I bumped into three of the Kaiser Chiefs, decked out in their Clockwork Orange finest, immediately after they finished their set. I asked if I could take a picture, and one of them said, "Sure, if you help me open my beer." So I handed him my bottle of Perrier to wrangle his non-twist-off.
Live 8 organizer bob Geldof just took the stage in London to introduce a young African woman whose life was saved by monies accrued by the original Live Aid. A picture of her from 20 years ago was shown on the monitor, as Geldof explained that before Live Aid, she was given just days to live. "That young woman is here tonight," Geldof said, and brought her out. She gave a speech in her language, which was translated loosely as, "Africa thanks you." "Don't let them tell you this doesn't work," said Geldof. "You work." Then he introduced Madonna...
As we were walking around backstage, we snuck into the tail-end of a photo-op with Richie Sambora, fresh off the stage from Bon Jovi's set. In this short audio clip, he talks about the political issues behind Live 8 and rush of playing for millions of people. More pictures after the jump.
There's Natalie Portman, looking suitably serious with her head still shaved for her role in V for Vendetta. She gave a short speech about poverty and introduced "one of our most inspiring bands", Coldplay.
In the Press Tent (above) they're handing out two books, produced by One.org. The larger one is designed to brief us on the issues at hand here via essays, news clippings, and letters from celebrities like Brad Pitt - essentially, Live8 for Dummies. The second book is pocket-sized, and consists only of tastefully matte B & W photographs like Cameron Diaz, Kate Hudson and P. Diddy, posed with the One armband. More photos of both books after the jump.
The AOL tent is starting to fill up. No VIPs yet, but I thought I'd post some shots of the attractions, including the very helpful tech guys, T.C. and Special Fred. Here's your blogosphere shout-out, guys - enjoy it. More pictures after the jump.
Of course Green Day opened their Berlin set with "American Idiot" - and just like I predicted, they're setting the pace in the bordering-on-inappropriate politcal aggression sweepstakes. "This next song is a call to all the f*cking politicians ... this song is called 'Holiday!!!'" shouts frontman Billy Joe (who is aging very, very well for someone
who's been a punk rocker for almost 20 years - I love the post-Robert
Smith look he's got going on).
They are such a good live band - even a couple of industry types here in the posh AOL tent are nearly pogoing. "I want you to sing so loud that everyone hears you all over the f*cking world,"he says. "Regardless of the powers that we are, I want you to remember one thing: you are the leaders, you have the power, don't let these fucking politicians dicatate your lives, all right! They fittingly close with a cover of Queen's "We are the Champions." Three punk rockers from Berekely taking over on the world stage for Fredie Mercury? Yeah, I'm all about it.
I'm inside the AOL VIP tent right now, watching the live feed from Duran Duran's performance in Rome. "20 years ago," Simon Le Bon says, after finishing "Ordinary World", "we thought maybe we were going to save the world. We sang this song. Now, we have a second chance, and we're going to play it again." They then launched into "Save a Prayer", a song that I always interpreted as being pretty much as political as Duran Duran ever got. Simon looks a little bloated, but the band sounds great. I actually think it's a great idea to invite back the original Live Aid bands, regardless of their current, um, popularity. Now they're doing "Wild Boys", and Simon's still got the arm movements from the video down. Fantastic.
I just walked across the Live 8 Philly stage with a gaggle of wristbands in one hand and a bacon sandwich from the catering tent in the other. We've set up shop literally behind the stage - t-minus 4 hours and counting ...
Here's some not-great-quality audio from Rob Thomas' soundcheck. I recorded it with the on-board mic of my iRiver 720 as a test. Lesson learned - next time I'll use an external mic!
They've just released exact start times for each of the confirmed 16 acts playing Live 8 tomorrow here in Philadelphia, and thank god, because now I know exactly how to plan my day. The good news is that some of these sets aren't more than 5 or 6 minutes long - nothing against Jars of Clay, but I'm definitely in favor of limiting their stage time to leave more room for Jay-Z. The bad news? Some of the sets are only 5 or 6 minutes long. Even if they're just feeding it in via video from Berlin, I'd like to see more than just a glimpse of Green Day, who are not only musically the most interesting act (for me, at least), but they're also on the shortlist of artists who might take risks when it comes to delivering those politcal soundbites.
