The sounds people heard were unique -- from pop, to hip-hop, to jazz, to new wave, to post punk, to country, to classic rock, to alternative rock. In all, over 170 acts took to the stage. The message, however, was universal: stomp-out poverty in Africa.

Madonna said it well:

"Music makes people come together."

This past weekend, musicians from all walks of life and genres came together to inspire the eight most powerful politicians in the world to make poverty history. This week these politicians will meet at the G8 Summit in Gleneagles Scotland.

#1 on their agenda? Africa.

The fact is more than 200,000 people in Africa die every single week from preventable diseases.

London

In England, the following performers in an effort to fight poverty took to the stage in Hyde Park:

African Children's Choir

Annie Lennox

Bob Geldof, the organizer of Live AID 25 years ago and LIVE 8 this weekend

Coldplay

Dido

Elton John

Joss Stone

Keane

The Killers

Madonna

Mariah Carey

Ms. Dynamite

Paul McCartney

Pink Floyd

Razorlight

R.E.M.

Robbie Williams

Scissor Sisters

Snoop Dogg

Snow Patrol

Stereophonics

Sting

Travis

U2

UB40

Velvet Revolver

The Who

On Saturday, organizer, Bob Geldorf received a rock star's welcome in London, as did Microsoft founder / philanthropist Bill Gates.

Gates said:

We can do this, and when we do it will be the best thing that humanity has ever done.

U2's Bono told a crowd of 200,000 in London's Hyde Park:

This is our moment. This is our time. This is our chance to stand up for what's right.

In honor of Pink Floyd reunion, fifteen San Franciscans rocked out to Pink Floyd on the Fourth of July before and during the city's best fireworks display in years.

It was the first time in twenty-four years the classic rock 'n' roll band had played together. The last time guitarist David Gilmour, drummer Nick Mason, keyboard player Richard Wright and bassist Roger Waters appeared onstage together was in 1981.

The crowd of 200,000 fell silent when Bob Geldof replayed Live Aid footage of dying Ethiopians from twenty years ago. The image of a girl on the verge of death appeared on the big screen above the stage. Moments later, the same person, now a healthy Birhan Woldu, appeared on the stage.

"Africa Calling", Eden Project

Ridding Africa of poverty was also inspired by:

Angelique Kidjo

Maryam Mursal

Salif Keita

Thomas Mapfumo

Tinariwen

Daara J

Jive Shikisha

Ayub Ogada

Modou Diouf & O Fogum

LIVE 8 Philadelphia 2005 Musicians

Philadelphia

In the United States, the following artists shared their time and talent from Philadelphia's Museum of Art:

Alicia Keys

Black Eyed Peas

Bon Jovi

Dave Matthews Band

Def Leppard

Destiny's Child

DJ Green Lantern

Jars of Clay

Kaiser Chiefs

Keith Urban

Linkin Park and Jay-Z

Maroon 5

Rob Thomas

Sarah McLachlan

Stevie Wonder

Toby Keith

Will Smith

Actor / musician Will Smith, on Fourth of July weekend in Philadelphia, called the festivities a worldwide "declaration of interdependence."

Smith said: "Today we hold this truth to be self-evident: We are all in this together."

He then led his audience to snap their fingers every three seconds as a way of signifying the child death rate in Africa.

Toronto

In Toronto Canada another eclectic group of singers performed including:

African Guitar Summit by various artists

Barenaked Ladies

Blue Rodeo

Bruce Cockburn

Bryan Adams

Bachman Cummings Band

Deep Purple

DobaCaracol featuring Kna'an

Gordon Lightfoot

Great Big Sea

Jann Arden

Jet

Les Trois Accords

Motley Crue

Our Lady Peace

Sam Roberts

Simple Plan

Tegan & Sara

The Tragically Hip

Tom Cochrane

35,000 fans turned out to hear Neil Young perform "Keep on Rockin' In The Free World" and "O Canada".

Tom Green & Dan Akroyd

Actors / comedians Dan Akroyd and Tom Green presented the artists at Park Place in Barrie Canada.

On Tom's blog he shared a more serious side to himself, which speaks to his involvement in Live 8 and how last year, he was personally touched by the basic needs of African children. Green said:

The most amazing thing was just to be included in the smallest way, in such an amazing event, with such an incredible goal.

Last year when I went to Iraq, we popped around the world to a few other military bases. One was in Djibouti Africa, a small country between Somalia and Ethiopia.

We took a drive one day, and as we drove down this dirt road, children would run up to the car from across the desert. They were waving at us to stop. So we pulled over, many of these children were just babies. Literally 3 years old, running by themselves or with their older brothers and sisters across the desert.

