Live Earth concerts kicks off in Sydney (AP)

[White_Male_Canada]

Live Earth series starts in Sydney

By ROHAN SULLIVAN, Associated Press Writer
54 minutes ago



Live Earth got a traditional Aboriginal welcome in Australia and a high-tech virtual one in Japan, as the 24-hour global concert series to raise awareness about climate change kicked off Saturday.

Al Gore made appearances at both — as a hologram in Tokyo and via live video link with Sydney — urging rock fans to join the fight against global warming.

Madonna, Metallica, the Police and Kanye West are among the top billed of more than 150 acts due to appear in the nine-concert series.

The biggest names will be at Live Earth concerts in London and New Jersey, with more modest lineups of mostly local and regional acts at the other venues. After Sydney and Tokyo, concerts will be held in Shanghai, China; Johannesburg, South Africa; Hamburg, Germany; London; Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and New Jersey and Washington.

Aboriginal tribal leaders with white-painted bodies and shaking eucalyptus fronds were the first to take the stage at the Australian event, singing and dancing a traditional welcome to crowd that grew quickly from a few hundred midmorning to several thousand by around lunchtime.

Gore then invited the crowd to take Live Earth's seven-point pledge to reduce their personal environmental impact and support policies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

"Thank you for coming today and thank you for being the very first to launch this movement to help solve the climate crisis," Gore said. "Enjoy the show."

Australian actress Toni Collette, taking a break from Hollywood to try her hand at a singing career, dedicated a song called "Cowboy Games" to world political leaders. Her band the Finnish ended their set with a grinding guitar-driven version of the 1970s T-Rex hit "Children of the Revolution."

"It's heartwarming to see so many people here today for the cause of going green," said Collette, who was Oscar-nominated for her role in "The Sixth Sense." "I take my hat off to you all."

Problems and changes to the series continued right down to the last minute, with a ninth concert — in Washington — added on Friday and a court battle continuing in Brazil to decide whether the show there could go ahead as planned.

Critics say that it lacks achievable goals, and that bringing in jet-setting rock stars in fuel-guzzling airliners to plug in to amplifier stacks and cranking up the sound may send mixed messages about energy conservation.

"The last thing the planet needs is a rock concert," The Who's singer Roger Daltrey recently told a British newspaper.

Organizers say the concerts will be as green as possible, with a tally of energy use being kept. Proceeds from ticket sales will go toward distributing power-efficient light bulbs and other measures that will offset the shows' greenhouse gas emissions, they say.

In Johannesburg, four-time Grammy nominee Angelique Kidjo offered a tart response to Daltrey's comment. "Criticism is easy," she said during a news conference Friday that involved performers in the local concert. "And there is a kind of fashion of cynical people around us. You are cynical — what the hell are you doing to change the world? Get your butt out there. Do something."

And it is beyond time to do so, she explained.

"Climate change is visible today, we can see that now. And if you can talk to farmers they will tell you that their crops that they are harvesting are not the same as before. That for me is a wake-up call because if we cannot eat, we cannot sustain ourselves. We don't eat cameras, we don't eat cars, we eat food."

Organizers were predicting live broadcasts on cable television and the Internet could reach up to 2 billion people. Scores of short films and public service announcements will be aired giving the audience tips about how to conserve energy and reduce their environmental impact.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070707/...sic_live_earth

[tsafficianado]

fortunately i caught SHAKIRA, reason enough to throw a seven continent music festival.

other than that, it's sort of amazing what can pass for talent.

[White_Male_Canada]

fortunately i caught SHAKIRA, reason enough to throw a seven continent music festival.

other than that, it's sort of amazing what can pass for talent.

Horrible.

Reviews are coming in. From blase to downright boring. For instance, TimesonlineUK:

It did what it said on the poster – but no more...As a concert, Live Earth was not the repeat of Live Aid/Live 8 it clearly wanted to be...With the exception of the closing act Madonna – who played next door at Wembley Arena only last summer – there was nobody on the Stadium bill with the cross-generational appeal, and catalogue of monster hits, to supply the great unifying moments which event gigs need to make their message stick in the mind.

Wonder if people are asking for a refund on their carbon credit.

[guyone]

They should have called the event Live Assholes.

[White_Male_Canada]

They should have called the event Live Assholes.

They should have been honest, admit their Gaia religion/earth worshipping, and go from there.

The music was horrible. Tone deaf singers and instrument players? Three cord rock stars, now digitized track loops and whoops of " heyyyy, hooooo, heyyyy, hoooo" coupled with school yard type adult nursery rhymes.

Apart from that, reviews basically consider it a flop.

Reuters:

U.S. and British media were generally underwhelmed on Sunday by Live Earth, the mega-concert organized by former U.S. vice president and green campaigner Al Gore, which, though built on the model of Live Aid and Live 8, created a less positive buzz.

Chris Rock at the gigs,

"I pray that this event ends global warming the same way that Live Aid ended world hunger,"