The Who's Roger Daltrey
Photo: Jeff J. Mitchell/ Getty Images

The parade of classic rockers amping up halftime at the Super Bowl will continue this year with one of the biggest names in the game. According to SI.com, sources say British legends the Who will take the stage at Superbowl XLIV in Miami on February 7, marking their first trip to the big show for the band's first North American gig in two years.

If the rumor is true, the Who — which now consists of only two original members, main songwriter/guitarist/singer Pete Townshend and singer Roger Daltrey — would follow in the footsteps of such recent rock luminaries as Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, Paul McCartney and Prince, who have played the coveted gig in recent years.

The Who's U.K. spokesperson Julian Stockton neither confirmed nor denied the booking to MTV News, writing in an e-mail, "Am afraid at this point we know nothing about it." And the NFL told Sports Illustrated, "When we have something to announce, we'll announce it."

Traditionally the most-watched TV event of the year, the Super Bowl halftime gig is considered one of the most coveted in all of entertainment, with a variety of A-list acts filling the spot in the past, from Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers to the Rolling Stones and U2, Aerosmith, Britney Spears and, famously, Justin Timberlake and Janet Jackson in 2004.

According to Billboard.com, Townshend and Daltrey are working on new material for the follow-up to the band's 2006 album, Endless Wire. Townshend has also discussed another parallel project he's working on, a new concept album/musical called Floss. Neither project currently has a release date.

• The Who

The Who, in the DVD "Amazing Journey: The Story of the Who"
Photo: Universal Home Entertainment

You wouldn't think there'd be much new to discover about a band that's been around for nearly half a century. But "Amazing Journey: The Story of the Who" — a two-disc, four-hour DVD chronicle of one of the most extensively documented groups of the '60s and '70s — actually does contain some illuminating elements. (The first disc is a self-contained documentary, which will air on VH1 Saturday at 9 pm; the DVD set goes on sale in stores next Tuesday.)

One such element is an eight-minute swatch of film that, until recently, no one had laid eyes on for 43 years. It shows a band called the High Numbers performing in the back room of a grotty North London pub called the Railway Hotel and Lounge in August of 1964. The Railway was a hangout for Mods, a species of youth distinguishable from their greasy antagonists, the Rockers, by an affinity for stylish suits, cool scooters, brain-revving amphetamines and American R&B music. At the time, the Mods were news -- in May, hundreds of them had clashed with gangs of Rockers in knife-wielding, bottle-throwing riots at Brighton, Margate and other English seaside resorts. In cultural terms, the Rockers were on their way out; but the Mods were clearly on the rise.

This inspired a pair of young filmmakers, Kit Lambert and Chris Stamp, to try to capture the mod moment and to find an unknown band to embody it. At the Railway, they found and filmed the High Numbers: 20-year-old singer Roger Daltrey, who'd started the group; guitarist Pete Townshend and bassist John Entwistle, both 19; and recently recruited 17-year-old drummer Keith Moon. They were perfect — Daltrey in his wraparound shades; Townshend with his slick Rickenbacker guitar, looking vaguely angry; Entwistle barely moving; Moon doing quick, intricate things on drums. On the night that Lambert and Stamp filmed them, the band adhered to the mod R&B ethos, playing Jessie Hill's "Ooh Poo Pah Doo" and the Miracles' "I Gotta Dance to Keep from Crying." Presumably they played a number of other songs too, but we'll never know what they were.

Lambert and Stamp soon became the High Numbers' managers and changed the group's name back to the Who, a handle under which they'd briefly done business earlier. The movie the two filmmakers had begun was never completed, and the footage disappeared for decades. Then, a few years ago, a retired Dutch TV producer found a can of film in his attic labeled "High Numbers," which contained the footage of the band doing the two songs cited above. He contacted the Who, the film was given an expert digital clean-up, and now here it is. Quite a story.

"It is great, isn't it?" Pete Townshend said in a recent e-mail exchange with MTV News. He noted, however, that he was only peripherally involved in creating the two-hour documentary that makes up the first disc of "Amazing Journey." The heavy lifting for the project was done by its producers, longtime Who manager Bill Curbishley and filmmakers Robert Rosenberg and Nigel Sinclair. "I run the Who film archive," Townshend said, "and they've been knocking at my door asking for stuff for the last five years. I was not involved in production."

The documentary is straightforward in its chronology, and plump with concert footage, from Monterey and Woodstock up through the Concert for New York City at Madison Square Garden on October 20, 2001, where a packed house of police, firefighters and 9/11 rescue workers gave the band what must have been one of the most resounding ovations of its career. (That show was also one of the Who's last with John Entwistle, who died in Las Vegas the following June in sad but classic fashion: of a heart attack precipitated by cocaine while in bed with a woman of his recent acquaintance.)

The film also allots more consideration to Roger Daltrey than has been usual over the course of the group's career. It was Daltrey's unhappy fate to be the least dazzlingly talented of a band distinguished by its explosive instrumental innovations. His relations with the other members of the group were prickly from the beginning, and at one early point they actually fired him. He was allowed back in after a month, though, and in the documentary he recalls returning with a new attitude, a humbled resignation to his place in the creative state of things. Today, of course, he and Townshend are the last two members of the original Who left standing. "We're so incredibly unalike," Townshend says in the film. "But we're all we have now."

The second DVD in "Amazing Journey" is a welter of film (a 2003 recording session shot by rock-doc pioneer D.A. Pennebaker), history (the Who's visual-arts connections are explored) and informative celebrity appreciation (Eddie Vedder, Sting, Noel Gallagher and U2 guitarist The Edge weigh in). The most striking parts of this disc are four mini-films devoted to the individual members of the group — the ones concentrating on Townshend, Moon and Entwistle being models of compact musical analysis. The Edge makes some interesting observations about the flamenco elements of Townshend's guitar style (and then picks up a guitar himself to demonstrate them). Drummer Rob Ladd performs a fascinating deconstruction of Moon's celebrated percussive assaults. ("He's the Jimi Hendrix of the drum kit," says Gallagher, with deadpan admiration.) And when onetime Who producer Shel Talmy asserts that Entwistle's capering breaks in "My Generation" constitute the single most recognizable bass solo in rock history, Sting actually hums part of it, note for note.

Elsewhere, with characteristic candor, Townshend addresses his 2003 arrest during a British crackdown on Internet child pornography. At the time, he acknowledged using a credit card to access a Web site that allegedly advertised such images, but said he did it as research for a book he was writing, based on an anti-child-porn essay he published on his own Web site. (Townshend has had a longstanding and well-known antipathy to the abuse of children.) After the media had squeezed every possible headline out of this story, a months-long forensic examination of Townshend's computer hard drives determined that he had never downloaded any "indecent images." Investigative journalist Duncan Campbell reported that the famed guitarist had been "falsely accused" and that the site he had accessed actually had no direct connection to child porn. Via e-mail recently, Townshend said, "Some journalists think they have the copyright on the word 'research.' I think of myself as a journalist, always have."

