Live 8 - Australian Live 8 Is Axed

A proposed Australian leg of the star-studded LIVE 8 event has been axed, because an anonymous backer refuses to fund the event after discovering the concert would not be broadcast worldwide.

Campaigning rockers SIR BOB GELDOF and MIDGE URE are staging the 02 July (05) event simultaneously in London, Paris, Berlin, Rome and Philadelphia four days before the G8 Summit, to persuade leaders of the eight largest industrial nations to cancel Third World debt, double the aid budget and rewrite global trade laws so developing countries can protect their economies.

But the Antipodean gig has fallen through because it would not be part of a worldwide telecast, for financial and technical reasons - and potential funders refuse to get involved if it's not televised.

Promoter MICHAEL CHUGG, the organiser of the cancelled gig, explains, "We spoke to JOHN KENNEDY and HARVEY GOLDSMITH (Live 8 organisers) and they said, 'If you want to do something, go ahead.'

"We had some people who were interested in putting up the money, but only if it was part of the worldwide telecast. Both John and Harvey said that was not feasible, so nothing has come of it.

"We would have loved to have done it, but it just came down to finding the money to do it."