Live Aid: As It Happened!
Live Aid. A global jukebox staged on two continents, and watched by two billion people, remains the biggest gig in the history of rock and pop.
To celebrate the show's 40th anniversary, we have produced Live Aid as it happened – minute-by-minute, song-by-song – onstage, and the tense drama played out behind the scenes.
Which unknown slept rough outside the stadium for a week, then blagged a prime spot on the show?
Which supergroup played so badly that they refused to allow footage of their performance to be used on the DVD?
Who forgot the words to one of pop's biggest songs? Which huge star pulled out after an argument?
Who was the global diva who turned up late and featured in the finale despite missing the rest of the show?
Did Queen really turn up the volume to sound better than the rest? Who sang in a wheelchair after being paralysed in a car crash? Which legend opened with an unexpected song his band hadn't ever rehearsed before?
Which big act had Bob Geldof never heard of? And why did his daughter ask Diana where the fish was?
It's all revealed as we relive the highs and lows of Live Aid from start to finish – and the time we could all be heroes, just for one day.
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Daily Mail
12 hours ago
- Daily Mail
What happened to rugby bad boy Will Carling: 90s lothario had a 'fling' with Princess Diana - and was fined £1million and needed therapy to handle the fallout from his philandering with identikit blondes
The man who the late Princess Diana was alleged to have nicknamed 'captain' - while he affectionately referred to her as 'boss' - saw his life move from the back pages of newspapers to the front thanks to his very colourful love life. In 1994, Will Carling, then 29, had won three major Grand Slams as captain of the England men's rugby team, a position that meant his path would frequently cross with the royals, including Diana. Somewhere between the hallowed turf at Twickenham and the fancy Chelsea gym the royal, then 33, and the rugby player shared, a friendship blossomed that would see Carling's previously clean-cut image begin to flounder. At the time, the rugged former public school boy was married to glamorous blonde television presenter Julia Smith, then 30, with the couple having wed in the same year. Photos of Diana and Carling emerging from Chelsea Harbour Club separately were snapped - and the pair were said to have grown close after the witty princess told the professional sportsman that he was doing sit-ups incorrectly. Post-workout refreshments in the club's cafe followed, sparking a chain of events that would catapult Carling's penchant for beautiful blonde women into the spotlight, and see him dubbed the 'bad boy of English rugby'. When it was disclosed to Julia that her husband was also visiting the Princess at Kensington Palace, his tell-tale blue Range Rover spotted in the car park, she publicly fired a warning shot at her royal rival, declaring that she had 'picked the wrong couple'. However, according to Tina Brown's book The Palace Papers, Diana and Carling were close enough for him to be introduced to her sons. 'William hero-worshiped Carling and met him several times with Diana,' she said. 'When Carling visited Kensington Palace for a romantic rendezvous, he gave both the boys a rugby shirt.' While a romance was never confirmed and indeed were frequently dismissed by Kensington Palace as 'pure speculation', by September 1995, Carling had announced that he and Julia were set to divorce - and papers were inked the following year. When reports of the divorce broke, Julia seemingly made it clear who she blamed for the destruction of the couple's happy ever after, in a quote relayed to a newspaper by a friend, saying: 'It would be easy to say she's ruined my marriage, but it takes two to tango and I blame Will for getting involved in the first place.' However, Julia herself later told another reporter: 'This has happened [to Diana] before... you hope she won't do these things again, but obviously she does.' During a lunch in 1996 with Piers Morgan, at which a 13-year-old Prince Wililam was present, Diana made her feelings clear. 'She's milking it for all she's worth that woman,' she said. 'I haven't seen Will since June '95.' William added: 'I keep a photo of Julia Carling on my dartboard at Eton.' Meanwhile, Will had retreated to a rented flat in Covent Garden, which wasn't in his name, didn't have a phone and was accessed via an underground car park. 'My parents didn't even know where I lived,' he said. 