Live 8 Review

Double-page spread of the back and front covers of the booklet with the Live 8 DVD set. The front cover has an image of the 8 political leaders of the G8 countries sat in a line in front of a colourful map of the world. There is food on the long table in front of them, and the flag of each country on the side of the table facing us. Standing in front of the politicians, facing them, is a naked African child. Text at above the image reads Live 8 July 2nd 2005 in black lettering, and then rainbow coloured text that says it was 20 years ago. Meanwhile the back cover shows a photo of rubbish strewn across a field in front of a Live 8 stage in the aftermath of the concert.

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!

Contents

DVD Contents

There are 4 discs in the DVD box set featuring over 9½ hours of concert footage and a further half hour of extras, so it’s pretty generous.

The first 3 discs each have approximately 2½ hours of performances from the concerts on July 2, mainly focusing on the UK and USA gigs, but incorporating songs from other countries as well.

The fourth disc then 1 hour 19 minutes of tracks from the Edinburgh concert on July 6, 37 minutes of bonus performances from the July 2 concerts and 32 minutes of other extras including a couple of music videos, a message from Ricky Gervais, backstage footage from Hyde Park, and Pink Floyd’s rehearsal. It also has over 50 pages of credits for the concerts, the DVD and the campaign.

The specific tracks and relevant extras from each concert on the DVD are indicated in the reviews that follow.

Double-page spread from the Live 8 DVD booklet, showing the songs on Discs 1 to 3 in white text against a blue background.
Double-page spread from the Live 8 DVD booklet. The left page shows the songs and extras on Disc 4, in white text on a blue background. The right page shows Will Smith talking into a microphone with his arm raised. Above him is the Live 8 logo and a photo of a couple of African children.

The main menus on each disc show footage of audience members enjoying themselves, while instrumental segments of one of the performances is played – either Sgt Pepper by Paul McCartney, Music by Madonna or Money by Pink Floyd – except on the final disc for Edinburgh where we just hear crowd noise.

All of the discs present the same basic options, albeit in white on yellow which isn’t easy contrast to read. You can listen to the audio in Dolby Stereo, Dolby 5.1 Surround or DTS 5.1 Surround. Subtitles (for speech only, not song lyrics) are available in English, French, German, Dutch, Italian, Spanish or Portuguese. And you can jump to songs by a specific artist.

The 4 DVD discs from the Live 8 box set. Each disc shows 2 of the political leaders from the G8 nations, with a colourful map of the world behind them and food on the table in front of them.

TV & Radio Broadcasts

The BBC’s TV coverage on 2 July, which was also shown on big screens throughout the UK, was hosted by Jonathan Ross from a special pod in Hyde Park. He regularly interviewed some of the acts and other celebrities in the gaps between performances, as did Jo Whiley and Fearne Cotton, who talked to lots of people backstage and in the crowd. Graham Norton then took the reins to cover the rest of the American concert during the night. It was all fun and light-hearted while still putting across the serious message of the occasion. There were 350 complaints about swearing before the watershed, for which the BBC apologised and were told off by Ofcom, but they added it was lower than the 500 they get if they show Eastenders just 5 minutes late!

There was of course extensive radio coverage as well. On the BBC, it took over stations 1, 2 & 5 Live as well as local stations, while most commercial broadcasters shared Capital FM‘s feed presented by Ulrika Jonsson.

Viewers and listeners in the USA didn’t always get such comprehensive coverage. While America Online (AOL) and XM Satellite Radio did provide complete broadcasts, the major TV channels MTV and VH1 frequently cut away from the concerts on the day, even in the middle of songs, for commentary or commercials. After a barrage of criticism, they each showed 5 hours of uninterrupted highlights of the Live 8 concerts on 9 July to make up for it.

UK – Hyde Park, London

200,000 people crammed into Hyde Park for this concert, while the 26.4 million supporters worldwide who signed the petition on live8live.com or by text message were sometimes represented on the back screen of the stage, either with a selection of names scrolling across or a live counter that was constantly updating. Images of African children were also sometimes shown during relevant performances, while at other times the screen simply had colourful animations to accompany the music.

As this concert is on home turf, there are several artists whose performances I particularly enjoy here, including Paul McCartney, U2, Elton John, Dido, Travis, Bob Geldof, Annie Lennox, UB40, Madonna, Sting, Robbie Williams, The Who & Pink Floyd.

All of the artists from this concert are represented on the DVD, though there are occasional omissions of tracks or deviations from their original sequence. The list below shows the actual running order from the day, and tracks that aren’t included on the DVD are marked with a star(*). See my UK playlist for lots of videos from this gig, including presenter links and interviews.

Before the first song, the DVD has a short animated introduction (which was also shown to the crowd on the day between acts), presenting key statistics about the event and its purpose, set to an instrumental edit of Come On Home by Franz Ferdinand, which has a great riff. They didn’t perform in any of the concerts, although they did offer to be available for the Scottish gig.