When we pulled over to see what the wanted, we were quickly overwhelmed.

We found ourselves surronded by ten, then twenty, then thirty kids. And it wasn't what we were expecting.

These kids were not running up to say hello. They were all crying.

They had desperate looks on their faces. And all they would say over and over was the only English word that they knew. Water.

The heartbreaking thing was we didn't have any water in the car. And these kids just needed it so badly.

Berlin

At Brandenburg Gate in Germany 150,000 heard:

a-ha

Audioslave

BAP

Brian Wilson

Chris De Burgh

Crosby Stills & Nash (Neil Young was in Canada)

Daniel Powter

Die Toten Hosen

Faithless

Green Day

Herbert Gronemeyer

Joana Zimmer

Juan Diego Florez

Juli

Katherine Jenkins

Reamonn

Renee Olstead

Roxy Music

Sasha Alexander

Silbermond

Von Sohne Mannheims

Wir Sind Helden

Paris

Parisians were inspired by:

Andrea Bocelli with the Philarmonie der Nationen

Axelle Red

Craig David

The Cure

K-Yo

Muse

Placebo

Shakira

Near Paris, 100,000 came out to the 17th-century Palace of Versailles.

LIVE 8 Rome 2005 Headliners

Rome

In Italy, Italian music stars performed along with American country stars and couples. They included:

Antonello Venditti

Biagio Antonacci

Duran Duran

Faith Hill

Irene Grandi

Laura Pausini

Le Vibrazioni

Ligabue

Max Pezzali

Negramaro

Negrita

Nek

Noa

Tim McGraw and The Dancehall Doctors

Tiromancino

American country music's leading husband and wife team, Tim McGraw and Faith Hill performed at the ancient Circus Maximus to 200,000 fans.

Moscow

The artists who were invited to perform in Russia included:

Agata Kristy

Aliona Sviridova

B-2

Delphin

Garik Sukachev

Jungo

Linda

Moral Code X

Pet Shop Boys

Red Elvises

Tokyo

In Tokyo, local bands joined:

Bjork (her first performance in two years)

Def Tech

Dreams Come True

Good Charlotte

McFly

Rize

10,000 people showed their support in Japan's suburb of Makuhari.

Johannesburg

In South Africa at Mary Fitzgerald Square in Newtown, Johannesburg, nearly a dozen bands came together to fight poverty.

They included:

4Peace Ensemble

Jabu Khanyile and Bayete

Lindiwe

Lucky Dube

Mahotella Queens

Malaika

Orchestre Baobab

Oumou Sengare

Zola

Those with a song to sing lent their talents to be heard loudly and profoundly to the need to rid Africa of its rampant rage of poverty.

The concerts were named Live 8 to correlate with this week's G8 Summit in Gleneagles Scotland. World leaders from Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, the U.S. and the U.K. will meet to discuss significant global issues of the day. Africa is at the top of the list.

Sir Bob Geldof organized the music festival along with Bono, Richard Curtis, Harvey Goldsmith, John Kennedy, Midge Ure along with the staff of their organizations around the world.

The concerts were produced by Richard Curtis, Sir Bob Geldorf, Harvey Goldsmith, John Kennedy and Kevin Wall with Ken Ehrlich, Larry Magid, Tim Sexton, Greg Sills and Russell Simmons.

The beneficiary of profits after the costs of the concerts is the Band Aid Charitable Trust.

The Band Aid Charitable Trust was established to help relieve hunger and poverty in Ethiopia and the surrounding countries.

To donate send your check, payable to 'Band Aid Charitable Trust' to:

Band Aid Charitable Trust
PO Box 5301
London
W1A 3WW

Direct bank transfer to the Band Aid Trust Donations account:

Account# 26588706
Sort code: 60-30-06
Bank: National Westminster Bank

or online at:

In Edinburgh Scotland 225,000 people turned out on Saturday to take part in the world's largest physical human white band around the city's center.

Joining them were representatives from around the world including Kumi Naidoo - head of the Global Call to Action Against Poverty, the actor Gael Garcia Bernal and the Senegalese musician Baaba Maal as well as broadcaster Jonathan Dimbleby and representatives of all faiths.

Geldof is confident G8 leaders who meet in Scotland will listen to the world's global music message which has inspired millions of citizens and talented artists into action.

President Bush has pledged to double the United States' aid to Africa to $8 billion per year.

Much of U.S. aid is in the form of food aid, which is spent on U.S. farmers. Speaking ahead of the G8 summit, he said trade and good government are as important. Bush said the world stands to benefit from prosperity and stability in Africa.

