Live 8 Rant And Line Up

By londonist_mark Last edited 225 months ago
Live 8 Rant And Line Up
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And so is came to pass that the Lord looked upon the world and saw that there was still much pain and suffering as a result of smug greedy Western governments shafting their poorer cousins in a most unrighteous manner. And he saw that despite having made an almighty fuss back in '85 nothing had really changed. And he was mighty pissed.

Therefore it came to pass that the Lord did conceive of another mighty festival, which would take place in London and across the world on July 2nd 2005. All could party in the name of justice for all the peoples of the world and he did sayeth unto the press:

If anyone is not going to come to our party – and it’s going to be one hell of a party – they can fuck right off!

We will not tolerate the further pain of the poor while we have the financial means and moral means to prevent it. The boys and girls with guitars will finally get to turn the world on its axis. What we started 20 years ago is coming to a political point in a few weeks. What we do next is seriously, properly, historically and politically important

And he has a point. A VERY VERY GOOD point.

So remember this (rant starts now). It's not about what you think about Dido sharing a stage with Keane. It's not about whether or not you detested the Band Aid 2 single. It's not about whether or not you believe most Third World Governments are more corrupt than their Western counterparts and spend all their aid on the guns we sell them on the sly anyway(let's face it, it's a close run race). It's not about whether or not you believe that music can change the world. It's about trying to find a collective humanity once again in a world that has stuffed it's head 'ostrich-like' up its sandy arse.

What ultimately matters about the Live 8 extravaganza, and let's not forget this at any time, is that it's intention is to draw attention to the plight of the needless suffering and death of millions upon millions of the world's poor every year. And in doing so, maybe, just maybe, to start to do something about it. Naive, definitely; insane, probably; a pipe dream, possibly. Wrong, never. The words charity and musician may be a cynic's wet dream but the longer we sit on the laps of the cynics, the worse it gets.

You don't have to go. You don't have to watch it. You can even leave the country for the day and sit in a lead-lined room so you're guaranteed to miss Sting. Just as long as you don't ignore the message.

So what more is there to say other than if you want to know the line up, details and places then it's over the jump you go.

Tickets for the Hyde Park show will be free and available through a 'text lottery' on June 6. Details will no doubt be announced. Pretty soon we'd guess.

With more name still to be added, and still the possibility of a Spice Girls reunion, venues and artists confirmed so far are:

London

* Coldplay

* The Killers

* Velvet Revolver

* Bob Geldof

* The Cure

* Mariah Carey

* Dido

* Keane

* Snow Patrol

* Elton John

* Annie Lennox

* Madonna

* Paul McCartney

* Razorlight

* Snoop Dogg

* Sting

* U2

* Joss Stone

* Stereophonics

* REM

* Scissor Sisters

* Muse

* Robbie Williams

Philadelphia

* Will Smith

* Bon Jovi

* The Dave Matthews Band

* Stevie Wonder

* Jay-Z

* Puff Daddy

* Il Divo

* Maroon 5

* Rob Thomas

* Keith Urban

* 50 Cent

* Kaiser Chiefs

Rome

* Faith Hill

* Tim McGraw

* Duran Duran

* Jovan Otti

* Nek

* Laura Pausini

* Vasco Rossi

* Zucchero

Berlin

* A-Ha

* Crosby, Stills and Nash

* Lauryn Hill

* Brian Wilson

* Bap

* Die Toten Hosen

* Peter Maffay

Paris

* Jamiroquai

* Placebo

* Youssou N'Dour

* Andrea Docelli

* Craig David

* Calo Gero

* Kyo

* Yannick Noah

* Axelle Red

* Johnny Halliday

Last Updated 01 June 2005