Live Earth stories and pics by Andifeel

Another nice review comes from our forum member Andifeel. Here’s what he has to say about it.

“After standing in the front row end of catwalk for a long long day yesterday indulge me with some ponderings!

Madonna has an unrivalled sense of occasion, we know that. At any given special performance, she knows when to pull out the big guns. Sure there have been some poor misguided souls thinking that ‘Swim‘ or ‘Why Its So Hard‘ would have been appropriate for the event.
Looking back, would these people really have changed anything from her performance last night? No, not a thing.

At Live8 2 years ago, Madonna stole the show that shattered the memory of Sir Freddie Mercury’s ‘Radio GaGa‘ clapalong by inciting a 3 minute clapalong to music with 250,000 people in Hyde Park and incited one of the 2 jumpalongs of the day (the other being Robbie) with ‘Ray of Light‘.

This time was different and it was about the collective performance which made 75,000 people at Wembley Stadium go loopy.

The sheer impact of Madge’s performance could well be measured by the people attending the event. Certainly in the VIP area 80% of people wearing Madonna T- Shirts or showing signs of Madge Love. The news this morning was discussing why the Stadium was barely 60% full when Genesis kicked off and the conclusion was ‘most people are here for Madonna or the Chilli Peppers‘. A fair conclusion.

A great day that started with Mr Becks, Miss Wannabe, Ms GC79, Lilchildoheaven and I eating Mcdonalds breakfasts and/or chocolate orange muffins around some psychopathic european girls, led to mass rioting as the nasty, abusive, head security guard at Wembley (PLEASE call LiveNation and Wembley to report her now I managed to get her name) caused a health and safety risk by crushing us, losing some people their place in the queue (thankfully not us) and then basking in glorious sunshine from the front row – I chose central view on, end of catwalk. Glad I did too!

Madonna‘s set had an awesome sense of occasion about it. As some old man gave us some useful information about not boiling your kettle unnecessarily (apologies for the cynicism but by that point we GOT IT!) Madge’s assistants were busily wiping down the stage, putting the ghetto blaster in place at the end, bringing on the choir (I wondered if she had bought them all at one point LOL just kidding). Angie said Hi to us and some other Madge regulars too.

Then as if out of nowhere Hey You started.

I was a cynic of this song until yesterday. Beautiful performance with a great choir, performed amazingly – she stood and sang it (albeit legs apart hehe). And SO MANY people knew it! Just goes to show that a few whiny fans on forums saying she should have dropped the song dont represent tha majority. Great, understated performance.

Ray of Light was the highlight of the entire day. We all know its her signature song, and we all know and love the performance. We even knew that it was going to be the legendary Confessions Tour performance. But even as I, from the front row, was going loopy, jumping with everyone else for dear life, it wasnt until I got home and watched it back on TV and watched 75,000 people jumping as one how breathtaking the whole thing was. Id jumped every night of my 13 Confessions shows to this, but the feeling of it at Live Earth was like nothing else.

La Isla Bonita was special. TO add some credibility to her appearance, and by performing with her ‘Gypsy Friends‘. Her dancing was amazing and we got eye contact for the first time. She seemed pleased to see so many of her ‘regulars‘ at the front and sang to us here and during ‘Hung Up‘.

And ‘Hung Up‘. Well, we know that we’ve seen the performance hundreds of times, but many people hadnt, and to be honest, she did the right thing closing on a familiar classic that everyone knew and could jump along to. The crowd singing ‘Time Goes By So Slowly‘ was deafening.

And that was that! Awesome performance, Ray of Light not just being the highlight of Madonna’s set, but the highlight of the entire day. The setlist was perfect despite a few people moaning and goes to remind us how lucky we are to follow such a legendary icon. No one else on the bill came close.

Amen.

Oh, and some pics…”

Thanks to our friend and Community member Andifeel for sharing his stories and pics with MadonnaTribe – home of Madonna fans

Please send your Live Earth images and stories to share@madonnatribe.com