Live what?

[walkonby]

Originally posted by vansmack:
  July 13, 1985 was a day I will never forget - the music and the message created one of the greatest days of my life and its impact on me personally was immeasurable.
 
 July 2, 2005 was a monumental day that marked the day the Internet has finally surpassed TV Networks as the vehicle of choice for delivering live events.  AOL completely blew away MTV, who made a hash of the whole day with ridiculous uninformed interviews both by VJs and fans, and more commercials than actual performances or informational spot pieces.  It's almost as if MTV wanted you to go to AOL to watch the concerts because of their clear lack of effort.  AOL showed the live feeds from all countries, had a channel for highlighting performances you may have missed, and had better informational pieces on the African plight.  MTV ran the same two info spot pieces onf Africa over and over again.  The Live 8 folks had at least a dozen that I saw on AOL.
 
 AOL (free to the public) is still replaying the concerts city by city and is planning to release a song by song on demand feature in the next few days.
 
 On demand video over IP has a brighter future then I ever imagined after this weekend.

i'd be interested to know the actual number of people on the planet, not the u.s. or the washington, dc nine-thirty club forum, but the entire planet, who knew that coverage was on mtv and vh-1 for most of saturday, versus people who knew it was on aol.  i didn't find out about aol's awesome coverage until after the fact, while mtv and vh-i are daily/weekly/monthly television drug injections (depending on how often you watch, even if in two to five mintue intervals) that equals constant, subconscious reference.  and that plus the people who still rely on dial-up connection for internet hookup, and a lot of those people know full well that you might as well not even bother with anything large scale on the computer, which might involve vast downloads of something horribly lengthly.  the effort and time consumption just isn't there anymore in people.  that's why so many of you bitch about no one dancing anymore at shows.  that IS a weird trend i've come to notice as well, unless you're at a jam band show, where eveyone is dancing, but i'm getting of the subject.  mtv's coverage was an easy, right there, less time consuming, switch on/switch off metabolism that we've all come to multi-taskingly know and accept as love.  everybody expecting a dvd didn't help the matter, either.  no one was pushing aol's performance other than aol, i'm sure . . . but i might be all wrong.  what do i know anyway besides what i only think?

[Bags]

July 4, 2005
 
 Melding Gravity and Guilt at Live 8
 By JON PARELES
 Critic's Notebook
 The New York Times
 
 LONDON, July 3 - The symmetry was clear between the Group of 8 summit meeting, which begins in Scotland on Wednesday, and Saturday's Live 8 concerts, which were staged to pressure the G-8 leaders on policies affecting Africa. The concerts took place in the eight major industrial countries represented by the group (along with a concert belatedly added in South Africa). And like the G-8 meeting, they hinged on the privileged addressing the problems of the impoverished.
 
 How immediately effective Live 8 was will be gauged after the summit. Skeptics could discount the concerts' gigantic audience, estimated to be in the billions live and electronically, as merely a reflection of the music's popularity. But viewers absorbed some persuasive messages, balancing grim statistics with promises of solutions. Those spots, as slickly produced as any political advertising, probably reached people who hadn't thought much about Africa since the Live Aid concert raised money for famine relief in 1985.
 
 "By the time this concert ends this evening, 30,000 Africans will have died," Brad Pitt announced here in London, then urged that "we the fortunate" stand for change.
 
 Endorsing the program of the organization Make Poverty History, Sir Bob Geldof - who organized Live Aid and the larger, technologically upgraded Live 8 - and many of the performers called for canceling third-world debt, doubling aid and changing trade regulations to open markets for African goods. At the Philadelphia concerts, performers invoked a "declaration of interdependence."
 
 Live 8 was not about opening ears to African culture but about maximizing the audience. It's a shame that Africa's remarkable music was barely noticed during the Live 8 marathon. The Johannesburg concert - with musicians from South Africa, Senegal and Mali - was not cybercast by AOL; neither was a hastily organized concert of African music in Cornwall, far from London, although Angelina Jolie dropped by. Youssou N'Dour, the great Senegalese singer, sang with Dido in London and Cornwall, and led his own set at the concert at Versailles, near Paris. Yet even the background music in the video clips about Africa was largely Western. More Africans should have been heard, as well as pitied, during Live 8.
 
