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LIVE 8: WORLDWIDE?
Right, after the public service announcement, back to the cynicism: apparently the venue for Tokyo's Live 8 gig was only half-full; there's a lot of explanations as to why - not least of which is the claims that there isn't a history of charity gigs in Tokyo and there wasn't very much time to get ready. Joel Madden, of Good Charlotte, patted the organisers on the head and gave them a lollipop:
"It's encouraging they got something together. Maybe next time they'll get twice as many people."
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Well, it wasn't the most exciting line-up at Makuhari, especially compared with the line-up for the Summersonic Festival, which is taking place there next month, or Fuji Rock in Niigata later this month. There's also a great deal of general apathy/ignorance about the outside world here - they needed twice as much time for the build-up as they had in the UK and the US, where there was already the precedent of Live Aid. As it was, it was all v.last minute and not v.well publicised. The ticket application method involved a bit more commitment than concert-goers here are used to, as well - you had to register for a ticket and then make a donation via bank transfer (admittedly do-able using cash machines here, but still a bit on the complex side) to the Live 8 concert account (the amount of donation was left up to the applicant). The draw was then made from among those who actually made the bank transfer. Personally, I think they might have got more applications if they'd used the convenience store network (a common sales point for concert tickets), using the convenience stores to collect the donations at the same time as registering the donors.
Interestingly, the Make Poverty History wristbands went on sale in Japan for the first time yesterday. They're available at bookshops in 29 of Japan's 42 prefectures (= counties), as well as branches of Tower Records and Franc Franc (a chain selling furniture and housewares). Launching them before Live 8 and making them available via convenience stores might have helped boost awareness in advance of the concert and might have had a knock-on effect on numbers. Easy to be wise after the event, though...
Eleanor G
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