July 2, 2005 - Today will hopefully become a day that goes down in history as a day that rocked poverty. Bob Geldof was once again called to organize a global rock concert in the G8 nations to "Make Poverty History".

For those of you who weren't aware, today's was not the first concert of this nature. Geldof was called upon twenty years ago, on July 13, 1985, to bring together some of the most famous names in music history to raise funds for famine relief in Ethiopia.

This live broadcast concert brought in an estimated 1.5 billion viewers in 100 countries. The incredible list of performers included such greats as Paul McCartney, Queen, Madonna, Black Sabbath, Run-DMC, INXS and The Who, playing in such locations as the Wembley Stadium in London and the JFK Stadium in Philadelphia. The next day, news reporters around the world announced that between 40 and 50 million pounds were raised -- that's approximately $70 to 80 million in U.S. dollars.

Today's concert is very similar, except this year the concert is urging the world leaders at the G8 event to rewrite history without poverty. The G8 was made to bring the globe's most powerful leaders together, including representatives from the USA, Canada, Great Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and Russia. This year they will meet from July 6-8 in Gleneagles, Scotland.

The conference will be hosted by Great Britain's Prime Minister, Tony Blair. Blair has stated that Africa's condition has been put at the top of the list of things to discuss, but what they need to know is that the world is watching. With performances in all G8 nations, I think they'll get the hint.

Stadiums in London, Paris, Berlin, Rome, Philadelphia, Barrie, Tokyo, Johannesburg and Moscow are housing some of the greatest performers of our day, just like 20 years ago. Geldof managed to get such names as U2, The Who, Linkin Park, Pink Floyd, Bjork, Green Day, Shakira, The Cure, Kanye West, Jay-Z, the Black Eyed Peas, the Kaiser Chiefs, Madonna, Coldplay, Sir Elton John, The Killers, Jos Stone, Sir Paul McCartney and many more!

For more information on Live 8 you can check out the official website at www.live8live.com, and to check today's lineup of artists you can check out BBC's http://www.bbc.co.uk/music/thelive8event.

Change the world,
xLONDONx