Positively Healthy CEO, Cass Mann, attended Bob Geldof's Live 8 concert in Hyde Park on 2 July, London, and expressed his astonishment, as a black man himself, that the enormous crowd who attended during the event was overwhelmingly white, and that no more than one in 10,000 were from the black communities.. This fact was clearly visible in the photographs widely published after the event, and in television broadcasts of the event, an immensely puzzling fact that was reported in The Sunday Times on 3 July. When Cass Mann called up his friends from the black communities on his cellphone, from Hyde Park, to ask why they were not attending, they stated the event was targeted at the white communities, as clearly reflected in the white line up of performers (with four exceptions) and the entirely white line up of entertainment-lite comperes.

Blur frontman Damon Albarn, a genuine supporter and promoter of Africa and its musical heritage, had earlier criticised Live 8 concerts, saying they will perpetuate the idea of Africa as a "failing, ill" place. He had followed several fellow musicians, teachers, black rights campaigners, police and an international aid charity, along with Positively Healthy, in questioning the logic and rationale behind Bob Geldof's event.

Live 8 concerts were staged in London, Edinburgh, Philadelphia, Paris and Rome in an effort to pressure G8 leaders to tackle debt in Africa. reviving memories of Geldof's 1985 Live Aid concerts.Despite the popularity of 1985's Live Aid, widely recognised as an archetypal charity music concert, concerns about Live 8 were raised as soon as Geldof unveiled his plans.

Campaign group Black Information Link initially branded the London concert's line-up "hideously white" for having only one ethnic minority artist - Mariah Carey - among its performers at that stage. "It seems like the great white man has come to rescue us while the freedom fighters never get a mention," said black musician Patrick Augustus.

Justin Onyeka, entertainment editor of the New Nation newspaper, added: "It was the same problem 20 years ago when major black artists were backing singers to other acts."

A Live 8 spokesman responded by saying that few black British artists were popular enough to attract a global audience. R&B singer Ms Dynamite, US rapper Snoop Dogg and Senegalese singer Youssou N'Dour were subsequently added to the bill, but N'Dour is the only major African artist due to perform at any of the five concerts.

Organisers had argued they must enlist the most popular global stars to get as many fans as possible to back their campaign. "Bob Geldof's intention was to get headline-grabbing shows full of people who fill stadiums and arenas," a spokesman has said. But 20 years of Live Aid-inspired charity concerts have also led to general cynicism about the latest poverty-fighting event.

Live 8's claims about the "global popularity" of all the performers at the Hyde Park concert were proved to be untrue, when Bob Geldof embarassingly took to the stage to perform the only tune for which he is known from three decades ago, to widespread sneering and which received a 1/10 rating from the Sunday Times music critic.

Geldof's call for a million supporters to march to Edinburgh on 6 July, the start of the G8 summit, caught authorities off guard. Teachers were unimpressed by his call for pupils to "give up home and school for a week" to join the march, entitled The Long Walk to Justice. Lothian and Borders Police said such a large influx of visitors would be "potentially hazardous" to a city with a population of 453,000. But Geldof insisted: "Edinburgh is a highly sophisticated city and is able to take in large amounts of people and marshal them."

Geldof's method of putting pressure on leaders to improve aid, drop debts and ease trade restrictions in Africa was also queried. "You have got to maximise the publicity the involvement of someone like Geldof brings in a very focused way and I think harping on about the same thing is not as effective as it should be," said John O'Shea, chief executive of international aid charity Goal. He told The Guardian newspaper Live 8 overlooked the need to tackle Africa's corrupt regimes and establish a UN peacekeeping army in Darfur, the Congo and northern Uganda. "There is a fire raging - we need someone to put out the fire, not hand out chocolate," he said.

Damon Albarn touched upon all of these concerns on BBC Radio 4's Today programme. He also said record companies should donate a portion of the sales boost Live 8 will give them. "All the artists that play there will enjoy increased record sales - if they play a good gig, they will benefit from it," the singer said. Albarn said artists should put pressure on their record labels to "genuinely show this is an altruistic act and that there is no self-gain in it".

This week Geldof himself said he expected Live 8 protests to be "a glorious failure" because world leaders would "probably not" agree to all his demands on African poverty.