Madonna Sticky & Sweet Tour Dates 2008 + ticket information

If you want to go to the London concert at the new Wembley Stadium, it’s now time to start preparing to register. Live Earth organizers are buckling down on ticket misuse and because of the expected demand for tickets, it seems that they’re following Glastonbury’s lead and have incorporated a registration process for concert goers who want to buy tickets to Live Earth.

From the Live Earth Save Our Selves website:

“Free Registration for tickets opens at midday on FRIDAY, 13 APRIL 2007 and Live Earth ticket applicants are asked to register their details at: www.livenation.co.uk/liveearth

Registration opens from midday on Friday 13th April until Monday 16th April at midday. If your application is successful you will be notified how to buy your tickets on Wednesday, 18 April.

ALL TICKETS FOR LONDON WILL BE PRICED AT ?55 EACH”

Other bands and artists scheduled to perform at Wembley Stadium in London include: Beastie Boys, Black Eyed Peas, Bloc Party, Corinne Bailey Rae, Damien Rice, David Gray, Duran Duran, Foo Fighters, Genesis, James Blunt, John Legend, Keane, Madonna, Paolo Nutini, Razorlight, Snow Patrol, Terra Naomi, Spinal Tap, Kasabian, Metallica, The Pussycat Dolls and Red Hot Chili Peppers.

Live Earth concert venues and locations will also be staged in Shanghai, China, Antarctica, Johannesburg, South Africa, Sydney, Australia, Giants Stadium, USA, Tokyo, Japan, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Hamburg, Germany and Washington, D.C..

If you didn’t know already, Al Gore is the co-chair for Live Earth and is also involved in organizing the events. There has been some controversy and skepticism about Al Gore and his green ambitions in the media and around the internet. It’s probably not too difficult to find mixed opinions by simply doing a search in Google.

I’ve also noted in a previous entry the irony of Al Gore and his current relationship with bands and music and that of his wife Tipper Gore and their involvement with the censorship of music via Tipper Gore’s PMRC (Parents Music Resource Center) vehicle in the 80’s.

I would be curious to know if Madonna remembers that her song, “Dress You Up” was on the PMRC’s “Filthy Fifteen” list. The Filthy Fifteen was a list of fifteen songs that the PMRC found most objectionable. Maybe Madonna sees Live Earth as more important than what went on with the PMRC.

Time must have healed some old wounds or maybe the bands and musicians have simply forgotten or don’t care about the PMRC and the Gores’ affiliation with it. Or it’s possible that the bands feel that spreading the word about climate change and global warming is more important and are willing to brush aside any hard feelings.

I think that it is important to raise awareness of climate change and to listen to the scientists who have been studying global warming. There are also many green and environmental blogs out there in the blogosphere currently discussing green issues like TreeHugger, Hugg.com and the celebrity green gossip blog Ecorazzi.

For more information about Live Earth, go to LiveEarth.org

Watch the concerts and videos online:

The Live Earth concerts will be streamed online live on 7/7/07 at LiveEarth.MSN.com.

The concerts will also be broadcast on the BBC in the UK and on more than 120 networks around the world.

According to the BBC, UK Live Earth TV Schedule and start times: Jonathan Ross will present for BBC 2 starting at 1:00pm BST. The start time for the London Wembley concerts is 1:30pm BST. Graham Norton and Edith Bowman will also be hosting the Live Earth festivities on BBC 2 along with David Shukman, Roger Harrabin and Kate Silverton. Coverage will continue on BBC 1 with concert highlights from around the world.

By: Jenny May

On July 7th, 2007 (07/07/07) concert locations for Live Earth will be taking place in and headliners have been announced for: USA bands at Giants Stadium in New Jersey, Wembley Stadium in London – Madonna, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Foo Fighters, Beastie Boys and more…, Shanghai, China, Antarctica, Johannesburg, South Africa, Sydney, Australia, Tokyo, Japan, Hamburg, Germany and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Other artists and bands scheduled to perform include at Live Earth locations around the world include: Pharrell, Foo Fighters, Snoop Dogg, Lenny Kravitz, Bon Jovi, Paolo Nutini, Sheryl Crow, AFI, Melissa Etheridge, John Mayer, Damien Rice, Corinne Bailey Rae, Duran Duran, Snow Patrol, John Legend, Black Eyed Peas, Akon, Enrique Iglesias, Fall Out Boy, Mana, Keane, Kelly Clarkson, Korn, Faith Hill w/ Tim McGraw, and Bloc Party.