 But in the global pop market, the biggest names are English-speaking pop stars whose privilege transcends language barriers. The Philadelphia concert had a strong American contingent, and a vital presence for the African-American rhythm-and-blues and hip-hop that is now fueling pop innovation; and the Canadian concert ended with Neil Young. But the others leaned toward musicians who live or record in Britain.
 
 The Cure headlined in Versailles, the Pet Shop Boys in Moscow, Bjork (who is Icelandic) in Tokyo, Roxy Music in Berlin. Flashy production, on nearly identical stage sets, sought to hold viewers long enough so they would watch video spots about Africa between songs. One spot showed emaciated Africans holding Western consumer goods as it compared the amount of proposed aid with the billions spent on cosmetics, fashion accessories, weapons and discarded computers and cellphones. Meanwhile, Live 8's corporate sponsors included Nokia and AOL (which has reruns of some concerts at www.aolmusic.com).
 
 Visions of the 1960's, and rock songs full of peace and love - along with Bob Marley's 1970's reggae songs - are always associated with pop benefits. Sir Paul McCartney started and ended the flagship London concert with Beatles songs: not "All You Need Is Love," however, but "Helter-Skelter." Yet there was little 60's-style protest beyond an occasional stretch of a rap: "Greed is a weapon of mass destruction," Faithless rapped in Berlin. While the G-8's decisions are ultimately political, the Live 8 concerts strove to appear more technocratic than ideological. Sir Bob brought Bill Gates of Microsoft on stage in London, where Mr. Gates gave a C.E.O.-style pep talk: "Success depends on knowing what works and bringing resources to the problem. We know what to do."
 
 The 1960's didn't have the 21st-century gadgets that dominated Live 8. (Neither, for that matter, do the many Africans who live on less than $2 a day.) "Text us, call us," Bono said to a worldwide audience from Hyde Park on Saturday afternoon as U2 opened the Live 8 concert here. "These phones, they're dangerous little devices."
 
 He was asking viewers to send their names - a painless contribution - for a list that grew past 25 million as the group of concerts was shown on television and the Internet. Of course, petition drives don't usually come with satellite-linked serenades from million-selling rockers.
 
 It was high-tech coalition building. At one point the rapper and actor Will Smith in Philadelphia played host as audience members at simultaneous concerts roared video-screen greetings to one another. Then he had the viewers snap their fingers at three-second intervals; in Africa, he said, an impoverished child dies every three seconds.
 
 Against statistics like that, rock hits can sound lightweight and narcissistic - overly concerned with the preening or the romantic mishaps of people making considerably more than $2 a day. It's a rare band - U2, to be precise - that can make big booming songs sound humble as well as rousing. A few performers, like Sting, also rewrote lines of familiar songs to address the G-8: "We'll be watching you," he sang in "Every Breath You Take."
 
 Others hoped that their love songs would double as songs of empathy. And the rest kept it to themselves if they were worried about the context. Rappers boasted, rockers flailed at their guitars, country singers honky-tonked. Parochial, frivolous, raucous and more, the songs were hits nonetheless, and performing them drew attention. That is what stars are supposed to do, as well as providing fantasies of pleasure, success, rebellion or shared trauma. Whether it was Beyoncé of Destiny's Child boasting "I'm a survivor" because an album sold millions of copies, or the Cure's Robert Smith moaning about angst, the stars provided enough media leverage to put Live 8 on all those television and computer screens.
 
 There was narcissism, too, in those 25 million names. When transmitted online or by cellphone text, there was a chance that a sender's name would be projected on the video screens behind the stars during the Live 8 broadcast, where the names became one more graphic element. It was not only an endorsement of Make Poverty History, but a chance at 15 milliseconds of fame, one more privilege of the connected.
 
 Perhaps narcissism is underrated. It can be a great motivator. It may have added some percentage of names to that online petition for African relief; it definitely helped put stars onstage for Live 8. And as the Live 8 concerts sought to instruct the G-8, those who have economic privilege should use it well.

[Mobius]

From what I've read about the AOL broadcast, it seems that the merging of TV and Internet has much greater appeal than I ever thought about.  I watched the broadcast mainly from a bar where they showed VH1/MTV.  Why isn't there a service where they could have gotten the AOL (or other) feed directly to the TV - or some next generation medium - through cable or otherwise? Computers tend to be personal (i.e. the term PC), but where the content is "social" it seems some new evolutionary phase is ripe.  
 
