Moscow Joins Live 8 Lineup

06/28/2005 3:01 PM, E! Online
Josh Grossberg

Those West End Boys are headed east end on a mission of hope.

The Pet Shop Boys have been tapped to headline the newly added Moscow installment of Saturday's Live 8 concerts. The free show will take place in Red Square, organizers said Tuesday.

Along with the Pet Shop Boys, Saturday's Moscow lineup will also feature popular Russian bands Bravo, B-2, Moral Code X, Valery Sutkin and Spleen.

The gig, announced on the official Live 8 Website, means there will be a Live 8 show in each of the G8 countries, fulfilling Bob Geldof's original vision. Geldof engineered the massive undertaking--which promises to be the largest concert event ever staged--to raise awareness in the richest industrialized nations of problems in the developing world, particularly Africa.

The Moscow concert brings the Live 8 show count to 10. The other cities hosting star-studded concerts on Saturday are London, Paris, Rome, Berlin, Philadelphia, Tokyo, Johannesburg and Toronto. An additional concert is set for Edinburgh on July 6, the same day leaders of the world's most powerful industrial nations gather in nearby Gleneagle for the annual G8 summit.

With the shows only days away, there's a last-minute scramble to get more A-list acts on board. Alicia Keys, the Black Eyes Peas, Josh Groban, Def Leppard and Toby Keith have all been added to the Philly bill. They'll be joined on stage by celebrity presents Salma Hayek, Natalie Portman, Chris Tucker, Jennifer Connelly, Jimmy Smits and Kami, the HIV-positive Muppet from the South African edition of Sesame Street.

Meanwhile, Björk and Good Charlotte have signed on for the Tokyo bash, which also includes Def Tech, Dreams Come True, McFly, Do as Infinity and Rize. And rock icon Neil Young, who suffered a brain aneurysm in April, will make his return to the stage by closing out the Toronto show, whose roster includes native sons Bryan Adams, Our Lady Peace, Barenaked Ladies and Tom Cochran, along with Mötley Crue and Deep Purple. Young was among the artists who performed at Philadelphia's Live Aid concert 20 years ago.

Other big-name performers scheduled to play Saturdays concerts are Paul McCartney, U2, Coldplay, Madonna, Elton John, the Who and a reunited Pink Floyd in London; Dave Matthews Band, Bon Jovi, Stevie Wonder, Will Smith, Sarah McLachlan, Linkin Park, Jay-Z, the soon-to-disband Destiny's Child and P. Diddy in Philadelphia; Sheryl Crow, the Cure, Muse, Dido, Jamiroquai, Placebo and Andrea Bocelli in Paris; Lauryn Hill, Brian Wilson, Audioslave, Green Day, Roxy Music and Crosby, Stills and Nash in Berlin; and Duran Duran, Faith Hill and Tim McGraw in Rome.

The Edinburgh show will include sets from Annie Lennox, James Brown, and Travis.

In response to criticism from some musicians that the Live 8 lineup is too Caucasian, Peter Gabriel is also staging a Live 8 offshoot dubbed Africa Calling at the Eden Arena in southern England. The roster features mostly African artists, including Salif Keita, Maryam Mursal, and Ayub Ogada.

America Online will stream the concerts online at AOLmusic.com and will keep the feeds open for six weeks after the shows. MTV and VH1 will televise the concerts in the United States, and Premiere Radio Networks and XM Satellite Radio will handle radio broadcasts. Additionally, ABC will air a two-hour highlights show on Saturday at 8 p.m. ET.

Organizers say the broadcasts will be available to an estimated 5 billion viewers around the world.