Technically there were 10 concerts on the day rather than 9. But the Africa Calling event at the Eden Project was a late addition that wasn’t officially part of Live 8 itself. However, Bob Geldof gave it his blessing to go ahead. So you can think of the video as talking about 9 countries rather than 9 concerts.

This is a fantastic opening set, including musicians dressed like the colourful Sgt Pepper band during the first song. Beautiful Day includes a snippet of Blackbird and has a few lyrics changed to fit the occasion, plus there’s a great shot of a flock of birds flying over the park. Vertigo is of course a banger that the crowd love joining in with, and the beautifully laid-back final song includes a bit of Unchained Melody. Paul of course returned for a set of his own to close the show later on.

I’m not a big Coldplay fan, and they’re not a patch on U2. But they’re ok, and the crowd love joining in. Chris Martin shoehorns a chorus of Status Quo’s Rockin’ All Over The World into the first song, which doesn’t really work but it’s a nice nod back to the original Live Aid and suits the event. The song by The Verve in the middle is great though, especially as they’re joined by the original vocalist.

Elton was introduced by comedians David Walliams and Matt Lucas as their characters Lou and Andy from Little Britain (which you don’t see on the DVD). And his excellent first two songs are powerful and catchy as you’d expect, with amazing piano playing and an eager crowd lapping it all up. The T Rex cover, however, is ruined by the frontman of Babyshambles, who seems to be high and can’t remember the words or sing them properly – although he later claimed he was full of nerves and adrenaline rather than drugs, and blamed the poor performance on Peaches Geldof and then Elton himself. Such a strange guy.

Two days later, Elton gave a free concert in Philadelphia, on the stage they had used for Live 8, as part of the city’s Independence Day celebrations. And later that year Elton reflected on Live 8, admitting that the duet with Pete fell short of expectations, and saying the event overall was an anti-climax that wasn’t as good as Live Aid, which is a fair reaction.

Dido was introduced by Bill Gates, whose speech at the event is included on the DVD. And it’s a beautiful selection of tracks. Only the last song is included in the box set, sadly, but it’s a really lovely collaboration, and the crowd are invited to sing the final chorus.

Dido also joined Youssou N’Dour to perform 7 Seconds when he did his own sets at the concerts in Paris and the Eden Project, so they were quite busy that day! Not quite the same as Phil Collins at Live Aid, jetting between the UK and USA, but still impressive to do all that travelling.

I’m not very familiar with this rock group’s music – Dakota out of this selection is the one I recognise the most – and while they are good here, there’s nothing I consider special or memorable, though I appreciate many of their fans would disagree. They just don’t grab me somehow. The first track includes a brief bit of the chorus from Ace Of Spades though.

  • Ricky Gervais – Office Dance / Message

Comedian Ricky Gervais came on stage to introduce R.E.M., but ended up doing his dance from The Office at the insistence of the crowd, which isn’t on the DVD but there is a poor quality recording on Youtube.

Disc 4 of the DVD set also includes a special 45-second message from Ricky among the extras, where he wishes everybody a great day, and jokes about Phil Collins being sent to New York again like he was at Live Aid. It’s only mildly amusing and far from an essential inclusion, but it’s nice to have it all the same. It may have been part of a series of interstitials that Ricky filmed for the occasion, and if so it would have been better to include all of them really.

As for R.E.M., they’re another band I have limited experience of, but I do know the two big hits that are featured on the DVD, which are very nicely performed. I don’t know the first song though.

She was introduced by Kofi Annan, Head of the United Nations (not on the DVD). I’m not blown away by Ms. Dynamite’s music though, so I just skip her.

Another group whose music I’m not hugely familiar with. But they’re good here and they get the crowd to sing part of the first song too, which is the big hit of theirs I know best.

This is a good trilogy of tracks, including a nice segue into a short cover of Stayin’ Alive at the end of Side, although that particular song isn’t on the DVD unfortunately.

Their performance of Why Does It Always Rain On Me? is also omitted from the London gig on Disc 1 of the box set, but that’s because their rendition from the Edinburgh concert is included on Disc 4 instead. That disc also contains a special video using the song among the extra features, which shows people in Africa holding, wearing or using items that we spend money on or throw away wastefully in the developed world. Text alongside them indicates the huge amounts of money involved, to compare with the amount needed to save tens of thousands of lives that is revealed at the end.

Of course he had to do this classic from his Boomtown Rats days, just like he did at Live Aid, and the audience gladly sing along. He also repeats his big pause after the line “the lesson today is how to die”, holding his fist in the air as the audience applauds.

