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So now all the fuss has died down can we all get a bit of perspective about the “greatest day in history”? From a political and ideological stand point you cannot fault the aims behind Live 8, but you sure as hell can fault the execution. The line up was a queasy mixture of over inflated egos and bizarre conundrums. I can only assume UB40 appeared as some sort of token nod towards multi cultural Britain, given that the much vaunted criticism of the lack of black artists was patently justified. And am I the only one a little sick of being cajoled by multi millionaires who could solvemore… third world debt on their own (Bono, McCartney, Sting, Elton spring most readily to mind) on how to act and how to contribute? I realise that raising awareness was more the aim of Live 8, but Elton John probably spends more on flowers in a week than I earn in a year. Some of the pronouncements from the stage were truly embarrassing and showed the tenuous grasp some of the artists have on the African situation. Miss Dynamite may have been right about the past rape and exploitation of the third world but err isn’t it African despot’s and corruption which has filtered much of the three trillion dollars in aid given to that unfortunate continent? Platitudes and self congratulatory gruel dribbled unapologetically off the stage all day and some of the artists were unable to hold their colossal ego’s in check even for the brief 15 minute slot allotted to them with the awful Mariah Carey and king narcissist Robbie Williams the worst. Some naughty artists had to be potty mouthed which with Snoop Dog was no surprise, but with mother of two, or is it three? Madonna was more so, but personally I couldn’t give a f*** about that. The really galling thing was hearing empirical audience tales of “The Golden Mile”., a fenced off area in the middle of the arena where all the celebs could schoomze blissfully free of having to slum with the common proles who constituted the bulk of the audience. It seems a touch disingenuous to have this infuriating symbol of the haves and have nots at a concert purporting to aid the eradication of such division. There were apocryphal tales of people being unable to eat or drink for 12 hours ( Was this so they could feel real empathy with the daily plight of the worlds poor in which case why wasn’t it extended to the artists) and of crowd ructions at the back due to lack of space. What undoubtedly did occur was the dispensing of goodie bags to all the acts ( Estimates of their worth varies from £1000-7000 ) a gesture of such gob smacking thoughtlessness given the concerts aim that I’m surprised there wasn’t a demonstration at the actual gig. Politics aside, what of the music. Well to this reviewers ears it was mostly derisory fare. Madonna was great and had clearly made an effort, which was more than could be said of the pathetic Pete Doherty who seemed more interested in keeping his silly hat on than investing his version of “Children of the Revolution” with anything resembling musical talent, like a decent voice or a tune. U2 despite Bono, s breathtaking pomposity were fine, and I enjoyed Richard Ashcrofts cameo of “Bitter Sweet Symphony “with Coldplay who otherwise were as dull as their many detractors say they are. R.E.M. are always worth seeing but played a deeply conservative set while new kids on the block Razorlight made too obvious a play for that special Live 8 moment. Some acts were out of their depth - Snow Patrol - some are just awful always- Mariah Carey, UB40 , Dido( though her duet with Youssou N,Dour was surprisingly good)- some performed well but I just don’t like their music - Joss Stone, Annie Lennox, The Killers, Sting -some were compelling for one reason or another - The Scissor Sisters ramped up the energy but made the schoolboy error of playing a new song , Velvet Revolvers bilious mix of turgid metal and camp theatrics was fascinating in a warped way, and Robbie Williams had the crowd in the palm of his hand and then got them to sing half his set , mostly the high notes . His habit of shouting “Are you with me?” was especially annoying, as if he in his deluded sense of his own worth thought the whole event was about his set. For me the unquestionable highlights were The Who and Pink Floyd .Oh and the incensed roadie’s reaction to Peter Kay calling him “Charlie Drake”. The words “f*** off “have rarely been uttered with such feeling or in front of so many. The American concert line up was truly risible with only the spiky Kaiser Chiefs, Stevie Wonder and the affable Will Smith supplying any true energy or inspiration. But was Live 8 about the music? Not really. It was about raising awareness, which it did for about a week, then we all forgot about it and carried on as normal. Including me. Once again like at Live Aid the people to really benefit were the artists themselves who saw sales of their music rocket. I wonder how many of there selfless artists will have forgone their slice of this extra income to contribute to the cause. I know Pink Floyd did….. The only change Live 8 seems to have brought about despite its sincere and laudable intentions as far as I can tell is the swelling of some already rich people’s bank balances. Not much of a legacy for the greatest day in history.

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Category:

Movies > Films

Case Type:

DVD

Release Type:

Retail

Language:

English

Format:

Full Screen

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Cover Info:

Title:

Live 8 (2005) FS R0 Retail DVD

Part:

Front

Dimensions:

1597 x 1000 px

Size:

395 KB

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Report a Problem Wrong Cover Duplicate Image Bad Quality Wrong Info

08/08/07 by flmostasso

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