User:F0rsaken/EarthAidUniteConcert

EarthAid Unite
Genre	Rock Electronic Pop
Dates	January 14–19, 2001
Location(s)	Wembley Stadium in London, United Kingdom John F. Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States Japan National Stadium in Tokyo, Japan Unassociated: Stadion Narodowy in Warsaw, Poland Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow, Russia Santiago Bernabéu Stadium in Madrid, Spain
Attendance	2,377,173 (Combined, and doesn't count set attendances)
Organized by	Doug Morris
Website	www.earthaid.online

EarthAid Unite was a multi-venue benefit concert and music-based fundraising initiative held on January 14, 2001 to January 19, 2001 during peace talks between the Combine and United Nations representative, Wallace Breen. The event was organized by several high-level music executives, with Doug Morris being the self appointed lead member of the multi-venue event. Earth Aid was held simultaneously at Wembley Stadium in London, attended by 102,833 people, John F. Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, attended by 193,773 people, Japan National Stadium in Shinjuku, attended by 174,731 people. Online concerts were also held by famous artists without the help of EarthAid, but were considered apart of it because they had used the same material to promote their solo efforts to spread peace.

Promotional material for the EarthAid Unite concert included photographs and audio and visual material from the Black Mesa Incident, the Xen Invasion, and then the Combine Invasion. The concert raised 394 million USD$ to support rebuilding efforts across the United States and Europe, which would be later left behind by the Combine as millions of North Americans and South Americans were evacuated to Europe by the Combine in an effort to create a massive multiple continent-spanning quarantine zone. Music created during the concerts were also sold online for the period of time that it stayed up, which lasted around 6 days until the internet was shut down by the Combine.

EarthAid Unite was one of the main movements of the Combine–Human Peace Movement that was created in the Seven Hour War by self proclaimed “Hippies” and former Black Mesa scientists including some political figures. Aperture Science was also one of the main supporters of the movement, citing their rivalry with Black Mesa as one of the driving forces of their efforts to create peace with the Combine, with the concert holders having received messages from an experimental Artificial Intelligence GLADos until all communications ceased from a Portal Storm demolishing an internet service in Michigan. A committee of former Black Mesa scientists and executives also sponsored the event, calling for peace while also realizing that this could have some minor effects in the peace treaty with the Combine.

EarthAid Unite was a controversial event because of the several events that were caused by Portal Storms, Combine attacks, and Xenian attacks. Several concert events were cut short by either evacuations done by the concert holders themselves or by the countries that held those concerts, having to be picked up and done somewhere else. The final event to take place, an exclusive concert by the former members of Pink Floyd, was cut short by the evacuation to Europe by the combine on January 20, 2001.

Background

Wallace Breen, a hard supporter of EarthAid Unite and the main force behind the surrender to the Combine.

Jonny Greenwood, one of the main production managers of EarthAid Unite.

The 2001 EarthAid Unite was conceived as a follow-up to the successful charity concert, Live Aid, which took place in 1985, 16 years prior. It was conceived during the Seven Hour War, and was called after the Seven Hour War after newspapers started advertising it alongside news reports of the Seven Hour War and the surrender to the Universal Union by Wallace Breen. In January 2001, images of millions of people starving to death, being killed by the Combine, or being killed by Xen fauna were shown across the world by newspapers like The Times and The Terminal in their reports on the deteriorating situation during the Seven Hour War and Xen Invasion. The Terminal news crew were the first to document mass famines and mass suicides in the outbreak of the Xen Invasion and eventual Seven Hour War, describing it as "a biblical famine in the 21st century" and "The embodiment of Hell on Earth." The reports featured several doctors who had lost hope due to the deteriorating situation, with an infamous picture of a doctor holding the side of a highway, with the caption stating the doctor's words, saying, 'I've lost all hope, I had someone die from a minor injury.' which blew up across the world as civilians began offering safe homes for the hospital staff and outgoing refugees from cities. A doctor was seen carrying the dead body of a child as well, being bitten on the head by a Headcrab, having died from his injuries due to the Headcrab, which caused a major outcry in the remaining Human population as they begged the Combine to cease their belligerent movements.

