Capacity: 75,000 (tbc)
Concert starts: 1pm
Address of venue: 50 State Route 120, East Rutherford, NJ 07073. MAP
Venue Website: http://www.meadowlands.com/
Event Website: www.liveearth.org
This concert forms part of the seven Live Earth shows being held across
the planet on the same date. Tickets for the US show went on sale
Monday, April 16 at 10 a.m. EDT and available at livenation.com/liveearth or by calling Ticketmaster at (212) 307-7171. All ticket information is available at LiveEarth.MSN.com. All proceeds will benefit the Alliance for Climate Protection and other international NGOs.
Scotching the persistent rumours that Pink Floyd were reuniting for one
of the seven concerts, Roger told Rolling Stone: "I can tell you that
[the] others have not agreed to play it." He also said he cannot
imagine why anyone would not agree to take part in the concert.
"People are getting frightened, but fear can work for good and evil. It
can build walls, and it can also motivate people to understand that a
parochial, nationalistic attitude to matters that are global is not in
our best interests."
In a new interview, again with Rolling Stone, Roger talks a little more about the show:
Why did you want to play Live Earth? ROGER WATERS: I saw Al’s
film and I thought it was very impressive, very compelling viewing.
I’ve since done a bit of research, and at least 95% of informed opinion
think he’s right. Anything that brings attention to this problem for
our children and grandchildren is a good thing.
Have you changed anything in your daily life as a result of the climate crisis?
So far, very little. I find myself going to turn the lights off where I
wouldn’t have before, not to save the few cents but because it seems
like a good thing to do. And I drink warm beer, obviously, which helps.
Pink Floyd’s reunion was the highlight of Live 8. How will playing solo at Live Earth compare?
It will be different. Playing with Dave and Nick and Rick was very
special for me, and from the stage it was quite clear that it was a
special moment for everyone. It will lack that. But I don’t mean to
belittle my current band – they’re great.
Which songs are especially relevant for this event? I’m going to
do shortened versions of a number of songs at this thing: “Money,”
because it seems that the love of money and power still drives global
politics. And I’ll do “Us and Them” – the unseemly scrabble of world
politics toward national and personal self-interest needs to be set
aside if we’re going to cooperate with each other to solve this crisis
that faces us all.
What needs to be done, politically, to solve it? It would help
if we could divert some of our resources away from blowing each other
to bits and toward think tanks. Something has gone wrong with the
democratic process when you can get idiots rising to offices of extreme
power, like the presidency of the USA. George Bush – you could not make
a worse choice in someone to lead the most powerful nation in the free
world.
What is the best thing Live Earth can accomplish? If it hadn’t
been for Al Gore pounding on his lectern all these years, attempting to
explain to us that this is a very real problem and giving us all the
statistics, we might be blithely going on, trying to get everyone in
the world to drive a Humvee. This is one more step in the process, to
educate us and to encourage cooperation to deal with this problem,
which could kill the whole human race.
Following Pink Floyd's reunion at Live 8 in 2005, Roger Waters said he
could see the band reuniting for similar charitable events. Such was
the case with Live Earth last weekend. Waters told our friends over at
Premiere Radio Networks that he was asked to talk to David Gilmour
about reuniting, but Gilmour "wasn't interested."
He said: "It's only the one former bandmate that needs approaching
'cause he sort of carries most of the weight in that camp. And yes I
was asked to and yes I did and he wasn't interested."
SET LIST
In the Flesh
Money
Us and Them
Brain Damage/Eclipse
The Happiest Days of Our Lives/Another Brick in the Wall (Part II)
NB: Each performance can be viewed again, courtesy of liveearth.msn.com/concerts/US.
Roger and the band provided the highlight of the New Jersey leg of the
set of Live Earth concerts, proving an impossible act for The Police to
follow and beat! Roger, full of energy, bounced around the stage
throughout his 20-odd minute set, which featured in some cases
abbreviated versions of the tracks.
The Happiest Days/Another Brick conclusion saw "Love", the youth
choir from El Bethel Baptist Church in Trenton, New Jersey, take the
stage to do some backing vocals. The 7 to 16 year olds wore "2gether we
stand" t-shirts for their appearance.
Also turning up for this song was piggie, but a very pale cousin of
the normal pink porker we're used to! Touring around the Giants Stadium
to the delight of the crowd, he had plenty of spray paint on him too.
With SOS a strong message throughout the day, piggie got into the
spirit of this, spelling out (what he thought it meant) - Save Our
Sausages!
Check out the pictures shown to the right - the first two are
from the television broadcast, and the second two show piggie
backstage/coming from backstage for his moment of glory! (Second to
last picture to the right, courtesy of BD's Brad Kaplan, and bottom
picture - click it to enlarge - courtesy of BD's Mic Hiliadis).
CONCERT COMMENTS - by BD contributer, Bill Dorn
I thought Roger was excellent. Loved ABITW.
A couple of points. I'm always amazed that it takes two guitarists to take David Gilmour's place. And you do miss his voice.
Being a born and raised Jersey boy (I'm 59), I am proud to say I'm from
the Garden State. I lived in NJ until 2004, when we moved to North
Carolina. It bugged the heck out of me that they referred to it LE-New
York. Giants Stadium is located in East Rutherford, NJ, not NY. At
least Bon Jovi let everyone know where they where. And Roger got those
kids from Trenton, NJ (the state capital), rather than from NY. Good
for him!
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