Life goes on, and so do the Who, if diminished in number. Townshend said that he and Daltrey "will continue to try to fly the Who brand flag. We feel comfortable with it, [and] we have a few ideas for the future." He said he still enjoys touring, in limited amounts, and still finds satisfaction in songwriting. "I am really enjoying writing songs that touch on getting older," he wrote, "and trying to honour what has lately been christened the 'Greatest Generation' (the one that came before the Boomers) in my music."

He also feels that his celebrated guitar skills are still evolving. "I've enjoyed being a musician lately," he said. "I look and see that sometimes I've played something new, almost like a jazz player. Notes, rather than pyrotechnics or damage. I've felt more like a journeyman, going from show to show, trying to play well and not get in the way."

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• The Who

David Bowie
Photo: Virgin

Landing the #1 spot on the Billboard albums chart is pretty easy — provided your name is Elvis, the Beatles or, uh, Now That's What I Call Music! For anyone else, it's a rather difficult thing to accomplish because, despite some of the "luminaries" who've occupied the top spot this year (Pretty Ricky, Daughtry), the #1 album club is a pretty exclusive one.

Up until this week, Johnny Marr — whose ringing guitar tones were first heard nearly 25 years ago on the Smiths' "Hand in Glove" — wasn't a member. Then We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank, the new album from Modest Mouse, debuted in the top spot, selling an impressive 128,000 copies (see " Modest Mouse Felt 'No Pressure' To Be #1 — But They Got There Anyway "). This gave Marr, who joined MM before this album, his first-ever Stateside #1.

And while it might have taken Marr a quarter-century to get his first Billboard chart-topper, at least he got there. Because there's a whole list of rock, pop and hip-hop heavyweights who haven't, and — unless they decide to record a duet with someone like Jay-Z — probably never will.

We've compiled some of them here, though it bears mentioning that we're only talking about #1 albums on the Billboard 200, mainly because it ranks the top-selling albums in the country, regardless of genre (plus it's been around — under various handles like the "Stereo Action Charts," "Top LPs" and "Top Pop Albums" — since 1945), but also because landing the #1 album on the Top Contemporary Jazz chart just doesn't seem like all that great of an accomplishment (unless, of course, you're Motörhead).

David Bowie: The Thin White Duke has accomplished much in a career that spans more than 40 years, including countless #1 albums in the U.K., yet the top spot on the Billboard albums chart has continued to elude him. He's come close in the past: 1976's Station to Station made it to #3, and '83's Let's Dance got to #4 based on the strength of the title track (which made it to #1 on the singles chart). The following year, his Tonight album peaked at #11 — and he hasn't made it higher since.

Tom Petty: Be it as a solo artist, along with the Heartbreakers or as a member of the Traveling Wilburys, Petty's never had the #1 album on the Billboard chart. Damn the Torpedoes got to #2 in early 1980, a position it would hold for seven straight weeks (Pink Floyd's The Wall, in the midst of a 15-week run at #1, kept it from taking the top spot). Full Moon Fever made it to #3, and Wildflowers got to #8. The Traveling Wilburys' Vol. 1 — which Petty recorded with George Harrison, Bob Dylan, Roy Orbison and Jeff Lynne — peaked at #3 in 1989. Last year, his third solo effort, Highway Companion debuted at #4.

Kiss: As the commanders of the Kiss Army — and the sheer purchasing power contained therein — it's rather shocking to learn that Gene Simmons and company have never made it to #1. Thanks to the crossover appeal of "Christine Sixteen," 1977's Love Gun got to #4 on the chart, and it wasn't until 1998's Psycho Circus that they made it higher: That album topped out at #3.

Public Enemy: Perhaps it was the political slant, the blaring production or the fact that Chuck D just scared the crap out of most of America, but PE have never had a #1 album on the Billboard 200. Fear of a Black Planet scraped the top 10 in 1990, and Apocalypse 91 ... The Enemy Strikes Black powered its way to #4 (Apocalypse did, however, go to #1 on the R&B/hip-hop chart). Since then, they've released a pair of albums that didn't dent the top 10, and 2002's Revolverlution peaked at #110.

Duran Duran: They ruled the '80s with pulsing synths and razor-sharp cheekbones, but the Durannies could never quite strut their way to the top of the albums chart. The decade-uniting Rio made it to #6 in 1983 (back when Michael Jackson's Thriller was the reigning chart champ) and stayed in the top 200 for 129 consecutive weeks. The live album Arena, recorded during their '83-'84 world tour, actually charted higher — it got to #4. The boys' self-titled 1993 comeback record made it to #7, but they haven't caressed the top 10 since.

The Who: They were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as "prime contenders, in the minds of many, for the title of World's Greatest Rock Band," but the Who have not made it to #1 on the albums chart. They got close with 1973's Quadrophenia and 1978's Who Are You, both of which peaked at #2. Last year's Endless Wire — the band's first studio album in more than 20 years — debuted at #7.

Neil Diamond: He's written hit singles for everyone from Deep Purple to the Monkees and had his own fair share of singular success, but — somewhat inexplicably — Diamond's never had a #1 album in a career that's spanned nearly 50 years. His soundtracks to "Jonathan Livingston Seagull" and "The Jazz Singer" (the latter of which contained his ultra-schmaltzy hit "America") got to #2 and #3, respectively, and a host of his late-'70s efforts made the top 10. In 2005, his Rick Rubin-produced 12 Songs debuted at #4.

Ozzy Osbourne: Whether running solo or as a member of seminal metal act Black Sabbath, the Ozzman never managed to battle his way to the top of the Billboard albums chart. Sabbath's Master of Reality made it to #8, and a host of Osbourne's solo albums landed in the top 10 (most notably 1995's Ozzmosis, and his 2001 follow-up, Down to Earth, both of which debuted at #4).

The Cure: Robert Smith and his mascaraed marauders debuted at #2 with 1992's Wish, but that's as close as they ever came to the top spot. And we suspect they've been depressed about it ever since.

Motörhead: OK, while this one doesn't exactly fall into the "shocking" category, we'd like to state for the record that it's a crime of monumental proportions that Lemmy and his mates have not had a #1 album on the Billboard chart (though 1991's 1916 did reach #142). In fact, Mr. Kilminster's biggest chart success came in 2001, when WWF: The Music, Vol. 5 — featuring Motörhead's "The Game," which wrestler Triple H used as his entrance music — sold 176,000 copies and debuted at #2, proving once again that you should never doubt the broad cross-market appeal of Hunter Hearst Helmsley.

