Joel: didn't start a fire, will close the stadium

Shea Stadium is going to close very soon - the New York Mets were ashamed of being one of the few professional sports teams who played in a venue named after a person who did something, rather than a corporation which cut a cheque, and so they're relocating to CitiField.

This means, of course, not only an end to baseball at the venue, but also the conclusion of a chunk of musical history. VH1 called it "the most hallowed venue in rock and roll", which might be pushing it a bit, but it's still had a quite an impressive track record - REM, the Beatles, The Clash and Humble Pie have all had a go there. So, who more fitting than Billy Joel to round off the list?

Yes, Billy Joel. We expect it was tricky to find someone who was free that day.

Interestingly, Wikipedia insists Marvel re-enacted Spiderman and Mary Jane at Shea Stadium, but as everybody knows, Peter Parker and Mary Jane never married, did they?

Shea watts? Stadium lined up for green gig

The choice of revolutionary communist basketball park Che Stadium as venue for the American end of the Al Gore versus the oil industry event seems to be an open secret, although nobody seems to want to confirm it.

Interesting choice, Shea Stadium - apparently a perfectly functional venue for an international event, and yet not good enough for the New York Mets. While pop stars stand on the stage at Shea trying to persuade us to save energy and stop raping the planet, their landlords can pop over to Citi Park to see how their new home is coming on. Even as Al does his introductory speech, lorries will be hauling limestone and granite - quarried from a hillside somewhere, anywhere - to Citi Field. And, a few months after Sting has called for us all to reuse our plastic bags, Shea stadium will be taken down, generating more waste and burning through more fossil fuels.

Hold your eco-friendly gig in a disposable stadium. Curious idea.

It seems, by the way, that Save Our Selves has disappeared from the event's title: it's now Live Earth, the Concert For A Climate In Distress. Apparently.