Live 8

[LongTimer V]

Financial Guy

I was at the hanger almost every day(on break of course) They were there almost a month.

Talked to the roadies and the boys while they were,doing the stage work and sound checks.

On the last day a few AC flights went late,(all the boys were over watching the performance with the hanger doors open)but some things are just more important then a on time departure.

And Mitch,,,The Floyd without Waters was a excellent show,no one person is irreplaceable.

Waters song writing(Dark Side of the moon)he wrote all the songs,I'm sure would have been missed,but as far playing the old stuff it was great.

Maybe after this get together,i hope they went out and had a few pops and talked about the good ol days and maybe just maybe they may get together for one of those farewell tours.

I think the Division Bell album is still a great album without Waters,but its Gilmore thats not up to touring anymore.

We shall see.

[Moon The Loon]

Moon:

Ritchies' Dad was also an air traffic controller.

Didn't catch the Who show. Wasn't Phil Collins supposed to keep the beat at one point?

Yo Murray - that's neat. Lots of aviation in this thread, eh? Hope you're enjoying summer in the lower mainland!

This from The Who's website, just published today:

With Rabbit and Simon joined by Steve White on drums and Damon Minchella on bass (both from Paul Weller's band) the band powered their way through Who Are You and Won't Get Fooled Again in front of an estimated 200,000 fans.

Simon is one of Pete's brothers, who has his own band. Simon's son Ben was the drummer for Simon's band, hence my supposition. Anyway, this question now answered!

[moeman]

And Mitch,,,The Floyd without Waters was a excellent show,no one person is irreplaceable.

One word. Blasphemer!

[Mitch Cronin]

Blasphemer!

I second that!

"no one person is irreplaceable" ? ... How about....

-John Lennon

-Jimmi Hendrix

-John Bonham

-Jim Morrison

-Bob Marley

-Janis Joplin

-Stevie Ray Vaughn

-Buddy Holly

-... and too many more... all of whom were indeed irreplaceable!

...When they died, we lost a lot of good music to come!

Yup, without Roger Waters, what remained of Floyd reverted to a half decent cover band of Floyd Music.

imo

[Financial Guy]

I hate to disagree with you Mitch, but the post-Roger Waters Floyd was (is) outstanding. Gilmour can hold his own as far as the vocals are concerned, and very few can play a guitar like he can. Waters was great in the old days with his song writing, and his ear for neat sound effects, but have you heard the crap he's churned out since leaving the band? He needed Gilmour to make the sound come together, whereas Gilmour did just fine post-Waters, doing all the vocals himself.

Longtimer V,

In Nick Mason's recently released book "Inside Out" he talks about the rehearsals in the hangar at YYZ. He says it was neat when the vehicles would stop outside the hangar doors to have a listen with their amber lights flashing - says it was like lighters being held up by the audience at a concert.

I wish I was there......

[newgirl]

Aww Mitch , I'm disappointed !

You forgot Elvis who's voice would have been leading the rest in that big concert in the sky!

Did anyone else think that Roger Daltry was not up to form? Perhaps its was because he was concentrating on his guitar and singing at the same time. I quess I was looking for the sideshow of him swinging his mike around.... man he was good at that and yes I know that mikes don't have cords anymore but that and Townsend destroying his guitar was the Who. I also thought that they should have sung My Generation!

Personally I loved Deep Purple , I thought they did a great job! Hush , is one of my all time favourites!

Strange how my Doors, Cream , Led Zeppelin , Who and even Alice Cooper go out the door with my 19 yr old son! I guess his generation does recognize great music when they hear it. But I must work harder at replacing the cassettes with CD's....

The 60's and early 70's produced some absolutely wonderful music. The vocalists could actually carry a tune!

[wjafa]

How about everyone doing Keep on Rocking in the Free World!  Awesome!

And O Canada...........well, nothing needs to be said about that!

That part was great, I was, however, diappointed to see the people in the crowd NOT removing their hats while the anthem was being sung.

thank goodness for LiveTV.. saw almost all of Live8 on the plane. Most of the guests were glued to the screens. Even when I remarked to a mother and her young son that the Simpsons were on, she replied "this is more important for him to watch. It is history and he needs to learn what people can do for a good cause."

Almost choked me up a little.

[MURRAY]

Moon:

When you mentioned Simon, I thought you were referring to Simon Phillips (an amazing drummer, used to be with Pete T. solo, and with the most recent(?) Who 'Tommy' Tour.)

Anyway, thanks for the info. It's time to go back out to the deck for refreshments (That means the summer is GOOD, ty).

[Guest rattler]

I wonder how many of those who watched / listened to the concert will now turn around and support aid efforts in Africa.

Will individuals pony up money to any of the aid organizations?

Will there be any pressure placed upon those who could authorize further aid or ?????

Will anything be changed by these performances?

