U2's The Edge talks about Live 8

U2 was among a handful of groups that played both Live Aid in 1985 and this year's Live8 concerts on July 2nd. The group is featured on the new Live8 DVD that has just been released, and guitarist The Edge told us that there was quite a bit of difference between the two global events:
[ click here to listen if you have a Backstage Pass] "Different because Live Aid was a much more fraught situation. Everyone was scrambling to make it work. No one had done anything on that scale before, not since Woodstock, and, you know, technology had changed so much. It was really a wing and a prayer at the time, at LiveAid. This time we actually got a chance to run through the songs, have a little sound check. Things were a lot more under control, I felt."

U2 are seen on the DVD joining Paul McCartney to open the show at London's Hyde Park with the Beatles' "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band," before playing its own "Beautiful Day," "Vertigo" and "One." The Irish group played early in the day because it had another concert that night in Vienna, Austria.

Other LiveAid alumni on the Live8 DVD include McCartney, the Who, Elton John, Madonna and Neil Young.

Organized by Band Aid/Live Aid founder Bob Geldof, Live8 was a series of concerts held in nine cities around the world on July 2nd to raise awareness of poverty in and promote debt relief for developing nations, particularly in Africa.