A 24-hour music marathon spanning seven continents reached the Western Hemisphere on Saturday, with rappers, rockers and country stars taking the stage at Live Earth concerts to fight climate change. "Times like these demand action," said former Vice President Al Gore, speaking to the sold-out crowd of about 52,000 in New Jersey's Giants Stadium. With other shows in London, Sydney, Tokyo, Kyoto, Shanghai, Hamburg, Johannesburg, Rio de Janeiro and even a performance by a band of scientists at a research station in Antarctica organizers promised the biggest musical event ever staged, dwarfing the Live Aid and Live 8 concerts.
Organizers estimate 2 billion people heard Live Earth's music in person, on TV or on the Internet. Live Earth venues featured aboriginal elders, chimpanzee calls from scientist Jane Goodall, a holographic Gore and more than 100 of the biggest names in music including Bon Jovi, Linkin Park and the Beastie Boys. One of the day's musical highlights was at the New Jersey show, where Keith Urban and Alicia Keys performed a fiery rendition of The Rolling Stones' "Gimme Shelter," with Keys belting out her part with a ferocity that would make Merry Clayton proud while Urban wailed on his guitar.
Theirs was not the only socially-conscious song from the 1970s to be dusted off for a celebrity duet. At the London concert, John Legend and Corrine Bailey Rae sang Marvin Gaye's "Mercy Mercy Me (The Ecology)" which Keys also performed in her solo set in New York. Then there was the "concert" from Antarctica which featured just one band: Nunatak.
Described on their Web site as the British Antarctic Survey's Rothera Research Station's "house band," the 5 members are all scientists investigating climate change and evolutional biology on the Antarctic Peninsula. "Let's hope the concerts that are happening around the world are not just about entertainment, but about starting a revolution." The concerts are backed by Gore, whose campaign to force global warming onto the international political stage inspired the event.
At concerts around the world, musicians and celebrities encouraged fans and one another to take little steps, such as not leaving electrical devices plugged in when not in use, or changing to low-energy light bulbs. At the London show, the stadium's nonessential lights were turned off before the closing act Madonna came onstage, leaving the venue dark except for the glow of exit lights and the flashes of cameras. Keith Urban plays a heartfelt guitar solo during his performance of "Gimme Shelter" with Alicia Keys.
"Let's hope the concerts that are happening around the world are not just about entertainment, but about starting a revolution," said Madonna, who sang a song she wrote for Live Earth called "Hey You." The Beastie Boys wore their feelings on their sleeves, performing a furious set of their hits in tailored green suits and shades when they took the stage at Wembley Stadium. "Let's all try to do our parts and see if we can get it together," Beastie Boy Adam Yauch told the crowd.
In New Jersey, rocker Melissa Etheridge pounded out her song "I Need to Wake Up," which was featured in Gore's documentary, "An Inconvenient Truth," and won an Oscar for best song this year. Gore later introduced Bon Jovi, which hails from the Garden State, telling the crowd that the band was one of the first to volunteer its musical services when the concert was announced. Band members didn't make any environmental statements during their five-song set, but that didn't seem to matter to their cheering fans.
Gore also made a live video appearance from Washington to open the first show on the other side of the world in Sydney, Australia, and a few hours later appeared onstage in Tokyo as a hologram. The former vice president attended the New Jersey show, taking mass transit from Washington. He called on members of the crowd to commit themselves to a seven-point pledge to combat global warming, including steps such as demanding a moratorium on building new coal-powered plants and fighting for more renewable energy.
"I would like to ask each and every one of you to answer the call," Gore said.
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