He said it would never happen but at 2pm today, Sir Bob Geldof will officially announce that a second Live Aid will take place on Saturday July 2, with simultaneous concerts in London, Philadelphia and several other locations around the world.

Until recently, Geldof has dismissed any suggestion that there could be a follow-up to his ground-breaking 1985 charity concerts, describing the idea as a "disaster", threatening legal action against anyone who attempted to appropriate the Live Aid trademark and insisting: "I wouldn't do it and I can't see a point to it."


The Spice Girls will reform especially for the occasion

The arguments of global debt campaigners, including U2's Bono and Coldplay's Chris Martin, have evidently helped change his mind. Twenty years after the original, a sequel has been approved. It will not, however, be billed as Live Aid II. Instead, it will be Live 8. Its focus is the G8 Summit of world leaders in Edinburgh the following week, July 6-8. Aligning itself with the Make Poverty History campaign, this time around the primary intention is not to raise money, but raise awareness.

"We'll have all the biggest names we can find," Geldof said at the Ivor Novello award ceremony last Thursday. "But it's not just about big names, it's about making a point. What we do in the next five weeks is seriously, properly, historically, politically important."

The showpiece events will take place in Hyde Park in London (replacing the annual Capital FM Party in the Park event in aid of The Prince's Trust) and at an undisclosed location in Philadelphia (chosen for its city-scape backdrop, after mooted venues in New York and Washington fell through).

There are rumours of simultaneous events being staged around the world, including in Scotland, France, Germany and South Africa.

The line-up was being worked out in a series of increasingly frantic phone calls over the past few weeks, but is likely to include (in Britain) Paul McCartney, the Rolling Stones, U2, Oasis, Madonna, Robbie Williams, Coldplay, Sting, Annie Lennox and Joss Stone; and (in the US) Eminem, Usher, Stevie Wonder, Mariah Carey and Prince.

The Spice Girls will reform for the occasion and there is also a strong possibility that the classic line-up of Pink Floyd, featuring estranged songwriter and bassist Roger Waters, will put aside their differences in the name of a good cause. Audience tickets (in Britain at least) are likely to be allocated by lottery. There will be about 100,000 tickets in the UK and another 100,000 in the US, with a potential television audience of 1.5 billion.

U2 will open the event in Hyde Park before jetting off to a pre-arranged concert in Vienna. "We are looking forward to it. We definitely want to be a part of it," said bassist Adam Clayton at a U2 concert in Boston last week, expressing some disappointment that, due to a scheduling conflict, they could not play a larger role.

According to Bono, who has been a prime mover behind the scenes, the whole event has been a nightmare to put together. "Geldof has been telling me no for two years and only finally agreed to it six weeks ago. He has really turned my world upside down. With U2 on tour and my lobbying work, I am already scheduled to within an inch of my life. Now I have to spend every spare minute hitting the phones to try and drum up support. American stars tend to plan six months ahead, not six weeks. It has been incredibly difficult."

Part of the problem with regard to the US concert has been a sense that the G8 summit is not considered particularly significant from an American perspective. Indeed, there is a danger that Live 8 may suffer from having a slightly blurred and overtly political agenda.

Where Live Aid was a direct response to a humanitarian disaster, the aims of Live 8 are more complex. Make Poverty History is an alliance of charities that believes that extreme poverty can become a thing of the past.

"Extreme poverty means someone dying every three seconds from preventable causes. Children dying for the lack of a cheap immunisation shot," said Bono. "This generation can put a stop to that."

For the campaigners to succeed, however, they need the world's political leaders to get on board, hence the focus on the G8 summit.

While Live Aid was essentially apolitical, there is almost an air of civil disobedience about the new campaign. A march is planned that will set off from Hyde Park for Edinburgh on the day of the concert, picking up people along the way and arriving in time for the summit. Organisers hope to get up to a million people to surround the city, causing potential turmoil and a massive headache for security services.

One can imagine that Geldof will be at his fieriest, exhorting people to make a difference in the kind of language likely to cause television broadcasters the jitters.

At a press conference in the Grosvenor House Hotel in London today, all Geldof is likely to reveal is the line-up, but there are rumours that he has a few more radical ideas up his sleeve to really stir things up. All Bono will say is that: "If this takes off, things could get really interesting."

"What started 20 years ago is coming to a political point," said Geldof. "There's more than a chance that the boys and girls with guitars will finally get to turn the world on its axis."


http://news.telegraph.co....live31.xml
[Edited 5/31/05 0:03am]

I heard Bowie's name thrown around lately too.

is this for real??

