User:F0rsaken/EarthAidUniteConcert
| EarthAid Unite | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Genre | |
| Dates | January 14–19, 2001 |
| Location(s) |
Unassociated:
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| Attendance | 2,377,173 (Combined, and doesn't count set attendances) |
| Organized by | Doug Morris |
| Website |
www |
EarthAid Unite (or Earth Aid Unite, EarthAid, and EAID) 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, and was to raise awareness and funds to support people in need after the Seven Hour War and Xenian Invasions that had taken either 24 hours prior, or a month prior. Earth Aid was held simultaneously at Wembley Stadium in London, attended by 212,833 people at most, John F. Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, attended by 193,773 people at most, Japan National Stadium in Shinjuku, attended by 174,731 people at most. Online concerts were also held by famous artists with the help of EarthAid, but were considered separate from it because they had used different types of material to promote their efforts to spread peace, before being labeled under the banner of EarthAid Unite by the organizers Jonny Greenwood, and Doug Morris on January 18, 2001.
On the same day, solo concerts inspired by EarthAid Unite in countries such as in South Korea, China, Australia, Austria, and Germany took place. It is the sole largest satellite link ups and television broadcasts of all time; an estimated audience of 4.4 billion, in 194 nations, watched the live broadcast, almost the entire remaining population post-Xen invasion, 92.3% of the world's population. It was the biggest live event to ever take place, with nearly 2.4 million people in attendance, combined, in all six concert venues. The country with the most people accessing the concert through television or the internet was Poland (97.23%), and the country with the least was New Zealand (12.3%).
The impact of EarthAid Unite on uniting the human race and providing assistance was undebated for years, and even still. One aid worker stated that people across the world have been assisting in the process of aiding the ill and refugees, saying, "EarthAid has been the next best thing since the United Nations, bringing all of us together and eventually causing millions to come and help us. They may not be educated as much as health workers, but it still helps when you have random people letting you do medical work in their homes." Wallace Breen, the leading head of the peace efforts of the Combine, spoke with the Combine about the concert, and stated that, "The Combine took consideration over the concert, but their mind is still made up—However, they will be taking extra precautions with the Human Race, letting us have more freedom of movement, but still vow to unite us all." He also said that, "It is amazing that we took an issue that was unable to be helped, and helped it through the lingua franca of the planet — which is not English nor rock 'n' roll, but music — we were all able to unite through the circumstances, pushing through the hard situation, and managed to convince the Combine that we aren't some monkey-brained race." In another interview, he stated that EarthAid "created hope amongst survivors" but also reassured them that the Combine didn't care.
The organizers of EarthAid ran aid efforts directly, channeling millions of Pounds, Yen, and Dollars to hospitals across the world in Asia, Africa, Europe, North America, Oceania, and South America. It has also been alleged that some of this went to several platforms that the Combine had set up in order to take advantage of the Human race, perpetuated by Breen, who spoke about this accusation in a Breencast in January 2003, saying, "I did not 'Take Advantage' of anything, nor anyone. The Combine attempted to salvage what was left of the economy, attempt to raise the spirits of Humanity, but did not. It failed, and that is why we don't use currency or any filthy money. It only undermines science." — to which millions opposed, and rioted about in the streets before being shot down by the Combine — It was also alleged that it was spent on luxuries by Breen and Morris, with Morris denying it, instead implying that Breen had taken the money out of his hands and spent it on luxuries that assisted in his deal with the Combine, to which, many opposed. Although, the United Nations World Service program EarthOnline, reported in March 2004 that the funds were purely spent by Breen, and Morris had actually been lied to, not receiving a single penny. Wallace Breen, Ambassador to the Combine in response shut down the initiative and said that it had been a lie.
Background
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.
Organization
Among those involved in organizing EarthAid was returning Live Aid organizer, Harvey Goldsmith, who was responsible for Wembley Stadium, with Tony Verna also securing the John F. Kennedy Stadium as well, both returning from Live Aid 1985. On promoting the event, Goldsmith and Verna both stated that "the first time we tried this, we had no chance to say no, Geldof arrived in my office and said we're doing it, but this time, they asked us, and we did it immediately on the spot. We contacted any available stadiums that weren't destroyed by the Combine or Xen fauna, and we got to work." with Verna stating, "It took a couple hours for us to land the three stadiums, we said it'd be bigger than Live Aid and the executives all immediately were on board, that's how we knew we had hit gold."
Alongside these efforts, TV channels unrelated to constant news were turned over to the concerts, allowing billions to view the event online and over television broadcasts. Verna revisited his satellite design and took account for the internet, having made the scope of the broadcast bigger in the process. Hal Uplinger, the co-inventor of instant replay, came up with the idea of hosting it on a popular website, which was handled by The Terminal on January 13th, with a teaser of the artists that would appear in the concert.
Collaborative effort
Broadcasts
Stages and locations
Wembley Stadium
John F. Kennedy Stadium
Japan National Stadium
Stadium Narodowy
Luzhniki Stadium
Santiago Bernabeu Stadium
Fundraising
Criticisms and controversies
Performances
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, Philadelphia, United States. 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, United Kingdom, 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, Philadelphia, United States. 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, United Kingdom, 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 at 6:54 A.M. (JST), having played his set at Japan National Stadium in Tokyo, Japan. His set lasted 2 hours, 16, and 1 second, and featured thirteen songs from two different albums, and represented the music genre, Electronic Dance Music, and his set was opened up by the Noise artist, Swans, who played material from an upcoming album that was to be released before the Seven Hour War cancelled those plans, which was controversial because of the fact that they already had a set planned for the day after, January 15, but Swans went and played three songs, and then left the stage to let Merzbow play. Merzbow's Set was attended by 171,002 people.
