, I wrote my writing assignment for my class, and tried to memorize lines, which I ended up doing throughout the day. We both went to the merchandise at different times and it was so packed of people that it took about a half an hour for each of us to go over by something and come back. Michelle got a cool blue t-shirt and I got a program. The pre-show ended at two, and then the moment came. By this time there was a pretty big crowd. The place where we where at held 55,000 people and it looked like there was a reasonable amount of people there.
At a couple of minutes past two, It started. Paul McCartney came out and began singing Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band with Bono, it was phenomenal to see and to know that a quarter of the worlds most popular band, and one of my favorites, was singing so close to me. After that, everything went like a breeze. The whole concert seemed so short, because everyone played 4 songs at most, with an average of three, and in between acts, (which was only around 10 minutes or so) we were entertained by interviews and the like.
The line up and set list is as follows:
1. Paul McCartney/U2 - Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band-the queens guards themselves came out, it was wonderful, and the lyrics rang true, “We hope you will enjoy the show...sit back and let the evening flow¨.
[A FEW minutes after Big Ben chimed 2pm, a voice rang out in the Hyde Park sky stating: "This is our time, this is our moment, this is our chance to stand up for what's right. We're not looking for charity, we're looking for justice. We're not looking to fix every problem, just the one's we can."
The voice belonged to U2's Bono and marked the first significant statement of Live 8 London - the event dubbed 'the greatest show on Earth'.]
2. U2 -Beautiful Day, Vertigo, One
3. Coldplay (introduced by U2's Bono) - In My Place, Bitter Sweet Symphony (duet with Verve's Richard Ashcroft), Fix You
4. Elton John (introduced by Little Britain's Matt Lucas and David Walliams) (ed. note: Little Britain is a popular comedy show in the U.K.) - Saturday Night's Alright For Fighting, Children of the Revolution (duet with Pete Doherty)
5. Dido - Life For Rent, White Flag, Thank You
6. Stereophonics - Bartender and the Theif, Dakota, Maybe Tomorrow, Local Boy in a Photograph
7. REM - Imitation Of Life, Everybody Hurts, Man on the Moon
8. Ms Dynamite - Dynamite, Judgement Day, Redemption Song