Live 8 - Hyde Park, London - Saturday 2nd July 2005

I won a ticket for this in the text lottery. I went to the O2 shop in Oxford Street to pick it up, and braved the hour long queue in the process. I went to the concert venue, twice in the last week, for the Wireless Festival. I saw the "once in a lifetime" line up. And I decided not to go to the gig.

Why? I saw the people in the queue for tickets, and didn't fancy the idea of spending the day with 150,000 of them - very few music fans, and even fewer gig goers, around at all. I didn't fancy spending hours to get anywhere around the venue on the day, even from 6am. I wasn't keen on the potential view, which from the back of the venue was not exactly good (as it wouldn't be with that many people there). Of the bands on the bill, I have seen the vast majority of those I have any time for already, and knew that the best bands would be playing early, or not for long (witness the scandal of the Killers, one of the best live bands there, being allowed a mammoth 6 minute set!), or would in other ways have their talent ignored for the commercial appeal of Robbie Williams et al. And, the whole gig was alcohol free - no bars at all, and no booze allowed in. The prospect of a sober day with attention seekers and 150,000 fools was not appealing at all.

So, I knocked it on the head, gave the ticket to a friend, and watched some of it on TV instead. I haven't regretted the decision for a second. It was hyped as an "I was there" event, but when so many people can say the same thing, and all you need to do to be there is win a text message lottery, the "achievement" involved is kind of downgraded slightly!! Mass market, lowest common denominator crap. I gave the £30 I would have spent that day to the Make Poverty History campaign instead.