It was 20 years ago today...

[raydeen]

Sir Bob taught the world to play.

Been watching Live 8 all morning. Very good concerts so far. Got to see Duran Duran twice.  :-D Philly just went live with the Kaiser Chiefs. I hadn't heard of them before but they were enjoyable in a thrashy kinda way. Will Smith just delivered a heck of a speech that frankly brought a few tears to my eye (too bad it was just cut from the global feed). Then the Black Eyed Peas came on. Had to change the 'channel' to another city on that one.

The opening rendition of Sgt. Peppers with Sir Paul and U2 was excellent. Got to see Dan Ackroyd introduce Bryan Adams. This whole multi-channel web cast is the shiznit. I hope this isn't the last time something like this is broadcast on the web.

Greenday actually made me sit up and take notice. I'm not a fan, but thought they did a hell of a job. Also caught a girl named Elisa from Rome. Will definately be getting one or more of her discs.

This post deserves the headbanger.

 

[Ralence]

  I watched it on and off for most of the day on VH1.  They did a pretty good job of coverage, going back to replay different bands etc.  I really only cared about seeing the Pink Floyd set, and they only panned out for about a minute during comfortably numb, and cut off the tail end.  I'm currently d/ling a torrent someone sent me, I'm thinking it's the video for their set, but we'll see.

  Outside the spectrum of the music, the message itself I actually had issues with.  Not that I'm against helping people in impoverished third world countries, but my belief is that until the governments in them change, we're pretty much just padding the pockets of the leaders to help build them bigger palaces.  Most of the countries referenced during the broadcast today score among the highest in corruption in the world according to transparency.org, with Angola, Cameroon, and Nigeria being rated in the 10 most corrupt on the globe.  I'd much rather see the funding go to the monitored charity organizations and let them oversee the usage and be held responsible, rather than just handing bags of cash to some country that will never actually make its way to the people that need it.

[raydeen]

Yeah, the Floyd reunion was great! I happened to catch it by chance just before going to a birthday party. Was afraid I was going to miss it but alas, the universe smiled on me. There was definately a weird vibe with Waters on stage. I know he's not the most liked among the other band members (been following that lil' breakup since the '80s.), but he seemed to be genuinely glad to be up there. And I thought it was kinda cool that he seemed to initiate the group hug at the end of the set. Too bad the dude can't sing a lick anymore. He was always one of my favorite vocalists.

As for the doubt as to whether or not the 'aid' actually works, I agree. 20 years ago, the food and provisions rotted on the docks without ever reaching the ones who needed it, and certainly the money went straight to the pockets of those who didn't need it. But Geldof's presentation of the old video they did at Live Aid with the Cars 'Drive' as the soundtrack and the subsequent introduction of the little girl (now grown up and majoring in agriculture) from the end of the video, made me feel that even if 99% of the effort is for nil, it's the 1% that makes it all worth it. It shows that the fight can be won, not as quickly as we'd like, but it is winnable. It's just going to take all of us to stay pissed off at these governments and keep pressureing our leaders to do the right thing long after the music has ended. Unfortunately, we get all revved up over things for a while and then simmer down and forget about everyone else's problems except our own. I'm guilty of that. And when it's thrown in our faces all the time, we really cease to care and become jaded. I'm the first to change the channel when Sally Struthers and her starving orphans come on, but frankly, I don't trust that organization after the experience my late mother had with them. They didn't seem to be so much about the charity as about the constant money rolling iin. My mom became very ill in her later years and couldn't continue to send money, so they rewarded her with several nasty and threatening letters. So much for the love of God.

Anyways, I'm rambling now. T'was a very good day.

[HaemishM]

You're not going to help starving Africans by just sending money, as the leaders of those nations are the ones driving around in Rolls Royce's while the people starve. You aren't going to help them by forgiving the debts of the very same leaders so that they can continue to live in luxury while the people live in squalor. You'll only help those people by removing those leaders and replacing them with compassionate ones, and you'll only do that if the people are willing to 1) stop killing each other over stupid religious or ethnic differences and 2) are committed to making sure the new, more compassionate governments stay that way.

[El Gallo]

I was pretty moved by the Floyd reunion, though I felt a bit bad for Roger because he seemed more into it than the other guys.  The coverage was pretty bad, most acts you did not even get to see one full song before some motard VJ started talking over it.  I also was a bit bummed that MTV and VH1 had the same exact coverage, it would have been nice to have different acts on each one.

As for the aid aspect, I thought that this concert was not aimed at raising money to buy food to give to Africans, but to put pressure on the G8 guys to help Africa out?  This avoids the whole distributional mess from the last one, but of course opens up the new "Jacques, Pootie-Poo and the boys just don't really give a fuck" problem.

