Live 8's Geldof has doubts
2005-06-08 15:11
London - Bob Geldof, the force behind a huge musical rally to convince world leaders to end poverty in Africa, says he dislikes heading the high-profile campaign and doubts it will influence the G8 summit.
But despite such misgivings, the rocker said that he felt compelled to try to make a difference as he is uniquely qualified to win over the public, pop stars and politicians alike due to his experience organising Live Aid, in 1985.
Geldof has whipped up a media frenzy in Britain about his plan to rock the planet on July 2 with a series of gigs.
He also hopes as many as one million people will descend on Edinburgh for the July 6-8 summit to participate in a rock-and-roll style showdown to raise awareness about the world's poorest people.
"I really don't want to do it," a tired-looking Geldof said.
"There is no part of today that I have liked, not a single part," said the 53-year-old, referring to a gruelling press conference and set of interviews to promote a plan to bring French activists to Britain in boats for the rally.
"All the time I am thinking that I would like to be somewhere else or doing something else. There is no part of this I like," he said.
'We can maybe change things'
Asked what motivated him to do something he did not enjoy, the former Boomtown Rats frontman said it was the possibility of making world leaders agree to erase Africa's huge debt, double aid and make trade fairer.
He also feared the repercussions of failing to try.
"For the rest of my life I would have thought: 'I could have maybe done that, I could have maybe changed it and I bottled it for personal reasons'."
Twenty years after Live Aid, with Britain hosting the G8 summit and Prime Minister Tony Blair throwing his weight behind a plan, partly drawn up by Geldof, to lift Africa out of poverty, the timing has never been better to act.
"We can maybe change things," said Geldof, who has used his impressive contacts in the music industry to ensure headline artists such as Madonna, Mariah Carey and U2 will play at his so-called Live 8 spectacle on July 2 in London, Philadelphia, Paris, Berlin and Rome.
"I have been arguing for it for 20 years. For good or ill, I am the guy that did the Live Aid thing and so people remember that," he said.
"So to suddenly say at the moment that it all comes home: 'I am not going to do this', is not possible for me."
Even with the backing of the public, celebrities and powerful politicians, Geldof is not convinced that his efforts will produce a clear triumph at next month's summit between the G8 leaders of Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia and the United States.
"Will that happen? Probably not, so will I have failed? Yes I guess, but then we will have tried everything to the last fibre of exhaustion to make it happen and I can live with myself," he told AFP.
"It will be, not for me but for everyone involved, a glorious failure."