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Music for a cause

The Live 8 DVDs promise to break chart records this month

STAR CAST Paul McCartney is one of the biggest acts to feature in the album PHOTO: REUTERS

July 2005 became a landmark in music history when eight simultaneous concerts were hosted around the world on one day - July 2 - across United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, U.S.A, Canada, Japan and South Africa. And then there was one humongous concert on July 6. The idea was to promote one goal - Make Poverty History. The biggest musical campaign in recent times was responded by the G8 in the form of a meeting on July 5, 2005, which promised the world that the aid for eradication of poverty in Africa would be increased by $50 million by 2010.

They call it the power of music. The concerts featured unforgettable names such as Paul McCartney, Pink Floyd, Madonna, Bon Jovi, Mariah Carey and many more across the concerts. The four-DVD set, Live 8 (EMI, Rs. 1,469), featuring the videos of the performances of all the venues has just been released worldwide, and has already shot to the top of the bestsellers rack on all major music stores in India. The DVDs feature content from all the concerts, which means you get the best of both worlds. You can view the performances of Coldplay and Linkin Park, as well as Elton John and Bryan Adams. The names cover practically all the living musicians who are known across the world, including young artistes such as Dido, Shakira, Joss Stone, Jay Z and Snoop Dog.

More than the video content of the concerts, it is the exhaustive range of artistes and performers, which makes it a definitive collection and deserving of your time and money. It successfully captures the mood and aura that was experienced by the spectators who ensured full houses in all the concert venues.

The first DVD features interesting mash-ups by Paul McCartney and U2, Elton John and Pete Doherty, alongside popular names such as UB 40, Bon Jovi, Green Day and Duran Duran. The second DVD features more popular and new age artistes such as Linkin Park, Destiny's Child and Will Smith. The third and fourth DVDs are an impressive mix of evergreen artistes such as Stevie Wonder and Robbie Williams.

Though a certain similarity in style and format can be found along all the concerts, each individual artist incorporates his or her unique style on stage, which has been synonymous with the artiste over the years. Hence, it becomes very difficult to judge one performance against another, but a broad viewing of all the DVDs makes us feel that Paul McCartney, Def Leppard and Pink Floyd stand out.

A. VISHNU

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