Bob Geldof's Millennium Call To Arms Staging Live Eight

Bob Geldof’s Millennium Call To Arms Staging Live Eight
By Arlene R. Weiss © 5/11/2005


With all the hot burning issues and goings on in music news currently, there are numerous topics that deserve my acerbic slagging. But dammit, just when I thought I could go off ranting about the next topic to pluck my nerves, good old Sir Bob…Geldof that is, has the nerve to honor the upcoming 20th Anniversary of Live Aid, by using it as leverage for planning and staging an International, large scale charity benefit concert. (At press time, press announcements fueled and amassed hype for as yet unconfirmed details of the concert).

Damn Geldof! He’s like that character Dr. Gregory House on the Fox Television Network’s new medical show “House” that’s become International watercooler buzz. Dr. House…er Bob Geldof …sorry Sir Bob, is all bluster, with a tough as nails exterior, spewing colorful, caustic curse words that would make a sailor blush….all a facade for that heart, oh that’s about as big as a lion’s, and huge enough to try to hug, heal, and save the world.

Bob Geldof never ceases to astound, confound, and put me in inspired awe. After twenty years of literally often putting his life and music career on hold to repeatedly travel to the far corners of third world war torn nations, meeting with The Pope and world leaders to work on active solutions to the world’s ills of poverty, famine, disease, and social injustice, he is planning another mammoth charity benefit music concert called Live Eight.

A conjunction of the words from Live Aid and G8 (The International Summit being held July 6-8, 2005 in Scotland. Representatives of the world’s major financial powers will be discussing and addressing solutions to Third World Poverty), Live Eight is tentatively scheduled for early to mid July 2005. July 13, 2005 will mark 20 years since Live Aid. Perfect timing indeed!

U2, a reunited Pink Floyd, Sir Elton John, Sir Paul McCartney, Madonna, Coldplay, and The Cure are just a sampling of some of the many superstar artists playing mum on media buzz they may be on the bill, performing for Live Eight.

So who the hell does Geldof think he is, seizing a prime opportunity to capitalize on the sentiment of Live Aid’s 20th Anniversary, its acclaimed release at long last on DVD this year, and a historic summit meant to hash out an actual plan to reduce if not eliminate world poverty? I’ll tell you who he is. Bob Geldof is a hero, to me. And I do not use that word or take what it stands for lightly. They are in short supply in these new millennium times and so it soars one’s heart to see an actual real deal rise to the occasion…over and over, time and again, answering the call, consistently and without hesitation.

As heroes and humanitarians go, rag all the hell you want about my opinion of Sir Bob. But Bob Geldof is my hero above any celebrity (and in this case above any music artist as well), that has worked his ever lovin’ ass off for 20 years, repeatedly visiting in person, war torn, third world countries in Africa, ridden with filth, plague, famine, cholera, Ebola, rats, no running water, risking his own life, to help people in these countries who have no food, no clean/safe water, no shelter, no proper medical care.

Geldof has often focused on making special time to peruse his music career since The Boomtown Rats split up, dividing and finding time when he can (in between his social/artist activism), to record some wonderful and eclectic solo albums. But one has to conclude that whatever career Geldof has had since the behemoth known as Live Aid, and its ensuing machinery which Geldof willingly has allowed himself to be engulfed in, throwing himself head first into the trenches of the world’s problems, that his music, recording, and performing are certainly a respite, joy, and oasis from the sleepless nights and days, traveling across the world to these ravaged nations in harrowing, yes, dangerous conditions, just to help others, and to raise world wide awareness and funds to help those in need.

I will admit that Bob Geldof, to many, comes across arrogant, even a braggart (though name me one celebrity or rock star who isn’t and most of them have nothing to show for it but their Spinal Tap partying ways and a trail of trashed hotel rooms). At least Geldof puts his money where his mouth or rather his “loudmouth” as he is affectionately known by many, is. I may not always agree with his tactics, but it works for him more than any other rock star/celebrity doing charity work.

