Irish singer, songwriter, actor, and political activist Bob Geldof of The Boomtown Rats turns 69 today. The band had the 1979 UK No.1 single ‘I Don’t Like Mondays’ plus 10 other UK Top 40 singles.
The music world came together to raise awareness and funds for a project Geldof created with Midge Ure from Ultravox after Bob had watched the 1984 BBC report on the famine in Ethiopia. The two artists collaborated on the song ‘Do They Know It’s Christmas?’ to raise money for the cause. A host of other stars came together to record the song under the name Band Aid, released by Phonogram Records in December 1984. The name was created by Linda Valentine of Phonogram Records, which The Boomtown Rats were signed.
The track became the UK’s biggest selling single of the time and raised £8m.
Following the success of Band-Aid, Bob Geldof visited Ethiopia to oversee the distribution of aid and realized that if the Band-Aid organization owned its own fleet of trucks to transport much-needed supplies, they would be in a better position to have a more direct impact on the famine. So a concert was born, and they put together in just 10 weeks the project of Live Aid.
Geldof was the force behind Bandaid, a Live Aid relief project that brought the music industry and fans together. The billed event The Global Jukebox became the biggest live rock event of its kind and often cited as ‘The Day Rock and Roll Changed the World’.
The event featured 16 hours of live music. Staged in the US and the UK, the event had famous artists contributing from Japan, Australia, Holland, Yugoslavia, Russia, and Germany. 1.9 million people worldwide watched the event.
The total raised by the live event was over 110 million pounds came from music fans, not from large corporations and companies. Corporations lacked donating to the cause. One unknown fan from England donated half a million pounds.
The event happened on Saturday, July 13, 1985, at London’s Wembley Stadium. Prince Charles and Princess Diana attended the event. Status Quo opened with their hit ‘Rockin’ All Over the World’ in front of a global audience.
Each act performed for about 20 minutes. Queen was stomping at the event despite Freddie Mercury going on stage against doctor’s orders. He had a throat infection. U2’s earned a reputation as powerful live performers. During a 14-minute rendition of ‘Bad’, Bono jumped off the stage to join the crowd and dance with a girl. In July 2005, the girl with whom he danced revealed that he saved her life. She was being crushed by the throngs of people pushing forwards. Bono saw this and gestured frantically at the ushers to help her. They did not understand what he was saying, and so he jumped down to help her himself.
Bono hadn’t intended to take so long getting back onstage, but, in fact, the extended ‘Bad’ saw the band establishing themselves as something different from every artist on the bill. The rest of the band saw their careers vanishing even as they kept playing and gave Bono a hard time about it after the show.
Phil Collins appeared with Sting, performing at Wembley, then flew to the U.S. to perform with Eric Clapton and Led Zeppelin at JFK Stadium in Philadelphia. Zeppelin’s set disappointing, so much that Zeppelin has never allowed the footage on the official DVD.
Philadelphia was star-studded with host Jack Nicholson introducing Joan Baez and Bryan Adams. Bette Midler, Mick Jagger, and Chevy Chase performed.
Technical difficulties because of a delayed satellite sound feed, David Bowie, and Mick Jagger doing a live duet between the US and UK of their cover ‘Dancing in The Streets’ did not happen.
What happened after Bowie’s live set in the UK was a video streaming to London and Philadelphia audiences and on worldwide television. The video showed starving and diseased Ethiopian children set to the song “Drive” by The Cars. Giving increased immediately the stream of the moving video. Ironically, Geldof had previously refused to allow the video due to time constraints. He relented when Bowie offered to drop the song ‘Five Years’ from his set as a trade-off.
In the US, ABC and MTV did not air the video.
The current estimate raised for the concerts is around £150 million ($200+ million).
On that very special day, they achieved something amazing and touched the hearts of millions of people resulting in saving and improving the lives of hundreds of thousands in Africa.
After Geldof had promised that every penny would go to the famine relief, he received pushback from the British Government, who refused to waive the VAT (Value added tax, similar to our sales taxes) on sales of the single. Geldof made a public stance against then Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, who eventually switched gears and ordered the revenue raised by the tax donated to the charity.
Later, the Prime Minister and Geldof became friends – even sharing a whiskey and a chat at No. 10. Thatcher not only refunded the VAT but agreed to put famine relief on the G7 agenda, saying:
[w]e also find our pop stars under Bob Geldof’s leadership,
converting their musical tribute into food and shelter
for the hungry. I would like to add my personal thanks to all who contributed to that inspired piece of music-making.
Live Aid impacted the world. It forced a change of policy in the EU and particularly in the UK and America. Public opinion and people’s view of charity changed. The world saw that a small personal contribution would collectively make a big difference.
Rocking all over the world.
Here is the full lineup of Live Aid (times are BST):
12.02 Status Quo
12.19 Style Council
12.44 Boomtown Rats
13.00 Adam Ant
13.06 INXS (video from Melbourne)
13.16 Ultravox
13.34 Loudness (video from Japan)
13.47 Spandau Ballet
13.51 Bernard Watson
14.02 Joan Baez
14.07 Elvis Costello
14.10 The Hooters
14.15 Opus (video from Austria)
14.22 Nik Kershaw
14.32 The Four Tops
14.38 B.B. King (video from The Hague)
14.45 Billy Ocean
14.52 Black Sabbath
14.55 Sade
15.12 Run DMC
15.18 Sting
15.27 Rick Springfield
15.35 Phil Collins
15.45 REO Speedwagon
15.50 Howard Jones
15.58 Autograph (video from Moscow)
16.03 Bryan Ferry
16.15 Crosby, Stills and Nash
16.24 Udo Lindenberg (video from Cologne)
16.26 Judas Priest
16.38 Paul Young / Alison Moyet
17.00 Linkup between Wembley in the UK and JFK in the US
17.02 Bryan Adams
17.20 U2
17.40 The Beach Boys
18.00 Dire Straits and Sting
18.26 George Thorogood and the Destroyers / Bo Diddley / Albert Collins
18.44 Queen
19.03 David Bowie / Mick Jagger ( video)
19.07 Simple Minds
19.22 David Bowie
19.41 The Pretenders
20.00 The Who
20.20 Santana / Pat Metheny
20.50 Elton John
20.57 Ashford and Simpson / Teddy Pendergrass
21.05 Elton John / Kiki Dee / Wham!
21.30 Madonna
21.48 Freddie Mercury / Brian May
21.51 Paul McCartney
21.54 McCartney / Bowie / Pete Townshend / Alison Moyet / Bob Geldof
21.56 UK finale from Wembley
22.14 Tom Petty
22.30 Kenny Loggins
22.49 The Cars
23.07 Neil Young
23.43 The Power Station
00.21 The Thompson Twins
00.39 Eric Clapton
01.04 Phil Collins
01.13 Robert Plant / Jimmy Page / John Paul Jones
01.47 Duran Duran
02.15 Patti LaBelle
02.50 Hall and Oates / Eddie Kendricks / David Ruffin
03.15 Mick Jagger
03.28 Mick Jagger / Tina Turner
03.39 Bob Dylan / Keith Richards / Ron Wood
03.55 US finale