'I lived there for a year and I never opened the curtains or blinds in case anyone looked in.' A decade later in 2004, Carling was still adamant no affair had taken place with the late 'Queen of People's Hearts', telling the Sunday Mirror: 'No, no, no – how many times do I have to say it? We were friends...' Of the end of his marriage with Julia, he said: 'I have to admit that I didn't handle things very well, not very well at all. But there are two sides to every story, and no one has heard mine. That's my choice, and I live with it.' However, just four years ago the ex England rugby star, who will celebrate his 60th birthday in December, was more candid about his bond with Diana, admitting he had been 'stupidly doing things you shouldn't do'. Speaking on a podcast, he confessed the whole period had been 'a bit of a mess.' Asked to explain, the sportsman said: 'Just making messes of relationships because you're sort of rudderless and you've lost your focus and you don't behave well, and I didn't. 'Never intentionally or vindictively, I just think that was me, I just was in a bit of a mess. You're sort of like a car that's lost a steering wheel and you're careering all over the place. It wasn't very pleasant; it was a fairly traumatic time.' His impending divorce from Julia might have abated interest in his personal life, had a new woman not breezed into the picture months before his marriage was officially over. Ali Cockayne, then in her early thirties, knew the sporting world well; her sister Michelle was married to footballer-turned-BBC presenter Gary Lineker at the time. When Ali and Carling were introduced at a testimonial dinner, their love affair quickly became serious and they went on to have a son, Henry, in 1997. However, when Henry was just 11 months old, Carling appeared to swerve serious commitment once again, exiting the relationship in the midst of planning for their upcoming wedding. Ali learned the rugby player had a new squeeze when she discovered a press release in the study of their luxury home in Sunningdale, Berkshire, which read: 'Will Carling is leaving his partner Ali Cockayne for a future with Lisa Cooke.' Lisa was the estranged wife of his friend and ex-England rugby player David Cooke, and their romance ignited again over another testimonial match, this time Carling's own, at Wembley. In the days after the break-up was revealed, Ali was seen clutching Henry to her chest, crying uncontrollably. In 2024, Ali experienced the devastating death of her son Jonty, who she shared with her new partner, Bob Parkinson. Ali's agony was captured poignantly at the time of her split with Carling in a photograph, showing her clutching their son Henry to her chest, and crying uncontrollably The 18-year-old died of a crush injury to his abdomen after a tree accident in Oxfordshire. Announcing he was leaving Ali in 1998, Carling released a statement at the time through his agent, saying: 'This has been a very sad and painful time for everyone concerned. 'It is even more difficult and emotional because of Henry, but I plan to fulfil my duties and responsibilities as a father.' The couple's dramatic split happened just a month after Will retired from rugby. After his new love affair with Lisa became public, the rugby player was reportedly fined £1 million for cancelling a test match due to the fall-out. A year later, Carling and Lisa married in Fiji in 1999 with her two children, Tom and Tali, from her earlier marriage the only guests. They went on to have two children, Jack and Mimi, together. Carling later said that it was Lisa who 'transformed his life' and that family 'is just it for me'. The ex-army officer, whose rugby career spanned nine years, previously opened up about undergoing therapy with John Cleese's ex-wife, Alyce Faye Eichelberger. He reflected later that he hadn't always behaved the way he should have done, saying: 'As a sportsman you lead a very selfish life. 'But now, for the first time, I'm willing to concede that I'm not always right and not to think that things should always be my way.' He added: 'I'd hate to think I'd ever get complacent or boast that ours was the best relationship anyone's ever had. I think you have to work hard to stay happy, which for me means always talking instead of bottling up your feelings as I used to do.' Last year, he reflected in The Telegraph in 2024 on how being linked to one of the most famous women in the world, Princess Diana, was a 'good story'. He said: 'Front page is very different from back page. Yeah, it was not nice. 'Hey, a lot of that is my own fault, you can't complain. You have to learn. Relationships that I got that's what they got fascinated by. You look back on it and you think it was all blown out of all proportion, but it made a good story.' Now, Carling lives a much more low-key life, concentrating on being the best dad and family man he can be. He told The Daily Mail in 2015 of his new hobbies: 'I'm obsessed with [cycling] and clock up about 250km a week. I analyse all kinds of stats and love talking about kit. 'I'm 49 and I've become a Middle-Aged Man In Lycra – it's sad, but I can't help it,' added the sportsman. He has worked as a TV pundit, a motivational speaker and in the hospitality industry, while also acting as leadership mentor to Eddie Jones' England rugby team.
