Thousands turn out for Live Earth concerts

---

TOKYO, July 7 (AFP): Thousands of fans packed arenas in Sydney and Tokyo on Saturday as the first all-day music concerts to raise awareness about climate change kicked off around the globe.
Rock stars urged thronging crowds in Tokyo to join the fight against climate change while in Sydney former US vice-president Al Gore said they were part of a global movement to solve the crisis.
"Thank you for coming today and thank you for being the very first to launch this movement to help solve the climate crisis," said Gore, one of the backers of the concerts, in a video message from Washington. "Enjoy the show."
Sydney's Live Earth concert is the first in a wave of events to be staged in nine major cities around the world highlighting the potentially dire consequences of continued greenhouse gas pollution.
Some of the biggest names in the music world have committed to performing in Live Earth concerts in Sydney, Tokyo, Shanghai, Hamburg, London, Johannesburg, New York, Washington and Rio de Janeiro which are expected to attract an audience of two billion people.
Performers will include Madonna, The Police, Keith Urban, the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Lenny Kravitz.
The event will stretch across seven continents with an amateur band playing at the British Antarctic Survey Station in Antarctica.
Hours after the Sydney show started, more than 10,000 fans packed the main arena at Tokyo's Makuhari Messe complex to hear indie giants Linkin Park, R&B diva Rihanna and a multitude of Japanese artists.