Shocked by the reports seen, Doug Morris and a couple other music executives began the charity, "EarthAid" to assist with the efforts of survivors of the Xen Invasion and Seven Hour War, and were immediately inundated once the public found out, having brought the world's attention to the crisis across the world. Such was the magnitude of The Terminal's Report, having brough some areas unaffected by the Portal Storms and Seven Hour War at the time of report, which began working together to get available artist who weren't either conscripted or dead by the time of the concert's planned date. Morris then contacted other remaining colleagues in the industry and persuaded them to get more artists on board, with the idea of a massive multi-artist album that would quickly fall out of the plans because of the unavailability of time, however, they did raise around $183 million by the end of the day, and the idea of the charity concert was accepted by many music executives, outlining several locations that were also in EarthAid, and advertised unassociated locations in Poland, Russia, and Spain.

It was clear from the beginning that the concert would've taken place if not for the donations, the idea for the concert actually being made up on the spot by Morris and a few other executives from the labels Warp, Atlantic, Columbia, and Interscope. The idea to have 6 days for the concert was also planned, having each genre have their own day, with rock taking up two because of the important they felt it had to uniting the World, with Morris joined by Breen, saying;

The show needs to be big, it can't just be a couple artists like LiveAid or any charity concert before it. We need to make a splash so the Combine, or as Breen says, the Universal Union, can see our peace offering as what it is, and not as a surrender. There's no point to come if its not safe either, and we have plans for that. No Xenian fauna or Combine soldier will be allowed, because we want this to be safe. We want hundreds of thousands, if not millions of people, to see the effort we put into peace efforts like this. The world must see that there are still good people and good intentions, and if they don't, what's the point? It'd be very nice if this all went through. Our plan is this, if we collect the finest artists from a collection of.. 4 Genres, let's say.. Electronic Music, Rock, Pop, and World Music, and we let them play their songs and then provide free entertainment, who's to say it's not successful? I have a couple of ideas already, maybe rock gets two days, and the first day of Electronic Music opens up with.. Richard D. James, he's pretty popular right now because of that banging record – Windowlicker, so.. Why not?

—Doug Morris, January 13, 2001.

EarthAid's team of production managers (Jonny Greenwood of Radiohead, Andy Zweck, and Doug Morris) displayed the difficulty of getting artists involved, having called artists like Richard D. James and fooled him into the contract saying, "Autechre's gonna be there, and so is Björk," and had to call Autechre and Björk up and say the same thing, calling it a game of bluff. Jonny was a welcomed choice onto the production team because of his further experience as a producer alongside Nigel Godrich on his band, Radiohead, having produced various songs and future inclusions of movie soundtracks that have yet to come out as of 2001.

Performances

Daft Punk, Live.

Sean Booth, a member of Autechre, performing on his own as Brown was pulled aside by a concert employee.

The Times snippet with Bjork mentioned.

