Start to Make It Better, Live 8 Urges

The day began here with Paul McCartney and U2 joining forces, climaxed with the emotionally charged reunion of iconic ‘70s rock band Pink Floyd and wrapped with an all-star cast singing the Beatles’ “Hey Jude.”

And that was just on one of the 10 stages around the world that were part of Saturday’s Live 8 concert extravaganza to raise awareness about poverty in Africa.

American rock band Green Day powered through Queen’s “We Are the Champions” in Berlin, husband-wife country music stars Tim McGraw and Faith Hill topped the bill in Rome, and in Canada, Neil Young delivered a tenacious rendition of his sardonic anthem “Rockin’ in the Free World” in his first public performance since a brain aneurysm in March.

About 900,000 people turned out in nine countries for the free concerts, which were broadcast live on TV, radio and over the Internet in 140 countries to a potential audience estimated at more than 1 billion.

“This is our moment, this is our time,” U2 singer Bono, one of the driving forces behind Live 8 and 1985’s Live Aid, said in front of an estimated 200,000 people at London’s Hyde Park. “This is our chance to stand up for what’s right. We’re not asking for charity. We’re asking for justice.”

Unlike the Live Aid concerts in London and Philadelphia two decades ago, at which fans were asked to open their hearts and their wallets to help famine victims in Africa, the thrust of Live 8 wasn’t raising funds, but consciousness about the toll poverty is taking in Africa.

Musicians and celebrity speakers urged audiences to pressure President Bush, British Prime Minister Tony Blair and leaders of other wealthy nations to take swift action when they meet for the annual Group of 8 summit Wednesday near Edinburgh, Scotland. About 220,000 people gathered there Saturday for a rally timed to coincide with the summit and the concerts.

Live 8 supporters want the G-8 to adopt a three-pronged program mirroring recommendations by Britain’s Commission on Africa, of which Bob Geldof, organizer of Live 8 and Live Aid, is a member. It calls for canceling debts, increasing foreign aid and ending trade tariffs for impoverished African nations.

McCartney and U2, who sang the Beatles’ “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” on Saturday, were joined in London by other Live Aid veterans, including the Who, Madonna, Elton John and Sting.

At other venues, Stevie Wonder, Jay-Z, Celine Dion and more than 100 pop, rock and rap performers took the stage in Philadelphia, Moscow, Tokyo, Berlin, Rome, Paris, Toronto, Johannesburg, South Africa, and Cornwall, England. Many of the musicians were children when Live Aid was staged, and many watching the Live 8 shows hadn’t been born.

“This is really the United Nations,” U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan told the London audience on a warm afternoon. “The whole world has come together in solidarity with the poor. On the behalf of the poor, the voices of the weak have said thank you.”

In Johannesburg, former South African President Nelson Mandela received a five-minute standing ovation from an audience of more than 8,000 after saying, “History and the generations to come will judge our leaders by the decisions they make in the coming weeks.”

Anti-establishment rock stars even turned over stage time to one of the world’s most famous capitalists and philanthropists, Microsoft Corp. co-founder Bill Gates, who received a hero’s welcome. “We can do it,” he said, “and when we do it, it will be the best thing humanity has ever done.”

As chairman of this year’s G-8 summit, Blair has promised to put the issue of poverty in Africa at the top of the group’s agenda. Saturday’s concerts were hastily mounted after being announced in May by Bono and Geldof.

In one of the day’s most dramatic and emotional moments, Geldof addressed the skepticism directed at him about pop musicians and their fans attempting to influence world politics.

“Mahatma Gandhi freed a continent, Martin Luther King freed a people, Nelson Mandela freed a country,” Geldof told the London crowd. “It does work -- they will listen.”

Then he brought out Birhan Woldu, a 24-year-old Ethiopian who he said was prominently featured in a documentary shown at Live Aid about the famine then gripping her country.

In that film, Woldu, then a toddler, had been wrapped in a burial shroud because nuns caring for the starving told her father she was within 15 minutes of death. She survived, and with the help of money and services generated by Live Aid, she grew up and recently took exams for a college degree in agricultural studies.

After she told the crowd, through an interpreter, “We Africans love you very much,” Geldof defiantly said: “There -- don’t let them tell you this stuff doesn’t work.” He then introduced Madonna, who kissed Weldu.

In addition to Green Day, the Berlin lineup included Beach Boys founder Brian Wilson and rock band Audioslave. The concert in Johannesburg and a smaller event in Cornwall, heavy with African acts, were arranged after Geldof and other Live 8 organizers were criticized for including few black performers in London. Geldof noted the heavy rap and R&B; contingent in Philadelphia, and said the priority was to get big-name acts that could draw a wide audience.

The Live 8 concert in France at the Palace of Versailles outside Paris featured the Cure, Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli, Latin pop star Shakira and numerous French pop acts that drew about 65,000 people. The show near Tokyo, added relatively late and headlined by Icelandic singer Bjork and U.S. punk band Good Charlotte, pulled in about 10,000 people -- half the capacity of the Makuhari Messe hall.

“What we did in the Beatles really overtook us and our intentions,” McCartney said before Saturday’s performances. “When it is remembered and loved that way, you can only appreciate that something mighty has happened, way beyond anything we set out to do. I think the same thing is happening with Live 8 now.”

Geldof had asked performers to refrain from criticizing world leaders, which resulted in a minimum of pointedly politicized pronouncements. In Philadelphia, rapper Jay-Z alluded to “billions of dollars being spent to kill people,” and German punk rocker Campino told the Berlin audience, “We have to get Africa out of USA’s headlock.”

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Times staff writer Lewis reported from Los Angeles and special correspondent Bennett from London. Times staff writers Achrene Sicakyuz in Paris, Christian Retzlaff in Berlin and Natasha Yefimova in Moscow contributed to this report.