[deicer]

I read about the Floyd performance in the hanger at YYZ many years ago.  I would have given anything at the time to see it, but only found out years later - were you there?  What was it like?

Out front of the hangar looked like a used car lot. Every piece of equip on the airport was parked there.

The most creative use of a vehicle were the airstairs that were extended and used as "grandstands".

Was a fabulous end to a couple work days.....

Iceman

P.S.

I think Floyd will tour again in '06.

[Financial Guy]

Which hangar was it by the way?

[Mitch Cronin]

"Bay 9" then known as Canadian's "Hangar B"

BTW.. I agree with you regarding Waters' solo efforts..., but I could hear his absence in Floyd afterward as well. I suspect Waters and Gilmour did much for each others creative efforts... the whole is much greater than the sum of it's parts.

By the way, which one is Pink?

[Guest]

The Floyd show in the hangar was great, as the iceman states, it was a parking lot.

The Stones have done the same thing a few times in bay 9, but too bad 911 happened, I doubt we will ever have that kind of luxury again.

[Financial Guy]

I'm just trying to visualize where Bay 9 is. Is it the one on the East side of the field, just south of the AC Flight Ops building, beside Airport Road?

[Mitch Cronin]

FG ...It's the one that stands alone... facing the big black AC hangar and across from the line of hangars now all belonging to AC... right beside the T3 Satelite terminal. The one that got in the way of that little cross runway for GA aircraft that used to be there...

if this works right... don't move, just zoom in and Bay 9 should be in the center of the view: http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=43.687574,-...07155&t=k&hl=en

[Financial Guy]

Thanks Mitch! I know the one now. The satellite image is really something.

Cheers,

FG

[chockalicious]

It is a shame that there was a real lack of bands to appeal to anyone under 30. No disrespect to all those who love their "classic rock" but where were the bands to get the younger folks into it?

Guess that is what happens when you let a bunch of baby boomers organize things...

[LongTimer V]

Hmm maybe the new bands are just like MOST of the new generation

The "ME" generation,,more concerned about what clothes they wear then whats going on in the rest of the world.

Mariah Scary,really sent the right message when she was on stage in London,,give me a break.Who invited the bimbo?????

[Guest rattler]

Hmm maybe the new bands are just like MOST of the new generation

The "ME" generation,,more concerned about what clothes they wear then whats going on in the rest of the world.

Mariah Scary,really sent the right message when she was on stage in London,,give me a break.Who invited the bimbo?????

Seems that most folks who viewed/attended the performances were much more concerned with the content (performances) than they were / are with the message.

[JL]

Go Rex Go!

Rex Murphy's take on the whole Live 8 thing....

Featured in The Globe & Mail, Saturday July 2, 2005.

Let us excori8 Live 8

In the concept of celebrity, Marshall McLuhan's otherwise rather naked aphorism has some application: The medium is the message. Britney Spears is a celebrity because she is a celebrity. Paris Hilton, Madonna -- these are the great vessels of the vacant idea of our times. Famous for being famous. The essence of celebrity is to maintain celebrity. Celebrities "do" things (sing badly, act poorly, dress strangely or not at all, talk rudely, smuggle dead raccoons on to talk shows), not for the sake of these things themselves, but as "hooks" to keep the cameras trained, to feed their gluttonous narcissism.

Fame is not an accomplishment; it is a need. So it is an axiom that what a celebrity does always has a primary reference to his or her celebrity, only secondarily and at a distant remove, to the actual done thing. For reference, contemplate as we did last week, poor Sean Penn putting together his own Coles Notes on the Iranian elections.

For more current reference, let us turn to the so-called Live 8, the "world" concert taking place in several venues on the day of the G8 summit in Scotland. Behind this singalong are no less eminences than the chicly ubiquitous Bono, and the onetime singer from Boomtown Rats, the now ennobled Sir Bob Geldof.

It's an internationalist soiree, a kind of postmillennium reprise of the Band Aid and Live Aid concerts Sir Bob, when he was just Mr. Bob, put on some 20 years ago for the relief of famine in Ethiopia, and which gave the world the Dickensian treacle Do They Know It's Christmas? and which accumulated close to $100-million in aid for Africa.

This time around Bono and Sir Bob are aiming for something rather different. These two have extended their celebrity by straddling the world of pop music and the high conference altitudes of Davos and the G8 summits.

Bono in particular has become something of a self-appointed, free-floating superstar-as-ambassador. He has long won Paul Martin as a buddy, and is on a first-name basis with the leadership in dozens of countries.

Sir Bob seems a more moody, brittle sort than Bono, as evidenced this week by a lecture he gave to Bono's buddy, Paul -- that if Canada wasn't going to live up to its commitment of 0.7 per cent of GNP to foreign aid, then he, Mr. Martin, shouldn't come to the G8 summit at all.

