[Boondock]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20050704/..._live_sales_dc

LONDON (Reuters) - They came out of charity. They left with booming record sales.

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The galaxy of rock stars who took part in Live 8 concerts on Saturday to help beat the curse of poverty have seen their discs fly off the shelves in British music stores -- a case of bank balances as well as consciences winning out.

Live 8's main cause, making poverty history, also benefited though, after the London performance of Beatles classic "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" was released over the Internet with all proceeds going to the campaign.

According to HMV, one of Britain's main record retailers with 200 stores nationwide, Pink Floyd's "Echoes" album posted a staggering 1,343 percent increase in sales on Sunday compared with the same day a week ago.

The band re-formed for the Live 8 concert in London's Hyde Park, where they joined pop legends Paul McCartney, Madonna, U2 and Elton John among others in front of 200,000 people.

"Even allowing for the relative nature of this exercise ... this snapshot still shows that the Live 8 concert is having a marked effect on sales of featured artist recordings," said Gennaro Castaldo, spokesman for the HMV chain.

He stressed that the increase for Pink Floyd and other acts appearing in Hyde Park was partly due to the low number of records sold on Sunday, June 26. Total sales of "Echoes" on Sunday, July 3, the day after Live 8, were approaching 1,000.

Next came The Who's "Then & Now," with an increase of 863 percent, Annie Lennox's "Eurythmics Greatest Hits" (500 percent) and Dido's "Life For Rent" (412 percent).

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Coldplay's "X&Y," which has stormed the charts in Britain and the United States, registered one of the smallest increases out of the London Live 8 acts at just three percent.

But according to HMV, the band still sold the highest number of records at more than 2,800.

The only Live 8 performer to have clocked a drop in sales was Pete Doherty. His former group the Libertines saw sales of their "Up the Bracket" album drop by 35 percent.

Doherty's performance was singled out by the British media as one of the worst of the nine-hour Hyde Park music marathon.

The Mirror tabloid called his duet with Elton John "shambolic," and people at the gig said he struggled with the words of "Children of the Revolution" and looked unsteady on his feet.

Record label Universal Music Group released online "Sgt. Pepper," sung by McCartney and U2 at the opening of the Hyde Park gig, within minutes of the performance.

A spokesman for Universal said it was already the number one track on the iTunes online music service in Britain, Canada, Germany, the Netherlands, Italy and Belgium. No outright sales figures were available on Monday. Proceeds go to Live 8.

The closing London Live 8 song, another Beatles classic "Hey Jude," has also been put online

[Revolution?]

Seems like it is a win-win situation, musicians gain record sales while reducing poverty.

[Boondock]

Originally Posted by Revolution?

Seems like it is a win-win situation, musicians gain record sales while reducing poverty.

you really think they are going to reduce poverty in that dump?

bwuahahahah

[gilligan]

Originally Posted by Boondock

you really think they are going to reduce poverty in that dump?

bwuahahahah

yea if they wanted to do something they would donate a few million each or somethin, but they just played a few fucking songs and talked about how they want everyone else to do it.

i wouldnt send a dime to any country without a democraticly elected leader. I have read that up to 90% of money and aide we send to some african nations gets grabbed up by the dictators and their army. They got plenty of land let em start farming.

[el-producto]

THEY SHOULD SEND THEIR MONEY INSTEAD OF ASKING US FOR IT. AT THOSE CELEBRITY COMMERCIALS TRYING TO GET PEOPLE TO DONATE MONEY

[Luke]

^amen brutha