Live H8

Much in the press regarding the "hideously white" line-up for the Live 8 concert in aid of Make Poverty History (Guardian article, here.)

Quote from Black Information Link; "Sir Bob Geldof picked a virtually all-white line-up to perform in a concert to highlight African poverty."

Right. So if the concert was in aid of Save The Children or UNICEF, the line-up would have to be child musicians, would it?

Another BlInk article on this, here, including the quote, "Critics said the choice of performers, including little-known rock bands Razorlight and Muse and aging rockers Elton John, U2 and Sting, would result in a mostly white audience."

Ah. So white people listen to white musicians and black people listen to black musicans and never the twain shall meet? I live and learn.

My feeling is that Geldof was pretty much random in his selection and simply 'phoned up a bunch of famous musicians who he knew and said - can you do it?
Doubt he was expecting this sort of response. Although, sacred cows do make the best hamburgers 8o)
It'll be interesting to see if and how he adds to the line-up.
Once he has, I will drop him a line, shout that there are Asian people in Africa as well, y'know and can I have MIA and Nitin Sawhney added to the roster? Anyway, is this concert and organisation about world poverty or just African poverty?
I shouldn't mock, really...

Worth noting: these types of accusations were not levelled at the Tsunami Relief Concert in Cardiff, or the Tsunami Relief Concert near Glasgow...
Mind you, I was just glad that people cared enough, whoever they were.