The Smiths/ Morrissey: Marr's former bandmates — and his former musical foil — must be hella jealous about his recent chart success, because none of them has ever gotten close to sniffing #1 on the top 200. The Smiths' final album, 1987's Strangeways, Here We Come, topped out at #55, and the Mozfather never got higher on the charts than he did with 2004's You Are the Quarry, which debuted at #11. Then again, all that could change if the Smiths would just go ahead and reunite already ... hint, hint.

• Modest Mouse's Immodest Debut

• Artists Who've Never Been #1: Ozzy, Kiss, The Cure, More

• David Bowie
• Public Enemy
• Kiss
• Modest Mouse
• Pretty Ricky

Beyoncé
Photo: Frazer Harrison/ Getty Images

Beyoncé, who got a lot of flak last year for her herky-jerky moves in her "Deja Vu" clip, is putting the proverbial ball in the fans' court. In anticipation of her upcoming video collection, the singer is inviting fans to create a clip for any song on her B'Day album via a YouTube contest. The winner will get a pair of tickets to a Beyoncé show, plus two passes to meet her backstage. ...

Gwen Stefani and Akon will perform at Nickelodeon's 20th annual Kids Choice Awards, to be hosted by Justin Timberlake. The show will air live on Nickelodeon March 31 at 8 p.m. ET, with a tape delay on the West Coast. ...

Seminole police — who handle crimes that take place at the American Indian reservation in Hollywood, Florida, and are heading up the investigation into Anna Nicole Smith's death — met with homicide prosecutors Tuesday to discuss the incident, according to The Miami Herald. "They're continuing with their investigation of Anna Nicole Smith's death," Broward County Chief Assistant State Attorney Chuck Morton told the newspaper, although he would not elaborate. Police Captain Robert McDaniel added that there is still no evidence of foul play in the case. ...

Britney Spears has plenty of new music waiting for her when she's ready to record, according to Ne-Yo. "I was working really close with her A&R people," the songwriter told MTV Europe, "and came up with a lot of hot songs, but to this day I have not actually sat down with Britney." Ne-Yo shared his thoughts on the role that media scrutiny may be playing in her recovery. "I think if you took the cameras out of her face for five seconds, she might be able to get it right," he said. ...

"Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" will have a record-breaking first-print run of 12 million copies when it's released July 21, publisher Scholastic Inc. announced Wednesday (March 14). The final chapter in J.K. Rowling's seven-part saga tops the sixth book, "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince," for which 10.8 million copies were printed during its first run. "There Will Soon Be 7," a promotional campaign for the eagerly awaited book, will launch next month with events including a bus tour of libraries in major cities. ... Angelina Jolie arrived in Vietnam late Wednesday to adopt a 3-year-old, AP reports. The actress is expected to go to an adoption ceremony with officials Thursday morning and could have the child home by the weekend. ...

Suicide claimed the life of Brad Delp, lead singer of Boston, his family said in a statement issued Wednesday, according to The Associated Press. The New Hampshire medical examiner's office has determined that Delp ended his life by carbon-monoxide poisoning. "He gave as long as he could, as best he could, and he was very tired," the statement said. "We take comfort in knowing that he is now, at last, at peace." It has also been revealed that Delp left two notes behind, for his fiancee and family, although police do not know their contents. ...

The complete itinerary for this summer's Ozzfest has been announced. The heavy metal extravaganza will kick off in Seattle on July 12, and hit George, Washington (July 14); Sacramento, California (July 17); Mountain View, California (July 19); Devore, California (July 21); Phoenix (July 24); Albuquerque, New Mexico (July 26); Denver (July 28); Kansas City, Missouri (July 30); San Antonio, Texas (August 2); Dallas (August 4); St. Louis, Missouri (August 6); Columbus, Ohio (August 8); Tinley Park, Illinois (August 10); East Troy, Wisconsin (August 12); Indianapolis (August 14); Holmdel, New Jersey (August 16); Hartford, Connecticut (August 18); Boston (August 20); Philadelphia (August 22); Pittsburgh (August 24); Detroit (August 26); Charlotte, North Carolina (August 28); and West Palm Beach, Florida (August 30). There's still no word on when the Ozzfest camp will reveal the lineup for this year's free fest. ...

Gym Class Heroes' Matt McGinley is a free man once again. The drummer spent more than 32 hours in a Mexican jail after being detained by authorities early Monday morning on suspicion of breaking and entering. He was released Tuesday evening, according to a spokesperson for the band's label. A source close to the situation told MTV News that McGinley, who was in Mexico with the band to perform at MTV and mtvU spring-break events, attended a house party in Cancun that the home's owners had apparently not authorized. The owners, who returned to find McGinley among a handful of partygoers still in their home, later discovered that a number of items had been stolen. They contacted local police, who picked up McGinley. While detained, he missed Gym Class Heroes' scheduled taping on Monday, and The Academy Is ... drummer Andy "The Butcher" Mrotek filled in behind the kit. "Everyone, especially Matt, is anxious to get back out on the road, playing music," the band's reps said in a statement. Gym Class Heroes' headlining tour stops in Indianapolis on Wednesday (March 14) and wraps up May 6 in Amherst, Massachusetts. ...

Morrissey will tour North America this spring in support of 2006's Ringleader of the Tormentors. The trek launches April 28 in Stockton, California, and dates are booked through June 30 at New York's Madison Square Garden. ... After two long years, Hot Hot Heat have finished work on their new album, Happiness, Ltd. While a firm release date hasn't been announced yet, the band does hope to have the LP out this summer. In a statement, the Heat revealed why it's taken them so long to release new material. "Normally each person has the songs they love and the songs they could live without; but the goal of this record was to put out something with unanimous excitement," the band said of the follow-up to 2005's Elevators. "So in retrospect, [we're] grateful for every delay. They were all musical delays and it led to an album that all four of us actually love from beginning to end." ...

Former Audioslave frontman Chris Cornell has booked a trio of solo gigs for next month — the first dates for what is expected to be a full North American run. So far, Cornell has scheduled performances in Toronto (April 14), Boston (April 19), and Philadelphia (April 22). The singer's second solo album, Carry On, is due June 5. ... The Who's Tuesday concert in Tampa, Florida, didn't last long, as frontman Roger Daltrey walked off the stage during the first song of the band's set. According to The Associated Press, several minutes after Daltrey left the stage, guitarist Pete Townshend informed the crowd that the concert had to be canceled, and said that Daltrey had bronchitis. Townshend announced that the band will make up the show on March 25.

