Doomsday101
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CNN) -- Twenty years ago, dozens of musicians gathered for fund-raising concerts to combat starvation in Africa.
Live Aid, it was called.
Saturday, it's happening again -- but on a much bigger scale.
Live 8, put together by Live Aid organizer Bob Geldof, will feature shows in 10 cities on four continents, with 150 artists participating. The name of the benefit refers to next week's Group of Eight summit, a gathering of the world's wealthiest nations in Gleneagles, Scotland.
Geldof said Thursday that the concerts will be the "final push" in getting the world's richest leaders to come to the aid of impoverished Africa.
In an interview with CNN, Geldof said the goal of doubling aid for Africa by 2010 to $25 billion -- laid out by the Commission for Africa, which British Prime Minister Tony Blair is spearheading -- almost has been met.
Geldof said he hopes G8 leaders will pledge the funds at next week's summit.
"We're almost there," he said. "We're within $2 billion. I think we can knock that off in Gleneagles.
"I've been on the phone with [U2's] Bono, and we're going, 'Is this happening?' Live 8 ... is actually the final push now. It's no longer the startup engine."
The cities where the 10 concerts will be include London, England; Edinburgh, Scotland; Paris, France; Berlin, Germany; Rome, Italy; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Barrie, Ontario; Tokyo, Japan; Johannesburg, South Africa; and Moscow, Russia.
Also on Saturday, organizers are urging millions to gather in the streets of London, Washington, Berlin, Paris, Rome and Edinburgh as part of "The Long Walk to Justice."
Music buffs are most excited about the London concert, which will reunite Pink Floyd's Roger Waters and David Gilmour for the first time in decades.
"Any squabble Roger and the band have had in the past are so petty in this context, and if re-forming for this concert will help focus attention, then it's got to be worthwhile," Gilmour said in a statement on the band's Web site.
Waters added he was excited to "be given the opportunity to put the band back together, even if it's only for a few numbers."
"It's great to be asked to help Bob raise public awareness about Third World debt and poverty."
'Saint Bob'
Geldof didn't set out to be a concert organizer and spokesman for charitable causes. The founder of the Boomtown Rats, one of Britain's most popular punk-New Wave bands (best known in the United States for the song "I Don't Like Mondays"), once said he went into music "to get famous, to get rich and to get laid," according to The Associated Press.
The British press highlighted his uncompromising, often sarcastic personality with the nickname "Bob the Gob."
Still, Geldof had a social conscience; indeed, the name Boomtown Rats came from a Woody Guthrie song. In 1984, he saw a report on the Ethiopian famine and decided to help fight it.
With Ultravox's Midge Ure, he wrote the charity single "Do They Know It's Christmas?" and managed to draft many of the biggest names in British rock to sing it, including Bono, Sting, Duran Duran, George Michael (then with Wham!), Frankie Goes to Hollywood and Paul Young. David Bowie and Paul McCartney contributed spoken messages to the single, which sold 3 million copies.
"Do They Know It's Christmas?" was followed by an American all-star gathering put together by Harry Belafonte and manager Ken Kragen, USA for Africa, and its song, "We Are the World." That song, which was written by Lionel Richie and Michael Jackson and produced by Quincy Jones, featured vocal contributions from Richie, Jackson, Bruce Springsteen, Ray Charles, Cyndi Lauper, Bob Dylan, Hall and Oates, Billy Joel, Paul Simon, Tina Turner and Stevie Wonder, among others.
Live Aid spawned a variety of charitable concerts, including the long-running Farm Aid series for farmers organized by Willie Nelson, Neil Young and John Mellencamp.
Despite vowing he'd never undertake a Live Aid effort again after the strain of organizing the 1985 shows, Geldof -- who has been knighted for his efforts, and is now called "Saint Bob" by the British tabloids -- said the need to bring aid to Africa is a cause too important to ignore.
"The only constant in economic decline is Africa," he said. "And we can get to the root of that, and we can stop people dying live on our screens every night on CNN if we really solve this."
He said organizers won't be able to "stop the dying immediately, but we are dealing with the roots of that poverty."
Geldof also praised President Bush, who announced Thursday he was proposing to double U.S. aid to Africa by 2010 -- an estimated $8.6 billion, up from $4.3 billion in 2004.
"This is the first time we have heard this sort of language," Geldof said. "This is very, very positive indeed."
U2 lead singer Bono said this year's event differs greatly in focus from Live Aid, which focused on charitable contributions from the public.
"This is not about charity. This is about justice," Bono said. "This is about people getting out on the streets, tuning in, being educated about what their tax dollars can achieve in the impoverished continent of Africa and elsewhere."
Bono also took on critics who have charged that he and Geldof are being used by the powerful G8 leaders.
"Is there some degree of being used here? Yes," Bono said. "But I am not a cheap date, and neither is Bob Geldof."
Referring to Blair's leadership on the Commission for Africa, he added, "We've got to get out there and applaud them when they do the right thing and then boo them and hiss them when they do the wrong thing."
Live 8 has been criticized in some quarters. Blur's Damon Albarn noted the lack of black artists participating, and Oasis' Noel Gallagher reportedly said he doesn't think the show will have much of an effect on the G8 leaders it's supposed to influence.
"[I doubt] one of these guys from the G8 is on a quick 15-minute break at Gleneagles and sees Annie Lennox singing 'Sweet Dreams' and thinks ... 'She might have a point there, you know?' " Gallagher said, according to the AP.
According to Live 8's Web site, it hopes to have "the largest ever TV audience; the busiest Web site in the world; the largest ever online petition -- the Live 8 list; the largest ever text petition; the largest ever response to a TV show."
