Saturday, July 07, 2007

Live Earth: Phil Collins isn't going to nail his crab to the mast

Genesis, it's fair to say, don't seem to have quite got the hang of the whole Live Earth event. They've just been on News 24, interviewed by David Sillito, who kicked off with a jokey question to Phil. Mentioning the transatlantic trip on Concord Collins took during Live Aid, Sillito asked him "you aren't going to do that this time, are you?" Phil looked at him like he was a half-wit:

"Nah, I'm not going to do it because it's not possible any more. They don't have..."

Collins then appeared to struggle for the name of the plane. Still, it's comforting to know he's cutting down the air travel, if only because the planes don't fit his busy schedules any more.

Sillito tried again, suggesting that the band might be inspired to do something about their own carbon footprint as a result of the event, getting rewarded with a sarcastic "oh, yeah, we're going to walk to Manchester tonight" before Phil gave precisely the sort of "it's a problem for someone else to fix, individuals can't make a difference" response that Live Earth was supposed to be challenging:
"Bigger fish have to do more; governments have to do a little more than individuals just switching a light bulb off..."

Puzzled as to why they were there, Sillito asked if they were at least going to be sharing the message. Mike Rutherford made it clear that no, they weren't going to be doing that, either:
"Every band can't do the preaching."

But... but... isn't this meant to be an awareness-raising one? Phil chipped in that there were other people - "like David Attenborough" - to do that:
"We're just here for the music."

It's a wonderful success already, then.

Meanwhile, Joanna Gosling had been talking to people coming into Wembley, and they seemed like they couldn't be that arsed about the message either. One she spoke to seemed to want to be a part of something, and wasn't that bothered what it was:
"They're here because they missed Live Aid"


1 comment:

Ade said...

In fairness to Collins - a phrase I struggle to type - I get a bit cynical when Tony Blair points out changing all the Downing Street lightbulbs to low energy ones as the sum total of his environmental leadership.

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