Prince?

for real this time?

That's be great if true. not holding my breath though.

OMG, I have to go to this. And if Prince is going to be there...

OMFG, Prince and Madonna, im packing my bags.

This is the official website:

www.live8live.com



Prince isn't mentioned anywhere (yet).

Maybe Kate Bush will show up, too.







Yeah, right.

Cloudbuster said:

No, she'll be watching it over at my place....

The old bag...
[Edited 5/31/05 7:18am]

Cloudbuster said:

Cloudy, would you fuck Kate Bush if given the opportunity?

jayaredee said:

Are you gonna give me the opportunity?

Cloudbuster said:

I may just be Kate Bush hun

jayaredee said:

Kate Bush is a young homosexual male?

Cloudbuster said:

Oh come now, this is the internet, whose to say anyone's persona on these boards are real.

We all know celebrities lurk this board every day. For instance, DavidEye is Prince, that was obvious.

Honestly i'd like a full lineup, they only list like 10 acts on their site.

Where's Janet?
Prince?

MJ would be great if he gets outta court a free man, which he most likely will.

The Who and the Stones should be there too.

and Brian May...

SHANIA, what about SHANIA?

Celine will do her bit from Vegas, most likely an MJ "Bad" tribute
but we need those breaks to make popcorn....

Hopefully no Britney....

edit
[Edited 5/31/05 8:46am]

jayaredee said:

Who’s taking part:

Hyde Park, London This is the really worthwhile one

Mariah Carey, Coldplay, Dido, Keane, Sir Elton John, Annie Lennox, Madonna, Muse, Scissor Sisters, Sir Paul McCartney, Joss Stone, Stereophonics, Sting, Robbie Williams, U2, REM, Velvet Revolver, Bob Geldof, The Killers, The Cure, Snow Patrol.

Museum of Art, Philadelphia

Will Smith (host), Bon Jovi, Maroon 5, P Diddy, Stevie Wonder, Jay-Z, The Dave Matthews Band, Sarah McLachlan, Rob Thomas, Keith Urban, 50 Cent, Kaiser Chiefs

Eiffel Tower, Paris

Jamiroquai, Craig David, Youssou N'Dour, Yannick Noah, Andrea Bocelli, Calo Gero, Kyo, Placebo, Axelle Red, Johnny Halliday, Manu Chao, Renaud

Brandenburg Gate, Berlin

A-ha, Crosby, Stills and Nash, Brian Wilson, Lauryn Hill, Bap, Die Toten Hosen, Peter Maffay

Circus Maximus, Rome

Duran Duran, Faith Hill, Irene Grandi, Jovanotti, Tim McGraw, Nek, Laura Pausini, Vasco Rossi, Zucchero

VoicesCarry said:

I can't believe 50 Cent is gonna be there, blah.

Where is Bowie?

Im glad to see Stevie and Lauryn Hill on the bill.

But this is nothing like the original Live Aid lineup, too many younger acts, not enough classic acts there.

Maybe they'll be added later
[Edited 5/31/05 8:51am]

jayaredee said:

I know The US concert gets much of the crap.

VoicesCarry said:

You think that's bad, look at Paris' lineup

jayaredee said:

Yeah, at least Philadelphia gets Stevie.

VoicesCarry said:

Him and Sarah McLachlan are the only ones i'll watch from Philadelphia...

Honestly, just looking at the whole group of performers, it's disappointing. I was expecting so much more than this.

Maybe the Spice Girls reunion will be interesting, but for some reason they haven't been added to the bill yet.
[Edited 5/31/05 9:04am]

jayaredee said:

Well Im sure there will be more acts to join on in the coming weeks. I think you can expect QUEEN to easily be added to the lineup, possibly George Michael, I have also seen some mention of Original LIVE AID performers joining on like Rick Springfield, Bryan Adams, and others. I hope this event will not be commercialized, the Beauty of LIVE AID was that everyone put their EGOS away and just played their best, they werent promoting an album or themselves, I know its a longshot with todays CORPORATE monopolies but the fact that BONO is running it, could spell trouble for Corporate greed.

Anyway, Im glad to see Duran and AHA on the List, although Im sure they wont be shown on TV, TV will show the crap like 50 CENT.

hasnt all this been debunked?

and its not a live aid 2 event..


its live8..

Can I go to the UK one, please? The US line-up is lame.