Live8 London early evening

Geldof reappeared to introduce 24-year-old Birhan Woldu, one of the starving children featured in footage broadcast during the original Live Aid concert. Geldof explained that through Live Aid money, Birhan's life was saved, and now, 20 years later, she has just passed her agricultural exams at home in Ethiopia. Madonna clasped Birhan's hand, keeping hold while performing her set opener Like a Prayer.

The Queen of pop and her band were dressed all in white, like many of tonight's performers. The singer asked London if it was "Ready to start a revolution? Ready to change history?"

She also sang Ray of Light and Music


Killers


A barefoot Joss Stone - the youngest performer on the London lineup, performed Super Duper Love and I had a Dream.

Live8 London continues

Travis
Why does it always rain on me?


Ms Dynamite


Brad Pitt


At 5pm Bob Geldof came on stage to announce that over three billion people were watching the event. Over in Philadelphia, events were just beginning, with Will Smith on stage to open the US's Live 8 concert. The actor and singer introduced live link-ups with the crowds in Berlin, Paris and Canada. He spoke of a Declaration of 'Interdependence' and urged the crowds to help end world poverty. "Every three seconds, somebody's son, somebodys' daughter, somebody's future is gone. Dead" he said. "With a stroke of a pen eight men can make a difference and end the misery of millions of people."

Geldof returned to the stage in London, this time to perform. "I know it's cheeky, but I couldn't resist playing on this stage," he told the crowd. He sang a powerful version of the Boomtown Rats' hit single, I Don't Like Mondays. "Thanks for letting me do that," he said, leaving the stage to huge cheers.


Annie Lennox knows what sweet dreams are made of.

Live8 London gets started

"Ladies and gentlemen, it's two o'clock. Welcome to the greatest rock concert in the world." And thus, a few minutes after 2pm, Live 8 began simultaneously at venues in London, Paris, Rome and Berlin.


Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band:
'It was 20 years ago today'.


Macca


Bono and U2 then took over, performing It's a Beautiful Day with lyrics especially customised for the event. Overhead, grey clouds gathered, but the crowd greeted the performers enthusiastically.


Coldplay opened with In My Place. Among the spectators were Chris Martin's wife, Gwyneth Paltrow and their daughter Apple. Richard Ashcroft sang his best known song, Bitter Sweet Symphony, backed by Coldplay. Martin sneaked in a small tribute to Status Quo - who opened Live Aid 20 years previously, singing a few words from their song Rocking All Over The World. The singer called Bob Geldof "a hero" and thanked the organiser, referring to those who were cynical as 'stupid'. Their brief set ended with Fix You.


Elton


Geldof then made a brief appearance, to introduce Bill Gates as "the greatest philanthropist of our age." Gates - the richest man in the world - and his wife Melinda have given $5bn (£2.82 bn) towards relieving poverty. Gates paid tribute to Geldof and the event's other organisers. "I believe that if you show people the problems and you show them the solutions they will be moved to act," he said.

"I have learned that success depends on knowing what works and bringing resources to the problem. We know what to do. The generosity we are asking for can save millions of lives. Some day in the future all people no matter where they are born will be able to lead a healthy life."


Dido was up next. The North Londoner sang White Flag, and then was joined on stage by Sengalese singer Youssou N'Dour to sing her breakthrough hit, Thank You. The two then performed N'Dour's 1994 smash hit Seven Seconds

Make Poverty History

The G8 brings together the leaders of the worlds most powerful countries - the USA, Canada, Great Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and Russia. This year they meet from 6th - 9th July in Gleneagles with Britain’s Prime Minister, Tony Blair hosting the summit.

Tony Blair has put the challenges faced in Africa on the top of the agenda – but the leaders need to know when they sit down that the world is watching them and waiting for them to deliver.

House on the Bridge

Around 20:30 five of us adjourned to Eton, to the House on the Bridge, for fine food and conversation. Our round table overlooked the Thames, with boisterous swans and a view to the Queen's Windsor Castle. By the end of the evening we had created a real occasion.

Gilbey's

David and David were both in town and so a few of us made our way across to bustling Gilbey's for an evening together. There was quite a group of long term friends swapping stories in a convivial atmosphere.

Very British

To the nearby Swan pub in the early evening. A refreshing pint of London Pride. Then on to the nearby curry house!
Very British. Very London.

Personality ENFJ !?

Its always fun to try these personality tests. This takes about five minutes and is Jung and Myers-Briggs based. It makes me an Extrovert Intuitive Feeling Judging (44/50/50/11) type of person. Sometimes called 'The Teacher Idealist'. This is supposed to be around 3% of the population. I then did ANOTHER five minute test of the same design and emerged as a 'Rational' temperament useful in complex problem solving and involving the abstract concepts that underlie a particular case. The change was the F which became a T (feeling->thinking). So I suppose this entry just illustrates my personality at work!

Note to self to try again in a few weeks for consistency!

Check it out and see if you recognise yourself.

Digital Plumbers

We are all getting more and more technology in the home. For example we routinely use Wifi, Airport Extreme Music streaming and regular broadband as well as the taken for granted gigabit ethernet in ours. For some time, the Uk has talked about the emergence of digital plumbers to fix things for the less digerati and technorati enabled amonst us. So USA have beaten us with Geek Squad, which does just that!

Pyramid in Sun

Glastonbury Pyramid

Coldplay, Kasabian, Kaiser Chiefs and White Stripes. All excellent.

Glastonbury

Hmm. Wet.