Live 8

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Live 8 was a global rock concert with the motto " Make Poverty History " ("Make poverty a past" or "Let poverty become history"), which took place on July 2, 2005 simultaneously in ten locations of the G8 member states and in South Africa . On July 6, 2005, an eleventh Live 8 concert also took place in Edinburgh . The concerts were initiated and organized by Bob Geldof and Bono , the singer of the band U2 .

Cities of Live 8 Concerts

overview

The name Live 8 is based on the Live Aid concerts of 1985 and the G8 summit, which met from July 6th to 8th, 2005 in Gleneagles ( Scotland ). There was a debt relief and development assistance for some of the poorest countries of Africa negotiated. The concert dates were deliberately set right before this meeting and the last concert location in its immediate vicinity. The organizers wanted to bring the problems of the African developing countries back into the focus of international politics and to press for effective measures against poverty .

In contrast to the Live Aid concert of 1985, Live 8 was not intended primarily to collect donations, but rather to represent a political demonstration to the G8. Bob Geldof expressed this intention with the motto “We don't want your money, we want your vote!”. Accordingly, the Live 8 organizers presented the heads of government of the G8 countries with a petition with more than 24 million signatures or names, which were collected in particular via SMS and e-mail .

20 years after Live Aid, the concerts were the biggest music event in the world to date. Around 170 rock and pop stars in ten cities on four continents offered music for a total of 50 hours. 140 television and 400 radio stations were there. An estimated 1.7 million people attended the individual concerts, and 2 to 3 billion people had access to worldwide television broadcasts. UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said this on July 2, 2005 in London ". Here are really united nations" ( "Here are truly united nations.")

The single concerts

grades

For the programs and procedures of the Live 8 concerts, see the sub-article
Live 8 / Concert programs .

London

Live 8's main concert with 200,000 visitors took place in Hyde Park in London (England). It started at 2:00 p.m. (local time) and lasted, with breaks and encores, until shortly after midnight, two and a half hours longer than planned. The tickets were awarded in pairs for 2.50 pounds as a "lottery prize" in an SMS lottery.

The concert was opened by Paul McCartney and U2 , who played Beatles classic Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band . They were accompanied by a brass group, the "Bootleg Beatles", who wore the well-known Sergeant Pepper costumes.

In view of the enthusiastic public mood, Bob Geldof appeared spontaneously with the Boomtown Rats during the concert . George Michael sang the Beatles song Drive My Car instead of the announced solo song with Paul McCartney .

Youssou N'Dour and Dido flew to Paris after their duet in order to also perform at the Live 8 concert there in the evening. Even Elton John , Coldplay , REM and U2 also gave their own concerts on the same day, so that they in joint final song Hey Jew missing.

For the first time in 24 years, Pink Floyd was back on stage with Roger Waters . Pink Floyd played the tracks Speak to Me / Breathe / Breathe Reprise , Money , Wish You Were Here and Comfortably Numb .

The concert was moderated by Fearne Cotton .

Numerous local and national radio stations broadcast the concert. The BBC transferred it together with AOL in the Internet in a live stream and on both main television programs for the UK in full length. BBC correspondent Andrew Marr justified this succinctly with the sentence: "If a traditional Bavarian band played here, there would probably not be so many there." There were also large screens in 14 major British cities and on Guernsey .

Up to 400 viewers complained about curses and obscene or vulgar expressions on stage by artists like Madonna or Snoop Dogg during the broadcast . "If someone felt hurt," the BBC apologized in advance, as they had no influence on the performance during a complete live broadcast.

Paris

Almost 100,000 listeners experienced the concert in front of the Palais de Versailles near Paris (France), which lasted from 3:00 p.m. to 11:15 p.m. (CET). The authorities had refused Geldof's request to have it take place below the Eiffel Tower .

