McCartney, U2 due to headline in Hyde Park

BRITAIN: U2, Coldplay, Paul McCartney and Madonna are among the acts performing at the main concert in London's Hyde Park.

The Live 8 concerts will not be a replay of the massive Live Aid 1985 concerts in that viewers will not be asked to make donations. They aim to raise awareness of Make Poverty History, a campaign to get the richest nations to cancel debt and increase aid to developing countries and to promote fair trade.

Stevie Wonder and Will Smith will perform in Philadelphia, while Duran Duran headline the Rome concert, with A-Ha playing in Berlin.

Tickets for the Hyde Park concert will be allocated by means of a text message lottery on June 6th. Listeners to British radio stations (both BBC and commercial) will be asked to text an answer to a question, and the winners will go into a draw. The Hyde Park concert will be broadcast live on BBC TV and radio.

The original Live Aid remains the biggest event in musical history.

On July 13th, 1985, a global television audience of more than 1.4 billion people watched as David Bowie, Madonna, Bob Dylan, U2, Queen and Elton John took part in two simultaneous concerts in London's Wembley stadium and Philadelphia's JFK Stadium.

The event, which opened with Status Quo playing Rocking All Over The World (and bookies have already installed them as favourites to start the Hyde Park Live 8 concert with the same song) raised more than €540 million for famine relief.

Highlights on that memorable day included a career-saving performance by the rock band Queen and a career-making performance by U2.

Bob Geldof performed at the Wembley concert with his band, the Boomtown Rats, but he is not expected to limp on the Hyde Park stage.

The Spice Girls may reunite for the Hyde Park show, which will be presented by Jonathan Ross. Graham Norton will present the Philadelphia concert.

While it would be fair to say that a lot of the bands who played the original Live Aid concert would have known next to nothing about Ethiopia and the underlying reasons for that country's famine - which precipitated the original concert .

Today's rock stars do seem to know a bit more about issues such as trade tariffs and debt relief.

U2 and Coldplay in particular have consistently highlighted the debt and trade issues facing African countries.

It is predicted that the Live 8 series of concerts will attract even more viewers than the 1.4 billion who watched Live Aid on July 13th, 1985. At the moment, there is no facility for Irish fans to apply for tickets to the Hyde Park concert, but that may change.