Live 8 Concert was Rock at it's Best

From AP Twenty years after a scruffy one-hit wonder first demonstrated his gift for lofty dreams and grandiose statements, hundreds of the world’s top performers and more than 1 million fans united for 10 free concerts across the globe aimed at fighting African poverty. Bob Geldof claimed Saturday’s shows would be “the greatest concert ever,” and it was hard to argue with him after the unprecedented gathering drew everyone from Snoop Dogg to Bill Gates, Mandela to Madonna.
But the ultimate success of the Live 8 extravaganza will be judged by whether the world’s most powerful leaders, gathering next week for the Group of Eight summit meeting, listen to Geldof’s demands for debt forgiveness, trade concessions and $25 billion in aid for Africa.
In Philadelphia, on the Independence Day weekend, actor Will Smith called the festivities a worldwide “declaration of interdependence.” Neil Young performed rousing renditions of “Keep on Rockin’ In The Free world” and “O Canada” before 35,000 roaring fans at Canada’s event in Barrie, Ontario.
Dave Gilmour and Pink Floyd reunited to play together for the first time since 1981 at Saturday's Live 8 concert in London. Paul McCartney and U2 opened the flagship show of the free 10-concert festival with a rousing performance of “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.” A thunderous roar erupted from the crowd of about 200,000 as icons McCartney and Bono belted out the first line: “It was 20 years ago today...” — a nod to Geldof’s mammoth Live Aid benefit that raised millions for African famine relief in 1985.
Bono, dressed in black and wearing his trademark wraparound shades, wrapped the crowd around his finger, enticing tens of thousands to sing along to the anthemic “One” and “Beautiful Day.” The crowd cheered when a flock of white doves was released overhead.
The first concert kicked off in Japan, where Bjork and Good Charlotte joined local bands for a show that failed to generate much interest in Asia’s only G-8 nation. Despite Bjork making her first live performance in two years, the crowd of 10,000 people was only half of what the hall in the Tokyo suburb of Makuhari could hold. For whole story read here...