 I think part of the appeal of an event like Live 8 or Live Aid is that everyone is watching it communally.  That's part of what makes the event memorable - if not defining of an era, as I think Live Aid was - as opposed to just cool (or crap) performances.  The world is watching, together.  So a single unified broadcast adds to that one world feeling as opposed to watching from a computer.  But technology could bridge the gap - to make the internet broadcast more communal - while relieving us from the broadcasting when it sucks or is taking away from the event.

[sonickteam2]

very sorry that the MTV broadcasts sucked, but could anyone have expected different?  I went to the Toronto (Barrie) show and it was kick ass, but its too early to post a real review, so i will later.....

[kosmo vinyl]

Originally posted by sonickteam4:
  very sorry that the MTV broadcasts sucked, but could anyone have expected different?  I went to the Toronto (Barrie) show and it was kick ass, but its too early to post a real review, so i will later.....

there was a concert in Canada too? one would have never known based on VH-1's coverage....
 
 i found the aolmusic streams via live8live.com site before the vh-1 coverage started, but the browser crashed when i tried to start the stream and decided just to check out to VH-1 instead of fussing with it.
 
 watching streamed concerts on the internet just doesn't click with me, it lacks the vibe of watching in on tv. staring a computer screen watching a little box with choppy video not something i could do all day long.  had there been media center pc hooked to the tv, the streams might have been a better option.
 
 i may have misheard the deal with how aol is providing the streams post concert, i.e. are they charging to view them, etc.
 
 nowadays mtv hires host on their ability to stand and look pretty while hosting shows aimed at teenagers.  clearily being brainy isn't required anymore.  in the past the hosts have been informed, etc... i think MTV misjudged the demographic that would tune into the coverage, and ended up insulting us older folk wanting to see the bands involved this "historic" event, instead of seeing audienece and artists inviewed by dimwits.  does john norris have naked pictures of someone at mtv?

[Charlie Nakatestes, Japanese Golfer]

That's because we were young and our music taste still sucked to the point that the 1985 bill seemed good. But looking back, it wasn't.
 
 

Originally posted by kosmo vinyl:
  I remember watching Live Aid being an event something to excited about.

[sonickteam2]

Originally posted by Charlie Nakatestes, Japanese Golfer:
  That's because we were young and our music taste still sucked to the point that the 1985 bill seemed good. But looking back, it wasn't.
 

and now yours is better?

I just love it any time when rockstars pretend they care.

[Charlie Nakatestes, Japanese Golfer]

Alan Hunter, Mark Goodman, JJ Jackson, Martha Quinn, Nina Blackwood...what a brainy bunch they were!
 
 

Originally posted by kosmo vinyl:
 

 nowadays mtv hires host on their ability to stand and look pretty while hosting shows aimed at teenagers.  clearily being brainy isn't required anymore.  in the past the hosts have been informed, etc... i think MTV misjudged the demographic that would tune into the coverage, and ended up insulting us older folk wanting to see the bands involved this "historic" event, instead of seeing audienece and artists inviewed by dimwits.  does john norris have naked pictures of someone at mtv? [/b]

[kosmo vinyl]

well i now actually have interest in seeing a full reunited pink floyd tour... couldn't be bother all those years with the dave gilmore wankfest.  but seeing roger waters merrily bomping around with a grin on his face this weekend was kinda cool.  i think even old the gumpy pants drummer and gilmore seem to having fun despite the perma scowl on this faces...  the who came off rather vitalized to..

[Bombay Chutney]

Originally posted by Charlie Nakatestes, Japanese Golfer:
  Alan Hunter, Mark Goodman, JJ Jackson, Martha Quinn, Nina Blackwood...what a brainy bunch they were!
 

Not the brainiest bunch, but I think they all had legitimate radio/music business experience.

[chaz]

Originally posted by Bombay Chutney:
   

Originally posted by Charlie Nakatestes, Japanese Golfer:
  Alan Hunter, Mark Goodman, JJ Jackson, Martha Quinn, Nina Blackwood...what a brainy bunch they were!
 

Not the brainiest bunch, but I think they all had legitimate radio/music business experience. [/b]

Hey don't forget Adam Curry, the inventor of Podcasting.  Isn't that supposed to revolutionize radio or something?

