Green Day frontman Billie Joe Armstrong
performs in Berlin. Photo: Jan Bauer, AP
Luke Harding is at the Live 8 concert in Berlin. You can hear his audio report here
The worst thing about the Live 8 concert in Berlin was - well, the problem of actually getting anywhere near the stage. Although the Street of June 17 is big, it wasn't really big enough for everyone to pack in and have a good view - or any view at all. Like everyone else, I found myself tramping through the undergrowth of the Tiergarten, only to discover there was nowhere left to stand in the main avenue. Unlike everybody else, however, I was at least able to take refuge in the press box, just beneath the main stage.
The band that opened Berlin's Live 8 gig, Die Toten Hosen, still enjoy cult status here, even though they are - er, getting on a bit. Die Totens - can you call them that? - were followed by Wir Sind Helden, who have done much to make German language music fashionable again. I like Wir Sind Helden - especially the band's cute lead singer Judith Holofernes, who was wearing a pair of fetching blue boots. But the boys on either side of her, though it pains me to say it, really can't sing at all. They were embarrassingly bad. Still, the concert wasn't really about singing in tune, but about Africa. And that's what counts.
