Live8 should have had African bands

The morning after the day before. In my local supermarket, everyone is snatching up a copy of the Sunday papers, which only have one headline: Live8. There's special supplements and blanket coverage in all of them. I watched a few hours of the London gig yesterday and there's no doubt it was an extraordinary concert. Great sense of occaison and atmosphere that even I could feel, thru the tv screen. And the more I felt this, the more it annoyed me that not a single African act was on stage, besides Youssou N'Dour.

Imagine if Femi Kuti had been there. Performing a track like Sorry Sorry. That track alone would have been the most apt song of the whole concert, and Femi is such a performer, everyone would have loved it. Instead we got Mariah Carey. WTF??? If it was in my hands, I would have kicked Mariah up the ass and booted her straight into Kibera. I can't stand that woman.

And there were other acts too that could have been axed to make way for at least a couple of African performers, had there been any willingness on Geldof's part, or more likely, had he swallowed his pride. Velvet Revolution? Keane? The entire damn billing revolved around Western acts. Sure, the audience was 99% white, but it was a pathetic excuse from Geldof that people just wanted to see the biggest and most well-known acts and there would have been less turnout otherwise. Crap. It was a free concert. How difficult would it have been to mix in Femi Kuti for example? Or Rachid Taha performing Rock The Casbah? Or Angelique Kidjo? It would only have been fair. The exposure would have been great too, and it would have helped reverse some of the usual negativity on Africa at these events.

On another note its funny how there was no curfew in Hyde Park...

The highlight for me in London was U2 - what an opener.

But over in Nairobi, no one's heard of U2 or Coldplay or Geldof. They were busy with their own rally against poverty. Africa dances to a different beat