03.13.2007

R. Kelly is hooking up with Kanye West for his next album, the Chicago singer revealed in a bizarre six-minute phone message accessible by calling (312)278-3965 (that's a Chicago area code, by the way). Perhaps taking a tip from the Arcade Fire — who debuted a new song via a mysterious toll-free phone number earlier this year — the singer plays snippets from and spills more details about his next effort, which, according to the message, will be called Double Up. In the rambling message, Kelly also previews "Blow It Up" (featuring Young Jeezy and Young Dro), "Rock Star" (featuring Ludacris), "Freakin' in the Clubs" and "Hook It Up" (featuring Kanye West). ...

Lindsay Lohan's estranged father, who she sung openly about in her single "Confessions of a Broken Heart (Daughter to Father)," was released from a New York prison Tuesday (March 13), CBS reports. Michael Lohan was incarcerated in June 2005 after surviving a car crash for which he was charged with driving under the influence. ...

Carrie Underwood is returning to live TV later this month as the musical guest on "Saturday Night Live." Underwood will perform on the March 24 episode, hosted by Super Bowl MVP Peyton Manning, while Snow Patrol will play on Saturday's show, hosted by Julia Louis-Dreyfus. ...

Exit stage left for LL Cool J? The longtime Def Jam rapper appeared on "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" Monday night and confirmed his upcoming 50 Cent-helmed project, Exit 13, will be his last for the storied hip-hop label. "It's my last record on Def Jam, it's my 13th album, and I'm leaving," he told Kimmel. "My contract is up and it's time to move on." Previously the rapper hinted at his desire to defect due to Jay-Z's conflict of being both a Def Jam artist and the label's president, saying, "How am I gonna re-sign with the competition?" When pressed by Kimmel if his departure was indeed due to differences with Jay-Z, LL responded: "I wouldn't go that far with it," he said. "But for the most part ... I'm gone."

Avril Lavigne is on the cover of the April issue of Seventeen — and comes clean inside about her past photo-shoot problems. "The record company let me do whatever I wanted," Lavigne said of her style choices, "which was unheard of. But I had to fight with people at every single photo shoot 'cause they wanted to put me in pink and lace and frills." The singer, who said she simply wanted to wear her own clothes in photo shoots, explained that she wasn't trying to be difficult. "I was just me being me. I guess my whole career has been about me fighting, like, 'I'm not gonna do that. I think it's cheesy.' " Avril told MTV Europe that her personal look hasn't been shelved, it's just evolved. "I still have my style," she told MTV Europe, "it's just not as maybe tomboy as before. ... I wear the same style but maybe a little sexier, so a little more rock and roll glam or whatever." ...

Diana Ross will work with the final 12 contestants on "American Idol" on Tuesday (March 13) for a performance episode spotlighting music from Ross and the Supremes. Ross will perform on Wednesday night's results show. ... Nelly Furtado has picked "All Good Things (Come to an End)," which she co-wrote with Coldplay's Chris Martin, as the fourth U.S. single from Loose. ... Nine Inch Nails were forced to cancel a concert in England this week after frontman Trent Reznor lost his voice. The band was supposed to perform in Birmingham on Monday night but pulled out of the show when Reznor's voice failed to recover in time for him to perform. The gig has been postponed to August 30. ...

The U.S. is loving "300" — the #1 film that plundered the box office for $70 million last weekend — but Iran feels a bit different about the film. Iranian newspapers and government officials say the movie portrays their ancestors as "savages," and the reformist paper Ayandeh-No recently ran the headline "Hollywood declares war on Iranians," according to Agence France Presse. A cultural adviser to Iran's president called the movie, which is unlikely to be released in the country, "American psychological warfare against Iran." ...

John Lennon tracks will be reinterpreted by various artists for Instant Karma: The Campaign to Save Darfur, due June 12. Proceeds from the sales of the LP will help support Amnesty International's campaign to focus attention and mobilize activism around the crisis in the Sudan, as well as other human-rights concerns. The set will feature U2's cover of "Instant Karma," Green Day's take on "Working Class Hero," Christina Aguilera's spin on "Mother," R.E.M.'s rendition of "#9 Dream," the Cure tackling "Love," Snow Patrol doing "Isolation" as well as "Power to the People" performed by the Black Eyed Peas. ... Cyndi Lauper, the Dresden Dolls, the Gossip, Erasure and Debbie Harry will anchor the True Colors Tour, which is being staged in support of the Human Rights Campaign. The 15-date trek, presented by LOGO and hosted by Margaret Cho, will christen Gay & Lesbian Pride Month when it begins June 8 in Las Vegas. Rufus Wainwright, Indigo Girls and Rosie O'Donnell and others will also be featured on select stops of the tour. ...

Sylvester Stallone was charged Tuesday with importing a banned substance after allegedly attempting to bring human growth hormone into Australia last month, The Associated Press reports. The actor, who described the incident as a "misunderstanding," was detained for several hours on February 16 at Sydney Airport, where authorities confiscated items from his bags. The actor was not required to appear in a Sydney court on Tuesday. The case was adjourned until April 24, at which time the actor's lawyers are expected to enter a plea on his behalf. ... Matchbook Romance have announced that they will be going on an "indefinite hiatus," one year after the release of their last album, Voices. "This is our chance to leave on a good note and forge ahead in the world to see what else is out there," the band said in a statement. "We hope you guys will understand, and we hope you will look forward to the next time you hear from us."

• Beyoncé
• Britney Spears
• Ne-Yo
• Gym Class Heroes
• Chris Cornell

Johnny Depp
Photo: Peter Kramer/ Getty Images

A popular T-shirt proclaims, "Music is what feelings sound like." But if you really want to know what feelings sound like, you may be just as well off asking an actor, not a musician.

After the monumental successes of "Walk the Line" and "Ray," stars from Johnny Depp to Mike Myers are lining up for roles in musical biopics. For actors, starring in one of these films is like a four-part symphony: part critical acclaim, part instant credibility, part box-office bang and part awards-season appeal. The chance for an Oscar winner and a #1 film all in one is music to Hollywood's ears, so it comes as no surprise that we're in for a lot more musical biopics.

Crank your stereo and sing your favorite tune — films based on the lives of these legendary singers are coming your way:

Freddie Mercury
"Pirates of the Caribbean" star Johnny Depp is in early talks to play the late Queen frontman in a biopic being produced by Robert De Niro's Tribeca Productions. He is the "perfect choice," said Jeffrey Shapiro, drummer for Queen tribute band Under Pressure.

"I always had [in mind] somebody with a theatrical background. Not just to wear the costumes, but to wear the actual vibe of Freddie Mercury," Shapiro said. "Depp's such a likable guy. The fact that he used Keith Richards [as inspiration] for 'Pirates' — you can't go wrong."

