Some really lucky fans--like 1,000 of them--were given upgrades into the pit directly in front of the stage 10 minutes before the show started. These folks looked really psyched to get upgraded... got a couple of shots of them as they were let through the gates. Very, very cool.

Will Smith breaks it down in front of the Declaration of Independence: a Child dies in Africa every three seconds for no reason. He made a Declaration of Interdependence before introducing the Black Eyed Peas. Powerful stuff... you can feel the energy here. The crowd is really taking in the message and the 8 men in the room have to watching this thinking "how can we not take action?"

We saw these guys being interviewed this morning behind the library by a local news crew. We had no idea who they were. The guy who just introduced them said that not many people know who they are, but that would change after today. We'll see. The crowd is really into them and they're full of energy.

Stipe is sporting the crazy superhero makeup... I think I'm gonna just take like 100

Set list so far: Everybody Hurts, Man on the Moon...

History in the making folks... Bob Geldof just introduced someone he described as one of his biggest supporters and the man who says our plan is the right plan. Gates got a hero’s welcome and gave a powerful speech about saving billions of lives. “All people no matter where they are born will be able to lead a healthy life… we can do this and when we do it will be the best thing that humanity has every done” said the billionaire philanthropist. He then added that he was “Now… I’m pleased to introduce Dido!”

Dido performs I Will Go Down With the ShipWhite Flag

Youssoun D'or joined Dido for Thank You

Dido said that the she felt really privileged to sing her third song, Seven Seconds Away (sample from amazon here) and that it was the perfect message to send to the eight men in the room.

Found the lyrics online... after the jump

Some scenes from London which Coldplay is rockin it out!
 

AOLMusic is streaming the event live as everyone knows (www.aolmusic.com). They've got the most blown out tent in the back as well. It's about 50 degrees in here and there are a dozen plasma displays and computers--which is very nice considering it's starting to getting really hot out there and our battery power was starting to run low.

Karina said she made the trip for one reason--and one reason only!

 

OK, we made it here and we're now backstage at the official Weblogs, Inc./AOL press table which is stage right (if you're on the stage). Wifi is strong, but are still in need of power. Looked like there were 10,000 folks outside of the stage at 7am. Weather is holding up at 80-85 degrees and a little muggy. Sound tests are still going on and the amount of equipment being staged for the bands is really impressive.

It's 6AM here in Philly and we're packing up from the hotel and heading over to the site... there are perfectly blue skies outside. Let's hope there isn't a return of the high winds, thunder, lightening, and rain from yesterday. When the downpour started yesterday the winds were so powerful the press/food tent where we were camped out almost lifted off the ground.

Some clever folks who were camped out ran under the fountain for support.

We landed four cool  Live8 promotional shirts today and we will be giving them away--at random--to folks who link to this post in their own post that mentions Live8 in the title (yes, we're trying to increase the number of Live8 mentions over at http://live8.Technorati.com!). Please put the url of your blog mention in the comments.

Rob Thomas of Matchbox 20 fame just did three songs including "Lonely No More" and "This Is How A Heart Breaks." He told the crowd that he also wanted to do song for sunny day in Philly like "Streetcorner Symphony."

 
We're backstage at Live8 right now. Only about 100 folks are outside the event, so if you were gonna sleep over you can still be right in the front on the lawn. They're doing the sound check now, and you can hear the sound check from about 10-15 blocks away--I'm thinking tomorrow you'll be able to hear the show from anywhere in the city. We're gonna talk a walk around backstage and see if we can catch up with Jay-Z and his posse.

Bono was on Charlie Rose last night in a short, taped segment. He compared what we could do in Africa - in terms of stopping poverty, pain and suffering - to going to the moon (i.e. a lofty, generation-defining goal we could achieve). Bono said over and over again that this is our time and our cause - our civil rights moment. Charlie Rose asked if he thought America should do this for the PR value and talked about the cost of the war. Bono said it was 1% of the cost.

There was a funny moment when Charlie and Bono had to figure out what war they were talking about - the war on poverty or the war in Iraq. Bono said that what they are asking for from the US - an additional $4 billion--is 1% of the cost of the war in Iraq. I heard that Chairman Bob Geldof has been asking folks to not bring up the Iraq War or criticise Bush, but rather bring Bush into the tent. That's a great goal, but I gotta think that a couple of artists - especially outside the US where dissention is more acceptable these days - will take some shots at Bush on Saturday.

What do you think? Should the artists stay on topic (debt relief for Africa), or should they voice their issues with Iraq as well?