I don't know, precisely, when the alumnus of the Boomtown Rats (The Chains of Pain, My Birthday Suit) was put in charge of the guest list at the G8, and I suspect surprisingly, neither does the hectoring (Too Late God) Sir Bob. It strikes me as impertinence swaddled in righteousness. It's probably a punk thing. (Falls off chair in fits of laughter)

What do they think this scattered concert is supposed, really, to do? What link do a bunch of celebrities singing passé songs -- in Barrie or Paris -- have to do with the politics or the development of Africa? Inevitably, the feeble and hoary answer will come back that it "raises awareness." Awareness of what? Awareness of Bob Geldof and Bono mainly.

For that matter, how exactly does one sing "for" a country? And what possible connection does this live singing, or Celine Dion from Las Vegas offering her anorexic nimbus via satellite to a giant screen in Barrie, have with the meeting of world leaders of the G8 in Scotland?

Tens of thousands of people jam the 401 to head up to Barrie to attend a summer concert that has "8" in its title, co-hosted by the roadkill comic Tom Greene -- what happens after the last chord is sounded? Does Zimbabwe cease its infernal turmoils? Does the protracted slaughter in Darfur shut down for the night? Does the World Bank dismantle itself, the UN find a purpose, and the myriad aid agencies of the planet suddenly find a moral force which, pre-singalong, was out of their grasp?

Of course not. Entertainment Tonight and its grisly clones go mad with coverage and "exclusives" -- the glossy magazines, The View, and assorted megaphones of the celebrity set tell us who was wearing what, who stayed where and did what with whom.

But in the end it will be just one more self-absorbed, pretentious, hollow celebrity shtick, another moment for ex-punk stars and rock maestros in decline to strut before the world's lights and cameras for a moment more.

Celebrity will seek more celebrity, and when the hits start to fade, celebrity will discover a cause. That's all Live 8 is, and that is all it and its successors will ever be. The pop-star missionary is a contradiction in terms. As well as a furious irony.

And Paul, you go to that summit, regardless of what the rude Mr. Geldof has to say.

Rex Murphy is a commentator with CBC-TV's The National and host of CBC Radio One's Cross-Country Checkup.

(My aside: CBC Cross Country Checkup, Sunday's at 4pm - 89.1fm)

[Fido]

Every once in awhile Rex Murphy hits the nail square on the head.

[chockalicious]

Hmm maybe the new bands are just like MOST of the new generation

The "ME" generation,,more concerned about what clothes they wear then whats going on in the rest of the world.

That is a hilarious comment from someone who I assume is from the baby boomer generation. The selfishness of generations is not confined to one age group or another. To proclaim that the new generation is more selfish than those who indulged in the excesses of the seventies and eighties (GREED IS GOOD) is laughable.

[LongTimer V]

Well as usual the Globe has its head in the sand.What happened to this Global economy thing they are always talking about????

It must mean only if you have something we rich nations need,so we can get it as cheap as we can,and F$$K Y$$ if you dont have clean drinking water or don't have food on your plate

Yup thats the kinda world i want to live in.NOT

Live 8 was to get people to maybe just maybe think about the rest of the planet that we share.

I guess to some that message will never get thru cause they are busy filling up the Beemer.etc.ect.

[Guest Starman]

Rex Murphy has once again solidified his position as the pre-eminent purveyor of common sense in Canada; and common sense in this country is a rare commodity these days.

As much as it's great to see The Who play in a huge venue again, Live 8 is a lot more about optics than it is about real assistance to the 1 billion people who live in extreme poverty every day.

1 billion people, mostly children, live on less than 1 dollar per day. A U.S. dollar, mind you, but a dollar isn't much when it's the only thing between you and the abyss. But consider what it would take to raise this 1 billion people's income to 2 dollars per day. 365 billion dollars per year, and what would happen to prices and the level of corruption and income disparity, not to mention the birth rate, in the hardest hit regions if that was to take place. Anyone who has tried to flip a few coins to a beggar in India or China can imagine the difficulty in trying to solve massive poverty with a pipe line full of money.

Debt relief for nations in the subcontinent? Sure. It's a no-brainer. But beyond that, you first have to define what poverty really is before you try to fix it. Poverty is a lack of opportunity to harness human energy. The nations of the G8 need to do what they can to provide the opportunity for self advancement in those nations where the populace is mired in basic survival. This means doing an end run around corrupt dictatorships in order to provide education, shore up democratic institutions, and create health care infrastructures in order to free the people from the slavery of dependance.

Despite Sir Bob's and Bono's sincerity, Live 8 isn't much of a broom against an ocean of entrenched poverty, but at least it's a springboard for debate, and a good party at that. If we homo sapiens can learn to take care of our planet and to consider opportunity a birth right of all people, including those of us who don't expect it, then perhaps we'll deserve our place in the evolutionary chain after all.

Does anyone know when the CD is due out?