UK News 09-06-2005 Give Us Your F***ing Texts who: Bob Geldof what: Says more people need to text it to expand line-up of Live 8 show where: Huish Park, LONDON when: July 2nd snippet: Sir Bob Geldof says he will get Status Quo to play the Live 8 concert at Hyde Park on July 2nd if music fans keep sending in their text messages. The 66,500 tickets for the event, which features Madonna, Robbie Williams, Coldplay, U2 and Paul McCartney, are being issued by a mobile `phone text lottery. On launch day, the line was receiving an average of 600 texts per second. This generated £3 million in one day alone, says The Times, "enough to pay the £1.6 million compensation to the Prince`s Trust and the first £1.4 million towards the costs of the event". But Sir Bob says every hour of live bands added to the line-up will cost the organisers an additional £350,000, so the only way to get the Quo is by texting in. Status Quo memorably launched Live Aid by playing `Rockin` All Over the World` in 1985, but are not currently on the bill. "If people keep texting, I promise you we will work miracles to let those two rockers [Francis Rossi and Rick Parfitt] on the stage," Geldof told Capital Radio`s Johnny Vaughan, quoted in The Mirror on Thursday. "I love the Quo, I absolutely love the Quo. We are working hard on these things. If you could see the list of bands we want to play and that have asked to play..." On Monday, at a boatyard in Southampton, Geldof "called for a huge flotilla of boats to recreate Dunkirk as part of the G8 protest," reports The Guardian, which says the initiative has been dubbed Sail 8. With the backing of sailing heroine Dame Ellen MacArthur, Geldof said "English boat owners and even rowers along the south coast should sail across the Channel and pick up thousands of European protesters trying to get to Edinburgh for the demonstration on the opening day of the summit". "It will be many hours of sailing and picking up people they may not even be able to communicate with," says Geldof, "but the symbol of that effort will be a great symbol of unity and friendship." Coastguards on both sides of the Channel expressed concern, much as Edinburgh authorities had done a week earlier when he urged a million people to March on the Scottish capital. However, Midge Ure - who has taken charge of the Edinburgh Live8 concert arrangements - has since tried to calm worried residents. "It`s purely symbolic," says the erstwhile Ultravox frontman, referring to the 1,000,000 figure. "It`s just Bob being Bob. We try to rein him in but you can`t control him. Now he`s gone to Europe and left me to pick up the pieces. He could have said 10 million, he could have said a billion, Mars is going to crash into Scotland, it doesn`t matter - it was a symbolic call for people to stand up and be counted." To enter the ticket draw, you need to text "C" (the answer to the multiple choice question "Which city is nearest to the G8 summit in July?") to 84599 by midnight on Sunday, June 12th. You can text as many times as you like but it costs £1.50 (plus your operator`s standard network rate) every time. Tickets will without doubt be available from touts but The Times says eBay has promised to ban Live 8 auctions. [... more]

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