More than 50,000 music fans and anti-poverty campaigners amassed in Edinburgh's Murrayfield stadium last night for the last of the Live 8 concerts. Ronan Keating, Sugababes, The Corrs, Natasha Bedingfield, Texas, Annie Lennox, Snow Patrol, Travis, Youssou N'Dour and McFly all played at the damp but well received concert, the most politically charged of the Live 8 events so far.
Alongside the music, Bono introduced a recorded message from former South African President Nelson Mandela who said: "As long as poverty and injustice can cause inequality to persist in our world none of us can truly rest. Don't look the other way. Don't hesitate. Recognize that the world is hungry for action, not words. Act with courage."
Meanwhile another of the concert's famous presenters, Claudia Schiffer, sent a message to the chancellor of her native Germany: "Gerhard Schroeder, we are watching you. Since you woke up this morning, 30,000 children have already died. I myself have got two kids. On behalf of all the African mothers, I beg the politicians to do something now".
Despite the upbeat mood of the concert, Geldof and his Live 8 colleagues were increasingly realistic about how much will really be achieved at this week's G8 conference after a meeting with George Bush yesterday. Campaigners are confident they have moved African poverty up the agenda and should score some wins on aid and debt, but they are slowly admitting the battle for fairer trade is unlikely to be won this week.
Elsewhere in Live 8 news, and Norwegian MP Jan Simonsen has said he will be nominating Bob Geldof for the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize, needless to say, in recognition of his ongoing work to help poor nations. Simonsen has been motivated to make the nomination now because of Geldof's escalation of the Make Poverty History campaign ahead of this week's G8 conference, but nominations for the 2005 prize have already closed, hence why the Live Aid man will appear on the shortlist for the 2006 award.
And finally from the Live 8 file today, the list of artists pledging to donate any post-Live 8 record sales to charity is growing. As previously reported, Pink Floyd's David Gilmour told reporters this week that any royalties he receives from the 1000%+ sales increase in record sales that followed his band's Live 8 set last Saturday will be donated to charity. Now The Who, Keane, Paul McCartney and Annie Lennox are also reported to have made similar commitments.
Of course, such generosity is easier for richer more established bands whose boost in sales comes from that greatest hits album that has already earned them a stack of cash, less so for newer bands who are busy promoting their debut release. After all, who is to say which sales resulted from the Live 8 set, and which were prompted by other TV or festival appearances? And it's unlikely those bands have really cashed in that much from their record sales so far (if at all, chances are they haven't recouped yet).
All of which means it is probably a bit unfair to call on Razorlight to follow the likes of Gilmore and McCartney. But when the band said it would be difficult for them to give away any earnings that resulted from their Live 8 set (which may well be because all earnings are currently going to the record label and publishing company) some did start to criticise the band, causing frontman Johnny Borrell to call the NME and explain: "Razorlight have been involved in Make Poverty History for the past six months. Make Poverty History is an awareness campaign, however if the band earn any money from increased sales we will donate it to charity."