A day to rock the world
At global concert, bands and fans urge aid for Africa
LONDON -- In what was trumpeted as the largest concert event ever produced, more than 160 artists took to 10 stages around the globe yesterday for Live 8, a series of musical extravaganzas organized to draw attention to the plight of the world's poorest nations.
Hundreds of thousands of people turned out for the free shows -- from Tokyo to Johannesburg to Philadelphia -- and organizers said the combined audience exceeded 1 billion people via television, radio, and the Internet.
At the Philadelphia show, Grammy winner Kanye West enthralled fans with his hit ''Jesus Walks," and Destiny's Child, clad like many of the artists all in white, dominated the stage. Rome welcomed Duran Duran and Faith Hill. And in Johannesburg, Nelson Mandela received a 5-minute standing ovation.
London's Live 8 opened to a roaring crowd as Sir Paul McCartney and Irish rockers U2, accompanied by a brass band in Beefeater hats and red officers' regalia, performed the Beatles' ''Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band." The song's first line, ''It was 20 years ago today," doubled as a reference to 1985's Live Aid concerts, also organized by Live 8 mastermind Bob Geldof.
An estimated 200,000 fans chimed in, more than a few choked with tears.
It was a potent, star-studded kickoff to what Geldof said would be ''the greatest concert ever." The electronically linked concerts were held in London; Cornwall, England; Paris; Rome; Berlin; Moscow; Tokyo; Johannesburg; Philadelphia; and Barrie, Ontario.
In Philadelphia, where hundreds of thousands of people massed outside the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the US concert became the Will Smith Show, as the Fresh Prince returned to his former hometown.
''Circus
Pleading for leaders of the G-8 summit to ''end this daily tragedy" of African poverty, Smith led the global audience in snapping their fingers every three seconds, signifying the child death rate in Africa.
Geldof, who 20 years ago raised $200 million for Ethiopian famine victims, was optimistic that the worldwide event would amount to more than a day of entertainment.
''Everything that rock 'n' roll had promised was made new at that moment," he said backstage during the Hyde Park concert. ''We've excited a huge constituency, and even if we fail it will be a glorious failure."
Fans waved flags from more than a score of countries -- British, Irish, Swedish, Macedonian, Polish. Many danced with strangers and their kept spirits high through a 10-hour show that -- despite initial criticism for booking too many white, male rock dinosaurs and too few African artists -- traversed a wildly diverse musical terrain that found Snoop Dogg, Madonna, and Snow Patrol filling the same half-hour block.
Even the cynics who might doubt the power of a pop song were hard-pressed yesterday to deny that the event offered an unprecedented opportunity to reach a huge global music community.
The hope was that the rallied masses would bring populist pressure to bear on the leaders of the richest nations -- who meet later this week at the Group of Eight summit in Gleneagles, Scotland -- to heed the message spanning the stage in Hyde Park: ''Trade Justice. Drop the Debt. More and Better Aid."
Besides a lineup of high-powered musicians that included Coldplay, R.E.M., Mariah Carey, and a reunited Pink Floyd, other supporters of Geldof's agenda appeared on the London stage.
President Bush's commitment last week to double aid to Africa by 2010 is seen as evidence that what's being called the ''Long Walk to Justice," which winds up at the G-8 summit, is making headway.
More than a million Americans have signed the ONE declaration (at www.one.org) and the Live 8 list (www.live8list.org) as part of the buildup to this weekend's events. The petitions will be delivered to the G-8 summit by Geldof, who has been invited to address the gathering of leaders.
Geldof, a former New Wave musician, was knighted after Live Aid's success. But the difference between then and now was spelled out in another stage-spanning message: ''We don't want your money -- We want you."
Considering the $25 billion price tag to cover the struggling nations' debt, Geldof set his sights on a massive awareness-raising effort. His ambitious plan, while derided by some as overly idealistic, has earned the support of Gates, who followed Elton John's gregarious set with a few brief, nervous comments.
''I believe that if you show people the problem and show them the solution, they will act," said Gates, who has donated $5 billion of his fortune to the cause of poverty relief. ''We can do this, and when we do it will be the best thing humanity has ever done."
The same message of hope was conveyed in somewhat more poetic terms by U2, which released a flock of white doves into the sky during the galvanizing anthem ''Beautiful Day."
In Cornwall, England, musician Peter Gabriel organized an all-African line-up.
MTV and VH1 broadcast the events live, and AOL and XM satellite radio carried live streams of the concerts to what one perhaps overly enthusiastic spokesperson described as ''85 percent of the world's population."
Geldof didn't reprise the profanity-strewn plea for money that finally got the phones ringing during Live Aid. He did pop in and out of the proceedings, perhaps most poignantly to introduce one of the starving babies featured in a Live Aid montage who had grown -- thanks to the efforts of 20 years ago -- into a beautiful young woman. Madonna then appeared, African chorus in tow, to serenade her with ''Like a Prayer."
Annan thanked the global audience for coming together on behalf of the poor and declaring Live 8 ''the real United Nations."
The links between generations were readily apparent at the London concert, where Amanda Goldman, 59, was surrounded by her daughter, Jane, 35, and three grandchildren. Goldman told her grandchildren about seeing the Who and the Beatles ''a lot longer than 20 years ago today" -- a Sergeant Pepper reference that the grandchildren didn't seem to get.
''Back then rock 'n' roll was . . . a way to step away from our parents and say our generation is different. Now rock 'n' roll is about stepping in, being part of a much wider circle and we can do that as a family here," she said.
Charles Sennott of the Globe staff and correspondent Sarah Liebowitz contributed to this story. 
