Tear Down the Wall

Tear Down the Wall

With a slightly quavering voice, a giddy Roger Waters sang for the world on the Live 8 stage. Behind him, a winged pig soared through the sky on a massive video screen. Pink Floyd took the Hyde Park stage with their formerly estranged bandmate in the most significant performance in recent rock history. The brief set at Live 8 was billed as a one-time event, a discarding of enmity to heighten awareness of the poverty and suffering of the peoples of Africa. It would be foolish to think that a few old men on a stage could be more important than the African tribulation, but for twenty minutes on the second day of July, Africa was the farthest thing from many minds.