Check out the full schedule for the Philly show, which is set to run from 12 noon to 6pm tomorrow at the Art Museum on Benjamin Franklin Parkway:
12:04 -- Paul McCartney & U2 Live from London 12:14 -- Black Eyed Peas 12:33 -- Bon Jovi 12:54 -- Madonna Live from London 1:00 -- Destiny's Child 1:16 -- Kanye West 1:30 -- Will Smith 1:50 -- Coldplay Live from London 1:56 -- Toby Keith 2:13 -- Dave Matthews Band 2:40 -- Alicia Keys 2:52 -- Def Leppard 3:10 -- Linkin Park and Jay-Z 3:50 -- Tim McGraw Live from Rome 3:56 -- Sarah McLachlan 4:11 -- Maroon 5 4:28 -- Green Day Live from Berlin 4:34 -- Keith Urban 4:48 -- Jars of Clay 4:56 -- Pink Floyd Live from London 5:00 -- Rob Thomas 5:21 -- Stevie Wonder
Oddjack has a mostly-cheeky list of odds on Live 8 (example: odds
that someone'll use the pick up line, 'How’d you like to relieve the
African debt in my pants?' are 1 to 5), but this one raises an
interesting issue: odds that "Spin will marginalize the event with a Chuck Klosterman column and complete lack of coverage" are 5 to 1.
So
far, it seems like Live 8 has been treated by MSM as a political event
(as it should be), and a celebrity spectacle (which it clearly is). But
is it also a major moment in the music industry? The London line-up is
really pretty spectacular - if the Pink Floyd reunion wasn't good
enough, I don't think one can underestimate the weirdness potential of
Mariah Carey and the Who appearing on the same stage. But the other
lineups aren't exactly, uh, revolutionarily well-curated. How will the
snobby music magazines react?
Bob Geldof and friends have promised that each Live 8 concert will include a few "special surprise guests". Like, how special? Here are some of the rumors floating around, just to (maybe) ruin the surprise:
NME reports that ex-Libertine, current Babyshambles frontman and Kate Moss arm-candy Pete Doherty will join Elton John onstage in London. "A friend of Pete's" says that it's up to the Live 8 organisers to confirm.
The Sex Pistols will NOT reform for the London show, and John[ny] "Rotten" Lydon is offended at the mere suggestion: "if they’re gonna lie about the bands that are playing, how do we know the money is going where they say it is…”.
Rumors are swirling that Green Day are going to travel from concert to concert on Saturday, but they've only been confirmed for the Berlin show.
Big events like Live 8 can be daunting, especially for out-of-towners with no previous knowlege of the host city (like - cough, cough - me). WPVI.com, the website for the local ABC-TV station, has a great guide to all the little logistical details that often trip me up - from where to park (not within the closed-off mile around the concert site) to what to bring (no umbrellas, no booze). And here's a couple of fun facts: not only is the fire department going to tap into water lines along the Benjamin Franklin Parkway to create a bevy of temporary water fountains, but officials are also planning to provide up to 400 portable toilets and "several hundred extra trash cans" to deal with all manner of waste.
They've just released exact start times for each of the confirmed 16 acts playing Live 8 tomorrow here in Philadelphia, and thank god, because now I know exactly how to plan my day. The good news is that some of these sets aren't more than 5 or 6 minutes long - nothing against Jars of Clay, but I'm definitely in favor of limiting their stage time to leave more room for Jay-Z. The bad news? Some of the sets are only 5 or 6 minutes long. Even if they're just feeding it in via video from Berlin, I'd like to see more than just a glimpse of Green Day, who are not only musically the most interesting act (for me, at least), but they're also on the shortlist of artists who might take risks when it comes to delivering those politcal soundbites. 
Bob Geldof and friends have promised that each Live 8 concert will include a few "special surprise guests". Like, how special? Here are some of the rumors floating around, just to (maybe) ruin the surprise:
