Live 8 organizer defends lineup for Canadian concert
Canadian Live 8 organizer Michael Cohl shot back Wednesday at critics who are complaining that the lineup for the July 2 concert in Barrie, Ont., is rife with has-beens.
“These are our best artists. It’s not all of them, but it’s sure a substantial portion of them,” the concert promoter said of the bill for the July 2 event, which includes the likes of Bruce Cockburn, Burton Cummings, Gordon Lightfoot and Tom Cochrane.
“These are people who have competed on the world stage successfully,” he told the Canadian Press.
Writing in the Toronto Star on Wednesday, pop-music critic Ben Rayner was among those who expressed disappointment with the lineup.
The artists on the bill “have all made a significant dent in the Canadian and international consciousnesses at various points during their careers, but the days of their greatest visibility and popular success are long behind them,” Rayner said.
Even a group like Our Lady Peace is “yesterday’s news to the kids,” he argued.
“Our concert just feels like a lazily programmed, rather half-hearted afterthought,” he added, comparing the Canadian concert to the ones being staged at venues around the world on the same day.
Cohl said he had talked to between 50 and 60 acts about appearing at the concert.
“My job is to put together the best cross-section of talent that will draw the best audience both in terms of live, and in terms of the television audience, so that more people will get the message,” he said.
He added that he expects there to be “overwhelming demand” when the free tickets for the show become available on Thursday.
Rayner wasn’t the only one who used Tuesday’s announcement as an opportunity to criticize Live 8.
National Post columnist Bruce Garvey also responded harshly in a front-page column headlined “A rock & roll fantasy.”
Garvey noted that the goal of 1985’s Live Aid had been to alleviate the famine then raging in Africa. “Well, it didn’t. So here we are again, treading the same well-worn trail that leads to nowhere,” he wrote.
Calling Geldof a “long-since failed rocker from a one-hit … bar band called the Boomtown Rats,” Garvey told his readers not to “expect Live 8 to make a whit of difference to anyone’s life in Africa.” He also questioned the wisdom of making the concerts free.
Those comments are in sharp contrast to the optimism that was in evidence on Tuesday among the artists who are slated to appear.
Musicians like Jeremy Taggart, the drummer for Our Lady Peace, said they have high hopes for Live 8.
“If this is done properly and enough awareness is raised, this could change the world,” Taggart said.
“As musicians, we’re in a unique position where we can raise awareness, perhaps more than just about any other body of people in the world,” echoed Great Big Sea’s Alan Doyle.
“It allows us to feel like we’re contributing to society other than great tunes and great dancing. We have the opportunity to turn people on to great causes,” noted Tyler Stewart, a member of Barenaked Ladies.
Stewart also responded Tuesday to one other criticism of the concert: the choice of venue. Barrie is located about one hour north of Toronto along highway 400, the route many Toronto residents take to visit their summer homes.
“Toronto really needs to take a chill pill and just drive up the 400,” he said in response to the city’s disappointment at losing the concert to Barrie.
“You’re going to the cottage anyway. Just stop in at the frigging show.”
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