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Damon Albarn critcises Geldof


Inkster

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Bob Geldof had a lot to do to win me over on this one tbh' date=' but the speech he just gave at the end of a great interview with Jonathan Ross tonight was one of the best things I've heard on tv for a long time. Mr Albarn now just sounds like a bitter little boy who has totally missed the point, to me at least.

Forget petty crap about who, what genre, what style or what colour of musician is playing, there is a far bigger picture. The whole thing is about what is the best way to make as many people as possible aware of how fucked up the world's priorities are. I think Bob is doing a better job of that than Damon.

" If 50,000 children died every day in Manchester, or 50,00 children died every day in Turin, etc. you can bet that between breakfast and lunch they would have stopped it"* All they have to do is stop asking for the interest on the loans we gave them years ago. Not even cancelling the loans themselves, just the interest payments ffs. Thousands are dying because we are asking for more than we gave them. It [i']is that simple, we now just have to let them know that there is no excuse for them not stopping it.

*paraphrased, cos I can't remember it exactly, but that's the gist...

Cincinnati (however its spelt) Was another city he mentioned hehe :D

The speech tonight was indeed quality!

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Get over it' date=' I backed up my point with a fact, very simple, and as you missed it, I'll repeat it, in the last year I've had many dealings with Midge and I believe his reasons for doing it are the right reasons. The Jo comment was just to back up why I had reasons to think this first hand.

The gig is to raise awareness and it's done it, simple, therefore the gig is a success...

Cheers

Stuart[/quote']

No need to repeat it... I don't doubt his reasons and I don't doubt that most involved have their hearts in the right place. And there are arguments on both sides but sometimes sleeping with the devil gets things done and noticed... I just had to laugh at your ill placed f***ing name dropping! I'm sure you wont get my point as it is based on the irony of your original post. But I'll get a laugh.

(Let Maxi back in)

;)

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I agree with the purpose of the Live 8 campaign as an awareness raising ploy. However, it seems to me, chastise me if i'm wrong, that Mr Brown has a a fairly sound economic plan ready to put forward to the worlds money men. However, i do also think that Geldof makes solving the issue seem a lot easier than it actually is. Once they cancel the interest on the debts are they also going to replace the corrupt leaders/governments, who took out the loans from the world bank in order to fuel their many wives exotic lifestyles leaving the rest of the country to rot in the first place, with men and women who have sound plans in order to stabalise the african economy?

Also, the problem with any protest like this is that anarchists around the world flock to start trouble, which just ends up turning the world leaders against whatever Live8 is trying to achieve.

p.s

Do you reckon elton was thinking about the starving africans when he was having diamonds embroidered into his 200 adidas trainers?

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thing is your always going to get ageing old irrelivant tossers like macca and elton to play these gigs, they thrive the limelight the over paid drama queens but as has been stated its looking at the bigger picture and that cant be a bad thing (even if we do have to watch sting murder his back catalogue in a world music stylee). i truly believe that geldof and ure's hearts are in the right place (damn missed the geldof interview on ross last night).

but the kaiser chiefs getting to play the US gig is a shameless bit of self promotion, but fuck it who cares? its not the issue, the isssue is the ridiculous interest charges which should be wiped out now. though elton, macca and bono could donate a few quid an all.

if this is successful i'd like to see the issue of corruption in many african countries tackled, it often seems to get ignored as well.

and the Quo have to open the gig!!!! :)

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Pessimistic Prediction

No doubt the G8 will cook up a scheme to cut or cancel the debts. It will of course come with strings attached. The words "liberalisation", "opening markets" and "free trade" will be bandied around: this usually means the rich and powerful will remain that way. These won't be Africans. The devil is in the detail. It will pay to look the gift horse in the mouth. Enough cliches yet?

If Geldof's scheme has a flaw this is it. The message should be to drop the debt, and ask NOTHING in return. THAT is altruism.

Anyway, if I remember rightly the Live Aid lineup was cack too.

:rockon:

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No doubt the G8 will cook up a scheme to cut or cancel the debts. It will of course come with strings attached. The words "liberalisation"' date=' "opening markets" and "free trade" will be bandied around: this usually means the rich and powerful will remain that way. These won't be Africans. The devil is in the detail. It will pay to look the gift horse in the mouth. Enough cliches yet?

If Geldof's scheme has a flaw this is it. The message should be to drop the debt, and ask NOTHING in return. THAT is altruism.

Anyway, if I remember rightly the Live Aid lineup was cack too.

:rockon:[/quote']

The Live Aid lineup isnt that different from Live8 whicxh is actually the scariest thing that the artists who were biggest in the world then still are. The line up is to be as expected to get the most people to take noticd, ie the bands who regularly top 5 million album sales.

Cheers

Stuart

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to keep on the africa theme. has anyone seen the orange advert for their charity campaign? i usually really like their adverts, i know a lot of people don't but the darth vader one was class.

this particular advert though is kind of not funny, i know its trying to see a humourus side to it all but i thought in the end i thought they were kind of laughing at some african culture? i duno it kind of shocked me... with the whole 'i do love rap' thing and trying to make african traits into a business idea.. kind of shite if you ask me

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Guest bluesxman

Elton could give all his cash he would normally spend on flowers to pay back some of the debt, that could help. But maybe he has to save up for his no doubt ridiculously over the top wedding to that gormless grinning waste of space at the end of the year.