Shapiro believes Depp and Mercury have a lot in common. "They are unique in a way. They carry themselves regally but always deliver," he said. "A bit foppish at times, but you never have any question that they are good."

Joey Ramone
Variety has reported that "I Slept With Joey Ramone," an authorized biography of the late Ramones frontman written by his brother, Mickey Leigh, was recently optioned by Rory Rosegarten, a producer best known for his work on "Everybody Loves Raymond." The option gives Rosegarten complete access to the singer's estate and to the band's punk-rock catalog.

Celebrated as one of the greatest rock bands of all time (in a recent Rolling Stone poll they came in second only to the Beatles), the Ramones' popularity has continued to grow in recent years, a fact that Lauren Faccidomo of the all-girl tribute band the Ramonas attributes to their universal appeal. "They weren't bigger than life, they were average guys from New York," said the Los Angeles musician. "Their music was so catchy and simple and fun — it really crossed genres."

Life imitated art imitating life for Adrian Grenier when a ploy by his "Entourage" character, Vincent Chase, to star in a Joey Ramone biopic led to rumors that the actor was being considered for an actual film biography of the seminal rocker. While no one would confirm or deny Grenier's involvement, Faccidomo thinks Hollywood should look elsewhere.

"People know Joey by the way he looks. He's a weird-looking guy," she laughed. "Honestly, in body type and looks, Howard Stern is hands down Joey Ramone."

Keith Moon
Mike Myers hasn't starred in a live-action movie since 2003's "The Cat in the Hat," but the "Austin Powers" comic has three slated for 2008, including a Donald Margulies-scripted biopic of Who drummer Keith Moon, produced by Moon's bandmate Roger Daltrey. "Roger's dream has always been to have Mike do the role," Nigel Sinclair, co-producer of the flick, told The New York Times. "He saw Mike as the creative force for pulling the project together, with help from us."

Janis Joplin
Director Penelope Spheeris and star Zooey Deschanel will bring the tragic story of the famous rock chanteuse to the big screen in 2008 with The film was originally slated to star Pink and come out in 2005, to coincide with the 35th anniversary of Joplin's death (see "Both Janis Joplin Biopics Still In The Works — Sorta").

Lauren Bernal, lead singer of the tribute band the Kozmic Blues Band, says she hopes filmmakers portray all sides of the singer's life. "They need to do the whole story, not just all the negative stuff," Bernal said, referencing Joplin's infamous battle with heroin addiction. "She wanted a family life, the white picket fence, the kids. Things didn't go well, and she [eventually] said to hell with it."

In a further challenge to the filmmakers, Bernal argued that you can't act your way to being Janis. "It takes a lot out of you — doing Janis is high-energy," she said. "It's all about who you are. That voice of hers, that raspiness — it's natural. There's nothing fake about it."

Dusty Springfield
Broadway star Kristin Chenoweth, best known for her portrayal of Glinda the Good Witch in the Tony Award-winning "Wicked," will star as Dusty Springfield in a biopic currently in development for Universal Pictures. The film is being scripted and helmed by Jessica Sharzer, a director whose work includes episodes of "The L Word." Springfield's career spanned four decades and peaked with 1969's "Son of a Preacher Man." The British soul singer succumbed to cancer in 1999, 10 days before she was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Bob Dylan
The times, they are a-changin' — but not as quickly as the actors. The Weinstein Company recently announced that it has acquired the rights to Todd Haynes' "I'm Not There," a Bob Dylan biopic in which six different actors — including Christian Bale, Heath Ledger, Richard Gere and Cate Blanchett — portray the legendary singer.

"[It] has been an extraordinary opportunity, bringing Bob Dylan's life and work to the screen," Haynes said. "It has attracted the best talent in film and music."

Haynes isn't kidding. Other actors in the movie include Julianne Moore, David Cross and Michelle Williams. The film also boasts an eagerly awaited soundtrack, which will include more than 40 cover versions of Dylan's most famous work.

"Bob Dylan has lived an unbelievable and at times elusive life," Company Co-Chairman Harvey Weinstein said. "He has countless fans who will now be able to really gain insight into his fascinating life."

The Parody
With so many musical biopics in the pipeline, it shouldn't surprise anyone that a spoof is on the way. The salvos, however, are coming not from the usual suspects but from "The 40-Year-Old Virgin" director Judd Apatow and John C. Reilly. Directed by Jake Kasdan, "Walk Hard" follows Dewey Cox, a character Reilly describes as "an amalgamation of Johnny Cash, Roy Orbison and Waylon Jennings." "[The film is a] goof on movies like 'Beyond the Sea,' 'Walk the Line,' 'Ray,' 'The Commitments' and 'Great Balls of Fire,' the actor said. "We're having some fun with the musical biopics. We've been recording music for it, and it's quite an ambitious, crazy project."

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• Flick'd: Pitch-Perfect Movie Music

• Queen
• The Who
• Bob Dylan
• Janis Joplin
• The Ramones

Kevin Federline's <I>Playing With Fire</I>
Photo: Reincarnate Music

When they write Kevin Federline's biography, this week might go down as one of the worst ever for the rapper/dancer.

First, his wife Britney Spears filed for divorce Tuesday, requesting custody of the couple's two children. Then, less than 24 hours later, Federline learned where his debut album, Playing With Fire, will open on the Billboard albums chart.

Despite months of promotion, Federline's Fire cracks the Billboard top 200 at #151, with first-week sales reported at about 6,000. According to the latest SoundScan numbers, Playing With Fire — one of 19 new releases to enter this latest sales chart — is the 16th-best-performing debut of the week.

But enough about K-Fed — there are 199 other albums to discuss. There's no change at #1, as the soundtrack to the Disney Channel original series "Hannah Montana" clings to the chart's apex for a second week. Barry Manilow's The Greatest Songs of the Sixties is the week's best-selling debut, coming in at #2 with close to 202,000 scans. Like Father, Like Son, a collaborative offering from Birdman and Lil Wayne, opens at #3, with more than 176,000 units flying off store shelves.

Four other new releases manage to make the chart's top 10, including Endless Wire, the first album worth of fresh material from the Who in more than 20 years. That disc pops up at #7 with 81,000-plus scans. Meat Loaf's Bat Out of Hell III: The Monster Is Loose follows at #8 with 81,000 copies sold, just in front of Small Town Girl, the debut from season-five "American Idol" contender Kellie Pickler, which opens at #9 with 79,000 sales.

The Deftones' oft-delayed fifth LP Saturday Night Wrist rounds out the top 10 with more than 76,000 in first-week sales; by comparison, the band's self-titled disc debuted at #2 in 2003 with 167,000 scans, while 2000's White Pony opened at #3 with 178,000 copies sold.

