Posted on 06/28/2005 9:17:40 AM PDT by Drew68
LONDON (Reuters) - Moscow has been added to the lineup of Live 8 concerts on July 2 which aim to put pressure on world leaders meeting the following week to do more to alleviate extreme poverty.
Live 8 coordinator Richard Curtis said on Friday he was "pretty confident" that Moscow would be added to the eight main concerts, and on Tuesday morning the Red Square gig was on the official Web site.
The site, www.live8live.com, now features 10 concerts on July 2; one in each of the G8 industrialized nations, one in South Africa and one smaller gig at the Eden Project in southwest England that will feature African bands.
Another event is scheduled for Scotland on July 6.
"It's terribly important that we represent each of the G8 nations," Curtis said of the Moscow concert, which will headline British band Pet Shop Boys and feature several Russian acts.
Irish rocker Bob Geldof, who has masterminded what could be the biggest pop music event in history, wants the concerts to draw attention to the world's poor, particularly in Africa.
He is hoping that G8 leaders meeting in Scotland on July 6-8 will be forced to sit up and take notice that poverty is an issue their voters care about.
The concerts will kick off in Tokyo in the east and end in Philadelphia and near Toronto in the west, taking in Johannesburg, Paris, Berlin, Rome, London and Moscow on the way.
Hundreds of thousands of people are expected at the concerts themselves, with a potential audience of billions more through television, news broadcasts and the Internet.
The Live Aid concerts organized by Geldof 20 years ago to raise money for Ethiopia's starving had an estimated global audience of 1.5 billion people.
So what stellar examples of Russian pop music will be featured? The REO Speedwagon-ish sounding power ballads of Chai Vdvoem or the guitar-heavy ska sound of Kino? Of course, who can forget the multi-talented duo t.A.T.u.?
OK, so I only know three Russian bands...
That's two more than I. I vaguely recall seeing something about tatu a while ago. I noticed Live 8 is listed for this Saturday night. I'll be watching the race at Daytona.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.