Live Aid ready to rock the world again
By ADAM SHERWIN
FOURTEEN years after Live Aid, the world's
leading musicians are uniting once more for an
end-of-millennium global concert to help the
third world.
Harvey Goldsmith, the Live Aid promoter, is
gathering the cream of the entertainment world
for simultaneous concerts in London, New York and
Geneva in October.
The event will be called Net Aid and the
organisers hope that one billion people will send
a message to politicians through the Internet,
urging them to remove the debt hanging over the
poorest countries. Money raised by the event will
also be used to help Kosovan refugees.
Bob Geldof, who put together Live Aid, which
raised Stg£123m in 1985, is understood to be
helping the project but does not wish to take a
frontline role. Geri Halliwell, the former Spice
Girl, who was appointed a UN goodwill ambassador,
may become a spokeswoman for the campaign.
Michael Jackson, Paul McCartney and U2 are
expected to participate in the concerts, which
will be held at Wembley Stadium, Giants Stadium
in New York, and a venue in Geneva on October 9.
The concerts will be the last major gathering
of music stars this century and is hoped to
include Bob Dylan and REM and Luciano Pavarotti,
to be joined by celebrities from the worlds of
film and sport.
They will be broadcast live around the world
to what is hoped to be the largest global
television audience for a single event.
Mr Goldsmith said the time had come to revive
the Live Aid concept. ``The end of the millennium
is the right time for a huge event to highlight
the question of how extreme poverty can be
eradicated,'' he said.
Net Aid is being run in conjunction with the
United Nations Development Programme, which
provides funds to help countries combat hunger
and environmental stress and foster job creation.
The aim of Net Aid will be to raise awareness
rather than just money, although funds raised
will also be used to help Kosovan refugees.
Net Aid will be launched by Mr Goldsmith at
the UN.
(The Times, London)
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