Live 8 concert, London

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Live 8 concerts and line-ups

2 July 2005
Hyde Park, London
Château de Versailles, near Paris
Siegessäule, Berlin
Circus Maximus, Rome
Museum of Art, Philadelphia
Park Place, Barrie
Makuhari Messe, Chiba
Mary Fitzgerald Square, Johannesburg
Red Square, Moscow
"Africa Calling", Eden Project

6 July 2005
"Edinburgh 50,000 - The Final Push"

The main Live 8 concert was held at Hyde Park, London, England on 2 July 2005, in front of over 200,000 people. The show's logistics were managed by famed promoter Harvey Goldsmith.

The event is also referred to as "Live 8 London" or "Live 8 UK".

Contents

[edit] Lineup and songs

Coldplay and Richard Ashcroft on stage
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Coldplay and Richard Ashcroft on stage

In order of appearance:

Michael Stipe (front) and Peter Buck (behind) of R.E.M.
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Michael Stipe (front) and Peter Buck (behind) of R.E.M.
Joss Stone
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Joss Stone

¹ Also performing at the Paris show on 2 July 2005

² Also performing at the Edinburgh show on 6 July 2005

³ Guitarist David Gilmour was in Bryan Ferry's band at Live Aid. Pink Floyd (with Roger Waters) had not performed together for 24 years prior to this event; their last live performance being in 1981.

[edit] Performance notes

Live 8 London, Hyde Park
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Live 8 London, Hyde Park

It had been said that McCartney and U2's Bono would be wearing Sgt. Pepper costumes, but, in the event, they were only worn by an anonymous, four-piece French horn section.

Immediately following Travis' performance, Geldof told the audience he "couldn't resist playing on this stage" and played the Boomtown Rats song "I Don't Like Mondays". He had earlier said that he "did not deserve" to play alongside the scheduled acts.

All the songs performed by Sting were sung twenty years before at Live Aid.

Just before introducing Birhan Woldu, Sir Bob Geldof became disgusted of audience members clapping at the classic video shown at Live Aid with the starving Ethiopians. He scowled at the fans, "I don't think we clap that, do we?" resulting in the fans being quiet. The rant was not included on the DVD release but was shown in the television broadcast.

George Michael said in an interview that he had wanted to perform a solo song, but was suffering from a bad head cold.

Some artists, such as Elton John, Coldplay, REM and U2, already had shows planned for July 2, which they performed after their performances at Live 8. Accordingly they were not present for the "Hey Jude" grand finale.

The Who originally planned to do three songs (the two mentioned above plus "Baba O'Riley") but ultimately only performed two on the day. The reason is unknown — it's possible that they were given a three-song timeslot but the length of "Won't Get Fooled Again" used up the remaining time, or that they cut their set short in order to give Pink Floyd sufficient time to play.

Originally expected to close at 9.30pm, the concert over-ran and went on until just after midnight, leaving many in the audience with no means of returning home.

Harvey Goldsmith appeared on stage to thank the audience for their patience with the late-running event, and to make a closing appeal for people to leave slowly, to avoid crushes.

[edit] Backstage

Notable, non-performing personalities backstage and in the audience included:

[edit] Coverage

[edit] Television

The BBC provided full television coverage in the UK, starting on BBC Two from 13:00, and continuing from about 18:15 on BBC One, right up to the end of the concert at midnight. The advertised changeover time was 16:15, disappointing many who had set video recorders accordingly.

The coverage was fronted by talk show host Jonathan Ross, with backstage interviews by Fearne Cotton and Jo Whiley.

350 complaints were made to the BBC about swearing before the 9pm watershed. The BBC apologised, however a spokesman said: "This is nothing, really. If EastEnders starts five minutes late we get close to 500 complaints".

In the US, MTV and VH1 provided intermittent and incomplete live and taped coverage, frequently breaking away mid-song for commercials or commentary by their veejays. This decision drew criticism from numerous viewers who viewed the commentary as being frivolous or inane and would have preferred to see the music acts themselves. However, AOL provided a full webcast of the entire show.

After the criticism of viewers, both VH1 and MTV showed many highlights of the Live 8 concerts on July 9, 2005 for 5 hours each without commercial interruption.

In Australia a highlights show of around 3 hours length was broadcast on the night of the concert, AEST, on free to air Nine Network and full live coverage was broadcast on pay tv.

[edit] Radio

In the UK, there was radio coverage on BBC Radio 1, BBC Radio 2 and several local radio stations.

The Radio 1 coverage was anchored by Chris Moyles and Scott Mills, with interviews by Edith Bowman, Colin Murray, Sara Cox and Vernon Kay. There was alternative coverage on Radio 2, anchored by Chris Evans. Each station focussed on artists who matched the station's playlisting policy and target audience.

Commercial stations that are owned by CN Radio also relayed coverage.

In the US, XM Satellite Radio broadcast the concert in its entirety.

[edit] BBC Big Screens

The BBC also had live coverage on big screens across the UK.

  • Northern Ireland


People who were watching the event in Cardiff were able to watch the event in HDTV on a 17ft wide screen; this is believed to be the first ever live public relay of HD in Europe.

[edit] Online

AOL's music channel included a live video stream. The BBC were also streaming a radio show from the live event over the Internet via BBCi service, alongside various video clips.

[edit] Pre-show rumours

The Spice Girls were originally on the list of performers, but were then removed. Organisers were reported to have stated that "their style of music did not fit in with the serious political message about world poverty the transatlantic event hopes to portray." (Daily Mirror, 31 May 2005). However in response to those claims, Bob Geldof, speaking at a press conference to announce the event said that the Spice Girls may play after all. While the group did not eventually appear (according to Melanie Chisholm because Melanie Brown had other commitments), as a probable joke on the situation, Peter Kay initially introduced The Who as the Spice Girls.

There were rumours that Michael Jackson would join, but Bob Geldof stated that Jackson would not be invited to perform at any of the Live 8 shows.

The surviving members of Led Zeppelin were rumoured to be reuniting with John Bonham's son Jason Bonham on drums for London's Live 8 concert, but they didn't appear.

The Sex Pistols were rumoured to play as a "surprise act", but the performance never happened.

There was high speculation that the finale would consist of Band Aid 20 performing the hit 'Do They Know It's Christmas?', just as the concert in London ended twenty years before at Live Aid.

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