Make Politicians History

I went to the Net Aid concert in 1999. I bet you don't know what I'm talking about. Most people don't. It was meant to be the 2nd Live Aid. And in many ways it was. I can't remember the figure but the 3 or 4 concerts that were held around the world did raise quite a bit of money without the shitty PR stuff that's going on around Live 8. Of course most people at the concert didn't care too much about Bono's speaches back then either. A lecture wasn't what they paid for after all. And neither did I. But it felt good to know that the money I spent went in the right direction. However small a contribution that might have been in the grand scheme of things.

Peace

P.S. Bono is a rather boring person and David Bowie kicked ass. What am I supossed to remember best? Eh?

Bit cynical dude. I very much doubt many of the musicians are doing it for the increased sales. Would that be your first thought if asked to perform? And yes, of course there would be fewer people if it was just a march - which is why they're doing the concerts - to achieve more media coverage, more public interest and more widespread awareness about the issues surrounding African trade, debt, disease and aid (however limited the knowledge is).

What exactly have you found 'corrupt' about the m-p-h campaign?

Whether Craig David's Parisian accoustic version of 'fill me in' will change the suits' minds remains to be seen, but at least Bob and Bono have got the masses talking and thinking about Africa, at least in big brother ad breaks.

whatever, quite battered.

J

Hey J-man,

I said in my post what I didn't like about it and I stand by it. I watched most of it on TV and thought it was an awesome show and it definately raised awareness of the problem. (Loved the doves that got released during U2s set!)

The corruption was everywhere from allowing Nokia to be a sponsor of the event (& hence giving them banners around the site) to giving corporate radio stations the opportunity to broadcast (this had to be done because 'Party in the Park' was cancelled). It sickens me that money is being made by companies on the back of charity. When I said "any campaign that gets as big as this just makes it corporate and corrupt", I mean there are so many avenues for corporations to make money from it. Record sales and profile are never hurt by such shows. I think bands and record companies should give an honest amount of returns back to Africa (like what Coldplay do anyway), as they say they believe so strongly about it.

Naturally when it comes to corruption the American's have the trump card. Not only did their broadcasting of the concert still contain adverts (at an increased price!) but all the performers received 'goody' bags worth $12,000.

I don't think its being cynical, I'm just not kidding myself. When it comes to whether I would do it if I was asked; I'm glad I'm not anywhere near famous enough to be a media-whore yet.

Ed x

i'm stuck in the middle of you guys.

on the one hand we did decide NOT to go and hand out flyers and busk to promote our show. obviously not quite on the same scale as Nokias involvement but still, the basic dilemma of should i try and benefit from this or not. i do agree that it's frustrating to see people benefit when the whole idea is to get POOR people richer!

but i entirely agree with Jman's awareness raising argument. in my view that has been the sole purpose of this event. i am thinking about stuff that i wasn't before so it's safe to assume that others are too.

i actually think that a whole big SHITload of people would have turned up to march.

times are changing i think. and people are way nicer and passionate than we are led to believe by most of our media outlets.

for instance, although it could be said that they might be gaining popularity in some areas, when the BNP or far right parties begin to gain strength they are consistently out voted by stronger numbers turning out, (as well as protest marches) at the next election, as happened in the isle of dogs.

on musicians:

john lennon wrote 'imagine' a cheesy but beautiful little ditty.

that song has made countless people think about the possibility for positive change. maybe even the leaders that are meeting at gleneagles now. really. they may be corrupt in many different ways but they are still humans who eat shit breathe and fuck like the rest of us. they can be touched. and music touches people. metallic through to charlie parker. who knows.

anyway. i agree that the RECORD COMPANIES could afford to give away a percentage of any overly inflated sales, (and i guess the musicians could too), but you can't deny someone respect and exposure for doing something good. i thought the track listings included some very positive thinking material and regardless of their motivation for playing this particular event, those musicians wrote those songs from inside themselves hoping that people would hear them and think. i don't see why it's a bad thing that they should gain exposure for having done that.

we didn't go and busk because we didn't really feel that we had a performable song in the spirit of the event. so therefore we would have just been self promoting in a free crowd. if we HAD of had a song that we thought might touch people we would have played it.

Like I said, for raising awareness the concert was spot-on. But it claimed to be so much more than that; I don't think it puts pressure on the G8 leaders what so ever, because it wasn't a march, it was a rock concert. And lets put things in perspective;

anti-war march: 2 million people.
make poverty history march: 200,000 people.

Based on the fact the anti-war march made no difference, the poverty march will make 1/10 of no difference.

I think the concert had a great many positive points, I was only highlighting a few areas I didn't agree with and that I think were being over-looked by people. I have done that, and so any further opinions on the event, I'd point you in the direction of this.

the anti-war march did make a difference, albeit not of the kind that its particpants intended. the fact that it happened gave opponents of the government something concrete to refer to when deriding the war in iraq, and it stood out as a clear example of the current administration being out of touch with the greater public. this may not seem like much given that the war went ahead, but the influence of that protest is still making itself felt.

also, as far as the whole live8 thing is concerned, i'm not sure what you mean when you say that it "pretended" to be more than a concert to raise awareness. sure, some of the language used was a little pompous and gradiose - but that was more an attempt to get wider publicity than it was a realistic assessment of the events significance. further, i don't think that all those who attended were idiots who thought that they were single-handedly saving the third world merely by standing in front of a stage. give people a little more credit.

~ T