After many years of refusing to stage anything like Live Aid ever again, Bob Geldof made the official announcement today confirming Live 8. Called this as a nod to the G8 summit, the concert will take place simultaneously in five different cities across the globe: London, Berlin, Paris, Philadelphia, and Rome.
Already rumoured, but now confirmed by Sir Geldof himself: U2 will play at the London concert in Hyde Park.
The Dutch newspaper ‘Haagse Courant‘ (reg.req) reports Bono and Adam attended Anton Corbijn’s 50th birthday party in The Hague on Sunday night. Bono sang Golden Earring’s ‘Radar Love’ for Corbijn. Check out Roeli’s blog for a translation of the article.
Could it be true? Jam! Music seems to be fairly certain anyway, and they’re referring to the Boston Globe (subscription) as their source. We are unable to read any sort of confirmation into the article as published by the Boston Globe.
A press conference will follow May 31st.
It certainly will be interesting to see how quickly U2 manage to fly from London to Vienna to be just in time for their concert in Happel Stadium that same night.
Whatever happened to videolinks?
The Director’s Label, the company responsible for the excellent DVD retrospectives of music-video directors like Spike Jonze and Michel Gondry, have announced four new titles, including volumes devoted to Anton Corbijn and Stephane Sednaoui. Both have U2-related content: Corbijn’s edition boasts “One” with a commentary by Bono, along with “Electrical Storm” and a making-of “Electrical Storm” documentary, while Sednaoui’s set includes a “new director’s cut” of the video for “Discotheque.” Bono and/or U2 are included in the interview segments of both DVDs. No release date is readily apparent on the label’s site. (Also included in this round of releases are editions for Jonathan Glazer and the excellent Mark Romanek, who directed U2’s iTunes ad which is, sadly, not included on his DVD.)
What does U2 have planned for Boston? Something unusual, if their soundcheck is any indication. Our girl on the scene reports hearing the band soundcheck “Crumbs from Your Table” and “Who’s Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses” this afternoon.
