We had heard rumors when we first landed in Philly that Bruce Springsteen had been booked as a surprise, post-Stevie Wonder Live 8 guest. He didn't show, but that doesn't mean he wasn't playing for charity. Apparently some time last week, The Boss was flying back to the US from a series of European shows when his plane stopped at Iceland's Keflavik International Airport to refuel. According to an AP story, Springsteen then "strolled into the terminal with his acoustic guitar and played a six-song set for the airport's overnight shift", including "Dancing in the Dark" and "I'm on Fire." I wonder what if P. Diddy has such an excuse?Springsteen skips Live 8 for Iceland
We had heard rumors when we first landed in Philly that Bruce Springsteen had been booked as a surprise, post-Stevie Wonder Live 8 guest. He didn't show, but that doesn't mean he wasn't playing for charity. Apparently some time last week, The Boss was flying back to the US from a series of European shows when his plane stopped at Iceland's Keflavik International Airport to refuel. According to an AP story, Springsteen then "strolled into the terminal with his acoustic guitar and played a six-song set for the airport's overnight shift", including "Dancing in the Dark" and "I'm on Fire." I wonder what if P. Diddy has such an excuse?AOL Rebroadcasting Live 8
Whether you're just pissed off about MTV's (lack-of) coverage, or you missed Live 8 altogether, never fear - you can watch six of the concerts in their entirety on AOL.com. Rebroadcasts of the Paris, Rome, Berlin, Philly, London and Canada concerts are showing on seemingly infinite loops; you can also tune into their "Global Feed", which knits together performance highlights from each of the concerts. The only conceivable problem is that you can't skip ahead to the performances you most want to see. I got lucky and tuned into the Berlin feed in the middle of Green Day's performance, just in time to catch their revolution-via-lounge-act version of "We Are the Champions." But every time I press the feeder button on the London show, I seem to get not Madonna, not Stereophonics, not Coldplay featuring Richard Ashcroft, but - you guessed it - Mariah Carey. Damn you Mariah!!!
MTV at LIve 8: All of your anger codified into one comment
This might have been the ultimate anti-MTV comment we recieved during Live 8 yesterday. Brian Myers wrote:
$19.95 Super Scrubber commercial on a concert show supposed to help raise public support for ending world poverty?
$19.95 Super Scrubber commercial on a concert show supposed to help raise public support for ending world poverty?
I'm
probably crazy to think anybody from the broadcast booth will see this,
but please if you see this, and if you give a crap about the issue Live
8 is targeting, stop with the assinine commentary from the lame MTV/VH1
personalities, stop the lame interviews with celebrities who have
nothing better to do that get their face on camera, stop with the
hypocritical commercials, and just show the fu*king music. It's about
the fu*king music you boneheads. People will tune out, and then the
message is lost. Just play the fu*king music, and stop all the other
bullshit.
You said it, not us: MTV/VH1 sucks
Wow. I posted a casual question about MTV and VH1's Live 8 coverage, and the readers responded in droves. The general consensus is that MTV royally screwed up this event. Here are some choice comments:
"I totally agree. The MTV broadcast has been a joke. It's a mesh of random clips of parts of songs of various artists with a bunch of random interviews and talking. And I want even start on the f-ing commercials every 10 mins." -- Kristen
"It seems like everything is highly edited and I'm wondering if the performers were told not to mention the US government" -- Elvis of Dallas
"The MTV and VH1 coverage are identical, and pitiful. The sound quality is very poor, and we are seeing way too much of their "reporters" and such ... They completely ignored Sarah McLachlan and did not broadcast it at all. I'm so disappointed." -- JKL
"The BBC is showing everything! Not a single advertisement in sight! The BBC rules! Great piece of socialism seems to have kicked MTV's commercial arse. :D" -- Wai-Tung Leung
"The U.S. MTV/VH1 coverage is horrible...I wouldn't even consider it coverage. It's a commercial fest padded with their personalities jabbering on about God knows what with the bands playing in the background." -- Denise
"I totally agree. The MTV broadcast has been a joke. It's a mesh of random clips of parts of songs of various artists with a bunch of random interviews and talking. And I want even start on the f-ing commercials every 10 mins." -- Kristen
"It seems like everything is highly edited and I'm wondering if the performers were told not to mention the US government" -- Elvis of Dallas
"The MTV and VH1 coverage are identical, and pitiful. The sound quality is very poor, and we are seeing way too much of their "reporters" and such ... They completely ignored Sarah McLachlan and did not broadcast it at all. I'm so disappointed." -- JKL
"The BBC is showing everything! Not a single advertisement in sight! The BBC rules! Great piece of socialism seems to have kicked MTV's commercial arse. :D" -- Wai-Tung Leung
"The U.S. MTV/VH1 coverage is horrible...I wouldn't even consider it coverage. It's a commercial fest padded with their personalities jabbering on about God knows what with the bands playing in the background." -- Denise
Live 8 Philly - The aftermath
We're still sitting around the Live 8 Philly site - the show ended about an hour ago and we've been waiting for the crowd to disperse. Here's a shot of what the grounds look like - any bets on how long this is going to take to clean up?
