Bob Geldof on why Live Aid still resonates today, 40 years on from concerts that united the world
Ahead of a special gala performance of musical Just for One Day: The Live Aid Musical, Geldof said: 'I was at Oasis last night in Manchester, who were staggeringly brilliant.
'So I'm buzzing, and I'm still amazed that this old guy can be so thrilled by a great rock and roll band.
'But imagine 40 years ago, seeing all of the greatest rock and roll bands, one after the other, being exceptional for free, no contracts with anyone, they had to pay their own plane fares.
'For some reason, the performances were 'other', just like the day itself.
'They rose way above and everyone hung around to watch each other.'
He continued: 'I've never seen it [Live Aid] because I can't watch or listen to myself. I can't stand all the stupid things I say.
'But I saw the end of Live Aid two weeks ago, which was the Christmas song.
'And here are the greatest creative talents of the rock era, and it's like the worst ever Nativity play in school, like the kids haven't learnt the lines, the teachers are going nuts, and they all hung around. They wouldn't leave.'
He added: 'The sheer improbable exhilaration of it... that is what resonates. It's a time when Britain did something profound with their American brothers.
'And I think it resonates particularly now, because in the sort of age of the death of kindness, which Trump and Vance and Musk have ushered in.'
Co-organiser Midge Ure (71) said: 'We were in the middle of this. We couldn't see just how big this thing was.
'It's like being in the middle of a cyclone or a hurricane or whatever.
'It's all going on around you. There's a weird stillness because you're dealing with the nuts and bolts of the daily process.
'It seems to have grown over the last 40 years. It's now a historic, social moment.'
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Irish Sun
7 hours ago
- The Irish Sun
Celebrity Bake Off shock as former contestant makes surprise comeback two years after losing show
COMEDIAN Rose Matafeo is making a return to the The Great Celebrity Bake Off tent in a historic first. Advertisement 4 Rose Matafeo is making a return to The Great British Bake Off Credit: Free for editorial use 4 She previously starred alongside (L-R) David Schwimmer, Jesy Nelson and Tom Davis Credit: Channel 4 / Love Productions 4 David won the episode after poking fun at Rose's efforts Credit: Channel 4 A source told The Sun: "Rose did it a couple of years ago but is coming back for the next series, which has just been filmed. "It won't air until next year, but it's really exciting." The source added: "It's the first time a contestant has returned and the reason behind why she's been able to come back will be explained onscreen. "It's a big surprise that producers want to keep secret." Advertisement bake off The Sun approached Channel 4 for comment. Rose will once again join the special series which serves as a Stand Up 2 Cancer charity special. The comedian starred alongside Friends legend , David Schwimmer in the 2023 series, as well as former Little Mix singer, Jesy Nelson and actor Tom Davis. The American actor beat Rose to be named the top baker on the day, and even dissed her efforts leading to Advertisement Most read in TV Exclusive Rose is just one of many big names announced for the upcoming season of the cancer charity fundraiser, with Hollywood star Watch the moment Rosie Ramsey throws a scone at husband Chris in shock outburst on Celebrity Bake Off The Sun "Bosses were thrilled to sign Ambika up - she's a fan of the show so loved doing it," a source told us. Advertisement Former Geordie Shore Vicky Pattison star has signed up to be judged by the likes of Paul Hollywood and Celebrity Bake Off 2025 line up so far Who are the celebrities that are confirmed to heading to the gingham tent? Edith Bowman Vicky Pattison We previously revealed that He will joining the likes of Love Island's Other names include Advertisement 4 Rose is the first celebrity to make a return to the reality series Credit: Alamy
The Irish Sun
7 hours ago
- The Irish Sun
Dermot O'Leary lands massive new show from the makers of Gladiators and The Wheel
SINCE turning 50, Dermot O'Leary looks to be keen to shake up his CV. Last year he added a new gig as a quizshow host on U&Dave's Silence Is Golden and I can now reveal Channel 5 have tapped him up to front an American football-themed gameshow. Advertisement 9 Dermot O'Leary has landed a new US football-themed gameshow after turning 50 and shaking up his TV career Credit: Rex Features 9 Dermot will team up with Strictly's Sam Quek for the new gameshow Credit: Splash Dermot will be joined by Olympic hockey ace and Strictly Come Dancing star Sam Quek for the programme, which comes from the makers of Gladiators and The Wheel, Hungry Bear. A source said: 'Before he became so comfy on the This Morning sofa, Dermot was the life and soul of primetime, shiny floor programming so is the perfect fit for a show like this. 