Live 8's not about us..
It's for the 30.000 kids who die of poverty every day says Sharleen Spiteri
from the Sunday Mail - 12 June 2005 by Lesley Roberts

TEXAS frontwoman Sharleen Spiteri knew she had to be there. If her offer to perform at McLive8 had been turned down, she'd have been in the audience - or in the crowds marching through Edinburgh.

Anywhere, she says, just to be involved in the campaign to Make Poverty History.

She said: 'All I know is that I want to be part of it. When the whole Live8 thing came up, I emailed Midge Ure right away and said: 'If there's anything we can do to help, just let me know.' 'He sent me a lovely email back, saying that he didn't know how things were going to work but he would let me know.

'Then I got the call. It's pretty amazing to be involved in something that could make a massive difference.

'It's so important to be part of it in any way that you can. Maybe you sleep better at night, I don't know...

'All I can do is offer what I have and what I do. And that's what I'm doing.'

Texas will be joined on stage at Murrayfield on July 6 by an incredible line-up of acts, including Travis and Dido.

But for Glasgow-born Sharleen, 37, there will be no competing for dressing rooms or jostling for star billing.

'There are great bands playing,' she said. 'They're all great entertainers and they play great music.

'Egos don't come into it. It's not about us. What it is about is the 30,000 children who die every day of poverty.'

And Sharleen admits that being mum to two-year-old daughter Misty Kyd has given her a new perspective on such horrifying statistics.

'From a mother's point of view, it suddenly hits home,' she said.

'You read something that says that most of these children will not live past their fourth birthday.

'My daughter will be three in September and I can't comprehend figures like that being real.

'Four years old sounds like such a tiny, tiny bit of life.'

Watching her own little girl fight off everyday childhood bugs has made the tragedies of Africa more distressing than ever.

Thousands of children there are killed by common complaints such as tummy upsets or flu. In Britain, they're the kind of illnesses that could quickly be tackled on a trip to the chemist.In Africa, they're killers.

Sharleen said: 'Every mother knows how terrible it is when their kid is sick - even if they're only loaded with the cold.

'It's the most frustrating thing inthe world. Because all you want to do is take on their pain. You don't want them to suffer.

'A mother is a mother, at the end of the day. We all feel the same.'

So when Texas take the stage in front of 90,000 fans, they'll perform from the heart. And Sharleen is certain that the country will turn out to offer its support, motivated by a genuine desire to change things


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