Music fans at the Myer Music Bowl in Melbourne, Australia on Saturday were treated to a surprise performance from U2's Bono and The Edge and Pearl Jam's Eddie Vedder.
The concert, coinciding with the G20 conference in the city, was a musical message for politicians to wake up and forgive debt for third world countries.For Bono, the way to treat politicians is obvious. "Politicians have to do what you tell them to do. Go scream it from the mountains. Go scream it in the air," he told the ABC.
He was outspoken about Australian politicians as well, including Prime Minister John Howard's policy of going to war and killing instead of trying to save the people who need it. "I would say to the hardheaded tough nut politicians that you've got here in Australia that there is a connection between the war against terror, and the war against poverty," Bono said on ABC's Lateline.
Howard shrugged off the comments, retaliating by saying "some of those commentators are not so ready to acknowledge the extraordinarily large number, the billions of people in this region and in other parts of the Asia region, that have been lifted from poverty over the last 25 years as a result of the application of the principles of innovation and globalization. It's popular, of course, to be in receipt of admonitions from leaders of pop culture, if I can put it that way, and others to do more to lift the world's poor out of their current state."
Bono, The Edge and Vedder performed Neil Young's 'Rocking In The Free World" at the gig.
