Live 8 global concerts to make world poverty history

Sir Bob Geldof made world history by spearheading Band Aid and Live Aid in 1985, which showed the world how music can raise consciousness and cash in a fight against famine.

Now, 20 years later, Sir Bob Geldof is again putting music artists together and the goals are even more ambitious, more encompassing.

"This is not Live Aid 2," says Geldof. "These concerts are the starting point for The Long Walk to Justice, the one way we can make all our voices heard in unison."

Live 8 is part of a day of action across the world which starts The Long Walk To Justice that calls on the leaders of the world’s richest countries to act when they meet in Gleneagles on July 6 to 9. It’s a series of concerts and events worldwide being staged to highlight the problem of global poverty. It’s a chance for ordinary people to call on world leaders at this year’s G8 summit and tell them to put a stop to the needless deaths of 30,000 children every single day. On July 2 in London, Edinburgh, Washington, Berling, Paris and Rome, millions will come together to call for complete debt cancellation, more and better aid and trade justice for the world’s poorest people. Live 8 is not after the money but the voice of the people all over the world.

The G8 brings together the leaders of the world’s most powerful countries, US, Canada, Great Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and Russia. This year, George Bush (USA), Tony Blair (UK), Jacques Chirac (France), Gerhard Schroeder (Germany), Silvio Berlusconi (Italy) and Vladimir Putin (Russia) will gather for a summit meeting with Tony Blair hosting the summit.

Blair has placed the challenges facing Africa on the top of the agenda. "But the leaders need to know when they sit down that the world is watching them and waiting for them to deliver," explains Geldof.

Today’s biggest names in the music industry will perform in a free, simultaneous concert series on July 2 to allow citizens of the most powerful nations to call on President Bush and leaders of the other seven wealthiest countries to make poverty history at the historic G8 Summit.

The marathon 10-hour concert will be seen by more than a billion people over the Internet through AOL, on ABC on US television and in the Philippines via ABC (tomorrow, 10 p.m. to 8 a.m. the following day). Millions will come to all the shows and hundreds of thousands of people will go to the G8 Summit to reinforce the concert’s message: 8 men can save millions of lives.

Live 8 is a key moment in the growing global campaign to end extreme poverty. In the US this campaign is called One, and is supported by Brad Pitt, Tom Hanks, Jamie Foxx, George Clooney and Penelope Cruz as well as Pat Robertson and others. Left and right, conservative and liberal are coming together as one on this great move to save humanity from poverty.

The main concert event starts at Hyde Park in London with Elton John as one of the high-profile faces who will join the event along with Madonna, Paul McCartney, Robbie Williams, Sting, U2, Bob Geldof and a lot more.

Other venues include Circus Maximus in Rome, Eiffel Tower in Paris, Pottsdamer Platz in Berlin and Museum of Art in Philadelphia. Recently, Bob Geldof announced three more Live 8 gigs in Africa, Tokyo and Toronto.

Will Smith, Bon Jovi, Stevie Wonder, Rob Thomas and Maroon 5 are among the performers who will be at Museum of Art in Philadelphia.

Other performers in different venues include Mariah Carey, Coldplay, Dido, Keane, Annie Lennox, Muse, Razorlight, R.E.M., Scissor Sisters, Snow Patrol, Stereophonics, Joss Stone, Velvet Revolver, The Killers and The Cure in London. A-Ha, Bap, Crosby, Stills & Nash, Lauryn Hill, Die Toten Hosen, Peter Maffay and Brian Wilson in Berlin. Andrea Bocelli, Craig David, Calo Gero, Jamiroquai, Kyo, Yannick Noah, Youssou N’Dour, Placebo, Axelle Red, Johnny Halliday, Manu Chao and Renaud in Paris., Irene Grandi, Faith Hill, Jovanotti, Tim McGraw, Nek, Laura Pausini, Duran Duran, Vasco Rossi and Zucchero In Rome. Dave Matthews Band, Sarah McLachlan, Keith Urban, Jay Z, 50 Cent, Kaiser Chiefs and P. Diddy in Philadelphia.