Bod Geldof reveals Live 8 details
Paul McCartney and U2, dressed in Sgt Pepper costumes, are due to open next weekend’s Live 8 concerts singing “It was 20 years ago today” – a reference to the Live Aid concert of 1985.
The lyrics were the opening line of the Beatles’ Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band concept album. McCartney will return to the stage in London’s Hyde Park seven hours later to end the show by leading an ensemble rendition of The Long and Winding Road, a rallying call for people to travel to Edinburgh to put pressure on the G8 summit starting four days later.
Bob Geldof, who has organised a series of eight concerts on four continents ahead of the summit at Gleneagles, revealed details of the running order over dinner in Rome last week. “Paul McCartney will end it. He’ll sing The Long and Winding Road, and for us it’s the symbol of this road, the road which will lead us to the G8.”
Yesterday a spokesman for the organisers of Live 8 confirmed the Sgt Pepper-led start to the worldwide show as Geldof appeared on stage at Glastonbury to appeal for support.
“It was 20 years ago that the media said Live Aid was the greatest show on earth. They were right then but wrong now,” said Geldof’s spokesman. “Over 140 television networks will broadcast Live 8.”
Geldof turned down the chance of inviting Michael Jackson to top the bill of the American version of Live 8 less than three weeks after his acquittal on child sex charges. Bono, U2’s singer and Geldof’s ally in the campaign to cancel the debts of Third World countries, was keen on the idea. But Geldof said: “Musically he (Jackson) is a genius; humanely, I believe he is innocent. But he has been through a terrible time. He’s strained and tired. He needs tranquillity, not to return under the spotlights in an event like this.”
He also revealed that Pink Floyd, reunited with founder member Roger Waters for the first time in more than 20 years, will play three songs: Breathe, Comfortably Numb and Wish You Were Here.
Both U2 and Coldplay, Live 8’s other headline act, have other concerts the same evening – U2 in Vienna and Coldplay in Glasgow – which is adding to the logistical problem of staging 25 acts in seven hours at Hyde Park.
Madonna had been rehearsing a duet with Sting, Geldof said, but the planned performance has since been dropped. Instead Sting is believed to be using Spitting Image-style puppets of Tony Blair, George Bush and other world leaders for a rendition of the Police song Every Breath You Take – with the words changed to “We’ll be watching you”.
From The Times