Live 8 (2005)

You won't be disappointed!

That was an excellent one.

Don't listen to the negative reviews

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

I won't say this is worthy of a higher rating than "7" because many of the artists/performers, etc., were not to my liking. That said, a lot of them were great.Pink Floyd made a historic return to the stage and stole the show. Roger's voice may not be at its best, but in terms of pure presence, they were ace! Velvet Revolver, sadly, was less impressive; the first live performance of theirs that I had seen, and I was fairly underwhelmed. Slash looked bloated and bored, Scott Weiland's vocals were fair at best, and their song selection was questionable (the opening line of "Do It for the Kids" contains a strong expletive, and the entire point of the song is to encourage sex). I'm not anti-swearing/sex, but the idea of them performing this show in front of millions of families across the nation was a bit disappointing. I think they could have instead played something more relevant and melodic.To be entirely honest I couldn't care less about most of the other performers. REM was pretty dull and all the solo artists were grating MTV generation no-talent hacks.Pretty colossal production. I was only 20 miles from Hyde Park, and looking back in retrospect I wish I had gone down to see the concert if only to catch a glimpse of what may possibly be the last Pink Floyd performance ever.

For goodness sake! What is wrong with having a concert!? Not everyone can rush off to Africa and administer vital medication to dying children. Not everyone wants to post their leftover food to starving children. This concert was simply a way for everyone (who wanted too) to feel that they have done something positive towards making a change. It was a POSITIVE thing to do. Those of us lucky enough to be at the concert left that evening feeling human. Those who watched it on TV felt the power of that message. We had been forced to get in touch with our emotions, whether that be elation, excitement, empathy, passion.... whatever the emotions we felt, they made us remember what it was like to be human.Reminding us fortunate westerners what it is like to be a real human. And that, my friend, is what i believe is the key to making a change in this very un-human world.

Other than seeing Pink Floyd play together probably for the very last time ever, this whole fiasco was a gigantic waste of time. I'm sorry, I know we all want to believe it was a great event helping people in Africa, that signing petitions online does something (I call this slactivism) but I'm afraid to say it wasn't and they don't.What we have is a bunch of aging and not so aging rockers and pop stars patting themselves on the back and stroking their collective egos by playing for hundreds of thousands of people (live) and millions on TV and the web. Its a great big feel good fest, the musicians get to play for a large crowd, and the audience gets off the hook, they don't have to do anything but watch one of the most fantastic lineups ever. At least when the SARS-AID show in Toronto was going to help Toronto recover from the SARS epidemic. What did this event do? "Raise awareness" they say, well how many people really understand the issues in Africa? I do probably more than most, but I still don't really know why the hell Africa is such bad shape. I don't really know why the AIDS epidemic has hit Africa so hard. Is it just pure poverty? Was is the root cause of this poverty? Is it dictatorships? Foreign debt? That seems to be main focus of guys like Bono, but realistically what how does a concert help this? Do you really think that the leaders of the free world give a damn that bunch of people go together to listen to some music? I'm sorry, call me cynical, I do think music is important and effects our lives in a meaningful way but when I think Geldof has kind of lost his mind. He stands there so proud of himself, but is there any surprise that so many people would watch the most popular musical acts in the world? It could have had nothing to do with Africa, it could have been to celebrate sponges and people still would have shown up.I am sorry, in 1985 it seemed magical, but it's a movie sequel, too polished, quite expected and simply a rehash of what we've already seen.

Sublime...A who's who concert of the past and present music industry featuring Paul McCartney, U2, The Who, Pink Floyd, Madonna, Elton John, Coldplay, Sting, Robbie Williams and REM in 10 different concerts in London, Cornwall, Berlin, Rome, Paris, Ontario, Tokyo, Jo'Burg, Moscow and Philadelphia.Why? For justice! The concerts were designed to raise awareness, (not money), about the catastrophic poverty that exists in our world today, primarily in Africa. This public awareness was raised in order to put pressure on the G8 Leaders who will be meeting in Scotland on July 6-9. Through the huge public support, these leaders will be forced to consider the issues of fair trade, debt relief and aid and hopefully act upon these issues and in doing so, Make Poverty History.A stellar event for a most worthy cause!