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George wows Live8 crowd
By Robert Mendick, Evening Standard Last updated at 00:00am on 07.07.05
George at Live8 in Edinburgh
Hollywood stars George Clooney and Susan Sarandon joined a concert in Edinburgh calling for a "final push" to get a deal on aid in Africa.
The final Live8 concert at Murrayfield, labelled "Edinburgh 50,000 - The Final Push", was as much a political rally as a pop concert. The 50,000 figure referred to the number of poverty-stricken people who die needlessly every day.
As the G8 summit leaders arrived at Gleneagles, Sarandon and Clooney made highly political appeals in front of a 60,000-strong crowd - as did the supermodel Claudia Schiffer. They helped to turn the normally fusty Scottish capital into a city of glamour. This was the night Hollywood came (close) to Holyrood.
Naturally - this being Edinburgh - the heavens opened but the crowd didn't seem to mind.
Local heroes The Proclaimers kicked off proceedings with their hit I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles) and were followed by some of the stars who shined at Live8 in Hyde Park on Saturday - including Bono, Annie Lennox and, of course, Bob Geldof.
Comedians Peter Kay, Eddie Izzard and Lenny Henry, wearing a black leather kilt with huge furry sporran and horns, also put in appearances . Even African musicians got a look in - although some critics complained not as many as had been promised.
In a specially recorded message Nelson Mandela told a hushed audience: "Sometimes it falls upon a generation to be great. You can be that generation-You have that opportunity. Let's work to make poverty history this year."
The event, organised by Sir Bob and Midge Ure, was the climax of the Live Aid veterans' Long Walk To Justice on the Scottish capital. Geldof told the audience: "We met the G8 leaders. These men do not know what's going on in this country. They don't know what's going on in the world outside the tight vacuum of that golf club."
But he promised: "We will make them feel every ounce of emotion and noise that you have generated in this stadium. How can these eight men refuse us now?"
