Madonna: Foul-mouthed?

London, July 4 (Reuters): The BBC apologised today for outbursts of swearing by stars including Madonna at the weekend’s Live8 concerts after it received hundreds of complaints from viewers.

More than a million people watched the shows held at 10 venues across the globe on Saturday, while a further two billion had been expected to tune in via the Internet, television and radio.

The BBC, which carried live footage with no time delay, said about 350 people had complained about performers using bad language before the 9 pm watershed when British TV companies are committed to airing shows suitable for a family audience.

A number of artists at London’s Hyde Park could be clearly heard to be swearing on the BBC’s coverage in the early evening.

During her act, Madonna yelled: “Are you f?..g London?” while US rapper Snoop Dogg chanted an expletive repeatedly during his 15-minute set.

“Millions of people enjoyed our 12 hours of live broadcasting,” a BBC spokeswoman said. “We are sorry if any offence was caused.”

The number of complaints is dwarfed by a record 63,000 viewers who objected in January to the BBC showing the profanity-laden musical Jerry Springer ? The Opera which went out late at night.

Text record

More than 26.4 million people from around the world sent text messages on Saturday in support of the Live8 campaign to cancel the debts of the poorest countries, setting a world record, organisers said.

“This is definitely going down as the biggest political call to action,” said Ralph Simon, who was coordinating the text messaging campaign in Philadelphia, the venue of the largest of 10 concerts around the world to demand relief of African poverty.

He said the previous record for the most text messages sent on a single day for a single event was around 5.8 million for an episode of the television talent show American Idol where viewers vote for the winner.

“I think it would be fair to say we’re getting text messages from people from Albania to Zimbabwe,” Simon said, adding that lines would be open until the end of July.