Chris Nash wrote:
I always thought that the best thing to come out of 'Live Aid' was Chumbawamba's reactionary first album:
'Pictures Of Starving Children Sell Records'
If Hooky sticks to his 80's claim of being a 'Crasstafarian' (fan of the ahem... 'music' and ideologies of the band Crass) then I reckon he'd rather join Ian on the end of a rope than play on stage with a bunch of bands desperately wanting to re-vamp their careers.
The original idea of Live Aid was okay, but why bother making lots of money (mainly for record companies) then give what's left over to the GOVERNMENTS of the 'poor' countries, so that their politicians can then spend it on weapons, cash crops and flash cars...?
Better to highlight the absolute corruption of those people, introduce POLITICAL and COMMERCIAL sanctions against the abusers (US and UK/European companies) and boycott the companies/conglomorates/individuals taking over the land to grow cash crops for the 'West' and thereby denying the people the land and opportunity to farm and therefore feed their families.
I went off Chumbawamba when they signed to EMI, but their first album is a true classic - funny, poignant, erudite - songs both well-written and played

Chris-- just using your post to respond in general, not to you in particular. But you raise some good points. If people are serious about boycotting predatory companies, they'll have to start paying attention to where their cocoa and coffe come from, and stop buying Shell and other petrol brands drilling in Africa. I rather doubt there's much motivation in Europe, let alone North America, or even NOOL, for a real boycott.
Before people slag off this campaign any more, perhaps they could at least read up on what Geldof is saying/doing, because frankly some of the posts here are shockingly misinformed. THEN if you still disagree with Geldof, at least you will have an informed basis for your opinion.
As for the bands that have signed on, yeah, they all pretty much suck (I exclude U2 from that assessment, although I know most of you loathe U2). But if you were trying to get the largest numer of people in the world to give you a sliver of their limited attention span, would you sign bands that you like, or would you sign bands that the largest number of people like? This isn't about exposing people to new music, it's about grabbing an enormously large audience's attention long enough to get on your soapbox about African poverty. The musical taste of the majority of people is appalling, and that is reflected in the lineup for Live 8.
More appalling to me is that people cheer New Order on for buying yachts and tanks, and slag off other bands for lending their fame to the campaign to end African poverty. For all I know, New Order do help out where they see fit, even if they do it quietly, so I don't slag them off; but the invective hurled at other bands here, and particularly at Geldof, by people who are doing nothing to relieve African poverty, is shameful.