Rome

Live 8 in Rome

According to the organizers, the concert took place in front of around 200,000 visitors in the Circus Maximus in Rome (Italy). Unlike in Berlin, the authorities had complied with the request of the Live-8 organizers and made a historic square in the center of Rome available as a concert venue. Many local artists and bands were represented in the program.

Berlin

Live 8 concert in Berlin. Play it a-ha.

The concert at the Berlin Victory Column began at 2:00 p.m. and was supposed to end at 8:00 p.m., but then lasted until 00:30 a.m. (local time). As in London, some gigs were delayed for several hours. According to the organizers, around 200,000 visitors came who huddled on Straße des 17. Juni . Many could only follow what was happening on the stage via one of the eight additional large-format screens. Organizers and musicians criticized this in part (see below).

Philadelphia

The concert at the Museum of Art in Philadelphia (USA) lasted from 12:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. (local time) and from 4:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. ( coordinated universal time ). The attendance is unknown as tickets were not sold and the Philadelphia police made no estimates. Presenters, looking down at the crowd from the stage, spoke of a million people; most organizations, however, assume around 700,000.

Some artists dedicated their performance to Luther Vandross , who had died the day before. The producer and organizer, Russell Simmons , had campaigned for more African American artists to appear at the concert, including some Def Poetry Jam poets.

The concert was broadcast in the USA by MTV and VH1 , but not completely and not completely live. A few times, songs were interrupted by advertisements.

The US capital Washington, DC , was originally named as another venue for the concert, but the US concert then took place in Philadelphia, as in 1985.

Barrie / Toronto

35,000 visitors saw and heard the concert in Park Place in Barrie ( Ontario ) near Toronto (Canada). It lasted from 11:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. (local time). Bob Geldof had previously expressed the desire to have the concert in Toronto. But after a long discussion about a suitable location, which also included a floating stage on Lake Ontario , the decision was made to move the concert to Barrie, 100 kilometers away.

Some artists like the duo Tegan and Sara and Burton Cummings canceled, mostly due to illness. Great Big Sea almost missed their performance as the flight from their concert venue was canceled at the last minute the night before. That's why they couldn't use all of their instruments. Live 8 Barrie was opened by Tom Cochrane , and at the end Steven Page O Canada from the Barenaked Ladies played with many of the artists present.

For Neil Young , who was the last artist to appear on Canadian Live 8, it was the first appearance since he had suffered from a brain aneurysm .

Chiba

The first of the Live 8 concerts began at 5:00 a.m. (Coordinated Universal Time) in the Makuhari Messe Convention Center in Chiba (Japan), as Japan is in the earliest time zone of the participating countries. With 10,000 concert-goers, however, the event hall was only half full. Although the tickets could be won in a raffle, the participating artists had only been announced a week before the concert and were therefore less noticed than the performances in London or Philadelphia. The concert lasted from 2:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. (local time) and was already over by the time the concerts began in most other cities. In addition to a few local bands, the singer Björk , the band McFly and the US punk rock band Good Charlotte, known in Japan, performed around the two twins Benji Madden and Joel Madden. These two were very disappointed with the press covering this concert, as they had portrayed the whole situation worse than it was, according to the Maddens.

Johannesburg

The concert at Mary Fitzgerald Square, Newtown, a district of Johannesburg (South Africa) lasted from 10:45 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. (Coordinated Universal Time). A highlight was the appearance of the former South African President Nelson Mandela , who was invited to give a speech. The audience greeted him with a five-minute standing ovation.

According to the organizers, 40,000 visitors took part. The Sowetan newspaper , which is mainly read by Johannesburg's black population , considered this to be exaggerated, headlined The Crowds Avoid Live 8 and commented:

“The African branch of the Live 8 concert in Johannesburg was not exactly well attended (...). Although several thousand people came, the space was far from being fully utilized. "

Another local newspaper, the Citizen , noted that Live 8 was barely noticed in the rest of Africa and concluded:

"Rock stars can't save Africa!"