The incomparable Annie Lennox was introduced by actor Brad Pitt, who gave a speech about the purpose of the event that is also on the DVD. She then does a perfect set, beginning with a sublime solo performance at the piano while
sobering footage of African children who are HIV-positive is displayed. Then, after a little speech of her own about the importance of making poverty history, she launches into the two upbeat numbers, which are a lot of fun, including a great guitar riff underpinning Sweet Dreams.

She also has the crowd in the palm of her hand throughout. Even when she does a deliberate pause for effect near the end of the first song, the crowd know to stay quiet rather than cheer given the significance of the moment, while on the other two songs they eagerly join in with her.

So she’s easily one of the biggest talents of the day, and she also appeared at the Edinburgh concert on 6 July as well.

This is a delightfully catchy 13-minute reggae medley. It’s sadly cut down to just 2 songs on the DVD, beginning with Reasons, which features Hunterz & The Dhol Blasters as special guests.

I’m not a fan of Snoop’s at all. His style of music isn’t for me and his use of very strong language doesn’t make him look as cool as he thinks it does.

These guys are alright and I recognise the first two songs, but they’re nothing exceptional.

Here Bob Geldof replays the moving film by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation that had originally been shown at Live Aid, with footage of people suffering in Africa set to the music of Drive by The Cars.

Then, as proof to those who question whether big events like this actually make a difference, he introduces a lady called Birhan Woldu, who was one of the starving children in the film. She had been less than 15 minutes from death when her father discovered a faint pulse and alerted nurses, who managed to save her life. She went on to become a figurehead for the global relief effort as well as a nurse, and later became pregnant with her husband in 2010.

So it’s a very special and moving moment, and Madonna keeps Birhan on stage with her during the first part of her opening number.

Having performed at Live Aid in America 20 years previously, the Queen Of Pop again demonstrates why she’s worthy of that title with this great set of strong, catchy hits, backed by the incredible London Community Gospel Choir throughout, plus some impressive dancers who come in towards the end of the second song. She also gets the crowd involved of course, especially during the extended version of Music, where she has them repeating the chorus from the middle section to the end, and she even begs the paparazzi down the front to join in as well.

I’m not very familiar with this band’s music, though I know the second song (which they also performed at the Edinburgh concert). They’re ok, but nothing special.

They only get one song but they do it well, although it’s another group I’m not very familiar with. The rapidly flashing animations on the back screen are a slightly irritating distraction too, as they don’t really fit with the tempo of the song.

She goes down well with the crowd, but I’m not a fan of her singing style personally.

I’m not a huge fan of this group, but the first two songs are catchy and fun. I don’t know the third one, but it’s ok as well.

I don’t know the songs by this supergroup, and I’m not a big fan of their harder rock style to be honest, but they do alright. Slither includes a bit of Mountain Song by Jane’s Addiction.

Introduced by comedian Lenny Henry, who we briefly see on the DVD, Sting launches into a great trio of hits, so I’m very glad they’re all included in the box set. The final song has modified lyrics aimed at the G8 leaders, whose images play across the back screen, including the line “we’ll be watching you” and mentions of democracy.

Mariah was introduced by comedian Dawn French (not on the DVD). I’m not a big fan of Mariah’s, but she gives a good performance, and is joined by the wonderful African Children’s Choir for the latter half of the first song and all of the second.

Robbie is introduced by footballer David Beckham (included on the DVD), who is clearly a bit nervous about speaking to such a huge audience, as it’s not something he’s used to doing, but he’s also very proud to introduce his good friend.

Robbie, on the other hand, isn’t remotely shy, and delivers arguably the most commanding performance of the entire day, that has the whole crowd singing and bouncing along. His full set is included on the DVD, and the same goes for the 3 acts that follow him to conclude the Hyde Park concert.

He begins with a cover of We Will Rock You, the day’s second (and better) rendition of a Queen song after Green Day’s version of We Are The Champions in Germany. That then leads into a powerful performance of Let Me Entertain You (his song, obviously, not the Queen track of the same name). He jumps down into the camera pit to get a bit closer to everyone during this, and does a little nod to the Killers with the line “I got soul, but I’m not a soldier” towards the end.

Then, after a lovely rendition of Feel, he gets even closer to the audience for his big finale, Angels, coming off the stage altogether and working his way along the front row for most of the song, allowing people to touch, hug and even kiss him. It evokes memories of Bono’s actions during U2’s set at Live Aid. He sings directly to people at home through the camera at one point too, so they don’t feel left out. And he gets everyone singing along at the top of their lungs. So he manages to make it feel intimate and special for every single person, despite the sheer enormity of the crowd, in a way that only a big star like him can pull off.

The comedian had to fill time for about 6 minutes while the stage was being set up for The Who. So naturally he got the crowd to sing the Tony Christie number that he became famous for using on his Comic Relief charity single, which they loved. It’s quite chaotic, in a fun way, as Peter keeps being interrupted by the crew doing sound checks. He then jokingly introduces The Who as The Spice Girls, as there had been strong rumours they would reform for the show (but they didn’t).

