I watched a lot of Live 8 the other day/evening/night. Great watching with my oldest daughter. I saw the Killers (not ready for big arenas), Snow Patrol (a little dull, but I could imagine liking them), way more hip hop than I can deal with (especially from Philadelphia), the Kaiser Chiefs (they were excellent – best of the 'new' bands I saw) and the Scissor Sisters (good as well).
I didn't see it all, so I missed a lot too. I didn't see any of the first hour and missed U2. Didn't see REM either, but from what I heard I didn't miss much.
But, what about Townshend and Daltrey? (I'm not sure they should still call themselves The Who now that half of The Who is dead.) They're only a little younger than my father, but damn! they were great. I wonder if they can keep that up for two hours still. I was half worried that they'd embarrass themselves, but far from it. I thought they were the best thing I saw.
I also enjoyed Pink Floyd. They were better than I feared too. I was never as keen on them as I was on the Who, so I wasn't that excited about the reunion. David Gilmour was great. I really enjoyed the fact that I thought I saw him sneering when Roger Waters got all sappy.
Madonna was good (I'm not a fan), but I thought Robbie Williams (not a fan of him either) seemed out of practice, but the Sunday Times put him among its top three acts of the day (in London). I'll admit Williams knows how to work and use the crowd, without whom he'd have been forced to sing a lot more.