Moscow

According to the organizers, 200,000 visitors attended this concert on Red Square in Moscow (Russia). It lasted from 7:00 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. (local time) or from 4:00 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. (coordinated universal time). With the exception of the Pet Shop Boys , almost only Russian artists performed here. Geldof announced that Moscow would take part just a few days beforehand.

After their last song ( Go West ), the Pet Shop Boys left the stage thinking the show was over. However, with the audience refusing to leave, the Pet Shop Boys took the stage again and played It's a Sin one more time as an encore.

Cornwall (Eden Project)

Peter Gabriel initiated this additional concert in Great Britain at the Eden Project , Cornwall (13:00 to 23:00 local time) at short notice after public criticism that hardly any African musicians were involved in the Live-8 project. Accordingly, apart from himself and Dido , only African artists appeared here. However, only 5000 people attended. The concert thus had the lowest number of visitors of all Live 8 concerts.

Edinburgh

Live 8 concert in Edinburgh

On July 6, 2005, the eleventh and final Live 8 concert under the title The Final Push took place in the Murrayfield Stadium in Edinburgh (Scotland) in front of around 60,000 spectators . In addition to numerous artists making music on stage, a video message from Nelson Mandela from South Africa was played.

Many celebrities had called in advance to demonstrate in Edinburgh for the increase in development aid by the participating countries of the G8. Four days before the start of the G8 summit on July 6, 2005, according to the Daily Mail, around 250,000 demonstrators called on the heads of state and government to fight hunger and poverty under the motto Make Poverty History .

Numerous celebrities also responded to The Long Walk to Justice . On July 3, 2005, around 100 demonstrators set off for Edinburgh in buses that were financed by Fantastischen Vier and director Ralf Schmerberg . Campino von den Toten Hosen , who appeared with Bob Geldof and the Boomtown Rats in Edinburgh, was one of a group of German celebrities who traveled to Edinburgh with representatives of non-governmental organizations in a plane sponsored by the Red Bull company . The actress Anna Thalbach , the Loveparade inventor Dr. Motte , Reamonn singer Rea Garvey , Barbara Becker, comedian Elton , H-Blockx singer Henning Wehland , director Ralf Schmerberg, Die Puhdys , Karat and DJ Tomekk . The other members of the Toten Hosen traveled to the concert at their own expense.

John Travolta flew to Scotland on his private jet.

Bob Geldof even had Pope Benedict XVI. invited to Edinburgh, although he did not personally take part in the demonstration, he had a message read out by the Scottish Cardinal Keith O'Brian , in which he demanded: “The peoples of the rich countries must be ready to take on the burden of debt relief for the poor Countries to take on. "

Composer Guy Chambers was supposed to accompany Midge Ure on the piano when Midge Ure performed the Ultravox song Vienna , and instead, surprisingly, the British comedian Eddie Izzard took over . Guy Chambers then played the piano for Beverley Knight's performance with Robbie Williams ' song Angels .

Announced but not performed appearances

London

Contrary to rumors in advance, the Spice Girls did not appear together , but presenter Peter Kay announced the band The Who as the Spice Girls. A duet by Madonna and Sting about John Lennon's classic Imagine , announced in press reports , did not take place either. Commenting on his participation in Live 8, Sting said, “Bob called me and told me I would be there. He does not ask, but confronts me with the fact ”. The two bands Muse and The Cure had been announced as part of the London program, but ended up playing in Paris. The Live 8 organizers also tried to get the Sex Pistols to appear together. For the late bassist Sid Vicious , his predecessor Glen Matlock was to play; however, this appearance did not materialize. The band Oasis had also been announced, but then did not appear. The reason for this was that they had to play a concert at the Manchester Stadium on the same day, July 2nd . Bob Geldof also asked Bruce Springsteen to appear on Live 8, but the latter declined without giving any further reasons for his decision. Radiohead declined to perform because guitarist Jonny Greenwood had just become a father and wanted to spend time with his family.