It will be interesting to see how all of this unfolds. When the story first broke a few days ago, I couldn’t imagine that Al Gore would be able to make this happen…but by looking at the names of everyone who so far has jumped on board this could very well be one of the biggest music events ever.

As great as all of this is, I’m sensing a particular irony here. Not to rain on anyone’s parade, but doesn’t anyone remember Tipper Gore’s (Al Gore’s wife) Parents Music Resource Center (PMRC) which she co-founded back in the 80’s?

The PMRC claimed that popular music, especially rock music, was partially responsible for the contemporary increase in rape, teenage pregnancy, and teen suicide. This and other claims caused outrage and debate amongst bands regarding the PMRC’s commitment to censor music.

From Wikipedia:

As a method of combating this problem, the PMRC suggested a voluntary move by the RIAA and the music industry to develop “guidelines and/or a rating system” similar to the MPAA film rating system. Additional suggestions from the PMRC that appeared in an article in the Washington Post included: printing warnings and lyrics on album covers, forcing record stores to put albums with explicit covers under the counters, pressuring television stations not to broadcast explicit songs or videos, “reassess[ing]” the contracts of musicians who performed violently or sexually in concert, and creating a panel to set industry standards. This article led to the removal of rock music and magazines from American stores including Wal-Mart, J.C. Penney, Sears, and Fred Meyer.

The PMRC also released the “Filthy Fifteen”, a list of the fifteen songs they found most objectionable:

# Artist – Song title - Lyrical content
1 Prince “Darling Nikki” Sex/Masturbation
2 Sheena Easton “Sugar Walls” Sex
3 Judas Priest “Eat Me Alive” Sex
4 Vanity “Strap on Robbie Baby” Sex
5 Mötley Crüe “Bastard” Violence
6 AC/DC “Let Me Put My Love into You” Sex
7 Twisted Sister “We’re Not Gonna Take It” Violence
8 Madonna “Dress You Up” Sex
9 W.A.S.P. “Animal (F*** Like a Beast)” Sex/Language
10 Def Leppard “High ‘n’ Dry (Saturday Night)” Drug and Alcohol Use
11 Mercyful Fate “Into the Coven” Occult
12 Black Sabbath “Trashed” Drug and Alcohol Use
13 Mary Jane Girls “In My House” Sex
14 Venom “Possessed” Occult
15 Cyndi Lauper “She Bop” Sex/Masturbation

Bands and artists disgruntled with Tipper Gore’s censorship views who have mentioned her in their songs include:

“Hook In Mouth” by Megadeth and “Startin’ Up a Posse” by Anthrax accuses Gore of obstructing freedom of speech, “Porn Wars” by Frank Zappa, “Burn Down the Malls” by Mojo Nixon, “Shelter Me” by Cinderella, ‘IfwhiteAmericatoldthetruthforonedayitsworldwouldfallapart’ by Manic Street Preachers, “White America” by Eminem, P.M.R.C. by The Fad, ‘Sucks’ by KMFDM, ‘Lovely’ by Suicidal Tendencies (and is the subject of, but not directly refrenced in You Can’t Bring Me Down), ‘Stigmata (Live)’ by Ministry, as well as ‘Voldemort Can’t Stop the Rock’ by Harry and the Potters. Warrant also have a track on their Cherry Pie album called Ode to Tipper Gore, which is just quotes she would most definitely oppose. Canadian alternative rockers Furnaceface penned the anti-Tipper ditty ironically entitled ‘We Love You, Tipper Gore’, in Ice T’s book he references her.

Will any of these active acts be invited? Does this rule out Madonna or Ozzy since they were on Tipper’s “Filthy Fifteen” at one point? Or have we all gotten over this, forgive and forget and all that.

If only Frank Zappa was here to witness this. What would he say?

http://downlode.org/Etext/zappa.html

By: Jenny May