Already, the U.S. has set up a special body of its own, the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC), to administer U.S. aid to Africa through the Millennium Challenge Account (MCA).

MCA states that aid is most effective when it reinforces sound political, economic and social policies - which are key to encouraging the inflows of private capital and increased trade - the real engines of economic growth.

However, only $400,000 of U.S. aid has actually reached sub-Saharan Africa so far. And only four countries have qualified at all.

iTunes Single Favorites

Paul McCartney and U2's Live 8-opening rendition of "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" and McCartney's finale of "The Long and Winding Road" were released to iTunes Music Store. The tracks shot to the Top 5 in the U.S., Spain and France. They also topped the charts in Britain, Canada, Ireland, Netherlands, Germany, Italy and Belgium.

Away with The Pirates

The Internet auction site eBay said on Tuesday it had begun removing illegal DVD copies of the Live 8 poverty awareness pop concerts from its Web site, after the record industry complained.

Some of the pirate recordings on the site early on Tuesday were on sale within 24 hours of Saturday's concerts ending, and have been attracting bids of up to $31 (16.99 pounds) each.

Pink Floyd has seen its album sales rocket thirteen-fold, after being reunited on stage for the first time in more than 20 years.

Fans have flocked to record stores to buy copies of the band's greatest hits album. Sales of Echoes: The Best of Pink Floyd are already up a reported 1,343% since their performance on Saturday.

The Who and Annie Lennox also registered massive increases.

On July 12th, Live AID 20 Years Ago Today: The Story of 1985 will be released on DVD for $9.99. This DVD offers 52 minutes of highlights from the performances of George Michael, Sting, Andrew Ridgly, Bono, Howard Jones, Adam Ant, Duran Duran, Hall and Oates, Tina Turner, Mick Jagger, Status Quo, Paul Mc Cartney, Queen, The Pretenders, and more.

The DVD also includes information about the 4 disc set.

Twenty years ago, Geldof helped raise $100 million for Africa's starving.

Twenty years later, the philanthropist has a loftier goal. He would like to see a doubling of aid to Africa, the forgiveness of debts and fairer trade rules.

The brother of South African President Thabo Mbeki wrote, "Throwing money at African governments is not the answer."

Moeletsi Mbeki said:

Give the money to the people for productive investment.

Africans are perfectly capable of improving their own lot.

One organization that is doing just that is Village Enterprise Fund (VEF) based in San Carlos, California. To-date, they have helped start 9,000 group-based businesses among the poor, run by over 45,000 entrepreneurs. Village Enterprise Fund currently focuses on some of African's neediest areas in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda.

Each business receives a grant of $100 to $150 to start their own business, plus on-going training and mentoring by a local, indigenous VEF coordinator.

For a total cost of $200 per business (in start-up capital and training), Village Enterprise Fund helps a group of five or more people form and start their own business. Those five people each have multiple dependents, meaning that a $200 investment positively and permanently impacts the lives of 15 to 40 people.

Village Enterprise Fund's mission is to break the cycle of poverty in East Africa with training and seed capital for income-generating small businesses.

Rather than giving people a fish, the goal of Village Enterprise Fund is to teach Africans how to fish. And it's working!

88% of the businesses succeed in the first year. And more than 75% of Village businesses have lasted four years or longer.

As Pia Sarkar reported last month in The San Francisco Chronicle, Africans are succeeding at helping themselves to address the root cause of poverty. She wrote:

Pitch Johnson, a Palo Alto venture capitalist and chairman of the San Francisco Opera, said he has been contributing to the fund for more than 10 years. "I just like the idea of people taking economic responsibility for their own lives," he said. "I connect with them because I know they are indulging in much of the same desire as people who are starting fancy companies, but they're doing it on a survival level.

Rob Chess, chairman of Nektar Therapeutics in San Carlos, has been a donor for about five years. He said the fund taps into a desire that all humans share regardless of geography: a longing to improve one's own life. "That's true whether you're in Silicon Valley or East Africa," he said.

An African Brickmaker, One of Village's 9,000 Entrepreneurs Since 1987

For further information regarding Village Enterprise Fund call 1-800-785-1775 or go to:

Congratulations and thank you to all of the artists who dedicated their weekend to this monumental effort, and all those who invest every day of their lives to help Africans break their own cycle of poverty.

May the effects of your efforts hit home in Africa, literally and figuratively.

Inspire & Be Inspired.

Here's to healthy, adventuresome, soulful, "using the power of music and money to fight the power of poverty" living!

~ Jennifer Carolyn King, Rugged Elegance, LLC

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