Electronic Music Set

• Richard D. James (Aphex Twin) – Richard D. James was one of the first musicians to perform at the concert, having started his set at 12:12 A.M. (EST), having played his set in John F. Kennedy Stadium. His set lasted 2 hours, 58 minutes and 42 seconds, and featured 35 of his songs across eight of his albums. He represented the music genre, Intelligent Dance Music, and the set was opened by Intelligent Dance Music artist, Ilkae, who was advertising the release of their sixth studio album, Pistachio Island, which would've been released in December 2001 if not for the Combine. Aphex Twin's set was attended by 78,399 people, and had various audio-related issues as the aftermath of the Seven Hour War interfered with generator systems in the area.
• Sean Booth, Robert Brown (Autechre) – Autechre was the first music group to perform at the concert, having started their set at 8:24 A.M. (BST), having played their set in Wembley Stadium, and then online in Shinjuku, Japan. Their set lasted 2 hours, 31 minutes, and 22 seconds, and featured five tracks made specifically for the concert that included various remixes of songs by concert contributors Aphex Twin, Boards of Canada, and Bjork, they represented the music genre, Glitch, their set was opened by Glitch artist, Jan Jelinek, previewing his debut studio album, Loop-Finding-Jazz-Records, which was to release February 2, 2001. Autechre's set was attended by 81,388 people, and also had the audio-related issues but also had musician-caused errors as some of the music they were displaying caused some of the audio systems to blow out.
• Alex Reece – Alex Reece started his set at 11:10 A.M. (BST), having played his set in Wembley Stadium, directly after Autechre after they were rushed out due to personal concerns stopping them from staying at the concert for the rest of the day. His set lasted for 1 hour, 50 minutes, and 14 seconds, and featured thirteen songs spread across three albums that he played during his set, he represented the music genre, Jungle, and His set was opened by Jungle artist, Electric Rudeboyz, playing a couple tracks off of their album, Kolejny krok, which was to release May 14, 2001. Alex Reece's set was attended by 83,001 people, and had the biggest "mosh pit" of the entire concert during his set as he played several of his own tracks near the end point of his set.
• Björk Guðmundsdóttir (Björk) – Björk Guðmundsdóttir's started her set at 8:10 A.M. (EST), having played her set in John F. Kennedy Stadium. Her set lasted 2 hours, 24 minutes, and 38 seconds, and featured twenty-seven songs from four of her own albums, she represented the music genre, Avant-Garde Pop, and her set was opened by the Avant-Garde artist, Gustavo Cerati, playing songs from his 1999 album, Bocanada, which was described by Cerati as "an amazing opportunity" because of his previous status as a fan of Guðmundsdóttir and associates like Aphex Twin. Björk's set was attended by 90,032 people, and was displayed in a newspaper written about the event in The Times.
• Brian Eno – Brian Eno's started his set at 3:34 P.M. (BST), having played his set at Wembley Stadium, and online for the rest. His set lasted 2 hours, 58 minutes, and 33 seconds, and featured twenty-seven songs from five of his own albums, and represented the music genre, Ambient music, and his set was opened by the Ambient artist, GAS, who played material from his albums Pop, and Königsforst, with GAS also being a fan of Brian Eno. This set was regarded as the one of most impressive and fascinating sets because of the efforts it took to get Brian Eno in the setlist, having lost everything at the time because of the Seven Hour War. Eno's set was attended by 101,378 people and was also displayed in a newspaper alongside Björk.
• Backstreet Boys – The Backstreet Boys' set started at 2:33 A.M. (JST), having played their set at Japan National Stadium in Tokyo, Japan. Their set lasted 2 hours, 15 minutes, and 43 seconds, and featured twenty-eight songs from three different albums, and represented the music genre, Dance Pop, and their set was opened by the Dance Pop artist, Britney Spears, who played music from her album, Oops!... I did it again, this was controversial because of the popularity of Britney Spears, but Spears herself disavowed the complain that she should've had her own set because "She didn't resonate with electronic music that much." The Backstreet Boys' set was attended by 120,388 people, by far this was the least-rated set through out the entire concert.
• Daft Punk – Daft Punk's set started at 4:59 A.M. (JST), having played their set at Japan National Stadium in Tokyo, Japan. Their set lasted 1 hour, 43 minutes, and 22 seconds, and featured nineteen songs from two different albums, and represented the music genre, Electronic Dance Music, and their set was opened up by the Electronic Dance Music artist, BT, who played material from his Movement in Still Life and ESCM albums, and an unknown album that remained untitled by BT himself, but was slated to be released in 2002, which was cancelled by the Combine taking over Earth during this time. Daft Punk's Set was attended by 140,003 people, and was one of the highest-rated sets throughout the concert.
• Merzbow / Pussybow – Merzbow's set started