July 7th - GIANTS STADIUM, EAST RUTHERFORD, NJ, USA (Live Earth) |
Capacity: 75,000 (tbc) Concert starts: 1pm Address of venue: 50 State Route 120, East Rutherford, NJ 07073. MAP
Venue Website: http://www.meadowlands.com/ This concert forms part of the seven Live Earth shows being held across the planet on the same date. Tickets for the US show went on sale Monday, April 16 at 10 a.m. EDT and available at livenation.com/liveearth or by calling Ticketmaster at (212) 307-7171. All ticket information is available at LiveEarth.MSN.com. All proceeds will benefit the Alliance for Climate Protection and other international NGOs. Scotching the persistent rumours that Pink Floyd were reuniting for one of the seven concerts, Roger told Rolling Stone: "I can tell you that [the] others have not agreed to play it." He also said he cannot imagine why anyone would not agree to take part in the concert. "People are getting frightened, but fear can work for good and evil. It can build walls, and it can also motivate people to understand that a parochial, nationalistic attitude to matters that are global is not in our best interests." In a new interview, again with Rolling Stone, Roger talks a little more about the show: Why did you want to play Live Earth? ROGER WATERS: I saw Al’s film and I thought it was very impressive, very compelling viewing. I’ve since done a bit of research, and at least 95% of informed opinion think he’s right. Anything that brings attention to this problem for our children and grandchildren is a good thing. Have you changed anything in your daily life as a result of the climate crisis? So far, very little. I find myself going to turn the lights off where I wouldn’t have before, not to save the few cents but because it seems like a good thing to do. And I drink warm beer, obviously, which helps. Pink Floyd’s reunion was the highlight of Live 8. How will playing solo at Live Earth compare? It will be different. Playing with Dave and Nick and Rick was very special for me, and from the stage it was quite clear that it was a special moment for everyone. It will lack that. But I don’t mean to belittle my current band – they’re great. Which songs are especially relevant for this event? I’m going to do shortened versions of a number of songs at this thing: “Money,” because it seems that the love of money and power still drives global politics. And I’ll do “Us and Them” – the unseemly scrabble of world politics toward national and personal self-interest needs to be set aside if we’re going to cooperate with each other to solve this crisis that faces us all. What needs to be done, politically, to solve it? It would help if we could divert some of our resources away from blowing each other to bits and toward think tanks. Something has gone wrong with the democratic process when you can get idiots rising to offices of extreme power, like the presidency of the USA. George Bush – you could not make a worse choice in someone to lead the most powerful nation in the free world. What is the best thing Live Earth can accomplish? If it hadn’t been for Al Gore pounding on his lectern all these years, attempting to explain to us that this is a very real problem and giving us all the statistics, we might be blithely going on, trying to get everyone in the world to drive a Humvee. This is one more step in the process, to educate us and to encourage cooperation to deal with this problem, which could kill the whole human race. Following Pink Floyd's reunion at Live 8 in 2005, Roger Waters said he could see the band reuniting for similar charitable events. Such was the case with Live Earth last weekend. Waters told our friends over at Premiere Radio Networks that he was asked to talk to David Gilmour about reuniting, but Gilmour "wasn't interested." He said: "It's only the one former bandmate that needs approaching 'cause he sort of carries most of the weight in that camp. And yes I was asked to and yes I did and he wasn't interested."
SET LIST NB: Each performance can be viewed again, courtesy of liveearth.msn.com/concerts/US. Roger and the band provided the highlight of the New Jersey leg of the set of Live Earth concerts, proving an impossible act for The Police to follow and beat! Roger, full of energy, bounced around the stage throughout his 20-odd minute set, which featured in some cases abbreviated versions of the tracks. The Happiest Days/Another Brick conclusion saw "Love", the youth choir from El Bethel Baptist Church in Trenton, New Jersey, take the stage to do some backing vocals. The 7 to 16 year olds wore "2gether we stand" t-shirts for their appearance. Also turning up for this song was piggie, but a very pale cousin of the normal pink porker we're used to! Touring around the Giants Stadium to the delight of the crowd, he had plenty of spray paint on him too. With SOS a strong message throughout the day, piggie got into the spirit of this, spelling out (what he thought it meant) - Save Our Sausages! Check out the pictures shown to the right - the first two are from the television broadcast, and the second two show piggie backstage/coming from backstage for his moment of glory! (Second to last picture to the right, courtesy of BD's Brad Kaplan, and bottom picture - click it to enlarge - courtesy of BD's Mic Hiliadis). CONCERT COMMENTS - by BD contributer, Bill Dorn I thought Roger was excellent. Loved ABITW. A couple of points. I'm always amazed that it takes two guitarists to take David Gilmour's place. And you do miss his voice. Being a born and raised Jersey boy (I'm 59), I am proud to say I'm from the Garden State. I lived in NJ until 2004, when we moved to North Carolina. It bugged the heck out of me that they referred to it LE-New York. Giants Stadium is located in East Rutherford, NJ, not NY. At least Bon Jovi let everyone know where they where. And Roger got those kids from Trenton, NJ (the state capital), rather than from NY. Good for him! |
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Last Updated ( Friday, 13 July 2007 ) |