Hey
just heard about live 8 it sounds amazing!
So any of you hoping to go?
And does anyone know the lineup?
so far i have heard (not guarantess) Muse, coldplay and keane will be there

By the way the tickets line is open 8 am monday and that is when you get the number to text

Fingers crossed for a Spice Girls reunion

I thought we finally got rid of the spice girls.

Alas no. Although it would be nice if they could raise a few bob for charity - but I find it highly amusing that they are getting frozen out to make way for more talented people.

I don't have a mobile so I'm screwed to text the special number. But it sounds great. I think you'd be hard pushed not to be part of it anyway as it'll be on TV, radio and online worldwide.

Wife Of Rolex

Whilst i think that this will be a great gig I have one concern ... why make it free? I understand that its about raising pressure and awareness rather than money, but pressure/lobby groups need money. Surely it would be better to use the money to constructively push the point to the various country leaders?

Also, and this is my main point, by making it a "free" event (apart from the £1.50 cost of the text, which I admit will raise a certain amount of money but will probably just cover costs) it becomes open to EVERYONE ... which may seem like a good thing, but a number of people will think "oh, what a great lineup of musical talent, it sounds like a great day - I want to go to that" rather than "what a brilliant cause, I want to support it AND i'll be lucky enough to see some top acts at the same time".

I just think that they will be better off having people who care about the cause first and want a good gig second.

Yes, the PR people will turn round on the day and say "we have millions of people around the world turning up for these five simaltaneous live concerts all to voice their concern against world poverty ... how can the G8 leaders (and others) ignore these people?!" ... but those very same leaders won't have to take it seriously as I feel a large proportion (possibly majority) won't actually be all that bothered about cutting 3rd world debt and the likes.

I wish Bob et al all the best with their plans ... but I'm not convinced it will have much effect, or that they are going about it the right way.

The PR people may also say: "and check out the exposure the bands and acts we signed are getting. People who never heard of them half the world away may now buy their albums. And who knows, if enough of that happens, maybe they'll end up touring more. KER-CHING!"

Bored of it already. Noble idea but I'm cynical about the impact it will have on world leaders. Time and again those wielding the power have shown they will serve their own interests rather than that of the majority, tossing a few token gestures to quiet the baying of the hungry hounds of reform. Is another opportunity for some frankly quite uninspiring "artistes" to entertain the masses (badly) and shout some ill conceived soundbites about an issue they don't really understand, really the way to win the hearts and minds of those who matter? I think not. As long as the majority of human life is poorly educated and hooked on religion, we'll not see a poverty free planet. Greed and the ability to get away with being greedy thrives under such conditions.

Boring, dull, shitty line up revealed.

wow - the berlin lineup looks scintillating!!!

How come London gets the punishment of Mariah Carey?

Im also of the cynical view Im afraid......

Px

About three maybe four bands I could cope with watching. I've just worked out what the plan to raise money is. While the concert is on they take pledges from everyone. The more money collected, the more of these pop retards are gunned down by a crack squad of paramilitaries. Their fortunes are then distributed between the worlds poor.
Works for me.

cos she remains popular everywhere else apart from the UK ... so continuously craves more exposure over here!!

Coldplay, Dido, Keane, the Stereophonics and Joss Stone all on the same bill? I think I'll wear a beige cardigan whilst drinking luke-warm tea from a thermos flask, sitting on a deckchair in the drizzle next to my Morris Marina - just to add to the excitement.

Don't knock the Morris Marina! I have many happy memories. What about an Austin Montego instead?

Ah - the Morris Marina - Leyland's answer to the Ford Cortina. An answer about as effective as farting on Mastermind. I could take a Montego but then I'd have to have my tea on the hard-shoulder instead. Perhaps a Nissan Sunny would be better. Hmm. I seem to have strayed a little.


Anyway, yes. My point was, I think, that I find these people somewhat dull. I'd rather go to Berlin and watch A-ha.

This turned out to be untrue. Unfortunately.


I will definitely be entering to win tickets but I can't find anybody to come with me as of yet because apparently it's gonna be sixteen hours and I'm the only one who can go that long without peeing.

Some media reports say Prince will be performing. Anybody have any more info on this?

Ah, not enough expletives and drug references for all you hardcore alternatives, eh?

It is a charity gig, during the day, which is going to be watched by children all over the World.

Nice!

So, we should suspend our critical faculties for charity?

The line up is full of mediocre, middle of the road wank - what the fuck has that got to do with me being 'hardcore and alternative'? You're talking out yer arse.

It's shit, but enough people will disagree with me to make it a success, so that's ok - I can carry on being curmudgeonly in the corner.

This is my point. Middle of the road doesn't have to be bad.

Why should middle of the road always be considered bad?

So they want to make some money? More power to 'em. It's better than sitting around with half the money, an over-inflated ego and an unnecessary sense of self-importance because you think you're being political and alternative. It's so contrived.

It really pisses me off when people turn on bands because they're popular. I know people who have been fans of a certain band, then the band got popular and they hate them because they're too popular. WTF is up with that? It's the same band.

You're missing the point - it's nothing to do with being political or alternative - it's about having some sort of innovation or creativity, not just churning out the same old radio friendly pap time after time - there's nowt wrong with success.

What's wrong with radio friendly if it sounds good?

Why does everything have to be x-rated?

FFS!

It doesn't have to be x-rated - are SFA x-rated (apart from TMDGAF)? Are Elbow x-rated? Are Doves x-rated? Are the Chemical Brothers x-rated? Are Bloc Party x-rated? Are etc etc blah blah... you get the idea, or maybe you don't - you don't seem to have done so yet.

