Well done Bob.

Well Live8 came and went this weekend. I've already posted a few thoughts on Jane's blog, but thought I should reall comment on this here as well.

My plans for the day, which involved plonking myself in front of the telly for much of the day, were changed by my sister giving birth the day before - so I had to drive over and visit. But I did Sky+ the early stuff, listened to some on the radio, and then caught the final few hours when I got home.

As a sad old rocker - the one act I really wanted to see was Pink Floyd reformed. True rock legends, and nice to see them put their differences aside for one evening. I once went to see Think Floyd, one of those tribute bands and they were kinda cool... I never got a chance to see the real thing live. Money was a good choice of song, and Comfortably Numb is a classic (and as I have said before I also adore the Scissor Sisters version - so camp it's brilliant)

Scissor Sisters were pretty cool. As was Madonna... love her or hate her you can't argue that she is good at what she does. I can still remember going to see her in concert in Leeds, Roundhay Park 1987.... one hell of a show. U2 were good and I enjoyed the Sergeant Pepper intro... quite apt.

And I still stand by my comment that I think the wrong Beatles keep dying. I really cant stand Paul McCartney. Although I bet if John Lennon was still around he would be one of those mad old rent-a-quote rockers that just gets wheeled out for one cause or another, but most people generally wish would just shut up and retire... (just thought about the Barenaked Ladies song - Be My Yoko Ono)

I have a soft spot for Velvet Revolver... given my love of cheesey rock.. (Guns and Roses were awesome the two times I saw them at Wembley Stadium) Unfortunately I was reminded of the day that Metallica played Top of the Pops back in the early 90s when Enter Sandman charted... The front row contained about 10 metal heads happily moshing away, and the rest of the audience were looking a little confused and were wondering when Kylie was going to be coming on. Velvet Revolver really need to be seen in a small dingy venue with a bottle of Jack Daniels to hand ... they are not really a daytime-in-a-field band.

One thing - who the hell is this Pete Docherty jerk that seems to be constantly in the news these days? He appeared on stage with Elton John dressed like Sid Snot from Kenny Everett and looking off his head. I understand he was in a band who then kicked him out, he then formed a new band that kept cancelling gigs, and now he's shacked up with Kate Moss. How the hell can this pratt command all these column inches? He just looked like a tosser to me.. like a sixth former trying really hard to be Rock and Roll but really just looking like a Tit in need of a good slapping. Maybe he should talk to Slash from Velvet Revolver about how to really be Rock and Roll.....

And while we are dishing out slaps - I really can't stand Ricky Gervais. I loved The Office, but I just find him personally annoying. And a final slap for Mariah Carey... what the hell was she playing at with requests for water and a microphone stand when the gig was already running so far behind. And why was she so high up the bill? She should have been stuck somewhere around the teatime slot

And 400 people complained to the BBC about the swearing... its a rock gig.. it has Bob (Give me the Fucking money) Geldof in it. What did they expect? (Although as we know, Bob never did say "Give me your fucking money".. he said "Give me your money" and used "Fuck" in another part of the interview. But still, its a nice quote to be famous for ;-)

And pity the poor buggers that then tried to use public transport in London after midnight... if I did manage to go there I guess I would have been sleeping in the park as I would have missed last trains home. I heard the organisers would be fined if the concert went past 10pm.. I wonder if that will happen? I've not heard anything about that since.

Oh, and a nice use of Flickr here. See everyones pictures from Live8 around the world.

It's a bit of a shame that it was kind of trendy this time around to knock the whole thing and to be incredibly cynical. While I agree that the issues are extremely complex and the concert itself may not make much of a difference, at least people tried... It would be even worse to just sit around and do nothing. OK some of the rock stars think that all they need to do is turn up to a concert and then thats it... most of them will probably do very well indeed from album sales in the wake... But the general groundswell of opinion may be enough to finally make the G8 actually decide to do something to help poverty in Africa. But we also need much greater political pressure on the many corrupt governments in Africa to prevent the greed and corruption just syphoning any money we send from just lining someones pocket (or coming back to the west in Weapons sales)

Only time will tell whether it will be the start of something positive, or just a big party in the park.