The Scottish rock band Franz Ferdinand had to cancel their participation in Live 8 because the wedding of their guitarist Nick McCarthy had been scheduled for that day . Singer Alex Kapranos said in an interview: “Of course that was a shame. I'd rather have canceled Nick's wedding, but he was dying to get married. That's nice too, he certainly had a lot of fun. But it would have been great if we had been there at Live 8. Because the whole project deserves support. ”However, this didn't stop Franz Ferdinand from making a contribution to Live 8, and so they put their song Come on Home as the background melody of the video clip, which repeatedly reflects the intentions of the concert organizers between the individual performances declared available. This clip can also be found on all official Live 8 DVDs .

Queen, who had been with Live Aid in 1985, wanted to take part in Live 8 even though they were giving a concert in Lisbon on the same day . They wanted to make their contribution to Live 8 by means of satellite feed. In this context, Robbie Williams and the band The Darkness (or at least their singer Justin Hawkins ) were named as potential duet partners, but these appearances did not materialize.

There was also speculation that Band Aid 20 might start with the song Do They Know It's Christmas? would end the concert, just like with Live Aid 20 years earlier. Although numerous members of Band Aid 20 (including Keane , Coldplay , Joss Stone and Robbie Williams) were in London, this did not come true.

Appearances by u. a. Ozzy Osbourne , who already participated in Live Aid with his band Black Sabbath in 1985 , Meat Loaf and Status Quo were rejected on the grounds that otherwise there would be too many bands.

Paris

In the run-up to the Paris concert, there was speculation about performances by the British band Jamiroquai , as well as the two French singers Manu Chao and Johnny Hallyday , father of the singer David Hallyday . However, these appearances did not take place. Announced appearances by Sheryl Crow , Indochine , Alain Souchon , Pascal Obispo , Renaud and Julien Clerc were also canceled. Muse and The Cure had been announced as part of the London program, but played in Paris.

Rome

A performance by the songwriter Vasco Rossi had been announced for the Italian version of Live 8 in Rome, but this did not take place. Appearances by the film music composer Ennio Morricone and the two singers Eros Ramazzotti and Adriano Celentano were also planned, these artists did not appear either. Appearances by Chalid , Ali Farka Touré , Carmen Consoli , Gianluca Grignani , Giorgia , Sugarfree , Gianni Morandi and Subsonica were also announced , and in the end these musicians did not perform either.

Berlin

Brandenburg Gate during the Live-8-Festival in Berlin, your voice against poverty

Appearances by the German artists Peter Maffay , Nena , Marius Müller-Westernhagen and Die Fantastischen Vier as well as the US musicians Crosby, Stills and Nash , Tracy Chapman , Lauryn Hill and Anastacia had been announced for the concert in Berlin . However, these announcements turned out to be false, as did speculation about performances by Finnish rock bands HIM and The Rasmus .

The Fantastischen Vier did not appear, but together with the director Ralf Schmerberg they financed Busse, who brought around 100 demonstrators to the demonstration The Long Walk to Justice in Edinburgh on July 3, 2005 , and thus contributed to the success of the entire action.

Philadelphia

The artists 50 Cent , Usher and Sean Combs originally wanted to take part, but canceled due to scheduling problems. A performance by the multinational singer group Il Divo , which was announced in advance , did not take place either. Also originally announced were performances by Ludacris , Prince , Diana Ross , Eminem and OutKast , as well as Justin Timberlake , who wrote the song Where Is the Love? Together with the Black Eyed Peas . should sing. The reggae musician Ziggy Marley was also supposed to perform together with his mother Rita and his brother Stephen Marley , but that didn't happen. There was also speculation about an appearance by Michael Jackson , but he was not invited by the organizers. It was assumed that a new version of the USA-for-Africa hit We Are the World , which had been performed in Philadelphia twenty years ago, was to be played.

