Live 8 concert, London
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| Live 8 | |
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| Location | Hyde Park, London, England |
| Founded by | Bob Geldof and Midge Ure |
| Date | July 2, 2005 |
| Genre(s) | Pop and Rock music |
| Website | Official Site |
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The main Live 8 concert was held at Hyde Park, London, England on 2 July 2005, in front of over 200,000 people. The show's logistics were managed by famed promoter Harvey Goldsmith.
The event is also referred to as "Live 8 London" or "Live 8 UK".
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[edit] Lineup and songs
In order of appearance:
- Bob Geldof (Host)
- Overture: Paul McCartney with U2 - "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band"
- U2- "Beautiful Day"/"Blackbird", "Vertigo", "One"/"Unchained Melody"
- Coldplay - "In My Place/"Rockin' All Over The World(chorus)", "Bitter Sweet Symphony" (with Richard Ashcroft), "Fix You"
- David Walliams and Matt Lucas (presenters) as their Little Britain characters Lou and Andy.
- Elton John - "The Bitch Is Back", "Saturday Night's Alright For Fighting", "Children Of The Revolution" (with Pete Doherty)
- Bob Geldof (Host)
- Bill Gates (presenter)
- Dido¹ - "White Flag" (Solo), "Thank You" and "Seven Seconds" (both with Youssou N'Dour¹ ²)
- Stereophonics - "The Bartender and the Thief/Ace Of Spades(chorus)", "Dakota", "Maybe Tomorrow", "Local Boy in the Photograph"
- Ricky Gervais (presenter)
- R.E.M. - "Imitation of Life", "Everybody Hurts", "Man on the Moon"
- Kofi Annan (presenter)
- Ms. Dynamite - "Dy-na-mi-tee", "Redemption Song"
- Keane - "Somewhere Only We Know", "Bedshaped"
- Will Smith (presenter) in Philadelphia, USA
- Travis ² - "Sing", "Side"/"Stayin' Alive", "Why Does It Always Rain On Me?"
- Bob Geldof ² - "I Don't Like Mondays"
- Brad Pitt (presenter)
- Annie Lennox ² - "Why", "Little Bird", "Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)"
- UB40 - "Food For Thought", "Who You Fighting For?", "Reasons" (with Hunterz & The Dhol Blasters), "Red Red Wine", "Can't Help Falling in Love"
- Snoop Dogg - "Ups & Downs", "Drop It Like It's Hot", "Signs", "The Next Episode", "Who Am I (What's My Name?)"
- Razorlight - "Somewhere Else", "Golden Touch", "In The City"
- Bob Geldof introduced 24-year-old Birhan Woldu, an Ethiopian student who was shown as a starving child in a video at Live Aid.
- Madonna - "Like a Prayer", "Ray of Light", "Music"
- Snow Patrol ² - "Chocolate", "Run"
- The Killers - "All These Things That I've Done"
- Joss Stone - "Super Duper Love", "I Had a Dream", "Some Kind of Wonderful"
- Scissor Sisters - "Laura", "Take Your Mama", "Everybody Wants the Same Thing"
- Velvet Revolver - "Do It For The Kids", "Fall To Pieces", "Slither"
- Lenny Henry (presenter)
- Sting - "Message In A Bottle", "Driven To Tears", "Every Breath You Take" (with alternate lyrics)
- Dawn French (presenter)
- Mariah Carey - "Make It Happen", "Hero", "We Belong Together"
- David Beckham (presenter)
- Robbie Williams - "We Will Rock You", "Let Me Entertain You/All These Things That I've Done (bridge)", "Feel", "Angels"
- Peter Kay - presenter, comedy, and a cappella excerpt of "Is This the Way to Amarillo"
- The Who - "Who Are You", "Won't Get Fooled Again"
- Pink Floyd³ - "Speak to Me"/"Breathe" segued with "Breathe (reprise)", "Money", "Wish You Were Here", "Comfortably Numb"
- Paul McCartney - "Get Back", "Drive My Car" (with George Michael), "Helter Skelter", "The Long and Winding Road"/"Hey Jude [refrain]" (joined by many of the above for "Hey Jude")
¹ Also performing at the Paris show on 2 July 2005
² Also performing at the Edinburgh show on 6 July 2005
³ Guitarist David Gilmour was in Bryan Ferry's band at Live Aid. Pink Floyd (with Roger Waters) had not performed together for 24 years prior to this event; their last live performance being in 1981. Others who had played Live Aid 20 years before were Geldof, U2, McCartney, Elton John, Sting, The Who, George Michael and Madonna (who performed then at the Philadelphia concert).
[edit] Performance notes
It had been said that Paul McCartney and U2's Bono would be wearing Sgt. Pepper costumes, but, in the event, they were only worn by an anonymous, four-piece French horn section.
Immediately following Travis' performance, Geldof told the audience he "couldn't resist playing on this stage" and played the Boomtown Rats song "I Don't Like Mondays". He had earlier said that he "did not deserve" to play alongside the scheduled acts.
