Live Earth

Overall a really enjoyable day out at the new Wembley stadium yesterday for the London Live Earth concert. There is debate as to whether these big global events should be staged - this event, Live8 a couple of years ago etc. etc. But if the aim was to raise awareness of climate issues and broadcast the things that everyone can and should be doing to be more efficient in our use of the earth's resources giving clear examples of the differences even relatively minor things can make, as well as pointing people in the direction of places to go for further info etc. then I think it was a success to a certain extent anyway. The cause wasn't always helped by the sometimes trite / rehearsed / empty sounding comments made by some of the artists (prime e.g. of this was the comment by The Pussycat Dolls something along the lines of flying in from California for the event but doing their bit for the environment by not using hairspray!). But in terms of numbers at the different concerts and then TV viewers as well the messages about what needs to be done were certainly broadcast to huge numbers of people. Whether it will make any long term difference, who knows...

Music wise it was a bit of a mixed bag, but generally pretty good. There were over 20 acts at Wembley - so it sometimes felt a bit stop and start, with some of the time it feeling like a band / artist was just getting going and the crowd starting to get into it when they were going off stage again, and also the intervals between acts sometimes seeming to be longer than the actual acts. I guess that was what made it different to going to a more normal concert / gig where there would obviously be fewer acts with longer stage time. Despite that there was some really good stuff, though as a general rule it was the performers who've been around a while who stole the show a bit - they seemed to know how to 'play to the stadium' a bit more. Here's a bit of a breakdown of the acts from my perspective:

Definite high points: Metallica (James Hetfield was definitely the coolest performer on show: the guitars in Nothing Else Matters were beautiful and Enter Sandman had the whole stadium rocking!), The Beastie Boys, Foo Fighters.

Not far behind: Madonna (not really my cup of tea musically, but what a performer - still!), Red Hot Chilli Peppers (fully expected these to be the highlight for me. Was slightly disappointed, but they were still great - might have been better if they played a bit later into the evening when the crowd generally seemed to be getting more into it), Black Eyed Peas

Highly enjoyable: Genesis, Bloc Party, Keane, Damien Rice and David Gray (playing together), James Blunt (pleasantly surprised - helped by a decent cover of Wild World made famous by Cat Stevens)

Listenable: Duran Duran, Paolo Nutini, Razorlight, Snow Patrol

Not really my scene & did nothing to change my opinion: Kasabian, Corinne Bailey Rae, John Legend, Terra Naomi

Definite low points: Spinal Tap (truly dreadful), The Pussycat Dolls

Click here to go and view videos of the different acts - both in Wembley and at the other venues around the globe.