Barrie

Before the concert, it was suspected that the bands Rush and The Rolling Stones could perform in Canada. However, these rumors were not confirmed. According to Bob Geldof, The Rolling Stones were the first band to be accepted, but they canceled due to discrepancies within the group.

The Canadian punk band Billy Talent was originally supposed to perform in Barrie, but it never came to this gig. A planned duet by the rapper K'naan and the singer Nelly Furtado did not materialize either, as did a performance by the singer Avril Lavigne . Ex- Smashing Pumpkins singer Billy Corgan also did not appear, although the rumor about a reunion of the Smashing Pumpkins had been circulating beforehand .

Chiba

The Finnish rock band Hanoi Rocks was asked to appear at the Japanese Live 8, but was unable to attend due to scheduling problems.

Cornwall (Eden Project)

After Peter Gabriel , former singer of the band Genesis , had agreed to organize a parallel concert to Live 8 with Africa Calling , there was intense speculation about the possibility of a probably unique Genesis reunion. Gabriel, who had always refused to do so, seemed for the first time not to rule out this possibility. The former Genesis drummer Phil Collins denied this, however, because firstly he could not perform due to scheduling reasons and had not been asked anyway.

Edinburgh

The singer Jamelia and the band The Zutons were announced as musical participants, the presenter Patrick Kielty as the speaker, but these appearances did not take place.

Australia

The Australian music producer Ian "Molly" Meldrum , who had already worked with Bob Geldof on Live Aid in 1985 and led the then Australian contribution Oz for Africa , had planned to have a Live 8 concert in Australia : "I hope, he [Geldof] will do it, we definitely have the musicians. ”As a friend of Kylie Minogue , he also stated that she would definitely have been in London if she hadn't had to recover from breast cancer surgery.

After his efforts to find an Australian version of Live 8 remained fruitless, Ian Meldrum hosted a so-called pre-show for Live 8 on Australian television together with the former Savage Garden front man Darren Hayes .

Musicians and songs on Live Aid and Live 8

Musician

Live 8 concert with Bono and Paul McCartney

These artists played at both concerts (1985 and 2005):

Songs

The following pieces were played on both Live Aid and Live 8, but some by different artists. The listing is with the musicians who played them on Live Aid. If they were interpreted by other artists in Live 8, these are given in brackets.

The concept

The idea, concept and a large part of the organization of this concert event came from Bob Geldof. He has been holding similar major concerts for decades and was accepted into the Order of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth II as Knight Commander .

His closest collaborators include Bono, Richard Curtis , Harvey Goldsmith , John Kennedy, Midge Ure, Kevin Wall , Ken Ehrlich , Larry Magid , Tim Sexton , Greg Sills and Russell Simmons .

After years of preparation, Geldof announced the first details of the planned concept to the media on May 31, 2005: Live 8 should deliberately not be a new edition of the Live Aid concert from 1985. This was a comparably huge benefit event and used the collected entrance fees and donations as direct emergency aid in areas affected by a famine at the time (e.g. Ethiopia ). This time the current misery of a particular region should not be fought, but politics for a better world as a whole should be mobilized and motivated. Geldof emphasized that this was the logical continuation of earlier ideas.

In contrast to its predecessor, Live 8 did not collect any donations, but rather signatures: "We don't want your money, we want your name!" - "We don't want your money, we want your name!" This and that through conference calls The worldwide media attention achieved should increase the pressure on the leading politicians of the rich countries to decide on debt cancellation for the Third World countries. In doing so, Geldof made advances and initiatives by numerous non-governmental organizations in the same direction his own. The state representatives at the G8 summit would have the power to change the course of history. But they would only have the will to do so if millions of people made it clear to them that this was desired.

According to Geldof, concerts should take place in all G8 countries. After he last received the approval for the Red Square from the city of Moscow , he had achieved the goal set.

