Live 8: The Performances

It's hard to know where to begin. It feels worryingly like showing-off to go through the people we saw, but I'm really not...I won't go through everyone

• Elton John's one of my favourite singers, and it was great to see him live. He sang 'The Bitch is Back', 'Saturday Night's All Right' and a duet with Pete Doherty, who apparently acted rather weirdly (couldn't see much of that from where I was).
• Dido was really very good indeed - she can sing beautifully, and I hadn't realised how attractive she is.
• REM got one of the biggest cheers of the concert when the 'Everybody Hurts' riff began. Everybody likes that song, and most of the crowd stood to sing and sway. I wasn't sure about the blue eye-band thing Michael Stipe had going on, but the more I think about it now, the cooler it was He came on stage and said: "We're REM, and this is what we do" - I liked that.
• Ms. Dynamite walked onto the stage with an extremely high-pitched 'How you doin' people?!', which caused a woman next to me to exclaim 'ooh' in a what-the-hell-was-that manner
• Keane are one of my favourite bands of the moment, and I thought they put in an excellent performance. They played 'Bedshaped', which is my favourite of theirs.
• Annie Lennox was really, really great. She sang a very moving song, too.
• Razorlight endeared themselves to me when the lead singer said: "Give peace a chance - John Lennon said that. Music can change the world - Bono said that. Sign the f***ing petition - I SAID THAT!". I bought 'Somewhere Else' via iTunes yesterday.
• Only Bob Geldof compared to Madonna in terms of stage presence and gravitas. She really had a majesty, I thought. 'Like a Prayer' was the first song I started singing along to, and I didn't really stop after that. 'Ray of Light' and 'Music' really got the audience going.
• I liked Snow Patrol so much I bought their album once I got home - 'Run' is great!
• Joss Stone was very impressive given that she wasn't even born during Live Aid! Her songs weren't particularly to my taste, but I could appreciate how good she was.
• Lil and I had been looking forward to the Scissor Sisters all day, and they didn't disappoint! They handled the audience very well, and their performance was a masterclass. They played a new song specially for the occasion, too.
• Velvet Revolver were loud
• Lenny Henry introduced Sting with something like the following: "...and he was in one of the biggest British bands of all time. This is going on so long it's almost a tantric introduction - I could go on all night, but I won't, it's Sting!". Sting changed the words of "Every Breath you Take" to include references to democracy and 'We'll be watching you'. I don't know whether that was referring to Zimbabwe, Iraq, or something else.
• Robbie Williams was one of the major highlights of the evening, I thought. He sang 'We Will Rock You', 'Let me Entertain You' and 'Feel'. He then said "I've got to sing it, haven't I?" and the crowd absolutely erupted. Everybody knows the words to Angels, and even I was singing along at the top of my voice! He was pretty funny, too.
• Watching The Who was like live CSI! I only really knew the songs from the introductions to CSI and CSI: Miami, but it was most cool. The blood-curdling scream at the end of 'Don't get fooled again' was very impressive!
• I felt a little bad watching Pink Floyd as to be honest I don't know all that much about them. The rest of the audience were in hysterics, and I gather it was something rather special I'm still racking my brains trying to remember where I know 'Comfortably Numb' from - sure, I could look it up, but what fun's that!