[Merusk]

I wish I could remember who it was, but someone in the review circles absolutly ripped-into Mtv for their (paraphrased) 'Sad, pathetic and inexcusable' coverage of the event.  I was only half-listening to the radio when they were discussing it this morning, but the opening line was something like, "Everyone knows that Mtv gave up on Pop/Rock a long time ago, so we just wish they'd stop covering it instead of pretending like they care."  Apparently they were doing stupid shit like, oh, cutting away to talk to Jimmy Fallon while one of the big-draw acts were on, and the V-Js insightful commentary for all the acts was something like "Hey, look who's on stage, isn't that COOL." implying, 'hey we're cool for being here, really!' while they had no freaking clue who the act was or why they mattered.

In all, can't say I'm sad I missed it.

[Ironwood]

You're not going to help starving Africans by just sending money, as the leaders of those nations are the ones driving around in Rolls Royce's while the people starve. You aren't going to help them by forgiving the debts of the very same leaders so that they can continue to live in luxury while the people live in squalor. You'll only help those people by removing those leaders and replacing them with compassionate ones, and you'll only do that if the people are willing to 1) stop killing each other over stupid religious or ethnic differences and 2) are committed to making sure the new, more compassionate governments stay that way.

That's nonsense.

[stray]

Heh, for a second there, I thought Haemish was GW Bush....What with the word "compassion" and all (he used it twice at that!). 

As for the topic: I may be the only rocker you'll ever meet that thinks Pink Floyd sucks nuts.

[Ironwood]

Oh, right.  Was it sarcasm then ?  I thought we agreed on green ?

[kaid]

In theory I agree with the feelings behind live 8. In practice I think that no good will come of it. Funneling more and more money into corrupt governments has not seemed to help much over the last what 50 years and I doubt funneling even more money to the same corrupt folks will make it any better.

Until there is governmental reform or change I don't see much point into dumping cash into the blackhole.

kaid

[Bunk]

I missed this part of the show, but apparently on the Canadian feed, when Celine Dion started her "live via satelite" segment the entire audience in Barrie boo'd the ever loving shit out of her. Made me feel proud to be Canadian when I heard that.

I was watching when (Run) DMC came out and played, and thought to myself immediately - it would be cool if they had Aerosmith around for Walk this Way. Sure enough, thats what they closed with - though I could barely recognize Steven Tyler. Guy looks like a bleached blonde crack whore now.

[HaemishM]

Oh, right.  Was it sarcasm then ?  I thought we agreed on green ?

Believe it or not, I was being serious. While I may fall into the liberal camp on some things, I'm beginning to believe that just handing money to starving nations isn't going to do shit. If it was, Sally Struthers wouldn't still be on my fucking TV begging for crumbs while a starving African dies two feet from her. I keep hoping they'll send her into one of the really impoverished villages where they've turned to cannibalism.

You can help some people sometimes, but you can't help all the people all of the time, especially when you have corrupt, money-grubbing cocksuckers in charge of the aid. Look at Rwanda. Watch the Hotel Rwanda movie. The only way you're going to help some of these countries is by removing the dictatorial nutgobblers who are stealing the country blind.

And even THAT isn't going to help if the majority of the people in the nation, as well as the government that takes over, doesn't learn that disagreements aren't solved with the barrel of a gun. Just going in and removing dictators IS NOT ENOUGH. If the new regime can't exert authority without genoicidal tactics, the same problems return. If the new regime can't control the militia, the same problems return. If the new regime can't keep its military commanders from assasinating leaders and holding military coups, the same problems return. And at the core level, at the individual level, if the value of a human life is not held in high regard, if the idea that you can and should shoot someone in the head because he's a different tribe or religion isn't removed from the individual morality, the same problems will return.

Regime change means jack and shit if the new boss is the same as the old boss. If the will of the people is not to solve their own goddamn problems, with or without someone else's help, no amount of aid money, occupation or regime change will mean a good goddamn. See Central America from the 80's on.

[Ironwood]

Ok.  Well said and well argued.  I applaud.

Does that mean we should not try ?

[HaemishM]

Not at all. But we better be damn sure about what we try. And a bunch of aging rockers and Bob Geldof? These aren't the people I want deciding how the money gets spent.

Of course, neither is our current administration.

[AOFanboi]

African leaders, by and large, suck. They need to clean up that shit first.

E.g. hunger in Ethiopia. Gee, can it be because you conscripted all men to the pointless war, shelled the fields and raped and/or drove away the women and children that were left to try and grow something?

Or take Robert Mugabe. After running a successful food-exporting country for ten years, he turns into a blithering madman and wrecks everything in two years (in particular by confiscating farmland and giving it to non-farming cronies). Food aid, when left to his government, is witheld from supporters of the opposition.

And someone wants other countries to reward such behavior by slashing debts that went to corrupt officials' extravagant lifestyles?

[Pococurante]

If the US and Europe really gave a shit we'd give non-repressive African governments exclusive agricultural import rights.  We do that for oil and metals after all.  It doesn't do jack to send over money and teddybears if we're never going to allow them to build self-sustaining economies - that's exactly why the money goes into the pockets of the corrupt.  US/Europe could simply halve their current internal subsidies and generate more than 400 billion in income to Africa yearly.

Heaven forbid the US stop giving out welfare to multi-billion dollar corporate farms.  Yay us.

Disposable income leads to a middle class which leads to national security for all of us.