Look over the audience

Although admission to all concerts was free, tickets were given to some of the venues to coordinate the expected crowd. For the concert in London you could take part in a raffle for tickets for the front area by SMS . There were also separate areas for VIPs . Due to the enormous interest in these places, the first tickets appeared for auction at the online auctioneer eBay a few hours after the tickets were issued . Contrary to the usual practice, eBay reacted to Bob Geldof's protest immediately and immediately deleted all relevant auctions , including concert recordings on CD or DVD that were offered later .

As a complementary action, Geldof originally planned with Sail 8 on July 3, 2005 a mass transport of demonstrators with private boats from France to Edinburgh. However, only four ships with fewer than 100 passengers took part in this campaign. Thereupon Geldof canceled the planned reception of the boats. Part of the concept, namely exerting direct pressure on opinion-forming at the G8 summit, did not work out as expected.

Multimedia distribution

Live 8 was also a superlative in terms of its media distribution:

  • In support of the Make Poverty History campaign, over 26 million SMS messages with the text UNITE were sent during the concerts .
  • According to the Internet provider AOL, over 160,000 Internet users simultaneously followed the live broadcasts over the Internet.
  • According to AOL Programming Senior VP Bill Wilson, a total of more than 5 million viewers are said to have logged in during the live broadcasts. He also called Live 8 the "greatest online event in history".

The interaction of live concerts in four continents, worldwide television and internet broadcasting and political lobbying represents a novelty in the history of rock music.

On the German television stations, there were only a few hours of live broadcasts in the third programs and, after the end of the event, clips could be seen during the night. Only the Phoenix broadcaster broadcast the event in full. However, they concentrated on the concerts in London and Philadelphia, so that especially the second part of the Berlin concert was hardly shown.

Effects

Impact on poverty reduction

Bob Geldof had asked the heads of government of the G8 countries for financial aid amounting to 25 billion US dollars. In spite of the terrorist attacks carried out the day before on July 7, 2005 in London , twice the amount of development aid for the whole of Africa was approved . In addition, partial debt relief was granted for 18 of the most indebted countries in Africa.

However, this only took the form of a non-binding commitment. The financing remained open, a deadline for fulfillment was not specified. The sum was also offset against the development aid already planned for these countries, so that the budget of the governments concerned will in fact initially be reduced. In the opinion of critics, it is only a question of government debt assumption for three international monetary institutions, which are among the most important creditors of the debtor countries. Geldof then named the future goal of Live 8 as doubling development aid for the poorest countries in the world.

If the current promise of the G8 is kept, this increased support for Africa can already be considered a great success for the Live 8 actions. This is also thanks to the advocacy of British Prime Minister Tony Blair , who advocated debt relief particularly vehemently at the G8 summit and is a strong supporter of Geldof's plans to reduce poverty in Africa.

However, as always at such publicly observed meetings, domestic political motives also play a role: After the decision to launch the Iraq war, Blair had to accept a rapid decline in popularity, which he does not want to experience again after his re-election. As a former President of the EU Council , Blair also tried to profile himself as the unifying leader of Europe vis-à-vis the USA, which is seen as the brake on and at the bottom of spending on development aid.

Implications for the artist

The Norwegian MP Jan Simonsen wanted to propose Bob Geldof for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006 because of his commitment to using rock music to draw attention to poverty in the world . The English tabloid The Sun took up the idea and compared Geldof with Mother Teresa :

“With his determination, his energy, his foresight and his moral courage, he has twice permanently awakened the conscience of the world [...] In 1979, Mother Teresa won the Nobel Peace Prize for her fight against poverty and misery in the world. What better winner could there be at the next award ceremony? "

A few days after the concert, many of the artists who performed at Live 8 saw their albums sell well. As the British newspaper Daily Mirror reports, sales of the best-of album Echoes by Pink Floyd on Monday after Live 8 were more than 1000 percent above the average sales of the previous week. Demand for the album Then and Now the band The Who had risen in the UK alone by more than 800 percent. Madonna's The Immaculate Collection sold 200 percent more frequently. This also had an impact on artists who were not directly involved: The demand for the Eurythmics' Greatest Hits album also rose by around 500 percent thanks to the appearance of Annie Lennox . Against this background, Pink Floyd guitarist David Gilmour asked his colleagues to donate the unexpected additional income to Africa.

criticism

Concept and implementation of Live 8

African groups and Peter Gabriel criticized the fact that only a small number of African and Afro-American artists should appear at the planned concerts. This is why the Johannesburg and Cornwall venues have been added. But the concerts there in particular were not well attended.

