Month: July 2024

Live 8 Review

Back in March I posted a review of Live Aid, the iconic concert from 1985 that united people from around the world to support the victims of the famine in Ethiopia, to coincide with this year’s musical at the Old Vic that celebrated the occasion.

For a long time it seemed like such an event would never happen again, but 20 years later Bob Geldof and Midge Ure got together once more to organise Live 8. Ten concerts were held worldwide on 2 July 2005, viewed by 3 billion people, plus a final one on 6 July, to put pressure on the leaders of the countries attending the G8 summit to take stronger action to make poverty history. There had also been a 20th anniversary version of Do They Know It’s Christmas? the previous December as well.

Of course, how much of a difference the event actually made will always be up for debate, but it certainly changed things to an extent, with some commitments made with regards to increasing African aid and cancelling debts. But there will always be much more that politicians can and should be doing, and a discussion on that side of things is far beyond my expertise or the scope of this post, so I won’t be going into that here.

Double-page spread from the Live 8 DVD booklet, with a foreword by Bob Geldof in white text on a blue background. An image of the 8 political leaders from the G8 countries spans the top of both pages, while there's a photo of Bob Geldof at the bottom of the right page, below his signature in black.

In any case, the concerts featured a huge variety of artists, and whilst I felt it was much more of a mixed bag compared to Live Aid, it was still a lot of fun. I had also been far too young to see Live Aid when it took place, which meant I only got to watch it when it was released on DVD many years later, whereas I was able to see Live 8 when it was actually broadcast, as I recalled in my journal at the time.

I also bought the DVD box set of Live 8 that was released in November that year, presenting a wide selection of tracks, and that’s what I’m going to review in this post, along with some online videos that fill in the gaps. I’ve also created Youtube playlists for the UK concerts and the rest of the world, with lots of performances from the official Live 8 Youtube channel (where they’ve uploaded quite a few that were omitted from the DVD set), plus a selection of other clips. I’ve linked to a lot of the videos during this post as well.

So without further ado, and as a sequel to my earlier Live Aid post, I hope you enjoy this run-through of the different concerts and my thoughts on some of the performances!

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June 2024 Favourites

It’s funny how things seem to come in threes. Last month I quipped that trying to eradicate mice from our house and the Conservatives from government was about banishing evil entities before they do irreparable damage, so what happens in June? I get Covid as well! Typical.

Thankfully there has been success on all three fronts. Our mouse problem is being dealt with effectively, so I’m just looking for a builder to do some repairs that will stop them getting back in. Covid affected Mum and I in a similar way to the only other time we had it in January last year, with Mum’s body effectively shutting down for a day to fight it, whilst I wasn’t that bad but still felt quite drained for a few days, not helped by it being the hottest and most humid week of the year so far. We’re both fully recovered anyway, and Mum having her booster jab a couple of months ago helped I’m sure. And now of course we have the sheer relief of the Tories being booted out in the General Election, after 14 years of chaos and one of the worst election campaigns in history.

I’m also glad that I was able to go out quite a bit during the first part of the month before Covid struck, by enjoying a sensory garden tour, exploring a new exhibition, having walks by the Thames and taking a day trip to the seaside. I met up with my aunt for a couple of those outings too, which was lovely – it’s just a shame we had to drop other things we had planned, as we had been trying to make the most of some time I had off work, and I had to miss a theatre show as well, but not to worry.

So there’s quite a bit to mention in this month’s post and video as usual, including things I’ve been watching and listening to as well as those outings, none of which is sponsored or gifted as usual. And I’ve also included my thoughts about the election campaign and results at the end. So I hope you enjoy!

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