LIVE EARTH: Stars take Green Global
PHOTO: Madonna in London (Spencer Weiner / LAT)
BY RAFER GUZMÁN
rafer.guzman@newsday.com
More than 100 of music's biggest names performed in nine cities on seven continents during yesterday's Live Earth benefit concert, marking the biggest live musical event in history.
Featuring such acts as Madonna, Kanye West, Shakira, Metallica, Duran Duran and The Police, the concerts harnessed rock's hedonism to an altruistic cause, halting global warming. Proceeds will go to Alliance for Climate Protection, a consortium of environmental groups spearheaded by former Vice President Al Gore, who helped organize the event.
Broadcast on eight television channels, including NBC, Bravo and Telemundo, and through the Web site liveearth.msn.com, the concerts aimed to reach as many as 2 billion people.
Playing up the global theme, Gore spoke to a crowd in Washington, D.C., but also appeared at the Makuhari Messe venue in Tokyo - as a hologram. "Global warming is the greatest challenge facing our planet," Gore's likeness told the audience, "and the gravest we've ever faced."To squeeze the event into one 24-hour day, the first concert began around 9 p.m. Friday New York time in Sydney, Australia (headlined by the recently-reunited Crowded House). As the hours unfolded, other shows kicked off in other cities. Linkin Park, Rihanna and Xzibit performed in Tokyo; a broadcast from Kyoto featured the pioneering synth-pop group Yellow Magic Orchestra. Classical singer Sarah Brightman performed in China. Hamburg played host to Shakira (from Colombia), Enrique Iglesias (Spain) and Americans Chris Cornell and Snoop Dogg.
There was even a brief show in Antarctica, where Nunatak, a band of scientist-musicians, played for the denizens of the Rothera Research Station.
In their music and words, artists acknowledged the issue of the day. At London's Wembley Stadium, Corinne Bailey Rae and John Legend sang Marvin Gaye's "Mercy Mercy Me." Flea, the bassist for Red Hot Chili Peppers, took a break to recite a few (slightly modified) lines from Captain Beefheart's "Space-Age Couple." He rapped, "Why don't you cultivate the ground? You're the only ones around." The mock rock group Spinal Tap performed "Warmer Than Hell," a song written for Live Earth.
Madonna performed a song she wrote for the occasion, "Hey You." Backed by a children's chorus, she sang of personal rather than political change: "If you can change someone else / Then you have saved someone else."
The Beastie Boys' hard-hitting set included "So What'cha Want," with its warning line, "You think that you can front when revelation comes?" And significantly or not, their matching suits were green.
Near the day's end Gore really did seem like he was everywhere at once, making a brief appearance at Giants Stadium. Melissa Etheridge introduced him after telling the crowd, "I believe in truth, and I believe in that man."
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