Moeletsi Mbeki , head of the Institute for International Affairs of South Africa and brother of its President Thabo Mbeki , criticized Bob Geldof and Live 8 in the South African newspaper The Star on July 6, 2005: This project does not help Africa because it only combats symptoms. Despite his good intentions, Geldof did not understand the causes. The demanded debt relief would only prop up corrupt elites in Africa and allow them to “further systematically steal the wealth of an entire continent”. The core problem is the "shocking lack of accountability that African rulers hold to their citizens". Every donation against hunger that fills a plate only allows them to “greedily empty another plate”. Western development aid to date has encouraged them to do so.

This criticism was shared by other African journalists and economic experts , such as James Shikwati . The German journalist Stefan Kornelius also accused the project in the Süddeutsche Zeitung on July 3, 2005 of primarily serving to “relieve one's own conscience ” but not being able to solve Africa's problems.

A comment by Sebastian Handke in the Berlin Tagesspiegel on July 4, 2005, Geldof defended against allegations of naivety. However, he found the dramaturgy of the London concert “soulless”: At the appearance of the Ethiopian Birhan Woldu , who, according to Geldof, saved Live Aid 20 years ago, a moment of real dismay arose. But Madonna's loud appearance immediately destroyed it. " Bon Jovi were loud and stupid, Destiny's Child experienced and disinterested." Only Michael Stipe with REM fell out of the usual show frame with a wide blue bar across his face.

Politics, economy and media

In Germany, the concert organizer responsible for the concert in Berlin, Marek Lieberberg, criticized the German government and the Berlin Senate . He accused both of a lack of support for the Live 8 project. The event was not allowed to take place in front of the Reichstag building because of the grass being blown . There would have been enough space there. “We only had a narrow hose available as space. You couldn't work better than we did. "

Campino from the group Die Toten Hosen said:

“To let a world-shattering event like Live 8 take place on a 24 meter narrow street, and not to allow the large space around the Victory Column as an event location, is an unbelievable embarrassment [...] Every multi-purpose hall on our tour offered more space in front of the stage Spectator."

He also insulted the governing mayor, Klaus Wowereit, as an “ idiot ” and later refused to apologize. - However, the Berlin Senate rejected the criticism as false and emphasized that the organizers had chosen the location themselves.

Lieberberg also complained about the lack of interest from possible sponsors to finance this concert. 50 of the largest German companies would not even have responded to his petition letters. In addition, unlike in England, there was hardly any willingness on the part of the print media to finance and publish advertisements. It was "an embarrassment that this country took the event as a gift," he said. Musicians, the music industry and ARD would have shown excellent commitment; “The rest of Germany just stood by and was amazed”. These circumstances could damage the image of Germany in the other countries of the Live 8 concerts. Bob Geldof also considered this criticism to be correct.

The scant reporting on television and in the print media was also criticized (see web links ).

Concert DVDs

On November 4, 2005 the official concert DVDs of the Live 8 concerts were released. In addition to the Live 8 - One Day One Concert One World DVD set , which contains a compilation of all concerts on four DVDs, there are four additional individual DVDs with the complete programs for the concerts in Berlin, Toronto, Paris and Rome. A double DVD with the title Africa Calling: Live 8 at Eden has also been released.

See also

Web links

Commons : Live 8  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Organizers and fans

Action alliances from Live 8

Critical media reports

Individual evidence

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  24. "I'm hoping he'll do it, we've certainly got the acts."