First I would like to make it clear that I support the cause. You’ve seen the wristband, you’ve seen the banner, you know I do. But I strongly believe that they shouldn’t have repeated the Live Aid gigs. First time round was so special (I mean, okay, I was only 1 at the time but I still know there was magic on the stage that day), the it shouldn’t and couldn’t be repeated.

I didn’t think I’d have a Live 8 experience except for sitting indoors and flicking between that, the tennis and the motorsport on ITV. However, we heard that there was a big screen in a park in Bournemouth, so after watching Sir Paul McCartney and U2 kick start the show (Status Quo would have done a much better job), we decided to head out there and see how many people turned up. By the time we got there it was starting to rain and we were sure that there wouldn’t be anyone around. We were wrong.

I don’t understand it though. I don’t get going to gigs anyway, because there’s too many people, too much pushing, can’t see anything anyway, too loud to appreciate it, too hot, too claustrophobic. I’m not good with big crowds. I do understand that the reason for going is to get swept up in the atmosphere, and that makes sense. What doesn’t make sense is going to a big field in the rain, where the burgers and ice creams are extortionately priced, where the big screen isn’t really all that big and the atmosphere just isn’t what it should be. It felt like all of those people were just milling around because they didn’t know what else to do with their weekend and they heard there was going to be alcohol on sale.

We didn’t stay long and went to Bournemouth town centre, where we thought about going up in the Bournemouth Eye. It’s basically a giant balloon that goes up and down and advertises a local radio station. We thought about it until I pointed out that it was just held on to the ground by a wire attached to a winch. Granted, they were probably the strongest materials you could possibly find, but Mr C was stumped when I asked what would happen if they broke, so my confidence in the ride plummeted. He said they would just float up and up until they got so close to the sun that they melted.

I will never go up in that thing.

Later we found out that it’s actually computer controlled and if the worst happened they could sort it out from down on the ground, but it’s too late for that, I’m not going.

I’m also not going because it costs £10 per person to go up, and although Bournemouth is pretty, it’s not worth that much to see it from the air. If I was that desperate, I would just look at Google Maps for free.