'He also played the game in his youth for the 'The show is at pilot stage but Dermot and Sam have really good chemistry so everyone is excited about taking this to a full series at some point. Advertisement READ MORE TV NEWS 'Hungry Bear are the masters in this realm, and NFL is such a growth area.' Sky Sports is the home of NFL on UK television, but ITV was the channel to most recently give the game a push. In the past the BBC had shown highlights of games for a number of years, with Advertisement Most read in News TV But Dermot and Sam could finally make it stick. He's certainly keen to offer up 'night time Dermot' – something he said working on Silence Is Golden allowed. This Morning viewers can't believe Dermot O'Leary's 'real age' as he and Alison Hammond celebrate his birthday on air Probably for the best, as the Super Bowl can really drag on, can't it. Suranne in her prime on Netflix 9 Suranne Jones is all smiles at the beginning of her new Netflix show, but things soon take a turn for the worse Credit: Netflix Advertisement 9 An explosive trailer teases the show, which drops on the streaming service on August 21 Credit: Netflix Playing a newly elected prime minister, she arrives in her new Downing Street home full of hope but then she discovers that her husband has been kidnapped. 9 Events at Downing Street take a turn for the worse Credit: Netflix Advertisement 9 Suranne stars as the new PM whose life turns dark when her husband is kidnapped Credit: Ollie Upton/Netflix It's all teased in the explosive new trailer for five-part thriller Hostage, which drops on the streamer on August 21. The series is Suranne's first project with Netflix, having previously been more closely associated with Beeb dramas, including playing a medic in Doctor Foster then a toff in Gentleman Jack. Now she's playing a prime minister. It seems she's constantly moving up in the world. Advertisement Kidnap Chloe's BBC doc 9 In My Unbelievable Kidnapping, Chloe Ayling will recount how the terrifying experience in 2017 changed her life Credit: Chris Eades - The Sun The BBC dramatised Now she will tell her own story in the first interview since her abductors' conviction. In My Unbelievable Kidnapping, she will recount how the terrifying experience in 2017 changed her life. Advertisement Then a glamour model, Handcuffed and held in a remote farmhouse, she was told she would be sold as sex slave, but she persuaded them to let her walk free. Her kidnappers, Chloe said: 'I'm delighted BBC Studios are telling my story.' Advertisement It airs on BBC Three on Aug 4 and BBC One on Aug 6. PRIME VIDEO Has confirmed its highly-anticipated, gritty new drama The Girlfriend will air on September 10. Based on Michelle Frances' novel, it follows a family whose life changes when their son brings home a new girlfriend. Robin Wright, Olivia Cooke and Laurie Davidson star. Advertisement A look Byke to the 90s 9 Ant & Dec's home channel ITV has snapped up the rights to stream teen drama Byker Grove Credit: Alpha Photo Press Agency Ant & Dec's magnum opus is returning to TV screens, nearly twenty years after it was last on air. The Geordie duo's home channel ITV has snapped up the rights to stream teen drama As well as catapulting the lads to fame as PJ and Duncan, it also launched the careers of actors including Advertisement Byker Grove originally launched on BBC One in 1989 and followed the lives of a group of young people at the Grove youth club in Newcastle's Byker district. It tackled big issues like drug addiction, child abuse, homophobia and abortion and in 1994, the series featured the first gay kiss on UK children's TV. The deal has come about as part of Ant & Dec's production firm Mitre Studios partnership with ITV. It'll stream on STV (pls keep) and ITVX later this year. Advertisement Richard Williams , STV's managing director, said: 'Just when you thought the 90s revival might have been slowing down, we've only gone and brought back one of the seminal TV shows of the decade. 'Byker Grove was an integral part of so many British childhoods and we're delighted that those original viewers – now of a slightly more mature vintage – can relive all the nostalgic action on STV Player. "And if any Gen Z viewers want to find out who really started the baggy trousers trend, look no further than Byker Grove!' Misia Butler, Eden Hambleton-Davies and Jack Rowan have boarded series two of the BBC and Netflix's The Good Girl's Guide to Murder. Advertisement Based on the bestselling novels by Holly Jackson, the new run picks up after Pip solved the Andie Bell case and will begin filming soon. Davina's ordeal 9 Davina McCall has opened up about her brain tumour ordeal Credit: Instagram Davina McCall has recalled the moment when she received the worst news of her life when she was on the set of The Masked Singer. The presenter was talking at the Happy Place Festival about her ordeal when she Advertisement Although it was benign, it was still growing and she decided she had to have it out last year – an experience which she says means she is no longer afraid of death. Davina said: 'For four months I was like, 'Well benign. That's fine. I don't need to do anything about it. 'Then I phoned somebody (a surgeon) in America and I said, 'You are absolutely not going to operate on me ever, but please will you just give me an honest opinion ?' 'I was at The Masked Singer and she's going: 'Okay, it's a big tumour, it can't grow anymore or you will get water on the brain and you'll go into a coma. Advertisement 'If you were on a plane, you'd have to do an emergency landing'.'