What we do get on the DVD are the two blistering epics of rock brilliance by The Who, thankfully without a repeat of the technical mishaps that disrupted their Live Aid set in 1985. Pete Townshend sounds amazing on guitar as usual, while doing his characteristic windmills, and Roger Daltrey sings with power and passion, including that incredible primal scream near the end of Won’t Get Fooled Again.

There’s also great backing on the drums by Steve White, replacing The Who’s regular percussionist Zak Starkey who was touring with Oasis at the time. Steve was the former drummer for Paul Weller and The Style Council, with whom he became the youngest drummer at Live Aid back in 1985, so it’s nice that he had a role in Live 8 too.

A special video for Who Are You?, using a 3½-minute edit of the song, is also included as an extra on Disc 4 of the DVD set. It shows lots of people in Africa, many of whom are wearing cardboard cutouts of the G8 leaders’ faces, as they dance to the song or just go about their everyday lives.

As miraculous as the day already was in many respects, given its sheer scale and complexity, this was the moment that pigs really did fly. And for many people it was the most significant and important moment of the whole event.

Bob Geldof had somehow arranged one of the most unlikely reunions in music history, by bringing the original members of Pink Floyd back together after 24 years (except Syd Barrett, who died the following year). It had seemed impossible, especially after Roger Waters took legal action in the 80s to stop David Gilmour and Nick Mason using the Pink Floyd name, and it did take a lot of persuasion for David in particular to agree to the reunion. It seems there have been further conflicts with Roger in more recent years as well, sadly.

I’m not heavily into Pink Floyd’s music myself, so I didn’t get swept up in all the hype and emotion leading up to their performance, although I was still interested to see it. I do like some of their most famous hits of course, but other stuff I’ve heard in the past is quite weird, so I’ve never taken a deep dive into their catalogue.

However, this 4-song set is really good, especially as they’re all songs that I recognise and like, and they’re performed superbly. There’s a lovely calm, mellow vibe to the set in general, though there are more powerful moments too, including the great sax and guitar solos in Money, and the conclusion they build towards in Comfortably Numb.

So all the effort in getting the group back together for one last time was worth it, they sounded great. And it was nice that they took a bow as a group at the end, rather than just waving and walking off, granting the audience one final chance to see them all together.

Disc 4 also includes a bonus 8-minute rehearsal feature, consisting of interviews with the band members and then a complete performance of Wish You Were Here, including a few attempts to get the ending right. So that’s a nice additional insight into this special reunion.

There was never any question of who would be the final act. You can always rely on Paul to bring an event of this magnitude to a close with style, and it’s only right and proper that he does so, given the impact and influence that the Beatles had, and will forever have, on British music and further afield. That’s why he closed the UK concert at Live Aid too, though thankfully this time he had no microphone problems. He had already opened Live 8 with U2 earlier in the day of course, but he had to have his own spot at the end.

So it’s a great set. I love the fact that George Michael takes part in one of the songs, and it’s rather a shame he didn’t get a chance to do more on the day. And the final song, The Long And Winding Road, is a deliberate nod to what Bob Geldof called “the long walk to justice”, following the G8 leaders to Edinburgh to compel them to do everything they can to help make poverty history. Most of the artists then come out for the classic singalong refrain to Hey Jude – except a few people like U2 and Elton John who’d had to leave earlier to get to other gigs on their own tours. It’s an epic finish to an epic gig.

By the end of it all, it was past midnight, rather later than the 9:30pm finish time that had originally been scheduled! A lot of the crowd had already left by that point, for fear of not being able to get home, but you don’t notice it in the footage, as the many thousands who remained filled in any gaps straightaway. There was no Night Tube in those days, so I imagine a lot of them had difficulty getting home, or just didn’t bother and stayed out all night! They had a lot of incredible memories to look back on in any case, making it all worthwhile.

This is an extra 15-minute feature on Disc 4 of the DVD set, alongside the others by Ricky Gervais, Travis, The Who and Pink Floyd that are already mentioned above.

It begins with Live 8 promoter Harvey Goldsmith showing us around the stage and facilities at Hyde Park in the run up to the show. Then we get a short interview with Sting, before we see clips of him, Madonna, Paul McCartney and George Michael rehearsing. That’s followed by an extensive montage showing the stars enjoying the day backstage during the concert itself, before finishing with the view from within the mass of performers in the Hey Jude finale. So it’s a nice little glimpse into what it was like for those involved.

USA – Benjamin Franklin Parkway, Philadelphia

There aren’t exact figures for the number of people at this concert, because there were no tickets and they just crammed in as many as they could, stretching back for over a mile, which does look very impressive. But at the start of Def Leppard’s set, their frontman Joe Elliott shares a message from the Mayor of Philadelphia that there are over a million people out there.

