Perhaps we may add more at some later stage, when we can spare the time.

Whilst we think Bob Geldof is sincere, he was sincerely wrong in not having a significant number of black and African artists on the London gig. It was patronising any way you look at it. His excuse, as explained by Peter Gabriel who had to organise the Africa Calling concert in Cornwall, was that having unknown acts could have people in places like China switching off. Oh yeah – how well known were some on the acts on the bill, like Keane or Snow Patrol? Perhaps only in Britain and parts of Europe. 

Here’s an event meant to help Africa, but Africans and black singers are apparently not good enough to appear on the London bill. Thus perpetuating the myth that African or black acts are unable to make an impact on a global scale - only white stars can do so.

If Geldof is that keen on helping Africa, why not have African or black artists performing in London in order to promote them to a wider audience?  Who says there are no big black artists who attract massive audiences? We had Pink Floyd and The Who reforming. What about having reformed a black groups such as Osibisa, who are well-known across more of the globe than some of the Johnny Come Lately groups touted as global stars.

In any case, was the focus on big stars or on making poverty history? What is the message of Live 8? Artists may not be charging for performing, but they are benefiting through publicity, and spin off is increased record sales.

It seems to be best summed up by the July 5 2005 The Daily Star’s front page headline: ‘Gr8 For CD Sales’. It showed that apart Pete Doherty’s apparently shambolic performance, who saw sales of his former group’s sales go down, all the white acts saw sales of their albums increase. Pink Floyd’s ‘Echoes: Best Of’ made an incredible 1343% upward drive! So these acts offered their services for free, eh? Let’s see them offer to donate their share of the spin-off sales!

July 8 2005

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