Live Aid, it was called.
Saturday, it's happening again -- but on a much bigger scale.
Live 8, put together by Live Aid organizer Bob Geldof, will feature shows in 10 cities on four continents, with 150 artists participating. The name of the benefit refers to next week's Group of Eight summit, a gathering of the world's wealthiest nations in Gleneagles, Scotland.
Geldof said Thursday that the concerts will be the "final push" in getting the world's richest leaders to come to the aid of impoverished Africa.
In an interview with CNN, Geldof said the goal of doubling aid for Africa by 2010 to $25 billion -- laid out by the Commission for Africa, which British Prime Minister Tony Blair is spearheading -- almost has been met.
Geldof said he hopes G8 leaders will pledge the funds at next week's summit.
"We're almost there," he said. "We're within $2 billion. I think we can knock that off in Gleneagles.
"I've been on the phone with [U2's] Bono, and we're going, 'Is this happening?' Live 8 ... is actually the final push now. It's no longer the startup engine."
The cities where the 10 concerts will be include London, England; Edinburgh, Scotland; Paris, France; Berlin, Germany; Rome, Italy; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Barrie, Ontario; Tokyo, Japan; Johannesburg, South Africa; and Moscow, Russia.
Also on Saturday, organizers are urging millions to gather in the streets of London, Washington, Berlin, Paris, Rome and Edinburgh as part of "The Long Walk to Justice."
Music buffs are most excited about the London concert, which will reunite Pink Floyd's Roger Waters and David Gilmour for the first time in decades.
"Any squabble Roger and the band have had in the past are so petty in this context, and if re-forming for this concert will help focus attention, then it's got to be worthwhile," Gilmour said in a statement on the band's Web site.
Waters added he was excited to "be given the opportunity to put the band back together, even if it's only for a few numbers."
"It's great to be asked to help Bob raise public awareness about Third World debt and poverty."
'Saint Bob'
Geldof didn't set out to be a concert organizer and spokesman for charitable causes. The founder of the Boomtown Rats, one of Britain's most popular punk-New Wave bands (best known in the United States for the song "I Don't Like Mondays"), once said he went into music "to get famous, to get rich and to get laid," according to The Associated Press.
The British press highlighted his uncompromising, often sarcastic personality with the nickname "Bob the Gob."
Still, Geldof had a social conscience; indeed, the name Boomtown Rats came from a Woody Guthrie song. In 1984, he saw a report on the Ethiopian famine and decided to help fight it.
With Ultravox's Midge Ure, he wrote the charity single "Do They Know It's Christmas?" and managed to draft many of the biggest names in British rock to sing it, including Bono, Sting, Duran Duran, George Michael (then with Wham!), Frankie Goes to Hollywood and Paul Young. David Bowie and Paul McCartney contributed spoken messages to the single, which sold 3 million copies.
"Do They Know It's Christmas?" was followed by an American all-star gathering put together by Harry Belafonte and manager Ken Kragen, USA for Africa, and its song, "We Are the World." That song, which was written by Lionel Richie and Michael Jackson and produced by Quincy Jones, featured vocal contributions from Richie, Jackson, Bruce Springsteen, Ray Charles, Cyndi Lauper, Bob Dylan, Hall and Oates, Billy Joel, Paul Simon, Tina Turner and Stevie Wonder, among others.
Live Aid spawned a variety of charitable concerts, including the long-running Farm Aid series for farmers organized by Willie Nelson, Neil Young and John Mellencamp.
Despite vowing he'd never undertake a Live Aid effort again after the strain of organizing the 1985 shows, Geldof -- who has been knighted for his efforts, and is now called "Saint Bob" by the British tabloids -- said the need to bring aid to Africa is a cause too important to ignore.
"The only constant in economic decline is Africa," he said. "And we can get to the root of that, and we can stop people dying live on our screens every night on CNN if we really solve this."
He said organizers won't be able to "stop the dying immediately, but we are dealing with the roots of that poverty."
Geldof also praised President Bush, who announced Thursday he was proposing to double U.S. aid to Africa by 2010 -- an estimated $8.6 billion, up from $4.3 billion in 2004.
"This is the first time we have heard this sort of language," Geldof said. "This is very, very positive indeed."
U2 lead singer Bono said this year's event differs greatly in focus from Live Aid, which focused on charitable contributions from the public.
"This is not about charity. This is about justice," Bono said. "This is about people getting out on the streets, tuning in, being educated about what their tax dollars can achieve in the impoverished continent of Africa and elsewhere."
Bono also took on critics who have charged that he and Geldof are being used by the powerful G8 leaders.
"Is there some degree of being used here? Yes," Bono said. "But I am not a cheap date, and neither is Bob Geldof."
Referring to Blair's leadership on the Commission for Africa, he added, "We've got to get out there and applaud them when they do the right thing and then boo them and hiss them when they do the wrong thing."
Live 8 has been criticized in some quarters. Blur's Damon Albarn noted the lack of black artists participating, and Oasis' Noel Gallagher reportedly said he doesn't think the show will have much of an effect on the G8 leaders it's supposed to influence.
"[I doubt] one of these guys from the G8 is on a quick 15-minute break at Gleneagles and sees Annie Lennox singing 'Sweet Dreams' and thinks ... 'She might have a point there, you know?' " Gallagher said, according to the AP.
According to Live 8's Web site, it hopes to have "the largest ever TV audience; the busiest Web site in the world; the largest ever online petition -- the Live 8 list; the largest ever text petition; the largest ever response to a TV show."
