Observe & Report

London had the most stellar Live Earth lineup… Madonna, Metallica, The Red Hot Chili Peppers, Genesis, The Foo Fighters, Duran Duran, Snow Patrol, Razorlight, The Beastie Boys, David Gray, Damien Rice, John Legend, The Black Eyed Peas, Bloc Party, Keane, Paolo Nutini!

Security was tight Saturday at the Wembley Stadium (or “Wembledon,” as the Tap’s Nigel Tufnel dubbed it) event, which fell on the second anniversary of the terrorist attacks on London and only a week after a plot to set off car bombs in the capital failed. The weather in London on 7/7/07 was incredible. After days of fog and rain, the skies parted for Live Earth, bathing the capacity crowd of 65,000 in sunlight.

The show started with a drum circle, featuring Foo Fighter Taylor Hawkins and Chili Chad Smith. Then Genesis. The early shocker was Duran Duran, who mixed in cuts like “Notorious,” “Girls on Film” and Sly & the Family Stone’s “I Wanna Take You Higher.” Their surprise guest star, Justin Timberlake, didn’t make it to the show (JT apparently was concentrating on his own gig that night, at London’s O2 arena).

Damien Rice and David Gray united for an impressive three-song acoustic set. Gray kicked things off with a rousing acoustic version of his classic hit Babylon. And then Rice followed up with one of his most popular hits The Blower’s Daughter. The highlight of the set, however, was a feisty version of Que Sera Sera that had been specially re-written to include lyrics that were reflected the themes of the day – except for the unchanged lyric of “the future’s not ours to see”.

The Chill Pepper’s Red played versions of hits Dani California and Don’t Stop. John Frusciante proved what a terrific guitarist he is with several solos, including an opening number that was performed before lead singer Anthony Kiedis took to the stage. They closed their set with a strong take on “By the Way”.

Metallica, entertained the Live Earth crowd with the classics of “Nothing Else Matters” and “Enter Sandman.” The Foo Fighters were undeniably awesome at Live Earth, with their hits “One by One,” “My Hero,” and “Times Like These” – dedicating it to Al Gore. They said well on the BBC ‘What Freddie Mercury was to Live Aid, Grohl was to Live Earth.’ He was in complete command, dancing to the wings of the stage, no other band got as strong of a response from the crowd.

Big banners asking people to “answer the call” surrounded the stage – the organizers were determined that the crowd would not go away ignorant. A series of public information films featuring celebrities such as Penelope Cruz urged people to turn thermostats down and carpool while, in between, montages of happy animals were contrasted with pollution-belching power stations. Al Gore appeared via satellete and issued a rallying call to the world at the halfway stage of the global Live Earth concerts, urging people to take a seven-point pledge in order to protect our environment.

“Live Earth is about engaging a global audience with tools to tackle the climate crisis,” explained Live Earth founder Kevin Wall. The aim of the concerts is to set a “green example” for other music events by using measures such as eco-friendly electricity, sustainable lighting and carbon-neutral travel.

However, looking at the amount of rubbish after the concert (and considering the Australians in front of us constructed a plastic cup chain almost across the whole stadium) probably more realistic was the goal to inform and educate the public en mass – John Buckley of Carbon Footprint, said that Live Earth will produce about 74,500 tons of the gas. “We would have to plant 100,000 trees to offset the effect of Live Earth.” But, he added, “if you can reach 2 billion people and raise awareness, that’s pretty fantastic.”

The event was awesome, a fantastic line up, venue and crowd. If the world doesn’t end anytime soon I would totally recommend that you go! Check out some random crowd photos on Flickr of the action or watch the videos on the Live Earth website!