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Concerts to highlight 'Live Earth'

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NEW YORK (CNN) -- More than 150 acts -- including Madonna, The Police, and The Black Eyed Peas -- are on board for the Live Earth concerts planned around the world on July 7, organizers have announced.

Fronted by former U.S. Vice President and environmental campaigner Al Gore, the concerts will be held at eight locations on six continents, beginning at 2 p.m. in each locale.

The show sites are London, England; Sydney, Australia; Tokyo, Japan; Shanghai, China; Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; Johannesburg, South Africa; Hamburg, Germany; and East Rutherford, New Jersey in the United States.

Gore said he will take the stage at the New Jersey location -- Giants Stadium, outside New York City -- while his partner, concert producer Kevin Wall, will oversee the production from London.

"The Live Earth concerts represent an unprecedented opportunity to ask for the world's attention long enough to deliver an SOS and then to begin delivering information about the solutions to every single person," Gore said, according to Reuters.

Wall called the coordination and broadcast of the shows "one of the biggest events ever produced in history. It's like producing 10 World Cups in one day." . Wall also promised a surprise event in Antarctica, Reuters reported.

At Thursday's announcement in New York, Gore and Wall unveiled what they call a "7-Point Pledge" that they will ask all participants of the concert to sign:

Those who sign the pledge through their computers or cell phones on July 7 will be shown on the Live Earth Web site, on the concerts' screens and on global TV broadcasts.

More than 6,000 "Friends of Live Earth" events, from home viewing parties to thousand-people gatherings, are registered with the organization, as are international broadcasters, making the concerts available to viewers in more than 100 countries. NBC Universal-owned television and Internet brands will broadcast in the U.S., while BBC will do so in Britain.

Coordination difficulties, lagging interest and differing geopolitical environments have hampered the scope of the concert in recent weeks. Gore visited Istanbul, Turkey, this month to announce it would become the ninth city to host a concert, but Turkish organizers shelved the show last week because of a lack of interest and security concerns.

And in a bid to stimulate ticket sales this week, the Johannesburg concert was switched from a spot that was a 45-minute drive outside the city to the closer Coca-Cola Dome, which seats 18,000.

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