Pearl Jam, U2 jam at Australian anti-poverty concert

Pearl Jam was joined onstage by U2's Bono and The Edge on Friday night (November 17th) in Melbourne, Australia, at a Make Poverty History concert that also included performances by Jet and other Australian acts. According to Billboard, Bono and U2 jammed with Pearl Jam on a cover of Neil Young's "Rockin' In The Free World," which featured new lyrics written for the event. Bono prefaced the song by saying, "Politicians all have to do what you tell them to do: scream it from the mountains."

The show drew a crowd of 14,000 people, and was broadcast to thousands more on giant screens located throughout Melbourne and several other Australian towns.

The concert was held just prior to the two-day G20 summit, during which political leaders from 19 countries, as well as the World Bank, the European Bank and the International Monetary Fund, were scheduled to meet and discuss global issues.

Both Bono and Pearl Jam singer Eddie Vedder have criticized Australian Prime Minister John Howard in recent days. Bono said on television that Howard needed to display leadership on the poverty issue after Howard declined to meet with Bono on the subject. Meanwhile, Vedder asked the crowd at a different Melbourne show last week, "What kind of Australia do you want to live in?...(Howard) has led your country to the bottom of the league in terms of engagement with the world's poor and I don't think that's an Australia people want to live in."
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