Live8 Insider

Live 8 Quicktime movies for download

Conrad Quilty-Harper — 2005-07-09T09:00:00+00:00

Not that we would promote anything like this, but some guy has uploaded a bunch of Quicktime movies from Live 8 events around the world on his blog. There are literally hundreds of acts available at a pretty decent resolution available for download in your browser or download client. Obviously you shouldn't go over there and have a look, since we definitely don't want you to check them out.

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Part Two - Live 8 Edinburgh: Success?

Conrad Quilty-Harper — 2005-07-08T15:32:32+00:00

The G8 leaders have responded to the mindless terrorist attack on London and the efforts by the millions of campaigners in the Live 8 movement with a stale list of agreements. First of all, the leaders have all agreed to commit to a $50 Billion (US) package with relaxed restrictions on how the money can be used. What they failed to say is that this package had already been agreed upon by the G8 financial ministers a month ago. Not very revolutionary now is it? Secondly, they've made an attempt at setting up a meeting to talk about free trade in Africa. No mentions of actions or commitment, just talk. Thirdly, a repetition of the agreement to cancel African debt. In my opinion, this was a missed opportunity.
What makes this so much more painful is the fact that the musicians have fallen for it. At Edinburgh, Sir Bob stressed the fact that we're in it for the long run; 'This won't be a quick fix.' 'We want long term commitments.' Despite this, Bob is attacking anyone that claims these changes are not substantial. He thinks that in the perspective of the announcement this is a good thing for Africa. Isn't he missing the point? What happens when this issue inevitably falls off the agenda? We can't keep having concerts forever. The G8 missed an opportunity to truly make poverty history. The combined political weight and financial power of those 8 leaders was easily enough to make real long term agreements that would have secured the future of Africa.

The terrorist attacks on London yesterday provided a truly sickening backdrop to the global effort to influence the G8. Mindless violence without demand or direct provocation against innocent and powerless people. Despite the G8 missing such a great opportunity for worldwide agreement on making poverty history, the fact that the leaders made an effort to agree on the issue sent a clear and defiant message against the terrorists.

Before and during the Live 8 concert protesters created tension in Edinburgh as they were cordoned off, preventing them from reaching the center of Edinburgh. The crowd swore at the police and the public, ruining the atmosphere of a peaceful effort to make poverty history. Of course, at any event involving world leaders or big issues, anarchists and thugs will always try to cause trouble. However, I'll never understand the appeal of intimidating police and the general public in the name of personal satisfaction.

An extraordinary sight on an extraordinary day. The police closed off Prince's Street to prevent protesters from reaching the center of Edinburgh.

I arrived in London on the Live 8 coaches around 15 minutes after this bus was blown up by a suspected suicide bomber. The feeling in London was of complete confusion, reports of gas explosions and power surges were flying left and right. The moment when it all became clear was the most disturbing moments of my life. A friend had been watching the news and sent me an SMS advising me not to get on any buses or go near the tube as it's likely that terrorist are attacking London. At the time I was reading the message the coach I was on was passing Edgware road tube station. As I looked out of the window I saw a sea of yellow coats and flashing lights surrounding the entrance to the tube station. However, my experience of the attack is trivial in comparison to anyone that experienced the explosions first hand. My heart goes out to all those affected personally by the mindless attacks in London. The support of the world is behind you all.

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Pink Floyd Live 8 Bittorrents

Jason McCabe Calacanis — 2005-07-08T13:25:23+00:00

The highlight of Live8 for me was Pink Floyd. For the next six weeks you can stream their performance from www.aolmusic.com. The fine folks over there even broke them into tracks for ya: http://music.aol.com/artist/main.adp?tab=songvid&artistid=76669&albumid=0

Now, some folks--and we would never, ever be one of these folks--are downloading mp3 and videos file of the performance by BitTorrent from place like here, here, and here. Or even here, here and here.