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Elton could give all his cash he would normally spend on flowers to pay back some of the debt' date=' that could help. But maybe he has to save up for his no doubt ridiculously over the top wedding to that gormless grinning waste of space at the end of the year.[/quote']

See Elton gets a hard time for all that stuff, but the proceeds of every single he's released since the mid 90's all go to charity, which isnt too bad,

Cheers

Stuart

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Guest tv tanned
Bob Geldof had a lot to do to win me over on this one tbh' date=' but the speech he just gave at the end of a great interview with Jonathan Ross tonight was one of the best things I've heard on tv for a long time. Mr Albarn now just sounds like a bitter little boy who has totally missed the point, to me at least.

Forget petty crap about who, what genre, what style or what colour of musician is playing, there is a far bigger picture. The whole thing is about what is the best way to make as many people as possible aware of how fucked up the world's priorities are. I think Bob is doing a better job of that than Damon.

" If 50,000 children died every day in Manchester, or 50,00 children died every day in Turin, etc. you can bet that between breakfast and lunch they would have stopped it"* All they have to do is stop asking for the interest on the loans we gave them years ago. Not even cancelling the loans themselves, just the interest payments ffs. Thousands are dying because we are asking for more than we gave them. It [i']is that simple, we now just have to let them know that there is no excuse for them not stopping it.

*paraphrased, cos I can't remember it exactly, but that's the gist...

Agreed, I had a lump in me throat listening to it, and I would like to find anyone who wouldn't be moved by some of the stuff he said.

As far as Geldof and Ure go, I think that they are totally committed to the issue. I question the motives of some of the acts though. How much have they donated from their multi-million pound Swiss accounts to the African cause in recent times?

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Alot of those bands playing are in a no win situation Elton John & Paul McCartney if they play there labelled has beens with dubious spending habits, who crave the limelight and are doing it for all the wrong reasons on the other hand if they dont do it they'd be slagged for being insesitive to the plight of Africa and dont care about the common man thus putting them in a bad light.

Kaiser Chiefs playing the USA i was wondering if there out in the USA doing press or touring around that time and that is why they are playing the USA leg?

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Someone mentioned earlier that these famous people should donate money etc if they really cared - thats not the point. Most of these people (Bono etc) do charitable work in the form of donations etc etc. Live8 is about getting all of us to recognise the shite thats going on in Africa and help out as well. Nothing negative should be said about Live8 at all. The intentions of these mass concerts is to make the problem more aware, to keep it fresh in the minds of people and get people to donate.

People who complain about there being "not enough black people" or "a bunch of has-beens" are completely missing the point. Why are you moaning about who is on the bill? It doesnt matter who is on the bill. what matters is you recognise this event for what it's trying to achieve.

And whoever also mentioned the point about G8 ending debts but not without a catch. I completely agree. You can almost predict that this is going to happen. but hey, thats life...right?

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i heard the sex pistols have been added to the bill, any truth in this?

yeah to be honest its a fair point regarding the bill, i mean its the issue thats important though i fear for the sanity of the kids if scary old has beens like elton n sting take to the stage....

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Kaiser Chiefs playing the USA i was wondering if there out in the USA doing press or touring around that time and that is why they are playing the USA leg?

Whether they've arranged their tour dates around Live8 or whether they've merely lucked out with the Live8 date [i'm presuming it's a mix - that they'd planned to tour and been offered Live8 and so arranged U.S dates around this] they're playing 5 dates in America directly after their appearance.

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I hate to make the smuggest of points here, but I just think its great that this is being done at all. There's really no need for people like Albarn to have a go because when alls said and done, I see his point, but I don't see him staging massive concerts for Africa. All this week I've been reading critics in the papers complaining about Geldof's 'senseless bullying' of people. He's raising money for a seriously worthy cause, that's all anyone should be concerned about.

Mike

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I hate to make the smuggest of points here' date=' but I just think its great that this is being done at all. There's really no need for people like Albarn to have a go because when alls said and done, I see his point, but I don't see him staging massive concerts for Africa. All this week I've been reading critics in the papers complaining about Geldof's 'senseless bullying' of people. He's raising money for a seriously worthy cause, that's all anyone should be concerned about.

Mike[/quote']

Not raising money this time, just awareness... :)

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No doubt the G8 will cook up a scheme to cut or cancel the debts. It will of course come with strings attached. The words "liberalisation"' date=' "opening markets" and "free trade" will be bandied around: this usually means the rich and powerful will remain that way. These won't be Africans. The devil is in the detail. It will pay to look the gift horse in the mouth. Enough cliches yet?

If Geldof's scheme has a flaw this is it. The message should be to drop the debt, and ask NOTHING in return. THAT is altruism.

Anyway, if I remember rightly the Live Aid lineup was cack too.

:rockon:[/quote']

Exactly. Take Geldof's response to the debt-relief package that G8 announced for the world's poorest countries.. reading the statement you can see the conditions it contains - enforced liberalisation and privatisation. Commercialisation, privatisation and the liberalisation of trade and capital flows means new opportunities for western money.

These are as onerous as the debts it relieves! However Geldof praised it as "a victory for the millions of people in the campaigns around the world" and Bono said: "a little piece of history".

A bit disappointing for supporters of the debt relief with an understanding of development politics and a knowledge that even with the 18 poorest countries' debt burden lifted, by opening up trade with America, their economies will never be able to compete and so under these conditionalities, we can't 'make poverty history'

With Geldof as 'the face' of the G8 protest campaign, you'd hope him to be a bit more well-informed.. or at least consider the interests the developed countries hold in relieving the third world of debt.

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