Bob Geldof to launch Live 8

9.28AM, Tue May 31 2005

Twenty years after the first Live Aid concert, Sir Bob Geldof is set to announce plans later for a second worldwide concert - to be known as Live 8.

He will also call on protesters against poverty to march on the G8 summit.

The concert is believed to be planned for Hyde Park on July 2. The G8 summit takes place July 6-8 at Gleaneagles in Perthshire.

According to rumours, the line up for the London leg of the worldwide concert could include The Rolling Stones, U2, Madonna and Robbie Williams.

Sting and Duran Duran, who played at the original event, have both agreed to take part. Travis frontman Fran Healy is also involved, and Coldplay have been approached.

Geldof believes Live 8 could pressurise the leaders of the world's richest nations into dropping Third World debt.

Speaking at the Ivor Novello Awards last week, he said: "Once more into the breach.

"What started 20 years ago is coming to a political point in a few weeks.

"There is more than a chance that the boys and girls with guitars finally get to tilt the world on its axis."

Geldof insists the concert will not be "Live Aid II".

Midge Ure, who co-wrote the Band Aid hit Do They Know It's Christmas?, revealed some details about the event.

"It's big," he said. "And it's as petrifying as the build-up to Live Aid, if not more so.

"We'll have all the biggest names we can find. But it's not just about big names. It's about making a point."

Meanwhile, The Spice Girls will not perform at the follow-up to to Live Aid because their music does not "fit in" with the event's political theme, it was reported.

The group have been dropped from the line-up because their music is incompatible with the serious political message the event wants to get across, according to a tabloid report.