Daily Mirror
16 hours ago
- Daily Mirror
This week's must-watch TV: Wimbledon, property glow-ups and Fern Britton
BBC's Summer of Sport is kicking off this week with Wimbledon making a return to screens. Elsewhere, Fern Britton makes a surprise ITV return and two C4 icons front a new show. From Wimbledon to the Women's Euro, the TV landscape is prepping for a summer of sport, kicking off with the long-awaited tennis tournament this Monday (June 30). Once again, the BBC will deliver its exclusive coverage of Wimbledon with Clare Balding in the lead and a series of expert pundits. But there's plenty of other programmes to suit everyone's needs. Channel 4 has a multitude of new shows aligned this week. For starters, Scarlette and Stuart Douglas, best known for their Worst House on the Street antics, are helping desperate homeowners get their houses off the market in a new explosive show. 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Scotsman
a day ago
- Scotsman
Outrageous review: This mediocre Mitford tale fails to tell us what was so Outrageous
The lives of the aristocracy during that golden period between the wars seems to fascinate TV programme makers – all the shooting parties, the balls and the flirtation with fascism exerts a strange fascination. Sign up to our daily newsletter Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to Edinburgh News, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... Watching Outrageous (U&Drama, Thurs, 9pm), however, you can't really see why. It's the story of the Mitford sisters, the famous – or infamous – sibling sorority that apparently took London society and the landed gentry by storm during the 1930s. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Each of the six sisters had some sort of celebrity: Nancy was a novelist, famed for The Pursuit of Love and Love in a Cold Climate; Diana was a famed beauty who left her fabulously wealthy husband for the country's leading far-right demagogue Oswald Mosley; Pamela was a noted horsewoman and fond of driving sports cars; Unity fell in love with Adolf Hitler; Jessica became a communist and ran off with her cousin; and Deborah became the Duchess of Devonshire and chatelaine of Chatsworth House. The cast of Outrageous, the new drama which tells the story of the infamous Mitford sisters (Picture: UKTV) Each had a notably picaresque life – even by the standards of the bohemian aristos of the time – with scandalous divorces, trips to the Nuremberg rallies, castles in Ireland and elopements to Spain – but very little of this comes across in Outrageous. In fact, the most outrageous thing they seem to do is lounge about in silk kimonos and headscarves in the middle of the day. We're supposed to care about these privileged creatures, but we're given precious little reason to. None seem particularly charismatic, especially given dialogue which attempts to cram in great chunks of exposition and quick character sketches as we meet yet another arrogant posho. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad And why should we care about them, especially Diana and Unity, who didn't so much flirt with fascism as take it to bed for a night of passion. Joanna Vanderham plays Diana Mitford in the new series Outrageous, which airs on U&Drama on Thursdays (Picture: UKTV) At times, the programme attempts to give some reason for their lurch to the far right, such as widespread economic hardship and industrial unrest, but that rarely impinges on to the sisters' lives beyond a few banners in passing. Diana is supposed to be infatuated with Mosley, but he comes across as a boring blowhard no one in their right mind would fancy, while Unity's obsession with Hitler is painted as a teenage crush. I mean, these people weren't merely outrageous, they were just horrible anti-semites. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad There is a charitable reading of all this putative outrageousness – that the sisters were kicking against the limited future societal norms had planned for them, as daughters of hard-up minor aristocracy. Nancy Mitford (Bessie Carter) contemplates life in bohemian 1930s London in the new U&Drama series Outrageous (Picture: UKTV) Their mother, 'Muv' (Anna Chancellor) tells warring sisters Jessica and Unity: 'Can't you see that if you don't start behaving properly you're going to end up as penniless old maids? 'You need to start thinking of yourselves as women. As wives and housekeepers, as mothers. These are incredibly important roles. Roles you were made for. I guess faced with those constrictions, anyone with a modicum of gumption would attempt to kick over the traces. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad But when financial hardship means 'letting out the London house', but still having a pied a terre in the capital, when no one seems to need a job, when you can live in varying degrees of bohemian luxury, rebellion seems unnecessary. And far from taking a stand for women, these sisters seem unhealthily defined by the men in their lives – Diana by Mosley, Unity by Hitler, even firebrand Nancy moons over some weak-chinned deadbeat called Hamish, and Outrageous can offer no earthly reason for it. If you didn't constantly refer to the internet, the average viewer – including me – would have very little clue why the Mitford clan should be so celebrated. Far from being Outrageous, this latest ode to aristocracy is mediocre and, frankly, infuriating.