It’s no surprise that there aren’t as many artists that I’m a big fan of in this concert, compared to the UK one. My favourite performers are Will Smith, Bon Jovi, Def Leppard and Stevie Wonder. Beyond that, I’m not a fan of the other rap artists or the country stars, while the rest of the line-up is alright but nothing particularly special for me personally.

As with the London concert, all of the artists are represented here, and most of the tracks from the gig are on the DVD, with some of them presented in a slightly different order than they were on the day. The list below shows the original running order, and the tracks marked with a star(*) are not on the DVD.

This English group kicked off the American concert before the live link-up with other countries. As such, the recording of their performance was shown in the UK and elsewhere later in the day, and it’s positioned a bit later on the DVD as well. I’m not a massive fan of theirs, but they do alright here, playing their biggest hits, and it gave them some valuable international exposure.

The first live link-up with America, with Bob Geldof in Hyde Park handing over to Will Smith, is also the first time we cross to the States on the DVD.

Will Smith is the perfect choice as the American host, as the crowd love him and he does a great job at bringing people together. He starts by conducting a chain of greetings by the audiences of the different concerts around the world. And then he introduces the clicking fingers motif that was a big part of the day, reflecting the awful reality that a child dies every 3 seconds in one of the world’s poorest countries, and sending a message to the G8 leaders to do all they can to help. As well as getting the audience to snap their fingers with him, he also introduces a short black and white film of celebrities doing likewise, stood against a plain white background. Alternate versions of this film were also made for France, Germany, Italy and Canada.

I’m not a fan of this group, and their use of bad language feels unnecessary even though it’s not offensive. The last song’s ok though, as it’s a Bob Marley classic and it’s nice to have his widow and son taking part.

This band were introduced by actor Don Cheadle (not on the DVD), and played a great trio of songs. Have A Nice Day was a new track, which was officially released to radio and retailers the following month.

Destiny’s Child were introduced by comedian Chris Tucker, who gave a short speech that’s retained on the DVD, but I’m not a fan of the group.

Don Cheadle returned to introduce Kanye, but he’s another artist I skip over as I’m not a fan of his.

Introduced by actor Jimmy Smits (not on the DVD), Will Smith presents a masterclass in working the crowd, and he’s one of very few rappers I’m happy to listen to, because I grew up hearing him in my childhood, and he doesn’t rely on songs involving swearing and violence.

So it’s a great set, and it’s a shame the final song isn’t on the DVD. Fresh Prince is particularly notable because he tests his home crowd to see if they can sing the theme tune by themselves, which they do. I don’t know the words myself, as I’ve never been interested in watching the show, but it’s impressive to hear the huge audience doing it.

Toby, who recently passed away in February, is introduced here by 5 players from the Philadelphia Eagles NFL team, including Dhani Jones. I’m not into country music, so I don’t know his song, but he’s ok. He passed away recently, in February.

The introduction to Dave and his group by actress Natalie Portman is included on the DVD. He’s ok, but nothing amazing, and I don’t know any of his songs.

This is a slow song performed at the piano, but I’m not a fan of hers.

I’m not a fan of these guys at all. They were introduced by actress Jennifer Connelly (not on the DVD).

That’s more like it, this is a great performance by one of my favourite bands. There isn’t much to say in detail about it, it’s just a solid set.

I don’t know their songs and wasn’t particularly struck by them.

Sarah performs nicely at the piano with no backing band, and her duet with Josh is ok. But I don’t know her songs and I’m not interested in checking her out further.

This group were introduced by comedian Chris Tucker (not on the DVD). And, yet again, it’s a group I don’t know well and am not a big fan of. They’re alright, just nothing special. The last song is a weak cover of a Neil Young track, which he sings much better during his own set in Canada.

Keith is introduced by actress Naomi Watts (not on the DVD). And while I’m not a big country fan, as I said earlier, so I don’t know his music, he is good here to be fair. His first and last songs are catchy, while the second is a nice ballad, and the third is a reasonable Phil Collins cover.

Rob was introduced by actor Jimmy Smits (not on the DVD). I only know the second song, but he does a pretty good set overall. The Joker is a song by the Steve Miller Band, which he includes as part of 3 A.M.

Stevie was introduced by actor Richard Gere, as shown on the DVD. Like Will Smith and others, he describes the event as a day of “interdependence”, by way of comparison with Independence Day, which would follow two days later on July 4.

Stevie then delivers a great final set to close the US concert. Two of the songs are omitted from the DVD, but having checked them out online, they’re slower songs that I’m not familiar with, so as nice as they are I don’t particularly miss them. The rest are upbeat, catchy, singalong tracks that are much more well known. He also has little moments of call and response with the crowd throughout, which no doubt helps to reassure him that they’re enjoying themselves as he can’t see them. And, like many other artists during the concert, he took the opportunity to pay a quick tribute to Luther Vandross, who had died the previous day at the age of just 54.

