Live 8: No-one's Taking Me Home

Jun 29, 2005 · 2 minute read

I’ve found it hard to fully explain my uneasiness with the upcoming Live 8 concert. There’s just something that bugs me about it all, from the inept mobile phone ticket lottery (making lots of money for O²), the ever-changing reasons why certain acts weren’t invited to perform (and bands added to the bill without being informed), to Bob Geldof’s rather lunatic ideas like Sail 8. They seem wedded to the history of Live Aid, yet insist that the new concert has nothing to do with it (lots of the same acts, similar name, very similar logo belie this somewhat). And it just seems…less, somehow. Sure, it’ll will be the most-watched concert in history on Saturday. But that doesn’t mean much any more; back in 1985, it was something special to be taken to a Russian studio, to peer behind the Iron Curtain using cutting edge satellite technology. Now, Russia is just another country, and the transmission probably won’t trouble today’s broadcast technology.

But what sums up the whole event for me is a news report from last night, where Richard Curtis and a host of assistants are busy at work creating a video to be broadcast on the night. Now, I don't now how much of the legend of the Drive video is true, but in that case, it seems that it was the work of a lone BBC engineer who stumbled upon the juxtaposition of The Cars and images from Africa. Sure, it was manipulative, but it was an amateur sort of manipulation; he overlaid the two, and that was it. Now, though, Curtis is going through music libraries to find the 'perfect' soundtrack (R.E.M.'s "Losing My Religion' played throughout last night's report), in a calculated attempt to recreate the effect of Drive. It's Live Aid, but polished, airbrushed, and shined.

Sure, I'll probably be watching on Saturday. But with a sense of scepticism over the whole affair…