BBC forced to make on-air apology over 'foul-mouthed' Live Earth concert

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Headline act Madonna was just one of those who displayed bad language at Live Earth last summer

Almost 150 people complained about foul language used by stars at last summer's Live Earth concert and today's ruling is believed to be one of media watchdog Ofcom's toughest sanctions to date.

The Wembley show ran for 15 hours on BBC1 and BBC2.

Both channels will have to broadcast an apology "in a form to be determined by Ofcom and on a specified occasion".

There were 149 complaints in total, 134 to the BBC and 15 to Ofcom.

Many complained that the bad language had been used before the 9pm watershed.

Singer Phil Collins kicked off the swearing at about 2pm as he performed Invisible Touch, which includes the f-word.

Guest presenter, Radio 1 DJ Chris Moyles, had to apologise for his "potty mouth".

US comedian Chris Rock yelled "motherf****r" during the concert, and headliner Madonna used the same word - after the watershed - as she urged the crowd to save the planet.

Presenter Jonathan Ross, who hosted the event on the BBC, was forced to apologise continually for a regular stream of profanities.

The bad language prompted a number of angry postings from viewers on BBC messageboards.

One wrote: "Why did the BBC transmit this during daytime TV when many children will be watching? Why hasn't an apology been immediately forthcoming?"

Another said: "It was disgusting behaviour."

A BBC spokeswoman said at the time: "It was a live broadcast with no delay, so we did all we could to remind artists to refrain from swearing.

"When any did get carried away, we pulled away from it immediately."

The show proved to be a TV flop and attracted less than a third of the audience who tuned in for the Concert for Diana during the previous week.

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Phil Collins kicked off the swearing

The Live Earth event peaked with 4.5 million viewers in Britain, compared with 14.8 million for the Diana concert.

The low figures were well down on previous worldwide music fundraisers. In 2005, Live 8 drew a peak television audience of 9.6million while Live Aid notched 10million in 1985.

The Wembley event attracted a great deal of criticism, with many critics saying that the public had simply snubbed what they saw as a hypocritical event.

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Duran Duran and Simon Le Bon were among the acts to wow the Wembley crowd

Musicians including Bob Geldof, Roger Daltrey and the Pet Shop Boys pointed out that a concert highlighting climate change had itself generated huge carbon emissions.

Performers were criticised for flying to concerts that were staged simultaneously on seven continents.

The mounds of rubbish left by the 65,000 concert-goers at Wembley further tarnished the event's green credentials.

Campaigners even went as far to say that the star attractions were among the least "green" individuals on the planet.

Madonna, in particular found herself at the mercy of the critics over a lifestyle that features a collection of fuel-guzzling cars, including a Mercedes Maybach, two Range Rovers, Audi A8s and a Mini Cooper S.

More than 100 rock and pop stars took to the stage during the 24-hour live concert.

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