He wasn’t the only blind performer at Live 8 either, as there was also a lady called Joana Zimmer who sang in the German concert.

Canada – Park Place, Barrie

Around 35,000 people were at the Canadian concert, hosted by Dan Aykroyd & Tom Green. It even got a separate DVD release of its own, with 29 tracks lasting about 2 hours, but I didn’t have any interest in getting it and most of the songs are online now anyway. That DVD refers to this as the Toronto gig because more people around the world have heard of that city, but Barrie is actually 100km (62 miles) north of Toronto.

On the main Live 8 DVD set that I have, this concert is represented by just 3 tracks in the main feature:

But there are other notable performances in the show too. So here’s the full setlist, with my brief thoughts on some of the acts…

I don’t know their music, but both Tom and Sam perform enjoyably catchy rock songs to get the concert underway.

  • Bryan Adams – Back To You / Open Road / This Side Of Paradise / All For Love / Tears Are Not Enough

Bryan’s performance is a nice solo acoustic number, but all of his songs from the concert are conspicuous by their absence online. There’s a bit of Back To You on TikTok that someone’s posted, but that’s about it, sadly.

The songs in Randy Bachman’s set are all brilliant tracks from his days in Bachman-Turner Overdrive. Sadly only the final one is officially available online, but it’s an absolute belter that the crowd love joining in with.

Timeless rock classics from this legendary band, performed brilliantly as you’d expect. Shame the first one isn’t available.

Celine performed via satellite link from Las Vegas, but for some reason the Barrie crowd reacted to her introduction with loud disapproval. While I don’t like her music personally, it’s rather tasteless to boo someone at a major charity event, and I’m not aware of any other artist involved in Live 8 getting that kind of treatment. It would explain why her performance isn’t officially available though.

Thankfully she got a much better reception this year for her performance at the Paris 2024 Olympics Opening Ceremony in front of the Eiffel Tower, which was particularly significant as it was her first time singing live in 4 years, and during that time she was diagnosed with Stiff Person Syndrome in 2022.

I only know their last song (the one on the DVD), as it’s been used as the theme tune for the stand-up comedy showcase Live At The Apollo. But it’s a great rock set altogether by this Australian group, including a cool extended jam at the start of Cold Hard Bitch.

I don’t know much of Mötley Crüe’s music, so all of these songs are unfamiliar to me, but it’s a fun heavy rock set.

Ok, so it’s not the true Run DMC group, as a few members aren’t present, hence the “friends” part. But it’s still an enjoyable performance of the classic Walk This Way, even if there are better versions out there from the original lineup.

I only know this group for their great theme tune to The Big Bang Theory, so it’s interesting to hear another of their songs. It’s not something I’d rush to listen to again, but it’s alright.

I’m not a fan of Neil’s music generally, so most of his set doesn’t appeal to me. But Rockin’ In The Free World is very good, as it’s the big finale where all of the other performers join him on stage. That should have been on the DVD really. It’s far better than the version Maroon 5 did in Philadelphia.

France – Palace Of Versailles, Paris

This concert had a DVD release of its own, containing 33 of the songs spread over 2½ hours. But I wasn’t interested in getting that, and all of its tracks are now online anyway.

On the main Live 8 DVD set, the French concert is represented by 3 tracks:

Muse are the only band among those of interest to me, and their full set is a solid performance of 4 songs altogether (listed below). Matt Bellamy has a very good voice, and sings a particularly impressive falsetto during Bliss. During Time Is Running Out, however, there are some distracting blurry effects and rapid cuts, and I’ve seen a suggestion online that it’s to mask the use of audio from a different live performance, as the visuals wouldn’t sync up otherwise, but I don’t know if that’s true. Whatever the reason, it’s a bit irritating.

Beyond that, there isn’t anything in the rest of the concert that grabs my interest, apart from catchy performances of The Knack’s My Sharona and Cerrone’s Supernature (and the latter was played during the Opening Ceremony of the Paris Olympics this year). It’s also worth noting that Zucchero was playing his second set of the event, having already performed at the Rome concert earlier, while Youssou N’Dour and Dido had previously performed 7 Seconds at Hyde Park and the Eden Project in the UK that day.

The full setlist is as follows…

Germany – Siegessäule (Victory Column), Berlin

This concert was also given its own DVD release, with 30 tracks lasting for 2½ hours. I wasn’t interested in getting that though, and the tracks are online anyway now.

On the main Live 8 DVD set, the German concert is represented by 7 tracks:

Within those, Brian Wilson and Roxy Music are the only two acts I’m particularly interested in, and their full sets are listed below. Brian performs a decent selection of classic Beach Boys hits, and still performs well at the age of 63. He does forget a lyric near the start of God Only Knows, but you can forgive him for that. And Roxy Music do a good set of well-known hits, with a dancer in a striking, sparkly costume joining Bryan Ferry on stage. Black Hole Sun by Audioslave is ok as well, but it’s the only song I know of theirs and I’m not a fan of the group generally.

