Organisers have announced details of the Australian curtain-raising show for the 7-continent, 24-hour Live Earth concerts to be held on July 7, 2007. The Australian concert, staged at Aussie Stadium in Sydney, will kick off the world-wide concert.
The artists performing on the Australian leg of the Live Earth concert range from internationally renowned conservational crusaders such as Jack Johnson, John Butler and Rob Hirst to virtual environmental novices. In the spirit of Live Earth, each is doing their part to educate and be educated and to focus attention on the most urgent issue facing mankind – the health of our planet. As Neil Finn puts it: ‘How could we fail to notice that our planet is ailing? I know I could improve my own environmental performance. I hope this concert will be a blast of energy and inspiration for us all to do more’.
Speaking via a video link-up at the event’s official launch at Aussie Stadium today, Live Earth Partner Al Gore said: ‘The climate crisis is a global problem that requires a global response. That’s exactly what Live Earth is. On 7/7/07, Live Earth will touch over 2 billion people with 24 hours of live music across 7 continents and an urgent, hopeful message to trigger a worldwide movement to combat the climate crisis. This movement begins here at Aussie Stadium’.
‘Live Earth Australia will kick off 24 hours of music spanning all 7 continents to focus the world against global warming’, Life Earth founder Kevin Wall said. ‘Over 100 headlining artists ranging from Madonna to The Police to Wolfmother, all of whom are donating their time to perform at the concerts, will inspire an audience of over 2 billion people. Live Earth is designed to trigger a mass movement to combat our climate crisis. The climate crisis touches everyone, everywhere. Live Earth is about motivating people in every corner of the planet to “Answer the Call†and make meaningful and lasting changes in their lives to combat global warming’.
Climate change expert Dr Michael Molitor explained how all the Live Earth concerts around the world will be as green as possible, implementing a new Green Event Guidelines that organisers hope will become the model for carbon neutral concerts and other live events in the future.
‘The key message of Live Earth is that everyone can – and must – be a part of the solution,’ said Molitor. ‘Everyone can take simple measures that will greatly assist the global effort to reduce carbon emissions. Live Earth is driving global awareness about the solutions and engaging people around the world to undertake personal actions both at home and at work’.
Whilst this event is about raising awareness, not money, all net proceeds will go to The Alliance for Climate Protection, other international non-Government organisations (NGOs), Australian NGOs and projects on the ground in Australia yet to be announced.
Live on stage at the Sydney show will be:
CROWDED HOUSE: Live Earth Australia marks the homecoming of the recently-reformed Crowded House. One of the most popular bands Australia has ever produced, the outfit will fill the headlining slot at Live Earth in its first performance on home soil since 1996 and will preview songs from the upcoming new album, the aptly-titled ‘Time On Earth’. ‘The idea that Crowded House should perform open air in Sydney again for such a cause seems real and right and true’, said lead singer Neil Finn.
JACK JOHNSON: Hawaiian-born Jack Johnson has made Australia his second home and has become one of this country’s favourite performers. A unique troubadour whose songs have touched hearts across the world, Johnson is also the founder of the Kokua Hawai’i Foundation, a non-profit organisation that supports environmental education in the schools and communities of Hawai’i. ‘I am honoured to be a part of the Live Earth concerts’, said Johnson. ‘We are happy to be playing the event to lend our support and bring awareness to this important issue’. In his personal life, Johnson is constantly trying to be a green as possible. ‘Six months ago, we put on solar panels so that our house, the Kokua offices, and the recording studio are all 100% powered off of clean energy. If we generate more energy than we use, it gets fed back into the grid’.
WOLFMOTHER: What a trip it’s been so far for Sydney’s Wolfmother. Grammy-award winners, over a million albums sold in the US alone. Now, straight off the back of another world tour, after nearly 400 gigs around the world over the past two-and-a-half years, Wolfmother’s appearance at Live Earth Australia will be the band’s last show in support of their brilliant, self-titled debut. ‘The Live Earth event allows us to offer our services as musicians to a cause we believe in and help alert more people to how important this issue is’, said Wolfmother bassist/keyboardist Chris Ross. ‘For a lot of people, the affects of Climate Change can go pretty much unnoticed. I grew up in Canberra and have a lot of fond childhood memories of going to the Snowy Mountains – the first time I saw snow with my mum, learning to ski with my brother, hiking to the Blue Lake on Boxing Day, the amazing colours and shapes of the snow gum trees. Australia doesn’t have very much snow and each time I manage to get there, it seems there is less and less. One day I want to be able to take my kids to build their first snowman. Hopefully, there will still be some snow there’.
JOHN BUTLER TRIO: John Butler has been an environmental crusader for as long as he’s been a musician. Butler’s lifestyle and his respect for the environment are one. ‘We must learn how to live in a sustainable way on this planet’, he said. ‘It’s common sense really. Everything on this planet is interrelated. No life OR economy on a dead planet. I also long for an environment that’s inhabitable for my kids to grow up in’. It’s doubtful there’s another performer on Earth who is more conscious of his environment than Butler, both at work and at play. ‘We carbon-neutralised our last national tour by buying carbon credits sourced from New Zealand wind farms’, Butler explained. ‘For the last 5 years we’ve donated a dollar from every ticket sold from our Australian tours to the Wilderness Society who focus a lot on stopping land clearing and clear felling of native forests, which are huge carbon stores. Land clearing contributes copious amounts of CO2 into the environment’. During their regular tours of the US, Butler and his trio have worked with groups such as Clifbar and Music Matters who are dedicated to reducing the carbon footprint of the music industry.
