Live8 - Banners?

[Xollob]

What surprised me watching the Live8 concert was the total lack of political banners in the crowd. Was there no one there with the urge to display something like "I don't like Mr Blair" or even "George Bush is not a nice person" to one of the biggest TV audiences ever?
I watched it on the German Phoenix channel, so I may not have been seeing identical pictures to viewers in the UK, but it all seemed very sanitised to me. Were banners confiscated at the entry points? We're the TV images doctored?

[Dom Tuk]

Some of the banners at hyde park looked too professional to me. There was one in particular extolling the virtues of Mariah Carey, it looked like it had been designed by the record company and handed to a fan along with a live 8 ticket. Not everyone had philanthropy on their mind.

[twiglet4frog]

i saw a couple of banners explaining poverty, such as one that was held up stating how many people had died this year from poverty. but i have to say that u are right, there wasnt all that many and especially not compared to edinburgh that day when almost 1 in 10 people was carrying one through the streets

[metagirl]

funny but true! i didn't notice any politico banners. but lots for the individual artists.

[morg_monster]

Wasn't the whole point of Live 8 to get the G8 leaders to listen to what Bob Geldof et al had to say about poverty and debt relief?  They wouldn't be that impressed to see banners like that on their screens would they!  Maybe they did confiscate them, I shouldn't think that the organisers would want anything to detract from the main message.  I didn't think there were that many banners full stop - I reckon they confiscated as many as they could find in bag searches, some people were probably a bit more clever in hiding them!  It is v annoying to go to a bit 'flat' concert like that and have a big banner blocking your view of the stage!