Who else but Geldof cursing and yelling on International TV, “Give us your f*****g money!” at Live Aid (which by the way he was misquoted through the years with this, and he was understandably, incredibly frustrated that people watching the concert around the globe were so caught up in being entertained, they were forgetting the purpose of Live Aid and temporarily stopped phoning in donations until his publicly televised “reminder tirade”, but I digress); who else but Geldof, could have rounded up dozens of MUCH bigger ego ridden rock stars, told them all to “park their egos at the door”, and pull off an Internationally Broadcasted all star live rock concert to a global audience of over a billion, via multi-satellite linkups to TV and radio, held in 2 continents, simultaneously, for over twelve hours, with hundreds of technical crews, TV & radio crews, music techs, stage hands, without a hitch, and never once, have you ever heard of any of those rock stars giving Geldof, the concert promoters….and most importantly, the cause of the day, any crap.

And to this day, in all of the charity work that Geldof, and his often partner in crime, U2’s Bono, do, Geldof acts no differently. And whenever he asks for other music artists to get involved, there is no infighting, no squabbling, no tantrums, no star ego trips, from any of the stars he gets involved. Everyone is happy to step up, do their part, and for the cause at hand.

Likewise, when Geldof is asked to dip his toes in the waters of another’s cause, he is also happy to do so. Geldof will personally send a video message to be aired at Nelson Mandela’s next concert, in what has been an ongoing series of global all star benefit concerts organized by Mandela, known as 46664, this one being 46664 Arctic, featuring a glittering lineup of music stars performing to raise awareness and funds to fight and find a cure for AIDS, being held June 11, 2005 in Tromso, Norway. (Likewise Mandela will deliver an urgent message to resolve the AIDS Pandemic to the leaders of the G8 Summit).

Twenty years ago in Reagan era America, we and the rest of the modern western world or “powers” as we often call them, were flush with living what we in the USA termed, the “American Dream”. Financial security, homeland safety, lifelong employment stability, corporate reliability and accountability that invested back to everyday tax paying, hard working, citizens, living a quiet, content life in our single family homes with a big yard and a friendly neighborhood. Rallying to Live Aid and the African Famine was the right thing to do for those less fortunate than us, for those that knew not of a safe, war free nation, much less food to eat.

But in this post 911 new millennium, for America and for much of the modern western nations, where massive unemployment and the implosion, collapse of the corporate infrastructure are rapidly spiraling downwards out of control, crime and drugs have taken the streets away from us and made us frightened prisoners in our own homes, and AIDS has become an International Pandemic engulfing the entire world….we realize that no one on this planet is immune or safe from poverty, war, terrorism, famine, disease. It’s here in our own homes, our own back yard. It’s no longer just an unknown face of a starving child seen via TV news footage, in a remote village on the other side of the world in some forgotten continent. It’s here at home in our shiny, capitalistic metropolis.

Bob Geldof was one of the first to open his eyes and heart to the world’s unjust horrors then. With Live Aid in 1985 and with his ongoing charity work and social activism through the ensuing years, he has continued to keep it in our mind’s eye and in our hearts as well. But now, those inhumane travesties that Geldof personally witnessed which seemingly existed only in Africa, are everywhere. From New York to Los Angeles, from London to Paris, from Toronto to Berlin, from Moscow to Tokyo.

G8 and Live Eight are the official wake up call to the entire world. No longer can we allow an event like Live Aid or Live Eight to remain a one off charity benefit event to temporarily salve the wound and ease our conscience. It’s time to create and structure a regular, concrete plan, a course of action, and view this as the beginning, the catalyst for an era where every human on this planet can live in a world without fear of war or terrorism, disease or hunger, but with peace, food, shelter, tolerance, and humanity.

Geldof is the rabble rousing rebel (and music maker), who never accepts defeat. I’ve read that whenever someone tells him that something cannot be done….his reply is always, “why”? Why, when this world has the resources, funds, technology, and humanity to make the impossible, possible. Bob Geldof PROVED that fact with Live Aid and the immense power of and difference that music can make, in impacting and calling people to arms to help solve the ills of the world. And so I am certain that he will do planet earth proud once again with Live Eight. Can we all, do the same?

By Arlene R. Weiss © Copyright May 11, 2005