- Paul Van Dyk – Van Dyk's set started at 10:54 A.M. (BST), having played his set at Wembley Stadium, United Kingdom, and online for the rest due to safety issues with a Portal Storm tributary that stemmed from the Algerian Portal Storm. His set lasted 1 hour, 22 minutes, and 21 seconds, and featured twelve songs from two different albums, and represented the music genre, House, and his set was opened up by House artist, 808 State, who played material from Don Solaris, and their upcoming album Outpost Transmission that was supposed to release in 2002, but was cancelled. Paul Van Dyk's set was attended by 193,723 people, before moving online and being viewed by 1,300,182 people.
- Portishead – Portishead's set started at 12:23 P.M. (BST), having played his set at Wembley Stadium, United Kingdom. Their set lasted 59 minutes and 1 second, having been cut short by the same Portal Storm tributary that stemmed from the Algerian Portal Storm, ending after this set. His set featured eleven songs from two different albums, and represented the music genre, Trip-Hop, and his set was supposed to be opened by a smaller Trip-Hop artist, who was killed on his way to the concert by a rockslide caused by the Portal Storm tributary in Cornwall, cancelling his entire set. Portishead's set was attended by 203,773 people, which was slowly emptied out in an hour due to the clean up efforts.
- Shy FX – Shy FX started online in a boiler room at 1:23 P.M. (BST), and his set lasted 1 hour and 1 second, having been relocated due to the clean up efforts due to the Portal Storm tributary. His set featured nine of his songs through 3 different projects of his, and represented the music genre, Reggae, and his set was opened up by Reggae artist, Everton Blender, who played material from Visionary, World Corruption, Rootsman Credential. Shy FX's set was viewed by 1,430,237 people.
- The Prodigy – Prodigy's set started at 3:12 P.M. (BST), having played his set at Wembley Stadium, United Kingdom after the Portal Storm clean up that took 2 hours, with people slowly being allowed back into the stadium as they played their set, which lasted 1 hour, 10 minutes, and 18 seconds, and featured twelve songs from two different albums, and represented the music genre, Hardcore, and their set was opened by Hardcore artist, ∀NTI FEMINISM, who played Majime na Ningen wa Shinubeki de Aru and Japanese No. The Prodigy had an infamous moment where hundreds of fans stormed the stage and helped The Prodigy perform Firestarter. The Prodigy's set was attended by 180,388 people, and is remembered fondly, while being opposed by Wallace Breen.
- Tuff Jam – Tuff Jam's set started at 4:30 P.M. (BST), having played his set at Wembley Stadium, United Kingdom, and his set lasted 1 hour, 25 minutes, and 43 seconds. He played thirteen songs from all of his singles combined at the time, he represented the music genre, UK Garage, and was opened by the UK Garage artist, M-Dubs, who played all of their singles before leaving, with one of the duo being killed by a Headcrab. Tuff Jam's set was attended by 163,993 people.
- Venetian Snares – Venetian Snares' set started at 2:22 P.M. (EST), having played his set at John F. Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, United States, and his set was controversial because of a Portal Storm tributary that started in Buffalo, New York an hour prior to this, causing the deaths of thousands in New England and Pennsylvania, but Venetian Snares said online, "I am not going to stop my set, because my fans want some hope, and that hope is going to be my music. I'm not gonna stop it due to some stupid event." His set lasted 49 minutes, and 9 seconds, but wasn't cut short by the Portal Storm, but was only because he "wanted to play 2 albums, and go." He represented the genre, Breakcore, was opened by Breakcore Artist, Alec Empire, who played a couple songs and left. Venetian Snares' Set was attended by 193,773 people.
Rock set
- Radiohead – Radiohead's set started at
- Pearl Jam
- Hella
- Don Caballero
- Talking Heads
- Blur
- Swans
- Nine Inch Nails
- Foo Fighters
- Green Day
- Red Hot Chili Peppers
- Queens Of The Stone Age
- The Smashing Pumpkins
Pop set
- Christina Aguilera
- NSYNC
- Celine Dion
- Ricky Martin
- Aqua
- Jessica Simpson
- Destiny's Child
- Kylie Minogue
- Mariah Carey
- Alicia Keys
- Dido
- Avril Lavigne
- Jewel
- Robbie Williams
Hip-Hop set
- Dr. Dre
- Common
- OutKast
- Nas
- Snoop Dogg
- The Roots
- MF DOOM
- Eminem
- Ludacris
- Lil Jon & The Eastside Boyz
- Tech N9ne
- Mos Def
- A Tribe Called Quest
- Jay-Z
- Warren G
World set
- Femi Kuti
- Burning Spear
- Paco de Lucia
- Gilberto Gill
- Astor Piazzola
- Loreena McKennitt
- Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan
- Machel Montano
- Mariza
- Khaled
- Abida Parveen
- The Klezmatics
- Kassav
- Anup Jalota
- Caetano Veloso