Alicia Keys backstage
Alicia Keys signed autographs and spoke to reporters after her set at Live 8 Philly.
Live 8 viewing parties
Matt Dentler has images on his blog from a Live 8 viewing party at Auditorium Shores in Austin. Anybody else hit up a viewing party in their town? What'd you think?
Naomi Watts at Live 8
I caught Naomi Watts coming out of a TV interview and snapped this shot. She's one of a couple of celebrities that don't seem to be here for any professional reason, but are wandering around doing interviews about Live 8 and One.org anyway ... could it be that they actually believe in the cause?
Coldplay & Ashcroft - photographic proof
I found photographic evidence of Richard Ashcroft's London appearance onstage with Coldplay. From the looks of things, he's still rocking the same moves from Glastonbury '93...
Oh, Mariah ... Just stop.
Here in the AOL tent, they've spent the past hour or so broadcasting various feeds from the other Live 8 shows. I actually thought there was some kind of technical problem until I pulled up the AOL Simulcast of the Philly show and saw that Sarah Maclaughlin was onstage. This wasn't really a problem when they were showing highlights from performances by Sting, Elton John and Roxy Music, but for some reason, they showed a good twenty minutes from (or, likely. the entirety of) the London performance of Mariah Carey. People kept walking into the tent, pausing only to look at the video monitors and yawn before walking right out.
How's your Live 8 TV coverage?
A friend watching Live 8 at home on TV just IMed me to say that MTV's coverage has been terrible. I only have access to AOL's video feed here in Philly, but he says they're only showing excerpts of the already all-too-brief sets, and are padding out their coverege with tons of interviews. If you're at home watching, weigh in - how do you feel about the coverage you're watching? What are they doing wrong, and what are they doing right?
Cops love Paula Abdul
Paula Abdul - teeny-tiny and wearing a wacky, too-fancy, almost flamenco-style dress - was walking around back here a little while ago. For some reason, the cops standing around - who have been doing a very thorough job of protecting other celebrities from casual photo-snappers - completely abandoned their posts to have pictures taken with her. After she walked away, the cops stood around and blushed and high-fived one another like giggly schoolboys.
Richard Ashcroft joins Coldplay onstage in London
Caroline Sullivan blogged the London Live 8 show for the Guardian's Culture Vulture. She says Richard Ashcroft came out to duet with Coldplay on a cover of his former band The Verve's only international hit, Bittersweet Symphony. Wow. I don't care for Coldplay, but I was a hug Verve fan, and Ashcroft isn't exactly big on high profile public appearances. I have to dowload the video of that show ...
Def Leppard rocking the VIP tent
Okay, well, not literally - but as soon as the announcer said, "Philadelphia - Def Leppard!", a mini-cheer arose out of the by now heavily-sauced AOL VIP tent crowd. Yesterday, we walked out of our hotel - which is about a mile away from the concert site - as they were doing their soundcheck. Rather than look at a map, we just followed the sounds of "Pour Some Sugar on Me", and they led us straight to the Live 8 stage. Sure, the Def Lep are a little over the hill, but they sound great.
The singer just announced that the official count of attendees here in Philadelphia is "over one million people" - before launching into "Let's Get Rocked." Yea-ah! Their three-song set went by in a flash.
First Luther Vandross Reference of the show
DJ Green Lantern, who spun a couple of records after Jay-Z and Linkin Park's set, just made the day's first shout-out to Luther Vandross, who died yesterday. We expect more mini-eulogies as the night goes on. RIP, Luther.
