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Live 8 Live in Your Living Room
06/23/2005 2:04 PM, E! Online
Josh Grossberg
All you who missed out the ticket lottery or can't swing that
last-minute fare to London to see the anticipated Pink Floyd reunion,
fear not--Live 8 is going to be live in your living room.
America Online controls the U.S. broadcast rights to the July 2 global
series of free all-star concerts aimed at fighting Third World poverty
and will stream the shows live on the Internet. Additionally, AOL has
sealed deals with MTV and VH1 to televise the concerts and Premiere
Radio Networks and XM Satellite Radio to handle the radio broadcasts.
Organized by Irish rocker Bob Geldof, the mastermind behind
1985's historic Live Aid concert to stop famine in Africa, which were
also carried on MTV, the Live 8 concerts will be staged in London,
Philadelphia, Rome, Paris, Berlin, Toronto, Tokyo and Johannesburg. An
additional concert is planned for Edinburgh on July 6, the day leaders
of the world's most powerful industrial nations meet in nearby Gleneagle
for their annual G8 summit.
Geldof is using the concerts
as a forum to pressure G8 leaders to do more for developing nations. His
stated goal is to beam the shows to 2 billion people worldwide; to do
that, he has been licensing the broadcasts to media outlets around the
globe.
In the U.S., Viacom-owned MTV, VH1 and MTV's
college network mtvU, will share a live feed, offering eight hours of
coverage from noon to 8 p.m. ET. Interspersed throughout will be
packaged reports about the G8, the issues at stake and a retrospective
on Live Aid. Sibling networks VH1 Classic and CMT will also showcase
highlights of Live 8 performances featuring artists geared specifically
toward their formats. Internationally, MTV, VH1 and Music Factory
networks will have hourly bulletins about the show. This will be the
most amount of time MTV has dedicated to a live broadcast since
Woodstock '99.
"Over the last few weeks, an incredible
passion has been building around Live 8's mission and we want to help
bring that passion back to our audience. By empowering our viewers to
take action against poverty, we're reinforcing the message that as world
citizens, we're all in this together," said Van Toffler, president of
MTV Networks Music Group.
On July 3, MTV's various
networks around the world will beam a one-hour Live 8 special showcasing
the best performances from all eight concerts.
On the
dial, XM Satellite Radio will broadcast the five main gigs-- in
Philadelphia, London, Paris, Berlin and Rome--starting at 9 a.m. ET,
while Premiere Radio Networks will channel genre-specific live
performances to urban, rock, and pop radio formats. AOL, which will
carry Live 8 at AOLmusic.com, will also make the concerts available for
download up to six weeks after the event.
More than
150,000 free tickets have already been distributed via a text-message
lottery system for what's shaping up to be the marquee event--the Live 8
mega-show in London's Hyde Park featuring a who's-who superstars bill,
includingPaul McCartney, U2, Coldplay, Madonna, Elton John, the Who and
the reunited Pink Floyd.
Among the other big-name
performers scheduled to take part in Live 8 concerts on July 2: Dave
Matthews Band, Bon Jovi, Stevie Wonder, Will Smith, Sarah McLachlan,
Jay-Z, soon-to-disband Destiny's Child and Linkin Park in Philadelphia;
James Brown, Sheryl Crow, the Cure, Jamiroquai, Placebo and Andrea
Bocelli in Paris; Lauryn Hill, Brian Wilson and Crosby, Stills and Nash
in Berlin; and Duran Duran, Faith Hill and Tim McGraw in Rome. The July
6 Edinburgh show will include sets from Annie Lennox, Dido and Travis.
Last week, Tokyo, Johannesburg and Toronto were added to the
lineup. On Tuesday, organizers announced that the Toronto show will take
place at Park Place (formerly Molson Park) and feature Canadian acts
like the Barenaked Ladies, Bryan Adams, the Tragically Hip, Simple Plan
and, appearing via satellite from Las Vegas, Celine Dion. Native sons
Dan Aykroyd and Tom Green will host the show. Mtley Cre and Deep
Purple are also on the bill.
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