Coldplay's wry insertion of a snatch of Quo's "Rocking All Over The World" into their set hinted at a humour absent from their albums, and their addition of Richard Ashcroft and "Bitter Sweet Symphony" was an early contribution to the day's bulging collection of anthems.Elton John bestows his patronage upon a different youngster each year - Eminem, The Scissor Sisters, etc - and this year it's Pete Doherty's turn, poor love. In its own way, Saturday's Live8 concert suggested solutions to a couple of troubling problems. Not just the headline one, regarding the possibility of Making Poverty History, but also the no less pressing one of putting an end to pop-concert longueurs. CMcN Pink Floyd 2/5 Breathe; Money; Wish You Were Here; Comfortably Numb The reforming of Pink Floyd didn't seem the kind of thing to end the event on It made the bill upside down. CMcN Paul McCartney 5/5 Get Back; Drive My Car (with George Michael); Helter Skelter; Long and Winding Road; Hey Jude (with other artists) "Get Back" was great. "Helter Skelter" and "Long and Winding Road" were great, and with "Hey Jude", you can't really fail MM.
Pete Townshend stole the show with some of the best guitar-playing we've seen. He's a consummate showman.CMcN The Who 5/5 Who Are You; Won't Get Fooled Again Absolutely stunning rock They were far and away biggest and best. People sat there with mouths agape.CMcN Robbie Williams 5/5 We Will Rock You; Let Me Entertain You; Feel; Angels The modern Robbie Williams was built for these events The man did three nights at Knebworth and pulled it off This, if anything, was bigger. CMcN Mariah Carey 3/5 Make it Happen; Hero; We Belong Together It was as an alien from another planet had dropped on stage. I think he would have got a huge amount of respect from people who weren't Sting fans for the intelligence of his political message and the way it was delivered.
CMcN The Killers 5/5 All These Things That I've Done They were one of the bands of the day. It was a brilliant performance with a very big song, from a band at the top of their game. CMcN Joss Stone 4/5 Super Duper Love; I Had a Dream; Some Kind of Wonderful Joss Stone has turned into a damn good performer She had some very good tunes It was a happy, sing-along moment. CMcN Scissor Sisters 3/5 Laura; Take Your Mama Out; Everybody Wants the Same Thing Anybody who goes out there and sings an entirely new song has to have balls the size of barrels They almost pulled it off, but not quite. CMcN Velvet Revolver 4/5 Do It For the Kids; Fall to Pieces; Slither To begin with it looked a bit baffling, but they pulled it out of the bag towards the end.