IF THEY can’t make poverty history by singing, they could sign a cheque. The final line-up for the Hyde Park Live 8 concert will put £2 billion worth of musical talent on stage.

The running order is now in its thirteenth revision. But Sir Paul McCartney (career wealth £800 million) is to open the show with U2 (£200 million). Expectation is greatest for the reformation of Pink Floyd (£240 million).

Robbie Williams (£85 million) will get a chance to impress American record buyers at the Africa awareness concert which has been bought for live screening by 140 countries.

Madonna (£200 million), R.E.M. (£100 million) and Mariah Carey (£25 million) will ensure an early-rising television audience on the West Coast of America for the show which begins at 2pm in London.

Coldplay (£60 million) cannot repeat their Glastonbury headlining feat because they are performing in Glasgow after their appearance.

Even the youngest Live 8 performer, Joss Stone, the teenage soul sensation, is already worth £5 million from record sales and a Gap advertising contract.As for the international concerts, Stevie Wonder (£120 million) and Will Smith (£80 million) will be headlining the US concert in Philadelphia. Kaiser Chiefs (£100,000), the Leeds band unknown a year ago, will fly the flag for British music on the American stage.

Roxy Music (£50 million) are starring at the concert in Berlin, while Dido (£30 million) dashes between Paris and London, and Duran Duran (£35 million) headline in Rome.

Bob Geldof has asked Sir Paul to close the London show with The Long and Winding Road, which he hopes will be the cue for fans to march on Edinburgh for the G8 lobby.

The soul legend James Brown has been called in at the last minute to be the final performer at the Live 8 concert in Edinburgh on July 6 after the events were criticised as “too white”. Live 8 organisers contacted Brown’s agent on Friday and yesterday confirmed that he would be on the bill.

Brown, 72, who is in Britain for his Seven Decades of Funk tour, will be one of three black artists performing at the concert in Murrayfield.

Brown said that he was unaware of the ethnic composition of the concerts: “I’m not going to perform as a black artist,” he said. “We are segregated too much now. When I see hungry children, it is not black kids or white kids. People are hungry. I’ll do anything I can to help humanity.”

He also hopes to star in the Paris concert on July 2, but is concerned he will not be able to fit it in with his schedule. Brown’s agent, who is known only as SuperFrank, said that the earliest Brown could be on stage in Paris was at 5.40pm, and he had to be at a concert in Spain for 8.30pm.

ON SCREEN

London: Carling Hammersmith Apollo; Stargreen Tickets (Argyll Street); the Apollo Victoria; the Dominion Theatre

Rest of Britain: Birmingham Alexandra Theatre; Bristol Hippodrome; Cardiff International Arena; Manchester Palace Theatre; Oxford New Theatre; Southampton Guildhall

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