Richard Ashcroft News

Three days after the Live 8 concerts were heard around the world, their impact continues to reverberate.

The musical extravaganza which took place in nine venues Saturday (Barrie, Ontario; Berlin; Johannesburg; London; Moscow; Paris; Philadelphia; Rome; and Tokyo) and featured unforgettable performances by the world's top pop stars.

Organized by Bob Geldof, who promised to deliver "the greatest concert ever," Live 8 was intended to raise awareness of the poverty faced by many African nations before world leaders from the Group of Eight convene their annual summit on Wednesday.

The event, which served as something of a sequel to Geldof's 1985 Live Aid concerts, which raised $200 million to aid famine in Africa, had the potential to reach "billions" of people, live or via television or the Internet.

AOLmusic.com, which continues to offer streamed versions of many of the performances, claimed that more than 5 million viewers logged on during the live performances, setting a new record for video cybercasting.

According to the BBC, an average of 7.8 million viewers tuned in to watch its coverage of the event between 6 p.m. and midnight, while France's M6 claimed its peak number was 1.9 million between 8 p.m. and 8:45 p.m.

In Canada, 10.5 million viewers tuned into CTV for at least some portion of the 18-hour telecast. Stateside numbers were expected to be available from MTV on Wednesday, but 2.9 million people tuned into ABC's two-hour highlight show, per Nielsen.

Meanwhile, there was no doubt that the artists who performed at Live 8 delivered memorable performances.

Paul McCartney and U2 opened the London concert with a joint rendition of "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" that quickly topped iTunes Music Store charts in Britain, Canada, Ireland, Netherlands, Germany, Italy and Belgium and was in the Top 5 in the U.S., Spain and France.

McCartney also closed down the show, performing "The Long and Winding Road" (also included on the iTunes download), "Get Back," "Helter Skelter" and teaming for a duet with George Michael on "Drive My Car." Many of the London performers joined McCartney for the grand finale of "Hey Jude."

Another highlight of the London show was the reunion of psychedelic rockers Pink Floyd, who took the stage together with vocalist Roger Waters for the first time in more than 20 years to perform classics such as "Money" and "Wish You Were Here." The band, which saw its LP sales soar following the performance, said it planned to donate any Live 8-related profits to the Band Aid trust and urged other musicians to do the same.

Also in London, Coldplay teamed with ex-Verve frontman Richard Ashcroft for a rendition of "Bittersweet Symphony," which drew a hugely enthusiastic response from the crowd.

Madonna, who performed at Live Aid 20 years ago when her career was just beginning to take off, provided one of the more dramatic performances of the London event with a heartfelt rendition of "Like a Prayer." The Material Girl was joined onstage by famine survivor Birhan Woldu, who was shown as a child near death in the original Live Aid documentary and received a standing ovation of several minutes as well as a warm hug from Madonna.

In Philadelphia, around 600,000 people turned out for rollicking performances by the Black Eyed Peas, Linkin Park and Destiny's Child, among others. P. Diddy, who was expected to perform, didn't show, but sent his apologies.

Bjork gave her first live performance in over two years at the Tokyo concert, where she took the stage accompanied by a string orchestra and a harp player. Good Charlotte also performed in Tokyo, where they performed "Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous," among other numbers.

In Paris, the Cure and Shakira worked the crowd into a frenzy, while the Pet Shop Boys accomplished the same feat in Moscow. Faith Hill and Tim McGraw crooned for the masses over in Rome, while Jet, Simple Plan and Neil Young (making his first appearance since suffering a brain aneurysm) fired up the Canadians in Ontario. In Berlin, Green Day electrified the audience with a blistering performance of "American Idiot" and Queen's "We Are the Champions."

The Mahotella Queens and numerous other African artists performed at the Live 8 concert in Johannesburg, which had been criticized by many as being too hastily organized and generally overlooked in the midst of all the other Live 8 hoopla.

By Tuesday, eBay was working to remove pirated DVDs up for sale on its Website after receiving complaints from the British Phonographic Industry. The illegal DVDs, which featured footage from the concerts in London and Philadelphia, had been receiving bids up to $31, much to the dismay of record label EMI, which paid millions of dollars for the DVD release rights to the event.

The auction site had already been criticized by Geldof as an "electronic pimp" after free Live 8 tickets were put up for sale before the Saturday concerts.

A final Live 8 concert is scheduled for Wednesday in Edinburgh, timed to coincide with the start of the G8 leaders' summit an hour's drive away in Gleneagles. Travis, Annie Lennox and Dido are among the acts slated to perform at the gig, dubbed the Long Walk to Justice concert.