All the songs performed by Sting were sung twenty years before at Live Aid.
Dido and Youssou N'Dour also managed to appear at the Cornwall and Paris venues during the day.
Just before introducing Birhan Woldu, Bob Geldof became disgusted[citation needed] of audience members clapping at the classic video shown at Live Aid with the starving Ethiopians. He scowled at the fans, "I don't think we clap that, do we?" resulting in the fans being quiet. The rant was not included on the DVD release but was shown in the television broadcast.
George Michael said in an interview that he had wanted to perform a solo song, but was suffering from a bad head cold.
Some artists, such as Elton John, Coldplay, REM and U2, already had shows planned for 2 July, which they performed after their performances at Live 8. Accordingly they were not present for the "Hey Jude" grand finale.
The Who originally planned to do three songs (the two mentioned above plus "Baba O'Riley")[citation needed] but ultimately only performed two on the day.
The event marks the first time in 24 years that Pink Floyd's seminal line-up would perform: Roger Waters, David Gilmour, Richard Wright and Nick Mason.
Originally scheduled to close at 9.30pm, the concert over-ran and went on until just after midnight, leaving many in the audience with no means of returning home.
Harvey Goldsmith appeared on stage to thank the audience for their patience with the late-running event, and to make a closing appeal for people to leave slowly, to avoid crushes.
==front stage passes Notable, non-performing personalities backstage and in the audience included:
- Bob Geldof's daughters, Peaches, Pixie and Fifi Trixibelle
- Boris Becker
- David Beckham
- Victoria Beckham
- Laura Parker Bowles
- Michael Buerk
- Faye Dunaway
- Sir David Frost
- Simon Fuller
- Sabrina Guinness
- Jerry Hall
- Josh Hartnett
- Paris Hilton
- Scarlett Johansson
- Ronan Keating
- Jemima Khan
- Paris Latsis
- Peter Mandelson
- Andrew Marr
- Stella McCartney
- Heather Mills
- Neil Morrissey
- Gwyneth Paltrow and daughter Apple Martin (wife and daughter of Coldplay front man, Chris Martin.)
- Trudie Styler
- Midge Ure
- Jeremy Clarkson
- Sanjeev Bhaskar
- Sir Ian McKellen
- Kathryn Blair (daughter of Tony Blair)
[edit] Coverage
[edit] Television
The BBC provided full television coverage in the UK, starting on BBC Two from 13:00, and continuing from about 18:15 on BBC One, right up to the end of the concert at midnight. The advertised changeover time was 16:15, disappointing many who had set video recorders accordingly.
The coverage was fronted by talk show host Jonathan Ross, with backstage interviews by Fearne Cotton and Jo Whiley.
350 complaints were made to the BBC about swearing before the 9pm watershed. The BBC apologised, however a spokesman said: "This is nothing, really. If EastEnders starts five minutes late we get close to 500 complaints".
In the US, MTV and VH1 provided intermittent and incomplete live and taped coverage, frequently breaking away mid-song for commercials or commentary by their veejays. This decision drew criticism from numerous viewers who viewed the commentary as being frivolous or inane and would have preferred to see the music acts themselves. However, AOL provided a full webcast of the entire show.
After the criticism of viewers, both VH1 and MTV showed many highlights of the Live 8 concerts on July 9, 2005 for 5 hours each without commercial interruption.
In Australia a highlights show of around 3 hours length was broadcast on the night of the concert, AEST, on free to air Nine Network and full live coverage was broadcast on pay TV.
[edit] Radio
In the UK, there was radio coverage on BBC Radio 1, BBC Radio 2 and several local radio stations.
The Radio 1 coverage was anchored by Chris Moyles and Scott Mills, with interviews by Edith Bowman, Colin Murray, Sara Cox and Vernon Kay. There was alternative coverage on Radio 2, anchored by Chris Evans. Each station focussed on artists who matched the station's playlisting policy and target audience.
Most commercial radio stations in the UK took a programme produced by Capital FM for the day.
In the US, XM Satellite Radio broadcast the concert in its entirety.
[edit] BBC Big Screens
The BBC also had live coverage on big screens across the UK.
- England
- London - south part of Hyde Park
- Manchester - Exchange Square
- Birmingham - Chamberlain Square
- Birmingham - Cannon Hill Park
- Liverpool - Clayton Square
- Hull - Queen Victoria Square
- Leeds - Millennium Square
- Gateshead - Gateshead International Stadium
- Bournemouth - Meyrick Park
- Plymouth - Armada Way
- Northern Ireland
- Belfast - Customs House Square
- Scotland
- Channel Islands
- St. Helier, Jersey - Peoples Park
- Guernsey - L'Eree
People who were watching the event in Cardiff were able to watch the event in HDTV on a 17ft wide screen; this is believed to be the first ever live public relay of HD in Europe.
[edit] Online
AOL's music channel included a live video stream. The BBC were also streaming a radio show from the live event over the Internet via BBCi service, alongside various video clips.
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