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At least one thing Live Aid did do in its favour was allow the crowd to the front of the stage. Live 8 was marred by the far too large VIP circle at the front (and how many knew about this before setting off?).

Obviously Harvey Goldsmith's Dom Perignon-swilling chums have no idea how to respond at these events, and they helped dampen the atmosphere by some degree. A disgraceful two-tier approach to the crowd that surely went against the concert's intentions. Was their any reason for this?

hate to be a bore but its a damn site harder to play to open air than it is to play an enclosed venue. arenas and theatres are designed with acoustics in mind, open air is all about volume so a lot gets lost in the mix

I absolutely loathed the TV broadcast with Woss & Co, but the music was above average
Sgt Pepper was shite, but U2's set was great, as was REM, The Who, Velvet Revolver, Pink Floyd, and Madonna.....there's were all excellent
9/10's go to Elton who I can't stand, but his set was also excellent
Robbies vocals were flat and i knew he'd cop out of singing Angels to let the audience play their part........always a trusted formula
Scissor Sisters were also very good, as was Joss Stone
The average (at best) were Dido, Coldplay, UB40 and Annie Lennox
The shit (as far as I'm concerned) were Pete Doherty, Bob Geldoffs 'I dont like Mondays', George Michael who's vocals were totally drowned out by McCartneys microphone, Egomaniac Mariah Carey and the slushy encore which was crap. Peter Kay who is normally excellent was crap and obvious he was pissed, whereas Johnny Vegas CAN carry an act off when totally bladdered
Helter Skelter sounded like a poor pub bands tribute version of the song immortalised by U2 in the opening of Rattle & Hum
As much as I liked the Velvet Revolvers set, I didn't know any of the songs, and would have liked to see Paradise City included just to get the crowd moving.
Why were'nt Oasis playing? Now they would have got the place moving with their stadium anthems.
Finally, I did like the snotty looks some stars gave to other acts on stage
Elton glaring at a stoned Pete Doherty, George glaring at Macca as his voice was drowned, Edge glared at Macca when his guitar was overshadowed by Maccas guitar,Gilmour glaring at Roger Waters as if to say 'You're a guest in MY band' whereas Roger seemed to let bygones be bygones. Bet backstage was fun off camera