Irish Times
8 hours ago
- Irish Times
Live Aid spurred me into becoming a GOAL volunteer on the ground in Africa
I was just one of many who were moved to action by the Live Aid concert 40 years ago and that harrowing video segment, introduced by David Bowie, of huge suffering in a world of plenty set to the song Drive by the Cars. It planted a seed which led me to board a plane to Khartoum in 1986 as a GOAL volunteer, with £10,000 sterling strapped to my waist, necessary hard currency for the agency's running expenses. The plane landed late at night, and the equatorial heat hit me immediately as I struggled my way across the tarmac, sweating profusely, burdened as I was with a jacket containing a bottle of contraband whiskey. I wasn't a doctor, a nurse or a logistician. I was on a year's leave of absence from the Irish Press and my brief was to help write donor reports and newspaper articles on GOAL's work and generally to make myself useful. READ MORE By the time I got there in 1986, the great hunger that had swept the horn of Africa in 1984, had abated. Happily ensconced in the GOAL house in Khartoum, I had a false sense that the worst was over as I perused a well-thumbed copy of Bob Geldof's autobiography Is that it? The office work of an aid agency reliant on funding from the European Union et al is drudgery of a high order so at any opportunity I accompanied GOAL nurses on their expeditions into the slums around Khartoum where they provided desperately poor people with the only health services available to them. I was never proficient enough in the art of home brew to become a member of the KGB or the Khartoum Guild of Brewers, set up to circumvent the local ban on alcohol, and which bestowed the blasphemous title Defender of Sharia on whoever offered up the worst beer for tasting. In those days, a GOAL volunteer got full board and $15 a month. Any traveller's cheques I had were stolen soon after my arrival, so any social outings had to be at someone else's expense. Luckily the GOAL nurses always had plenty of invites to expat parties and would bring me along with them. I saw Crocodile Dundee in a free screening on the roof of Khartoum's oldest hotel, the Acropole, a home from home for aid workers, journalists and archaeologists, with reliable phones and telex machines, run by George Pagoulatos and his extended Greek family. Behind reception, they proudly displayed a love letter from Bob Geldof on Band Aid headed notepaper to George and staff in which he makes light of the hotel's lack of material comforts. Despite the shambolic state of the roads and footpaths, the appalling heat and mosquitos, and the squatter encampments that ringed the more affluent urban centre, Khartoum had a certain other worldly charm. It lies at the confluence of the Blue and White Niles with a street plan in the shape of a Union Jack. In the evening it was pleasant to walk the tree lined riverbank dotted with kiosks and drink an ice-cold soda. Khartoum was untouched by war except for the stories brought to the city by refugees fleeing conflict and repression in neighbouring Eritrea and Ethiopia, and the civil war that would give birth to South Sudan. And then there was Darfur. A mechanic and I delivered a new vehicle, 1,500 kms across the desert, to the GOAL operation in El Geneina, Darfur, which supported a local midwifery school and provided outreach to remote settlements including refugees along the border with Chad. It was a hair-raising three-day drive. We stopped at El Daein train station in east Darfur and saw the remains of the wagons where hundreds of Dinkas were burned alive in a massacre carried out a few weeks earlier in March 1987 by a local Arab tribe, the Muraheleen militia. It was a reminder of how isolated Khartoum was then from the mayhem in other parts of the country. The Muraheleen became part of the dreaded Janjaweed, a militia armed by the government and held responsible for a death toll possibly as high as 300,000 and the displacement of millions in ethnic cleansing across Darfur some 20 years ago. They morphed into the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) who fell out with government forces and took the proud, once inviolate city of Khartoum in April 2023 committing war crimes on a scale hard to comprehend and destroying many of Khartoum's institutions including the humble Acropole Hotel which the Pagoulatos family had run for 71 years and where GOAL and other aid agencies collected their mail. After 50 years or more of warfare, Sudan's ruin now seems complete. The sacking of Khartoum and the withdrawal of all support by the country's biggest aid donor, the US, means that Sudan risks becoming the world's largest hunger crisis in recent history as famine takes hold and 24.6 million people, almost half the population face food insecurity. Last year the US gave $830 million to keep four million people alive in Sudan. Withdrawing that funding is a very perverse way to mark the 40th anniversary of Live Aid which helped create the mood music – no pun intended – for George Bush, Tony Blair and other G8 leaders to forgive debt and increase aid to Africa on Live Aid's 20thanniversary. That seems so long ago.