[vansmack]

Originally posted by Mobius:
   Why isn't there a service where they could have gotten the AOL (or other) feed directly to the TV - or some next generation medium - through cable or otherwise? Computers tend to be personal (i.e. the term PC), but where the content is "social" it seems some new evolutionary phase is ripe.  

You can watch your computer on a TV screen at minimal expense.  You can also listen to your computer through your stereo at virtually no expense (maybe $5 for the cable).  You don't need a service to do that, just a little equipment.  And most Mac Laptops (god bless them) even come with an S-Video out plug standard.  Every computer should do this.
 
 High Def screens will make all of this a thing of the past, but some companies, like SBC, are in fact rolling out video over IP (research Project Lightspeed), however they are thinking about it slightly differently to start.  In the beginning they were attempting a Netflix type service - any movie you want on your TV at any time.  Lately however, they've changed their tune and are now talking about using IPTV for live broadcasts, allowing viewers to choose camera angles and feeds on their own.  Their chariman used football as an example in his speech last week.
 
 This would have been an amazing event to hype up their service, however their roll out has been slow and I doubt AOL would have licensed the IP feed out to SBC.

[ggw]

Pink Floyd reunion proves that pigs can fly
 (Filed: 30/06/2005)
 
 Pink Floyd's ironical drummer tells Robert Sandall how the group's reunion came about
 
 Roger Waters, whose first phone call to Dave Gilmour in over 20 years sealed the Live8 deal, has said nothing. Gilmour has muttered off-the-record that this isn't a proper reunion and that he's more interested in his forthcoming solo album. Rick Wright, the quiet one, has kept quiet. Which leaves Nick Mason, the group's tirelessly ironical drummer and the only Floyder to speak publicly about their historic rapprochement.
 
 Speaking to me at the end of last week, Mason cheerfully admitted that the band hadn't actually sat down together yet to decide which three songs to play or how to play them - "It's sort of assumed that we'll all remember how they go" - but was optimistic that some kind of rehearsal would take place. Either that or they would have to issue a statement: "Due to commitments, the Pink Floyd will be rehearsing after the show."
 
 Mason confirmed that the truce had been brokered by Geldof, partly to ramp up interest in Live8 in the States, where Pink Floyd are considerably more popular than poor African countries. "Plus I think Bob wanted an addition to what he did last time. He wanted a novelty act basically. It was a toss up between us and the Spice Girls. Not sure if we lost or won." Briefly assuming a straight face, Mason did say that "At this point it's nice to be remembered not just for a bunch of jolly tunes, but for something that might make a real difference to the world."
 
 He also commented that Bob Geldof had been "fabulously persuasive" and that his relationship with Roger Waters - whom he first met when he starred as Pink in Alan Parker's film of The Wall in 1982 - had been crucial. "Roger and Bob have enormous respect for each other, The two of them together are a bit like Hitler and Stalin with a better sense of humour, and in Bob's case, worse hair."
 
 More importantly Mason said he thought the real spur to the Floyd's temporary resurrection was their desire to put the ghost of Live Aid to rest. With legal proceedings just begun in the summer of 1985 to establish who owned the rights to the name, Pink Floyd, only Gilmour turned up for Geldof's first African benefit, playing guitar for Bryan Ferry. " I felt, and I think we all felt, that it was a shame we hadn't played Live Aid," Mason said.
 
 source

[vansmack]

Donate Live 8 profit says Gilmour
 
 Artists and record firms who have seen album sales soar after Live 8 should donate their profits to charity, Pink Floyd star Dave Gilmour has said.
 
 "I will not profit from the concert," the guitarist said. "This is money that should be used to save lives."
 
 Lib Dem culture spokesman Don Foster said performers should donate "the profits that Live 8 helped to create".
 
 Universal Music said it would give its profits from digital downloads of Sir Paul McCartney's performance to Live 8.
 
 "One hundred per cent of the revenues we receive from the downloaded tracks will be passed on to the Band Aid trust," said a company representative.
 
 Live 8's spokesman was unavailable for comment.
 