As for Green Day, I’m not a big fan of their music, and the only one of their songs I know is the one on the DVD. But they do deliver a loud and confident set (also listed below), and lead singer Billie Joe Armstrong gets the crowd going quite well, including some nice call and response sections in Minority, with a very long note held by Billie at one point. It’s nice that they did a Queen song at the end too, given that the legendary band didn’t perform at Live 8. Green Day aren’t a patch on them of course, so it’s a pretty weak cover, although Billie does hit the high notes to be fair, they’re not easy for some singers. Robbie Williams also paid tribute to Queen with We Will Rock You in the Hyde Park concert.

In terms of the rest of the concert, it’s a shame A-Ha aren’t on the main DVD as they’re well known and perform a great set. There’s also a lovely performance of The Lady In Red by Chris De Burgh, although his other tracks are unfamiliar and I’m not bothered about them. There are operatic performances as well, by Katherine Jenkins and Juan Diego Flórez, which aren’t to my taste personally but I do know the songs they’ve chosen, and Katherine also sang at the Edinburgh concert 4 days later. And an honourable mention should go to blind singer Joana Zimmer, as I may not be a fan of her music style but I still recognise that she delivers a very good performance, and it’s great to have another blind artist involved as well as Stevie Wonder in Philadelphia.

The full setlist is as follows…

Italy – Circus Maximus, Rome

This concert was another that had a dedicated DVD release, with 27 tracks lasting just over 2 hours. But I wasn’t bothered about getting that, and most of the tracks are online now anyway.

On the main Live 8 DVD set, the Italian concert is represented by 3 tracks:

Duran Duran are the only musicians of interest to me out of those, and in their full set (listed below) they’ve gone for a decent selection of their many hits, with the best one at the end chosen for the DVD. Thankfully there’s no repeat of the offkey note that everyone remembers from their Live Aid performance!

Other than that, I like the first song by Zucchero, as it’s one that I know and he does a beautiful English rendition of it, before going into a couple of foreign numbers. He performed again at the concert in France that evening as well. But there’s nobody else that interests me in the rest of the concert.

The full setlist is as follows…

  • Velvet – Il Mondo È Fuori / Search And Destroy
  • Pagani & African Drum Collective – Heanda / Stuck Is Stuck
  • Articolo 31
  • Pino Daniele

Japan – Makuhari Messe, Chiba

This concert was the first to get underway on July 2, because of the time zone it was in, and there were only 10,000 people in attendance (the full capacity of the venue), making it one of the smallest gigs of the day. But it’s still impressive considering they had just a month to prepare, and the concert was only publicised a week beforehand. Japan’s involvement was important too, being the only Asian country in the G8, and therefore the only Asian country that participated in Live 8.

The concert is represented among the extra features in the DVD box set by the following 4 tracks. Most of them don’t interest me, but the Dreams Come True track is a nice little love song.

The full setlist is as follows. There’s nothing of major interest for me here.

Russia – Red Square, Moscow

It’s safe to say Russia wouldn’t be included if a similar event were held today. But this concert is most notable for the Pet Shop Boys, who closed the show with a spectacular gig of their own, playing the following setlist from which their 7-minute rendition of Go West is included on the DVD:

It’s A Sin / Suburbia / Opportunities (Let’s Make Lots Of Money) / Domino Dancing / New York City Boy / Always On My Mind / Where The Streets Have No Name (I Can’t Take My Eyes Off You) / West End Girls / Left To My Own Devices / Go West

The other artists at this concert were Agatha Christie (a band named after the author of course), Bi-2, Bravo, Dolphin, Douglas Vale, Jungo, Linda, Moral Code X, Red Elvises, Splean, Garik Sukachov, Valeriy Syutkin and Aliona Sviridova.

South Africa – Mary Fitzgerald Square, Johannesburg

This concert is represented in the main feature of the DVD by Vusi Mahlasela singing When You Come Back. It starts as a slow solo song with acoustic guitar, and then develops a cheerful, catchy rhythm when the band comes in.

There was also a very nice speech by Nelson Mandela at this concert. A recording of it was played to the crowd at the Edinburgh show on July 6, which is included on Disc 4 of the DVD box set. However, it was also played in the UK on July 2 at the Eden Project, and the video for that on Youtube shows a longer edit of the speech.

The other artists at this concert, before Vusi’s finale, were Jabu Khanyile & Bayete, Lindiwe, Lucky Dube, Mahotella Queens (who later appeared with 1 Giant Leap in Edinburgh), Malaika, Orchestra Baobab, Oumou Sangaré and Zola.