John Legend's Once Again closes out the week at #4 with 115,000 copies sold, followed by Justin Timberlake's FutureSex/LoveSounds, in at #5 with more than 86,000 scans. My Chemical Romance also tally 86,000 sales, just 336 short of JT's week-eight total, with The Black Parade slipping four spots to #6 its second week in stores.

Other notable newcomers to the chart include rapper Pitbull, whose latest, El Mariel, debuts at #17 with 48,000 units scanned. Lady Sovereign's Public Warning opens at #48 with more than 18,000 sales reported, while Willie Nelson's Songbird takes the chart's #87 slot with 12,000 copies sold. Copeland's Eat, Sleep, Repeat bows at #90 with sales of 11,000, while My Brother's Blood Machine, the debut from Coheed and Cambria offshoot the Prize Fighter Inferno, fills the #119 spot with more than 8,000 units scanned, bagged and carried out of the nation's record stores. And in at #192 with 5,000 copies sold is Beanie Sigel's Still Public Enemy #1.

• MTV News RAW: Kevin Federline

• Kevin Federline
• Birdman
• Lil Wayne
• Kellie Pickler
• The Who

Red Hot Chili Peppers' Flea performs at Virgin Fest on Saturday
Photo: Bryan Bedder/ Getty Images

BALTIMORE — As far as British music fests go, this weekend's Virgin Festival was pretty tame.

There were no cataclysmic mudslides, gatecrashers or hooligans, nary a lager-fueled punch-up or life-affirming (and probably chemically aided) live set, and absolutely no one burned their tent down. Because there was no camping.

This daylong mega-concert wasn't held in a muddy field in Chelmsford or Weston Park or Glastonbury. It didn't even take place in the U.K., for that matter. Rather, Saturday's Virgin Fest was plunked down in the infield of the Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore.

And as such, the concert — the U.S. debut of England's massively successful V Festival, which was started back in 1996 by eccentric billionaire Richard Branson — had a rather puzzling feel to it. Sure, the bill was packed with acts that have sold millions on both sides of the Atlantic (the Red Hot Chili Peppers, the Who, Gnarls Barkley, the Killers), and all the staples of both the U.K. and U.S. festival experience were represented in full (booming DJ tent, circus sideshows, poorly attended booths trumpeting various social causes). But the whole thing kind of felt like an American rock radio fest trying really hard to be a manic, anything-can-happen U.K. music fest.

That was due mostly to locale, the incredible commercialization of the whole thing and the undeniable American-ness of cameramen continually featuring the bikini-clad girls in the audience on the massive stages flanking the main stage. Because certainly, everyone else was trying hard. Nineteen bands jammed long and hard on the fest's two stages, and more than 40,000 packed Pimlico and partied just as hard as their English counterparts.

Brit chart-toppers Kasabian kicked things off at the un-rocking hour of noon, yet still bounded through an anthemic, electro-heavy set that boomed around the half-full infield — things would get more packed as the day went on — but still had many in attendance hoisting their first (third?) beer of the day skyward.

Wolfmother rocked harder than any three-piece should, the Raconteurs made up for their substandard stage banter — co-frontman Brendan Benson barely addressed the throngs, offering up a half-hearted "Hello. Good Morning. Good Afternoon" mid-set — with sheer volume, and Gnarls Barkley pretty much stole the show from the minute they strode onto the stage, thanks in no small part to their choices of opening number (Queen's "We Are the Champions") and costume (thoroughly awesome Roman gladiator gear). As sweat poured down his face — and onto his breastplate — Cee-Lo toasted the crowd, shimmied a bit and rasped his way through Gnarls' hit "Crazy," truly the day's first audience-uniting moment.

Then, as clouds floated overhead, the Killers — appearing before their largest audience since finishing Sam's Town (see "Killers Album Preview: Massive Sound, Epic Ballads, Big Ideas Fill Sam's Town") — took the stage, determined to let some of Sam's tunes stretch their legs. Which may or may not have been a good idea.

While some of those songs (current single "When You Were Young," the foreboding "Uncle Johnny") clearly connected with the audience, the title track, with its gratuitous and spacious keyboards, left many scratching their heads. And their Hot Fuss hits ("Somebody Told Me," set-closing "All These Things That I've Done") drew huge rounds of applause from their opening riffs and had most of the crowd singing along loudly.

And while Gnarls and the Killers had their supporters, the day's most hyped acts were undoubtedly the Who and the Red Hot Chili Peppers — which is probably why their T-shirts were going for a princely $45 at Virgin Fest merch stands. Both delivered thunderous and proficient sets.

The Who's Roger Daltrey and Pete Townshend are still consummate showmen, and they played the band's time-tested hits ("Baba O'Riley," "Who Are You," "Behind Blue Eyes") with Daltrey striking rock-star poses and Townshend windmilling away on his ax. The only problem with their set: When they performed "My Generation," it bordered on self-parody — especially with the line "Hope I die before I get old."

Darkness descended over Pimlico during the Who's 75-minute set, and while the Peppers' gear was being loaded onstage, fans flocked to the other side of the infield to bound along to an effervescent set by the Scissor Sisters and then a perfunctory performance by the Flaming Lips involving streamers, smoke, balloons and dancers in Santa costumes.

But the opening riffs of RHCP's "Can't Stop" quickly had the masses migrating back to the main stage. And make no mistake about it: People were pumped for the Peppers — so much so that they even cheered wildly when frontman Anthony Kiedis big-upped Baltimore's "many estuaries" and belted out an ill-conceived rendition of the Shirelles' "Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow?" And they bounded along to hits like "Dani California" and held lighters aloft during guitarist John Frusciante's many fret-bending solos.

Then promptly at 10 p.m., after 90 minutes onstage, the band eased into a cover of Elton John's "Tiny Dancer," which gave way to a fiery "Give It Away," complete with Frusciante and Flea trading solos. And then the Peppers called it a night.

The thousands at Pimlico headed to the exits — happy and weary from a day's worth of music — and back onto the motorways and home to their flats. Or apartments. Whatever they call them here in the States.

For more sights and stories from concerts around the country, check out MTV News Tour Reports.

• Red Hot Chili Peppers, Killers, Raconteurs And More At The Virgin Festival 09.23.2006

• Red Hot Chili Peppers
• The Who
• The Killers
• Gnarls Barkley
• Wolfmother

Red Hot Chili Peppers' Flea
Photo: Karl Walter/ Getty Images

It's not every day that you get a chance to see the Who on a multi-act festival bill in the U.S., especially not one featuring the Killers, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Flaming Lips and the Raconteurs. But all those bands, plus Gnarls Barkley, Scissor Sisters and Keane have signed on for the first-ever Virgin Festival, which will take place September 23 at Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore.