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Part One - Live 8 Edinburgh: The Concert

Conrad Quilty-Harper — 2005-07-07T12:00:00+00:00

I can say without doubt that the last 48 hours has contained some of the most fun, most loud and most shocking moments of my life. In part one of the coverage of Live 8 Edinburgh I'll be talking about the journey up to the concert as well as the gig itself. In part two of the coverage I shall be talking about the protests in and around Edinburgh as well as the terrorist attack on London. Included in both is a selection of around 200 photos that had to be cut down to around 20 of the best shots. Hopefully you'll get a good idea of the atmosphere across this extraordinary 48 hours.

The image above of Edinburgh Castle symbolises what the event organisers of Live 8 were trying to promote; old traditions and ignorance replaced with a push to help an economically repressed Africa. The whole of Edinburgh was packed with groups of people involved with the concert or with the protests planned within the city and at the G8 in Gleneagles. Even in London before the coach journey there was a few hundred people queuing around an hour before the coaches even left.

The concert stadium around 2 hours before the singing started was pretty empty with people rushing towards the front area of the gig. The big screens were playing a video of Live Aid highlights right up to the start of the event. If you've ever wanted to know what the 80s was like, that was your chance! As the stadium was started to fill up with a massive variety of people arrived which reflected the diverse line-up. Teen popsters for The Sugababes and aging rockers for Midge Ure and Sir Bob.

A group of people that brought banners signed by hundreds of people to the concert adorned with the message "Make Poverty History". This message was truly the theme for the entire concert, with several of the artists pumping up the crowd by asking "Why are we here?!" evoking screaming of the MPH slogan.

The concert kicked off with the release of thousands of balloons and the arrival of the first act; The Proclaimers. Their legendary song "I'm gonna be" blew away the crowd as spontaneous rythmic clapping and bouncing broke out across the stadium. The predominantly scottish crowd couldn't get enough of the scottish band blasting out "Just to be the man who walks a thoowsand miles!".

Ironically the sun came out as Wet Wet Wet took the stage, ending showers of rain since the early morning. The crowd continued to get more and more involved as the acts got louder and louder.

George Clooney popped in to say a few words about poverty in Africa and reminded the crowd about the G8 summit. Camera flashes around the stadium reached fever pitch as the actor strided around the stage. George has still got it!

In possibly one of the most memorable moments for all involved, the crowd were asked to hold up the white card placed on their seats before the concert. The cards made a massive white band going around the entire stadium extending the white band symbol of the MPH movement. Following this the crowd attempted the click every three seconds to show how easily the deaths of innocent children could pass by as a result of man-made and imposed poverty. Throughout the concert lines were drawn between apartheid and slavery as man made opression from which justice arose eventually. It's this kind of simplicity that is the Live 8's combined strength and weakness. A simple and clear message to end poverty is necessary to bring the maximum possible amount of support behind it. However the trade of keywords about the issue serves to trivialise the efforts of people that have devoted their lives in grass-roots efforts to make poor people's lives better. Chants of "Justice! Justice!" at the concert felt very emotional, but not in a 'motivating you to get up and sort out Africa' kind of way.

It's not possible to one day wake up and make poverty illegal as it was with slavery and apartheid. Poverty is a result of so many factors which won't be fixed purely by debt cancellation and increased aid in some overnight epiphany. However, trying to discuss political issues in a concert of 50,000 would have been impossible and my respect goes out to the singers and actors for wanting to do something about the problem.

The second to last band to play was the popular scottish band Travis. I would have gone to Live 8 Edinburgh had these guys been the only act, that's how good they are. They played the mellow 'Driftwood' and the lively 'Why does it always rain on me?' evoking a sing-along atmosphere for the ten or so minutes they were on stage. The crowd at this point were totally involved; waving lighters and mobile phones in time with the music. This act was surely the highlight for me as Travis are one of my favorite bands. The atmosphere was truly unforgetable! As Travis finished their second song I had to rush off and catch the coach back to London, ending the biggest and most memorable concerts of my life. Check back later for coverage of the events in Edinburgh and London outside of the concert.

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Live8 Setlists

Brian Alvey — 2005-07-06T17:19:57+00:00

I love how AOL Music has this all broken out by city and by artist. It took a second to get used to going through the Philly show in alphabetical order instead of chronological order, but I have already relived some of the highlights from the London, Philadelphia and Toronto shows and I'm looking forward to Berlin, Paris and Rome. I just watched Green Day doing Queen's "We Are The Champions" -- it was surreal.