UK – Eden Project, Cornwall (Africa Calling)

The other 9 concerts were criticised for their lack of African artists, so this concert was organised by the Eden Project’s Chief Executive Tim Smit to make up for it. The artists were coordinated by Peter Gabriel, who hosted the show alongside Johnny Kalsi. It wasn’t originally part of the Live 8 event, but Bob Geldof agreed to include it, and it was broadcast live on the BBC’s digital network.

There are no performances from this concert in the Live 8 DVD box set. However, there was a separate 2-disc DVD entitled Live 8 At Eden: Africa Calling, containing 30 performances and a documentary, lasting just over 3 hours in total. It’s also possible to download an 18-track album from the event, and the Real World Records channel on Youtube has a small selection of performance videos.

The artists who are known to have been performed at the concert, on an open air stage and/or a biome stage, are listed below. Some are on the DVD, some are on the album and some are on both. Youssou N’Dour and Dido had performed together in Hyde Park just a couple of hours earlier, and went on to sing again in Paris later that day. So they’re the standout artists for me, being the only ones I know. The rest are nice to hear out of curiosity, including some catchy rhythms, but there’s nothing I’d listen to again particularly. The videos I’ve linked to are all on my UK playlist.

UK – Murrayfield Stadium, Edinburgh (The Final Push)

The final concert – entitled Edinburgh 50,000: The Final Push – was held four days after the main event, on 6 July 2005, to coincide with the opening day of the G8 summit in Gleneagles, just an hour’s drive away from the stadium. It was designed to put further pressure on the world leaders to make firm commitments to help those living in abject poverty.

A rally and protest march with an estimated 225,000 people had also been held in central Edinburgh on 2 July for the same reason, organised independently of Live 8 by the Make Poverty History coalition, and was the largest ever anti-poverty protest in the UK.

The Edinburgh concert was also held on the same day that London was awarded the 2012 Olympic Games. However, all of the celebrations were quickly overshadowed by the London bombings the very next day. It was certainly a mixed week for the UK!

Anyway, 12 songs by some of the acts at the concert are included on the fourth disc of the Live 8 DVD boxset, with the feature lasting around 80 minutes. My particular favourites amongst them are the tracks by The Proclaimers, Wet Wet Wet, Annie Lennox, Midge Ure, Texas, Travis and James Brown, because they’re all well-known sing-along classics.

Here’s the list of tracks on the DVD. The linked videos are on my UK playlist.

  • Wet Wet Wet – Love Is All Around (including instrumental nods to Scotland The Brave and Loch Lomond)
  • 1 Giant Leap – My Culture (with The Mahotella Queens, Maxi Jazz, Neneh Cherry & Will Young)
  • Annie Lennox – Sisters Are Doin’ It For Themselves (a great twist on the song, starting with a verse and chorus at the piano before the band kicks in)

Nelson Mandela’s eloquent speech about the need to end poverty, recorded at the Johannesburg concert 4 days earlier, is also included, as it was played out to the audience in the stadium. The big speeches on the day by Bob Geldof and Bono are also naturally kept in, as is the final singalong where the two of them plus Midge Ure get the crowd to sing Flower Of Scotland.

As for what isn’t on the DVD, and not officially available online either, the following songs from the concert are excluded, which in some cases is rather a shame, particularly the Wet Wet Wet, Annie Lennox and Corrs tracks to my mind:

We don’t see most of the presenters between acts either, including Lenny Henry who hosted the concert. The only people we see introducing acts, apart from Bob and Bono, are George Clooney (for Annie Lennox) and Claudia Schiffer with Herbert Grönemeyer (for Midge & Eddie). The intros we don’t see include those from Peter Kay, Eddie Izzard, Coumi Nidu (Action Against Poverty), Susan Sarandon, Chris Evans, Wangari Maathai and Ronan Keating.

Conclusion

There we have it, that’s the end of that epic run of concerts that had something for everybody. It’s not quite as good as Live Aid, granted, but there’s still plenty to enjoy. As I said at the start, opinion will always be divided as to its impact, as poverty obviously cannot be eradicated in one day, or even in one generation given how much needs to be done. But it will have helped a lot of people and raised a lot of awareness, so it was a huge and important step in the right direction.

I expect there will be new retrospectives next year as well, to mark the 40th anniversary of Live Aid and the 20th anniversary of Live 8. And maybe if we’re lucky we’ll get new Blu-ray releases one day, with more footage from the concerts than on the old sets, though there’s no guarantee of that. If by some miracle that does happen, I’ll update these posts accordingly.

But that’s it for now in any case. It’s been fun for me to rewatch the DVD set, and discover lots of additional performances from the UK and around the world that have been shared online in the years since the event, and I hope you enjoyed looking through it all with me too!

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Author: Glen

Love London, love a laugh, love life. Visually impaired blogger, culture vulture & accessibility advocate, with aniridia & nystagmus, posting about my experiences & adventures.

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