The day-long fest at the 140-year-old racetrack was inspired by its decade-old English counterpart, the V Festival. The event will also feature a DJ tent with sets by John Digweed, Carl Cox, RJD2, DJ Tiësto, James Holden and 2 Many DJs, as well as interactive art installations, performance art and booths with information from non-profits and social-action groups, according to a press release announcing the show. Other acts playing the main stage include Thievery Corporation, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, New Pornographers, Drive-By Truckers, Kasabian, Brazilian Girls and Wolfmother.

"People expect the unexpected from Virgin," Virgin founder/chairman Sir Richard Branson said in a statement. "By creating a music festival that goes beyond expectations, we strive to make the overall live experience explosive and unique."

The festival, which organizers expect will draw approximately 60,000 people, is being produced by I.M.P., owners of Washington, D.C.'s 9:30 Club. Chairman Seth Hurwitz said he was looking to do something different with the Virgin Fest. "With all of the great festivals here in the U.S., it was a real challenge to take a different approach," Hurwitz said. "I wanted to create a show where every act was important — total quality vs. quantity, the absolute best of what's out there as opposed to the most. When people hear this lineup, they will understand exactly what I mean."

Tickets for the show are $97.50.

• Red Hot Chili Peppers, Killers, Other Virgin Festival Performers

• Red Hot Chili Peppers
• The Killers
• The Who
• Raconteurs
• Gnarls Barkley

The Who's Roger Daltrey
Photo: Jeff J. Mitchell/ Getty Images

Four years after the death of bassist John Entwistle, the Who are hitting the road again for their first world tour in over 20 years. On Thursday (July 13), singer Roger Daltrey and guitarist Pete Townshend announced that the tour of arenas and amphitheaters will kick off September 12 with a show at Philadelphia's Wachovia Center.

It is the first major tour the band's two principals have launched under the Who banner since the shock death of Entwistle in a Las Vegas hotel room a day before the band's 2002 U.S. tour (see "John Entwistle, Bassist For The Who, Dead At 57").

The band will play 17 shows in the U.S. and Canada, with more U.S. dates to be added in November and December. They will follow up in 2007 with shows in South America, Japan, Australia and Europe. The Who — which now includes session player Pino Palladino on bass, Zak Starkey on drums, John "Rabbit" Bundrick on keyboards and Simon Townshend on guitar — have been playing European gigs since June 17 as a warm-up to the world outing.

The upcoming dates will feature performances of songs from their new short rock opera, Wire & Glass, along with their hits and rare tracks, according to a press release announcing the tour. The band's first new album in nearly 25 years, Who 2, is slated for release on October 23. "For the first time in 25 years we are returning to the U.S.A. with great live music — the entire catalog of our old stuff — and new music," Townshend said in a statement. "I don't think I've ever looked forward to a tour as much as this one. Roger and I are both fit and well, ready to rock."

Tickets for some of the U.S. dates will go on sale July 17, with each one containing a free Virtual Ticket membership to the Who Tour Club, which will include backstage audio and video, downloads, set lists, news and video streams.

Who tour dates, according to the band's spokesperson:

• 9/12 - Philadelphia, PA @ Wachovia Center
• 9/13 - Wantagh, NY @ Nikon at Jones Beach Theater
• 9/15 - Ottawa, ON @ Scotiabank Place
• 9/16 - Boston, MA @ Banknorth Garden
• 9/18 - New York, NY @ Madison Square Garden
• 9/21 - Holmdel, NJ @ PNC Bank Arts Center
• 9/25 - Chicago, IL @ United Center
• 9/29 - Auburn Hills, MI @ Palace of Auburn Hills
• 9/30 - London, ON @ John Labatt Centre
• 10/3 - Winnipeg, MB @ MTS Centre
• 10/5 - Calgary, AB @ Pengrowth Saddledome
• 10/6 - Edmonton, AB @ Rexall Place
• 10/8 - Vancouver, BC @ General Motors Place
• 10/10 - Portland, OR @ Rose Quarter
• 10/11 - Seattle, WA @ KeyArena at Seattle Center
• 11/5 - Los Angeles, CA @ Hollywood Bowl
• 12/4 - Toronto, ON @ Air Canada Centre

• The Who

Mick Jagger performs at Live Aid
Photo: Frank Micelotta / Getty Images

There's a good reason why, 20 years after Live Aid, Bob Geldof still looks exhausted.

Even as he hustles to coordinate 10 global events in support of his ambitious July 2 sequel, Live 8 (see "Good Charlotte, Bjork In For Live 8 Tokyo; Moscow Concert Added"), Live Aid — a still-unprecedented feat of good will, logistics and old-fashioned guilt-tripping, all masterminded by Geldof — looms large as the show that proved music can actually change the world. (See photos from Live Aid.)

Live Aid was the biggest, but it wasn't the first all-star charity show. Rockers had been lending their efforts to various causes for years, from ex-Beatle George Harrison's Concert for Bangladesh in 1971 (which aided refugees of that war-torn country) to the anti-nuclear power No Nukes show in 1979.

But Live Aid was different.

For one day — July 13, 1985 — an estimated 1.4 billion of the planet's five billion people stopped and watched Geldof's "global jukebox," and were treated to one of the biggest, most ambitious concerts ever staged. At one point, according to a stage announcement, 95 percent of the world's television sets were tuned in to Live Aid — an even more incredible statistic when you consider that it happened before the Internet, cell phones, e-mail, text messaging, instant messaging and blogging. Through music and an eminently worthy cause, much of the world actually felt connected — even at the height of the eminently selfish "Me Decade."

	Live 8 artists stress debt relief, critics of the plan sound off and the G8 summit is explained in "Live 8: A Concert To End Poverty" on Overdrive.

That might explain why, 20 years later, even though I recently acquired the shows on DVD, there is still a stack of VHS tapes in my attic somewhere that contain most of the broadcast in all its grainy glory. They've been packed and unpacked, moved and temporarily heaped in the junkpile more than a dozen times as I've moved around the country. But they've never been tossed.

I won't lie: I've never watched them, but for some reason I just can't let go. Maybe I thought I'd want to show them to my kids, or pop them in some day to remind myself of a time when, despite all the other turmoil around the globe, the world was made aware of injustice and rose up together to try and make a difference.

It all started with a song ...

The seeds for Live Aid were sown in 1984, after Geldof saw a BBC documentary about the famine in Ethiopia — which claimed more than 1 million victims in 1984-85 alone — and decided to write a song to help raise money for the starving citizens of the East African nation.

