MUCH OF NOTHING:Live Earth fails to pack large-scale punch

It did what it said on the poster – but no more. The British leg of Live Earth started at 1.30 pm sharp with a thunderous five-minute drum fanfare by a 20-odd troupe of flailing percussionists, battering a miscellany of ethnic skinned instruments.Led by Roger Taylor, formerly drummer with Queen, and Chad Smith of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, their SOS pattern, hammered out in morse code, was a cute way of flagging up the Live Earth message:
environmental calamity ahoy. But it couldn’t disguise the problem that regularly threatened to becalm this Wembley show.As a concert, Live Earth was not the repeat of Live Aid/Live 8 it clearly wanted to be. Unlike the events organised by the charismatic Sir Bob Geldof-upon which this one modelled itself closely, right down to its choice of name-the acts who answered the call from Al Gore’s people to play at Wembley Stadium were a bit short on superstar clout.It was Geldof’s legendarily persuasive powers which got Pink Floyd to abandon a 20-year feud and re-form for Live 8 in Hyde Park in 2005. There was nothing on the Live Earth London bill to command that level of anticipation and potential drama. With the exception of the closing act Madonna-who played next door at Wembley Arena only last summer-there was nobody on the Stadium bill with the cross-generational appeal, and catalogue of monster hits, to supply the great unifying moments which event gigs need to make their message stick in the mind.
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As in the days of Noah....