On 9 October 1999 there were three simultaneous concerts in support of the anti-poverty initiative NetAid. The concerts were meant to harness the Internet to raise money and awareness for their Jubilee 2000 campaign. The three converts took place at Wembley Stadium in London, Giants Stadium in New Jersey and the Palais des Nations in Geneva. Whilst the Wembley show was a sell-out, the U.S. show suffered from very poor ticket sales.
The website received over 2.4 million hits and raised $830,000 from 80 countries. Never before had this amount of money been raised online.
Performers at Wembley Stadium included: Eurythmics, The Corrs, Catatonia, Bush, Bryan Adams, George Michael, David Bowie, Stereophonics and Robbie Williams.
During his set Bowie opened with ‘Life on Mars‘, accompanied by just Mike Garson on piano. He was then joined by his band consisting of Gail Ann Dorsey, Mark Plati, Page Hamilton and Sterling Campbell to perform ‘Survive‘, ‘China Girl‘, ‘The Pretty Things Are Going To Hell‘, ‘Drive in Saturday‘ & ‘Rebel Rebel‘.
