The Live 8 DVD brings together performances from the amazing series of concerts which took place around the world on 2^nd July, 2005, the follow up concert to ‘Live Aid’ 1985. The 4-disc set contains three discs of live footage taken from the Live 8 shows staged in London and Philadelphia alongside key highlights from the eight other concerts staged across the world. Every artist who performed at London’s Hyde Park and Philadelphia’s Museum Of Art appear on the DVD, many of them with their full sets. Nine simultaneous, free concerts starring the cream of international rock and pop artists were staged in London, Paris, Toronto, Berlin, Rome, Tokyo, Moscow, Johannesburg and Philadelphia. The concerts acted as a starting point for The Long Walk To Justice in support of the Make Poverty History and Global Call To Action campaigns and was timed to focus attention on the critical decisions made by the G8 summit four days later.

The Live 8 DVD opens with U2 and Paul McCartney’s crowd-rousing rendition of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, and from there goes on to bring on artists such as U2 belting outBeautiful Day, Vertigo, One; followed by Brits Coldplay with In My Place, Bittersweet Symphony (with Richard Ashcroft), ending with Fix You. You also have Elton John with a rousing The Bitch Is Back, Saturday Night’s Alright for Fighting, Children of the Revolution duetting with Pete Doherty). There are also performances by Dido and Youssou N’Dour, Stereophonics, REM with their heart touching Everybody Hurts, Man On the Moon.  Keane makes their presence felt with their soulful Somewhere Only We Know; followed by the Black Eyed Peas, Duran Duran Wild Boys (from Rome); Bob Geldof with his famous hit song I Don’t Like Mondays; Muse Travis, Kaiser Chiefs, UB40, Green Day with their superhot American Idiot (from Berlin), Snoop Dogg and of course Jersey boys Bon Jovi and Annie Lennox.

Disc 2 set list is as impressive as the first and you have bands like Destiny’s Child,  Razorlight, Bryan Adams with his classic All For Love (from Toronto) and Kanye West with Diamonds from Sierra Leone Madonna’s breathtakingly energetic set is unmissable. Her version of Like a Prayer, Ray of Light, Music is for the records. Will Smith comes in with four of his hits, so you have Getting’ Jiggy Wit’ It, Switch, The Fresh Prince of Bel Air; Other artists on this disc inlcude Brian Wilson (from Berlin), younger artists such as Snow Patrol, The Killers and Joss Stone comfortably intertwine with rock n roll legends. Toby Keith, The Killers, Dave Matthews Band, Daniel Powter (from Berlin). You cannot miss Linkin Park with their hard hitting In the End, Numb (with Jay-Z) and pop icon Joss Stone Super Duper Love, Some Kind of Wonderful. There’s also Jars of Clay, Scissor Sisters, Alicia Keys, Velvet Revolver, Def Leppard with the classic Pour Some Sugar On Me; Jet (from Toronto), Sarah McLachlan and Josh Groban and last but not least Sting with his best in the very memorable Message In a Bottle, Driven to Tears, Every Breath You Take.

Disc 3 features Pink Floyds historical reunion to Robbie William’s show-stopping performance of four hits rolling on with We Will Rock You, Let Me Entertain You, to hisheartwarming Feel, Angels. Others that made it on the DVD are artists such as Vusi Mahlsela  (from Johannesburg), Roxy Music  (from Berlin),  Neil Young,  (from Toronto),  Placebo, Rob Thomas and Faithless. Stevie Wonder brings on his master class set with Master Blaster (Jammin), Higher Ground (with Rob Thomas), Signed, Sealed, Delivered (with Adam Levine), So What the Fuss/Superstition; You also have icons like The Who, Pink Floyd with Speak to Me, Breathe, Money, Wish You Were Here, Comfortably Numb; Paul McCartney with Get Back, a one off duet on Drive My Car with George Michael, Helter Skelter, The Long and Winding Road, Hey Jude. Don’t miss the other highlights when it comes to performances by Mariah Carey as she croons happily on Make It Happen, Hero, Maroon 5 This Love, She Will Be Loved and Pet Shop Boys Go West (from Moscow). 

Disc 3 closes as the London concert closed on 2^nd July with the stars of Live 8 Hyde Park taking to the stage for the stunning Hey Jude finale. Disc 4 features exclusive extras including a never-before-seen backstage documentary filmed at Hyde Park, Pink Floyds Live 8 reunion rehearsal, more acts from Live 8s global concerts including McFly and Bjork in Tokyo, films by The Who and Travis and a contribution from Ricky Gervais. The special features section offer highlights from Edinburghs Final Push concert at Murrayfield on 6^th July which include performances from James Brown, Travis and The Proclaimers. From  all the artists, my favorite sets was Mariah Carey, The Pet Shop Boys, R.E.M,  Madonna, the reunion of Pink Floyd, Annie Lennox, Stevie Wonder Bon Jovi, James Brown, Duran Duran, Bob Geldof, Def Leppard (they were one of the bands that didn’t perform at Live Aid 1985), Sting, Sarah McLachlan, and of course George Michael. U2’s Bono made a nice remark which is memorable, “You’re such a lovely audience, we’d like to take you home with us” sang Bono. Several of these artists on this DVD are relatively new, some you may’ve never even heard of before. However, they were all great.

Like its 1985 predecessor, this was one of the biggest selling DVD of all time. It deserves to be. “More importantly perhaps, it should be, for it will help us achieve our goal of changing the lives of the extreme poor for the better and making our generation the one that helped end the disgrace of poverty”, says Live 8 organiser Sir Bob Geldof. Money raised from sales of the Live 8 DVD was sent to the Band Aid Trust for the relief of hunger and poverty in Africa. Bob Geldof replayed a clip of what he witnessed 20 years earlier in Africa that inspired him to take action. He also introduced a victim/survivor from that particular famine that accompanied Madonna on the first song of her set Like A Prayer. But perhaps the most inspiring and touching set was Annie Lennox and her tribute to the victims of the AIDS epidemic in Africa.

This DVD has so many different styles or genres of music that you would never get bored at any point in time. You can sit and watch every song on every disc from this set. Unlike the 80s that had VCR, on this DVD you can go back and forth to your favorites. The navigation is very simple and easy to use. You can search by artist, click on that chosen singer or group and watch all of the performances from them. The quality of the audio and video is first class. Unlike the 1985 concert where home video was still an infant technology, you can tell that this show was conceived from the beginning as something to be rendered as clear, bright and pristine in a package that really documents the day. The 5.1 sound is as good as any from my large collection of concert DVDs. The visual image is very sharp and contrast is bang on.

This is a great DVD. It has some of the best performances from the Live 8 performances.  A great box set with 10 hours of music and artists new and old all in one pack to entertain you.

Release date: ‎ 4^th November 2005

Language: ‎ English (DTS 5.1 Surround), English (Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo), English (Dolby Digital 5.1), Italian (Dolby Digital 5.1), Unqualified (DTS 5.1), Unqualified (Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo), Unqualified (Dolby Digital 5.1)

Studio: ‎ EMI Music Germany GmbH & Co.KG

Number of discs: ‎ 4

Rating: *****

Reviewed by Verus Ferreira