 
  LIVE 8 STARS' ALBUMS BOOST
 1. Pink Floyd - Echoes: The Best of Pink Floyd - 1343%
 2. The Who - Then and Now - 863%
 3. Annie Lennox - Eurythmics Greatest Hits - 500%
 4. Dido - Life for Rent - 412%
 5. Razorlight - Up All Night - 335%
 6. Robbie Williams - Greatest Hits - 320%
 7. Joss Stone - Mind, Body and Soul - 309%
 8. Sting - The Very Best of Sting & The Police - 300%
 9. Travis - Singles - 268%
 10. Madonna - Immaculate Collection - 200%
 Source: HMV  
 
 Pink Floyd guitarist Gilmour urged artists and record companies to make a charitable donation off the back of Saturday's landmark global concerts.
 
 "Though the main objective has been to raise consciousness and put pressure on the G8 leaders, I will not profit from the concert," he said in a statement.
 
 "If other artists feel like donating their extra royalties to charity, perhaps then the record companies could be persuaded to make a similar gesture and that would be a bonus."
 
 Pink Floyd are one of several participants who have seen sales rocket in the aftermath of Live 8.
 
 According to music retailer HMV, sales of Echoes: The Best of Pink Floyd rose 1,343% on Sunday - compared to sales for the previous Sunday - while The Who's Then and Now increased by 863%.
 
 Online retailer Amazon.co.uk reported an equally drastic uplift, with The Wall one of several Pink Floyd albums seeing a huge improvement on the previous week's figures.
 
 In addition to the London line-up, it said, acts appearing at the Eden Project, Berlin and Philadelphia also saw an upturn in sales.
 Not every act has benefited, however. Pete Doherty's former band The Libertines saw sales of their Up the Bracket album drop by 35% in HMV stores.
 
 Amazon.co.uk similarly reported no significant rise in sales for Babyshambles, Doherty's current band, whose new album is available to pre-order.
 
 Sir Paul McCartney's rendition of Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band with U2 topped the iTunes chart in several countries after being made available to download an hour after its performance.
 
 The former Beatle's performances of Hey Jude and The Long and Winding Road can also be obtained online.
 
 "The artists showed huge generosity and compassion this weekend," said Lib Dem Don Foster.
 
 "Now they should continue to show their goodwill by donating the profits that Live 8 helped to create."
 
 
  LIVE 8 STARS' ALBUMS BOOST
 1. Pink Floyd - The Wall - 3600%
 2. Pink Floyd - Wish You Were Here - 2000%
 3. Pink Floyd - Dark Side of the Moon - 1400%
 4. The Who - The Ultimate Collection - 1400%
 5. Pink Floyd - Animals - 1000%
 6. Velvet Revolver - Contraband - 1000%
 7. Robbie Williams - Greatest Hits - 800%
 8. Pink Floyd - Echoes: The Best of Pink Floyd - 600%
 9. Razorlight - Up All Night - 600%
 10. The Killers - Hot Fuss - 200%
 11. Kaiser Chiefs - Employment - 200%
 12. Dido - Life for Rent - 200%
 13. Joss Stone - Mind, Body and Soul - 200%
 14. Scissor Sisters - Scissor Sisters - 200%
 15. Madonna - Immaculate Collection - 150%
 Source: Amazon.co.uk  
 
 The final Live 8 concert, called The Final Push, takes place in Edinburgh's Murrayfield Stadium on Wednesday, with performers including Travis, Texas, Sugababes and Ronan Keating.
 The free concert has been staged to coincide with the Long Walk to Justice rally in the city.
 
 Organiser Bob Geldof was joined by Hollywood acting couple Tim Robbins and Susan Sarandon as he boarded a train to Edinburgh from London's Euston station on Tuesday to join the rally.
 
 Wednesday's Live 8 concert will be broadcast on television by BBC Scotland, on radio and online.
 
 However pirate Live 8 DVDs were found on sale on eBay less than 24 hours after Saturday's event and removed shortly afterwards.
 
 "The people that do this are cretins and scum," said Bob Geldof's spokesman.
 
 "Sadly, we are not at all surprised by this incident," said David Martin, the British Phonographic Industry's director of anti-piracy.
 
 "There are too many people out there who believe music is for stealing, regardless of the wishes of artists and the people who invest in them."
 
 Meanwhile, P Diddy has apologised for failing to turn up at the Philadelphia Live 8 concert on Saturday, where he had been scheduled to perform.
 
 His spokesman said the rap star "totally supports the mission of Live 8 and is sorry he couldn't attend" - but did not give a reason for his absence.
 
 Story from BBC NEWS:
 http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/entertainment/music/4651309.stm