Random Thoughts About the Live 8 Concerts

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1. Enjoyed the Floyd. The one time I wished I was in Barrie was watching Neil Young’s set.

   High point: hearing Nelson Mandela speak. It was electrifying… I’ve been scouring the web for a transcript, but no luck so far.

2. Who ?

   Oh, you mean TownsHend.

3. Agree with you on that 🙂 Pink Floyd was great! I caught them live on VH1 – good to see Roger Waters with the band even if it was for only a few tunes.

4. I couldn’t believe how hideously awful Tom Green and Dan Ackroyd were as hosts. Is that how shallow a talent pool Canada has that we have to have these two host it?

   Green looked like he’d just finished living five years with wolves; Ackroyd and his gut looked like he was spending his off-stage time at the beer gardens. Clearly neither were prepping backstage, they spent their time fighting for “alpha host,” and their attempts to just wing it were embarassing for the country.

   We can only hope as a nation that the start of OUR show was never aired internationally — that part where they both talked themselves into a corner so deeply that they were actually egging the crowd on chant “pro-war! pro-poverty!”

   Then there’s poor Ben Mulroney stuck akwardly in a studio, taking the energy completely out of the broadcastr his cutaways (to be fair, I don’t think he did a terrible job; the fact they cut from a busy outdoor event to an indoor dark room created this momentum shift).

   I know I am biased, but doesn’t CTV have ANYONE other than Ben and Seamus? Farley (Canadian Idol) Flex even made a cameo appearance — he seemed like he didn’t want to be there. (Do I sense a contractural obligation anyone?) I know Rick Mercer would have made a much better host.

   Did I mention how irritating the alpha-host fighting between Tom Green and Dan Ackroyd was? There should have been only one host and it would have been someone with actual music credibility.

   If I were directing that show, here is how Canada’s Live 8 show would have opened.

   FADE UP
   — Crane camera begins at back of audience
   — Moves toward the stage where we can now see the host
   — THE host says, simply, “Ladies and gentlemen, Bruce Cockburn” and steps out of the shot revealing Bruce and his guitar who does the same great set that he did.

   We can only hope the world didn’t see what Canada’s Live 8 looked like instead.

5. Barrie’s show was embarrassing. Motley Crue even sucked. What horrible sound quality, what a Mickey Mouse production, mostly poor performances too. London looked the best, and a few in Paris/Philly as well…I wasn’t into the CTV stuff and just downloaded the interesting bits.

   Floyd and Richard Ashcroft were ace, a few others were ok. Weird to see the Who with only 2 of ’em left.

6. I noticed the production values too. London seemed like they had a dozen cameras, cranes, etc, and a director who could handle quick camera cuts. The big screens and graphics, all very top notch. CTV must have had 4 cameras total and the whole crew probably would have prefered to be at the cottage by the looks of it.
   The Hip looked good though, I kept on waiting to see the Cure, but I could’nt even catch them on the crap live8live website. grrrr…

7. I noticed the production values too. London seemed like they had a dozen cameras, cranes, etc, and a director who could handle quick camera cuts. The big screens and graphics, all very top notch. CTV must have had 4 cameras total and the whole crew probably would have prefered to be at the cottage by the looks of it.
   The Hip looked good though, I kept on waiting to see the Cure, but I could’nt even catch them on the crap live8live website. grrrr…

8. I would put a guess forward that the London show may have been filmed by the BBC, as the shots felt very much like they do when the BBC covers shows (ie. Robbie at Knebworth, etc)

   Sadly, Madonna, Dido, and a few others weren’t so great… But Jonathan Ross as host over in the London Eye-style BBC Pod was fantastic 🙂

   All in all, fun entertaining show but… very little about Africa, don’t you think?

9. Interesting that Burton Cummings was the one who got ill before the show and couldn’t make it. It recent years, Randy Bachman seems to have donated all his excess weight to Burton, so that they’ve switched places in the “looking healthy” sweepstakes.

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