I'm talking about the type of music such as produced by Coldplay, Keane, Travis, Embrace, Dido which all melts into one meaningless dirge - the cynical zeitgeist jumping of Madonna - the unbelievably bland 'soul' stylings of Joss Stone - this is not exciting music, it's dull, mediocre and doesn't lift the heart like music should.

Im my opinion.

I would agree with this almost completely, apart from Joss Stone. It's nice to see somebody at least attempting to make some soul music. And Keane aren't as bad as Coldplay or Travis, who I actually thought were the same bad for a long, long time.

But not the whole line-up is crap and radio friendly doesn't always mean crap.

Oasis, who were tipped to perform, will not be due to prior commitments. Which is a shame really, especially considering other performers have concerts etc around the same time and are still making "Live 8".

That's because Oasis are cunts as well as being shite.

So we can agree on something at least.

i've always given ms stone the benefit of the doubt - yes, she's a cheeky chipmunk faced devon girl, what can she know about soul, etc, but she does have a great voice. but i saw her new single on popworld this morning and it made me mad!

its taken the hook and melody from Young Holt Unlimited's 'Soulful Strut', covered by Barbara Acklin as 'Am I The Same Girl' - one of my favourite tunes, anyone who gets a cd from me gets this as the last tune. its the traditional end-of-night soul stormer and a belter of a tune.

and they haven't covered it - no, that would be too obvious - they've just blatantly nicked the tune and stuck it in the middle of a dull dull dull pop / soul hybrid nonsense.

and it perfectly illustrates what sfa is saying. its fucking dull! why take a great tune and dilute it, take all the character and charm out of it, leaving just a piss poor paper thin copy? why find the blandest artists and stick 'em on stage all day? why not do something exciting? why not try something genuinely new and ground breaking? what is this, Capital Party in The Park? its not as if no-ones going to turn up is it?

and i love the fact that the shit has hit the fan over the lack of black or african acts. how patronising. geldof said he just opened his address book and phoned people he knew - fuck me, remind me never to go to a dinner party at his place.

It would appear so

Its a nice sentiment and all from Bob but i don't reckon its a going to do a great deal of good. Africa has all the resources it needs but is being driven into the ground by corrupt dictatorships. Look at whats happening in Zimbabwe for example. Even 5 years ago Zimbawe had enough food to last it. Since Mugabe destroyed the farms and rigged the elections the country is heading straight into a man made disaster. Any food releif that is provided will be controlled soley by the Mugabe government which I think stinks. I think a wholesale change on the way people treat Africa is needed. We need to get tougher with the dictatorships and corruption that is destroying Africa rather than holding pop concerts to somehow ease our middle class guilt.

I think Bob really cares and Tony Blair does seem to have taken his message on board and is discussing debt relief with Captain Spaz.

The African leaders are a huge problem.

Last year Tanzania got $30 million wiped off their debt. The same week their president bought a $30 million jet.

I'm sure that if debt relief is provided something will be worked out to stop this from happening, though, or at least take precautions against this happening.

According to Dubya it's not within the US budget at this time.

In other words, they need a constant income from third world countries to pay for them to bomb the shit out of other third world countries.

Someone give the guy another pretzel.

I think since it's a no-brainer that Captain Spaz is going to turn any request like this down flat, it costs Blair nothing to bring it on board, and he's able to spin this into a nice bit of PR for himself.

I would also add that, nice as it may be to see young ms stone, she is the porridge held before you that obscures your view of the shreddies. Thus, being unaware that a superior product is available, you consume the porridge. If you were to look a bit harder than Look In magazine, I've no doubt you could find some truly spectacular soul artists doing something wonderful and original and completely the antithesis of the anodyne corporate vision of nu-white girl soul that Ms Stone has been peddled as.

Agreed. The proles have been fed Big Macs for so long that they've grown accustomed to them and no longer hanker after the delight of a nice fillet steak.

Well the Americans do pay out more cash than any other nations. There are plenty of rich nations such as Saudi Arabia doing bugger all for anybody. If all the moneys going to do is make African dictators richer then whats the point. You're probably better off finding the name of a poor farmer in Africa or whatever and sending them cash directly. Cut out the middleman so to speak.

Yes, America does pay more to Africa in terms of the actual amount but as a percentage of GDP it actually pays abot 0.15%, very little in comparison to other nations. I read somewhere that they paid about $10 billion in aid to Africa over the same period that they paid $105 Billion on the invasion of Iraq. If that's true then that is quite a distinct definition of priorities. Agreed about many other rich nations doing little or nothing to help but that's not really a good excuse for evading commiting to help. You wouldn't walk past a person bleeding to death on the pavement just because other people were ignoring them. Well, you might, I don't want to speak on your behalf. I wouldn't.

Radiohead aren't doing Live8 because Jonny Greenwood's wife just had a baby... apparently. I think it is just an excuse to retain credibility though - and who can blame them.

America gives the least aid in terms of GDP % out of all the industrialised nations in the world. Which, considering they are also the richest nation in the world, is a huge indictment on their commitment to positive change.

Woo-Hoo! I just heard that Muse are playing

Geldof has Snoop in his address book?

If he does, I may have to start referring to him as the G-unit, not matter how much respect I have for him.


Though, maybe someone else in the music industry has the D-O-Dubble-G'z-es number. Like, record company people. And maybe Geldof has one or two of their numbers.

That's debatable.

Bah-zing





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Pink Floyd have reformed with Roger Waters and are now playing at Live 8!

Full story here

Just incase anyone's interested, I have it on good authority from a friend in high places that the Canadian live 8 has been approved and we'll have a concert in Ottawa. Yeah!

No way, I will finally be able to see pink floyd playing live, you've just made my day.

I got tickets Kickass!