MISSY HIGGINS: How many chart-topping artists can you name that would trade in their limo for a train or a bicycle? Obviously, as every Australian music lover already knows, there aren’t many pop stars like Missy Higgins. ‘I don’t own a car’, Higgins revealed. ‘I ride my bike everywhere or catch public transport. In the past whenever we’ve needed to hire a car on tour, I’ve requested environmentally friendly vehicles where possible’. Like John Butler, Higgins’s most recent Australian tour was carbon neutral. ‘We’re doing this by powering all the venues with Green Power and offsetting all the flights, road transport and freight emissions by purchasing Gold Standard premium quality carbon credits’, she explained. ‘This is going to be a life-long commitment for me. I think if climate control hasn’t become a personal issue for everyone, then some of us need to wake up’!
ESKIMO JOE: Multi-ARIA Award winners Eskimo Joe are one of Australia’s most popular rock outfits. Like the rest of the artists on the Live Earth Australia bill, the West Australians see their involvement in this show as an investment in everyone’s future. ‘I want to make sure my children, and theirs, can grow up in an environment that is sustainable’, said guitarist Stuart Macleod. ‘I don’t want my great grandkids to look at pictures of the “Old World†and think how amazing it must have been. The longer we leave this, the harder and more expensive it will be to fix. And it can be fixed’. Eskimo Joe’s most recent CD, ‘Black Fingernails, Red Wine’, was released just over a year ago and debuted at the top of the national ARIA charts.
SNEAKY SOUND SYSTEM: Sydney dance outfit Sneaky Sound System is one of the hottest new acts in the country. ‘Just like most people, I’m learning to be greener’, says founding member Black Angus. ‘We were all very moved by the power of Live Aid in 1985, and in that tradition we put our hands up to be involved in this incredibly significant event. In fact, we put our collective hands up as high as they would possibly go. We just wanted to be involved’. Following a string of hit singles, Sneaky Sound System recently released its eponymous debut album.
PAUL KELLY: No one better captures the Australian condition in song than Paul Kelly, both our modern urban life and the spirit of our ancient desert and bush. ‘Many people, it seems, see drought and man-made climate change as one and the same thing’, Kelly muses. ‘If we get some decent rain this year, I can hear them saying: “What was all the fuss aboutâ€Â?’ Our greatest living songwriter is also a long-time environmental advocate. ‘Living sustainably is a good idea anyway’, he offers with typical, simple clarity. ‘Recycling, buying less, fixing things and using less energy – electricity, gas, water, petrol, etc – everyday is within our power. It’s cheap, easy to do, a sign of respect for the land and an insurance for the future of our children’.
GHOSTWRITERS: Ghostwriters’ Rob Hirst is hardly a novice when it comes to singing about saving the environment. Much of his professional music career – both as a member of the legendary Midnight Oil and now in Ghostwriters – has focused on raising the public’s awareness about the environment, as well as a range of other social injustices. Live Earth, Hirst believes, is ‘an international event of enormous potential consequence’. The Ghostwriters’ latest musical opus was released in April and is fittingly entitled ‘Political Animal’.
TONI COLLETTE & THE FINISH: The magnificently talented Toni Collette swapped disciplines late last year to release her debut album, ‘Beautiful Awkward Pictures’, proving she’s just as adept at conjuring emotion behind a microphone as she is in front of a camera. Collette brings the delicate sounds of her self-penned songs to Live Earth because, as she sees it: ‘I believe this issue is paramount to everyone, everywhere. Governments talk about the need to maintain economic growth while slowly moving toward climate control, which in the long run will prove fruitless. A booming economy with jobs for all in an uninhabitable planet is of no benefit to anyone’.
BLUE KING BROWN: A dynamic roots-based outfit which has recently started taking the Australian live circuit by storm, the Melbourne-based Blue King Brown has started spreading its name around the country thanks to tours alongside the likes of John Butler and The Cat Empire. Featuring the formidable figure of front woman Natalie Pa’apa’a, along with hard hitting lyrics and groove, Blue King Brown is a band that walks their talk. There could be no better choice as representatives of Australia’s creative and flourishing roots scene.
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Live Earth promoters have worked closely with the NSW Government to include the price of public transport in the ticket price for the event. This includes travel to and from the event on CityRail trains, special event buses to and from Central Station and Moore Park, and on standard Sydney Buses and Sydney Ferries’ services.
- TICKETS ON SALE 9.00am (EST), FRIDAY, MAY 18, 2007
- Outlet: Ticketek – www.ticketek.com / Ph: 132 849
- Ticket price: $99.00 (GST + booking fee inclusive) – Max 4 tickets per transaction
- Ticket price includes bus, train and ferry transport on the day of the Concert.
- Gates open: 10.30am
- All Ages (photo ID must be produced to consume alcohol)
From 5.00pm (EST) on Saturday, July 7, FOXTEL’s flagship general entertainment channel FOX8 will commence the 24-hour international telecast of the global concert series, starting with Sydney and crossing to the other events as they get underway in Tokyo, Shanghai, Johannesburg, London, Rio de Janeiro and New York.
nineMSN is the global internet host broadcaster and Austereo (Triple M and Today) is the capital cities global radio broadcast partner and Macquarie Radio Networks will be broadcasting the global event throughout regional Australia.