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Sir Bob Geldof says Hi!

Conrad Quilty-Harper — 2005-07-06T06:14:38+00:00

Ok so this is an absolutely appauling shot, but I managed to get Sir Bob Geldof on camera! After the 12 hour coach journey from London to Edinburgh that around 1000 people took advantage of at a discount rate of £8 a ticket, Bob dropped in to each coach to come and spread the message of 'Make Poverty History'. There was a storm of reporters surrounding him, including film crews and newspaper reporters. It was pretty special to half wake up from a 12 hour journey to be greeted by the organizer of this massive event to end world poverty. Check back later for higher resolution pictures (I left my dedicated camera cable at home!).

The current atmosphere in Edinburgh is one of mild tension, with police cars zooming past Starbucks on Prince's Street (Edinburgh High Street) every five minutes. There are posters everywhere trying to attract people to the Gleneagles protest and we were asked several times whether we would like a £10 ticket to the protest. The Police are literally everywhere and most shops have some form of security at the door, if the shop isn't boarded up. Check out the picture of the poster after the jump.

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Critics rave over AOL's coverage, rant over MTV's

Vince Veneziani — 2005-07-04T19:48:13+00:00

By now we all know that MTV/VH1's coverage of Live8 sucked. Hardcore. All people, critics, and bloggers are letting the world know that AOL did had the best coverage of Live8 hands down. They streamed all the events live and will continue to for the entire summer. There's a great article about it here. Do you agree that AOL ripped MTV a new one? Let us know!

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Elton John sending a message 2 days after Live8

Vince Veneziani — 2005-07-04T17:38:15+00:00

Well for the city of Philadelphia, apparently one huge, life-changing concert wasn't enough. We demand more and somehow got it in the form of Elton John. Just 2 days after Live8 on the 4th of July, Elton John is playing on the same Live8 stage, with the same sound, same screens, etc. A few other performers will be joining him such as Bryan Adams. But Elton is trying to raise awareness of the global AIDS/HIV crisis. So at least both concerts send a message.

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Echoes of Live8 and Bob Marley

Brian Alvey — 2005-07-04T15:43:01+00:00

Two days after Live8, there are a few songs I can't get out of my head. Destiny's Child's "Survivor", Stevie Wonder's "Superstition" and The Black Eyed Peas covering "Get Up, Stand Up" with a couple special guests. When they announced who was joining them, I missed the woman's name and only heard them say Stephen Marley (son of Bob) was joining them. The performance was fantastic and is still ringing in my ears.

Today when I was looking over some of the coverage of Live8 Philly I found out that the woman was Rita Marley, Bob Marley's wife. Wow. She converted to Rasta before he did and was a backup singer in The Wailers. She was also shot in the head in the famous pre-election attack on their home that kept them from playing a free concert to support the Jamaican prime minister. I wish I had heard them more clearly two days ago. What an incredible person to have join you on stage for a Bob Marley song!

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Anyone going to Live 8 Edinburgh?

Conrad Quilty-Harper — 2005-07-04T09:00:00+00:00

Now that the major Live 8 concerts are over, the world's attention is shifting onto the July 6th 'Final Push' concert at the Murrayfield stadium in Edinburgh. The penultimate concert will be coinciding with the meeting of the G8 leaders at Gleneagles. The line-up is considerable, with artists including Annie Lennox, Snow Patrol, Travis, The Corrs, James Brown (Soul Legend!) and um, McFly.

I've managed to acquire a pair of tickets from a friend that won't be able to make the gig (props to Joe!), so I'll be heading up there on Tuesday night with the task of blogging for live8insider. Hopefully I'll be able to bag a backstage pass which will enable me to do live updates from the scene. Otherwise I'll whip out my notebook and put my companion to the task of taking a picture of everything worthy! Then when I get back I'll type it all up and upload the pictures to give you guys an idea of what the gig was like. Now I hope you all understand that WIN bloggers travel in style. So you won't be surprised to hear that I'll be spending 24 hours travelling in one of these. (Picture after the jump.)

That yellow guy gives me the creeps, he's just too happy.

