HOWZAT

The shows will be broadcast on the BBC and giant screens will be erected in Birmingham, Hull, Liverpool, Manchester, Plymouth, Portsmouth, Belfast, Leeds and Wrexham.

Sir Bob said that he had been reluctant to revive the spirit of Live Aid, saying that he had believed nothing could match that "almost perfect" day.

He said: "I didn’t want to do 'Bob’s best bits', but Bono and Richard (Curtis) in particular kept saying, do it again.

"I didn’t understand to what end. What could we do that was in any way different? It couldn’t be about charity any more. We don't want people's money - we want them!"

He said the London concert was not going to be "gloomy and doomy", but he went on to describe the deaths of 50,000 people a day from the effects of poverty as a disgrace. He said: "The continent in those 20 years [since Live Aid]... has gone into economic decline by a factor of 25 per cent. The result of that is we see people dying on TV screens every night. This is to finally, as much as as we can, put a stop to that."

Mr Curtis, the screenwriter behind Four Weddings and a Funeral, describe the situation in Africa as the "new holocaust." He said: "Seventeen million people in Africa have died from Aids. That's many more than died in the holocaust - we have got our own private holocaust going on here."

Despite its politically provocative nature, the event has been given the backing of the Government, with Tessa Jowell, the Culture Secretary, saying that she wanted the London show to be "the biggest and best open air concert that the capital has ever seen".

In an traditional outburst, Sir Bob closed the press conference by telling the G8 leaders that if they were not interested in Live 8's causes they could: "F*** off."

Live Aid was held on July 13, 1985, at Wembley Stadium, and raised £40 million for famine relief. Almost half of the money was spent immediately on food aid for Ethiopia.

Later Sir Bob said in an interview with Sky News that the cost of ending preventable deaths from poverty was achievable and easily affordable.

"I can tell you how much it will cost us: it will cost us all half a stick of chewing gum a day," he said. "You know, it’s pathetic. If you want to stop watching people die on your TV screens every night then just do it.

"Ours will be a triumphant, honourable failure, we will show what we can do. To do nothing is not tolerable. To do something is not enough. To do everything is our clear duty."

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