Duran Duran perform for Italy's Live 8 crowds

Thousands gathered in Rome’s ancient Circus Maximus today to watch Faith Hill, Duran Duran and a long list of Italian stars, in one of 10 concerts across the globe to help raise awareness about African poverty.

Italian favourite Francesco De Gregori kicked off the Rome event under a scorching afternoon sun, before giant screens flicked to the opening performance of the concert in London’s Hyde Park – “Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” by Paul McCartney and U2.

Italian rocker Zucchero was up next in Rome, followed by Duran Duran.

The British band is one of seven acts playing in Saturday’s Live 8 concerts that also participated in the 1985 Live Aid show for African famine relief, and members are hoping the message will be just as powerful as it was 20 years ago.

“All people that come to the show are going to be asked: Do you want to look after your fellow human beings or do you want to let Africa slide into an absolute disaster?” Duran Duran’s Simon Le Bon said yesterday.

With each act given just a few minutes on stage, Duran Duran said they would cram in a new track, a track from the 1990s, and a track they sung in 1985.

With a total of more than 30 acts, the Rome line-up boasts some of the biggest names in Italian music, including Pino Daniele, Jovanotti, and Elisa – all lending their voices for the campaign for a political solution to African poverty ahead of the G8 summit in Scotland next week.

“The emergency in Africa can no longer be put off,” Jovanotti told reporters yesterday. “We might not change the world, but we can break down the door,” to change it, he said.

The stars were performing in a spectacular setting: the ancient chariot track of the Circus Maximus in the heart of the Italian capital. The arena, which has an estimated capacity of 1 million, is overlooked by the ruins of the Roman emperors’ palaces on the Palatine Hill.

“For Italy, it will be the greatest concert in the history of Italian music,” said Rome mayor Walter Veltroni.

The artists, playing for free, are responding to Live Aid organiser Bob Geldof’s call to urge world leaders to double aid, cancel debt and rework unfair trade laws to lift African nations out of poverty.

Stefano D’Archangelo, a 29-year-old DJ from Rome said he came “because this is our Woodstock, it’s the biggest concert I’ve ever seen.”

“The music was what drew me here but I also hope there will be transparency so the cause will not only be advertised but also realised,” he said, referring to the concern that money raised or pledged by wealthy nations may not reach the hands of the world’s poorest in Africa.

Organisers have had six weeks to prepare for the Rome event.

To battle the punishing temperatures that have afflicted Italy this week, Italy’s civil defence department said it was handing out 1 million free bottles of mineral water, while water canons sprayed the crowds in the open-air arena.

Normally busy roads around the Circus Maximus were closed off, and extra bus, train and subway services were lined up to ferry concertgoers to and from the venue.