If any of you are heading up to the gig or want to wish me luck on a 24 hour round trip journey, don't hesitate to leave me a comment.

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Springsteen skips Live 8 for Iceland

Karina Longworth — 2005-07-03T16:05:22+00:00

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?

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AOL Rebroadcasting Live 8

Karina Longworth — 2005-07-03T15:15:15+00:00

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!!!

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MTV at LIve 8: All of your anger codified into one comment

Karina Longworth — 2005-07-03T11:32:17+00:00

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?

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.

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Entire Live8 sets available on the web

Vince Veneziani — 2005-07-03T10:55:53+00:00

As Jason told us yesterday, BitTorrents already started going up of Live8 shows that weren't finished yet. Well now that the amazing event has passed, literally every single one is available in one way or another on video; most in the form of BitTorrents. We reccomend checking out here to find some.

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You said it, not us: MTV/VH1 sucks

Karina Longworth — 2005-07-02T21:06:35+00:00

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

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Stevie Wonder closes Live8 Philly

Brian Alvey — 2005-07-02T20:52:14+00:00

Stevie Wonder opened with Masterblaster (Jammin') and was joined by Rob Thomas on Higher Ground, his cover of an old Red Hot Chili Peppers song. Then he did two slow songs I didn't know. I'm told one of them is popular at weddings. Then he did Signed, Sealed, Delivered, I'm Yours and basically let the singer for Maroon 5 take over the vocals. It was better than anything Maroon 5 did and Maroon 5's set was great.

On the next song we were sure we heard Stevie and his backup band dropping the f-bomb about 50 times. Found out later on that the song was called "What The Fuss". Minor disappointment there.

He ended the set with Superstition. He was not joined by Will Smith. He was not joined by Destiny's Child. He did not play harmonica. The only interesting thing I can mention is that Paula Abdul spent the last few songs dancing on stage right. When I saw her there I was really hoping that the grand finale might be Paula Abdul and MC Scat Cat reuniting for Opposites Attract, but that was it. End of show. Good night, Philly.

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Rob Thomas at Live8 Philly

Brian Alvey — 2005-07-02T20:11:41+00:00

Just like in his sound check (photo from that below), Rob Thomas played a bunch of songs off of his new solo album. The one exception today was a slow version of 3AM, probably the biggest hit of Matchbox 20's first album. During the middle of the song -- which was slowed down to funeral speed like the Unplugged version of Layla -- he started singing, "Some people call me the space cowboy. Some call me the gangster of love." The guy next to me said, "I didn't know he wrote that song." Word. This guy writes for everyone!

Only two disappointments: Santana did not come out on stage and join him for their giant hit Smooth and he didn't invite his Matchbox 20 bandmates to come out and share in the big Live8 spotlight. On the bright side, Matchbox 20 did perform at the original Live Aid twenty years ago, so it's not like they haven't had this chance before.

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Live8 Philly wrap up: A lame ending to an amazing day...

Jason McCabe Calacanis — 2005-07-02T20:00:26+00:00

In what was the most anticlimatic end to an epic day ever, Richard Gere introduced Stevie Wonder who did a respectable job. However, when Paula Abdul dancing backstage is the highlight of the closing number you know you got a problem. What about doing an updated We are the world? or The times they are a changin' with the entire lineup? Instead we got a local concert promoter congratulating us for doing a good job (thanks). Oh well, at least we can go watch the Pink Floyd on AOLMusic.com. :-)

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Live 8 Philly - The aftermath

Karina Longworth — 2005-07-02T20:00:24+00:00

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?

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Will Smith gets Jiggy with Philly

Brian Alvey — 2005-07-02T19:51:47+00:00

Will Smith was just listed as a presenter, but our early morning whiteboard had him down as a performer and perform he did. He came out with Gettin' Jiggy Wit It and followed that up with his latest hit Switch, where he talks about people forgetting that this movie star started out as a rap star.

Then he asked if his hometown Philly crowd had any true fans in it. It did. He sang the opening line to Fresh Prince of Bel Air and the audience took over for just about the entire song. It was a trip back in time. He ended it with Summertime and a giant hug and photo op for DJ Jazzy Jeff and himself.

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