Geldof (then singer of the Boomtown Rats) teamed with Ultravox leader Midge Ure, gathering 40 of the British Isles' biggest stars of the time to record a song for African famine relief under the name Band Aid. "Do They Know It's Christmas?" featured memorable vocal contributions from Bono, Sting, Boy George, George Michael and several less-memorable others (Britain's biggest stars at the time included Paul Young, Heaven 17 and cross-dressing non-singer Marilyn) became a worldwide hit, raising more than $10 million for the cause. It sold more than 3 million copies in the U.K. alone, making it the biggest and fastest-selling single in British chart history at the time.

The Band Aid single set off a slew of companion songs across the globe, from the Michael Jackson co-penned USA for Africa smash "We Are the World" to Canada's "Tears Are Not Enough," as well as songs from France, Spain, South Africa, Holland, Australia, Jamaica and Belgium.

It also opened the floodgates on a rush of benefit songs and events for a variety of causes, from Little Steven's anti-apartheid "Sun City" to the well-intentioned American homeless-relief effort Hands Across America, in which 5 million people raised nearly $100 million by forming a (slightly broken) chain from New York to California. There were also the popular Comic Relief benefits for the homeless and the annual Farm Aid shows for struggling American farms.

How do I know? Well, because somewhere near those Live Aid tapes are a stack of T-shirts, singles, buttons and/or baseball caps from all of the above events. I participated in Hands Across America (and bought the shirt), I watched multiple Comic Relief specials (and bought the shirt the first three times), I went to the first Farm Aid show (and yes, bought the shirt) and I distinctly remember annoying my friends by endlessly playing the multiple remixes of the still-funky "Sun City" single.

... And peaked with the show

On the cover of the recently released "Live Aid" DVD is the now-iconic logo of the event (an Africa-shaped guitar), the date of the shows and the tag line "The day the music changed the world."

	Check out pictures from the 1985 Live Aid concerts.

The event was tagged as a music event like none the world had ever seen, but even the advance hype couldn't accurately portray the momentousness of the occasion. After all, no one had ever tried to coordinate two massive concerts on two continents with the world's biggest music stars, and make the whole thing a sufficiently slick TV event to encourage the kind of donations Geldof had in mind.

Relying on satellites, a Concorde jet and lots of good will, Geldof split the show in half, with the majority of the English artists performing in front of 74,000 fans (including Prince Charles and the late Princess Diana) at Wembley Stadium in London and the rest taking the stage for 90,000 fans at JFK Stadium in Philadelphia.

Keep a few things in mind: Geldof got the acts to perform — for free — at a show that was organized in just three weeks. Before the days of instant digital communication, someone had to figure out how to coordinate the satellite-linked broadcasts of the two shows, along with beamed-in and taped performances from Holland, Japan, Austria, Yugoslavia, Norway, Germany, Australia and what was then still called the Soviet Union.

Luckily, Geldof had a few aces up his sleeve, among them, the reunion of the surviving members of Led Zeppelin for their first gig together since the 1980 death of drummer John Bonham, as well as reunions by the Who and the original lineup of Black Sabbath.

Then there was Phil Collins. The Genesis drummer and solo star made history during the broadcast when he started the day out by playing his hit "Against All Odds" and performing with Sting in London and then hopping a supersonic Concorde to make it to Philly to sit in with the reunited Zeppelin. (The notoriously sloppy set was not included on the "Live Aid" DVD at the request of the surviving Zep members — ditto Santana's performance.)

As people from 160 countries tuned in to watch, Geldof pulled together some amazing, one-of-a-kind collaborations. Among them: Mick Jagger and Tina Turner tearing up the stage for "It's Only Rock 'n Roll (But I Like It)," Madonna — described at the time as an "up-and-coming singer" — joining the Thompson Twins, Nile Rodgers and Billy Idol guitarist Steve Stevens for a ragged take on John Lennon's "Revolution," and Neil Young re-teaming with Crosby, Stills & Nash for "Teach Your Children."

In addition, the London show cemented U2's place as one of the best live bands in the world, placing the group on an international stage that they have yet to relinquish, both as a live act and as a force for positive change. Their unforgettable performance — "Sunday Bloody Sunday" and a 12-minute version of "Bad" — saw Bono running down the lip of the stage and encouraging fans to come forward, then jumping 10 feet into the mud to slow-dance with a woman as the band vamped behind him.

Among the other artists who participated in the concerts: Queen, David Bowie, Elton John, Paul McCartney, the Pretenders, Adam Ant, INXS, Elvis Costello, B.B. King, Sade, Run-DMC, Judas Priest, Bryan Adams, the Beach Boys, Santana, Tom Petty, the Cars, Eric Clapton, Duran Duran (in their last performance with all the original members before reforming two years ago) and Bob Dylan, who closed the show with a performance of "Blowin' in the Wind," featuring the Stones' Keith Richards and Ron Wood.

Each artist was given no more than 17 minutes to play, and the performances were interspersed with short films documenting the famine, as well as impassioned pleas from Geldof to donate to the cause.

At one point, the phone center in the U.S. crashed when 700,000 pledge calls came in at the same time. By day's end, more than $70 million had been raised.

The 16 hours of music (televised by both ABC in an abbreviated version, and all day by MTV) ultimately raised more than $200 million for the cause, with Ireland generating the most donations per capita, despite the fact that the country was in the midst of a major economic depression at the time.

And Geldof? He was given an honorary knighthood (honorary because the Irish cannot receive full knighthood) and earned the nickname "Saint Bob" for his efforts. Though he swore he'd never attempt a sequel, here he is again with Live 8, marshaling the biggest stars on the planet again.

Looking back, some of the performances and acts at Live Aid were, to be honest, pretty awful. Between the Who's set being cut in half due to a blown generator, Geldof kicking his microphone cord out during a song, and the trainwreck that was the "We Are the World" Philadelphia finale, much of the event doesn't really hold up on a musical level.

But even 20 years later, the spirit of Live Aid is what still moves, and that's the most important part. And this time, Geldof doesn't want your money — he wants you to speak up.

MTV, mtvU and VH1 will broadcast from Live 8 beginning at noon on Saturday (see ).

Get involved: Learn about the poverty crisis in Africa, the proposed solutions, and how you can help. Plus find all of our coverage of the international Live 8 concerts and more at our thinkMTV Live 8 hub.

• Bob Geldof
• U2
• Led Zeppelin
• The Rolling Stones
• The Who

Artists Who've Never Been #1: Ozzy, Kiss, The Cure, More

• David Bowie
• Lemmy Kilmister
• The Smiths
• Morrissey
• The Who

Red Hot Chili Peppers, Killers, Raconteurs And More At The Virgin Festival 09.23.2006

• Red Hot Chili Peppers
• Raconteurs
• The Killers
• The Flaming Lips
• The Who