While some Africans were unaware a concert for their benefit was even occuring, record sales for the artists who performed at the free concerts were soaring.
HMV reports sales for Pink Floyd’s Echoes, which features three of the numbers they performed on Saturday, were up by over 1,300 percent on Sunday.

“Even allowing for the relative nature of this exercise … this snapshot still shows that the Live 8 concert is having a marked effect on sales of featured artist recordings,” said Gennaro Castaldo, spokesman for the HMV chain.

Pink Floyd has since announced they will donate the profits to the Aid for Africa fund and are encouraging other artists to do the same. The London performance of the Beatles classic “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” was already released over the Internet with all proceeds going to the campaign.

Meanwhile, in Africa, where most of the poor don’t even own a TV, only a fraction saw the event billed as the world’s biggest concert.

“I don’t know who Bob Geldof is,” said Edward Romoki in downtown Johannesburg, the site of the tacked-on African Live 8 venue.

Despite skepticism, many Africans are hopeful the impending meeting of the G8’s richest countries will yield results.

“I hope the G8 will find a solution to our problems,” said unemployed Isa Mlambo in Johannesburg. “They always promise, but I am hoping this time they will take action.”
And Paris Hilton, not to be overshadowed even by the biggest concert event in her lifetime to date, is defending her appearance at the London branch of the event.

Scissor Sister Ana Matronic slammed Hilton for attending the concert without understanding the reasons behind it. Hilton insists she will make up for her ignorance by reading about it while she’s preparing to marry Greek shipping heir Paris Latsis.

She says, “It’s such a great cause. It makes you realise how fortunate we are. I want to get more involved in this cause, so I’m going to read all the newspapers while I’m in Athens planning my wedding.”






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