That was Live 8
I couldn’t take any more punishment. The cumulative effect of Joss Stone, The Scissor Sisters and Velvet Revolver drove me out of Hyde Park. If I had stuck around to endure the pain of Robbie Williams and Mariah Carey, I fear that my exploding head would have made a terrible mess all over the happy families.
The up-side to bailing out early was that I was whisked back to Brighton in a near-empty train. The down-side is that I missed Pink Floyd. But to be honest, I think it would be better to just watch it on television anyway. Just being in a five mile radius of a stage doesn’t really feel like being there.
I’m afraid the whole day has left me feeling quite depressed and cynical about popular music. I’m trying not to let that cynicism bleed into my thoughts on the political agenda of Live 8. It’s tough though: I know the concerts were supposed to raise awareness of very important issues, which is admirable. But my awareness of the political situation was already in place before going to Hyde Park. Now it’s coupled with an awareness of just how crap most popular music is these days.
Ah, well. I’m sure it came across a lot better on telly.
I’ve put together a Flickr photoset which captures my impressions of the day in the park.
Sunday, July 3rd, 2005 1:09am
Illustrations
Thanks to the magic of machine tags, you can illustrate this post by tagging a picture on Flickr with:
