Live Aid at 40: Bono recalls iconic performance but laments 'such a bad hair day'

USA Today

08-07-2025

Freddie Mercury peacocking across the stage, pumping his mic stand while 72,000 pairs of hands double clapped in unison during Queen's 'Radio Ga Ga.'
David Bowie, elegant in his powder blue suit, giving new meaning to 'Heroes' as a blond tuft of hair flopped against his sweaty forehead.
Bono, oh Bono, already changing the world and the trajectory of U2's burgeoning career with an 11-minute version of 'Bad' so searing that it reached through the screen to capture your soul.
The breathtaking moments during Live Aid are too numerous to recount considering the towering lineups at Wembley Stadium in London and JFK Stadium in Philadelphia that also included Paul McCartney, Elton John, The Who, Duran Duran, Eric Clapton, Sting, Madonna, Mick Jagger and Tina Turner.
The aptly named 'Live Aid: When Rock 'n' Roll Took on the World,' a four-part documentary that dives into the colossal benefit show spearheaded by Bob Geldof, premieres at 9 p.m. (ET/PT) July 13 – the same date as the original event in 1985 – on CNN.
In the two hourlong episodes provided to the press, Geldof, as charmingly scruffy now as he was as a darker-haired thirtysomething in the '80s, hasn't altered his steadfast focus – to raise funds to combat poverty and starvation in Ethiopia.
Along with archival footage, Geldof's interviews in segments 'A Band Aid' and 'The Global Jukebox' (9 p.m. ET/PT July 20) are supplemented with current commentary from Bono, Sting and Queen's Brian May and Roger Taylor. Also joining the conversation is Ultravox's Midge Ure, Geldof's partner in establishing Band Aid, the superstar lineup of British musicians who first aided Africa with their spirited charity single 'Do They Know It's Christmas?' in 1984, and co-organizer of Live Aid.
The other episodes, 'The Greatest Show on Earth" (July 27) and 'Live 8 – 2005' (Aug. 3), both airing at 9 p.m. ET/PT, underscore the challenges Geldof faced getting money allocated to the neediest African communities and explain why he staged another global concert 20 years after Live Aid.
For the several generations who weren't alive when the original two-continent, 16-hour concert bonanza unfurled live: Now is your chance to learn about this landmark in music history.
Witnessing the devastation Band Aid sought to relieve
While the origins of Band Aid's 'Do They Know It's Christmas?' were profiled in a December documentary to mark the 40th anniversary of the anthemic song, still more behind-the-scenes video is unearthed here, along with footage of the rampant disease and starvation plaguing Ethiopia.
In a particularly moving segment from the '80s, a father holds his severely ill child, conceding that she will soon die. 'I worried about how to find a shovel,' to bury her, he says in current day. Seated next to him is that same girl, who made a miraculous recovery and is now a grown woman.
Geldof visited Ethiopia in 1985 to see the heartbreak himself, earning him the scornful nickname, 'St. Bob.' As he recalls hearing the Band Aid song being played while there, he breaks down on camera at the memory of experiencing Bono's line from the song, 'Tonight thank God it's them instead of you,' while witnessing the distressing effects of malnourishment.
'All the rage, all the shame,' he says through tears.
How Band Aid influenced USA for Africa
Determined to continue to raise funds while also arguing with the British government about the value-added tax being taken from the song's proceeds, Geldof was thrilled to receive a call from Harry Belafonte.
Belafonte, along with Michael Jackson – both of whom Geldof imitates to amusing effect – wanted to involve U.S. artists in the cause with the establishment of USA for Africa.
'If America comes to the party,' Geldof remembers thinking, 'then it's game on.'
The nerves behind Live Aid
News footage of Geldof's press conference announcing the historic Live Aid concerts in London and Philadelphia includes his comment that The Who was reforming especially for the event.
Cut to an interview with Pete Townshend. 'No we weren't,' he says. 'It was blackmail, really.' But because of Geldof's passion, the band agreed to perform.
Other archival media clips include a British TV station breathlessly reporting that fans overwhelmed box offices to get tickets to Live Aid, 'despite the 25-pound price tag.'
Some of the behind-the-scenes fretting included Geldof's fear that new technology of using 16 satellites to broadcast the concerts on MTV and around the world would fail.
'No one knew if it would work,' he says. 'There was no plan B.'
Bono, Queen and Phil Collins make memorable marks
The MVP of Live Aid was unquestionably Phil Collins, who performed solo and with Sting at Wembley Stadium in the afternoon, then hopped aboard the Concorde supersonic airliner to play a second set that night in Philadelphia.
While Collins was crossing the ocean, Queen was playing an early evening slot instead of later in the night as would befit an act of their stature because Geldof was no fan of their 'operatic' pop. Show promoter Harvey Goldsmith is more diplomatic, saying the band was put on during a 'low period' to give a 'kick' to the show.
'It seemed like a harebrained scheme,' says Queen's May, with a wry smile acknowledging his underappreciation of the event at the time.
Bono, meanwhile, offers reflective insight into U2's momentous performance, which found him scaling the stage barricades during 'Bad' to reach a fan being passed through the crowd. While he believed in the humanitarian cause, he was also aware that, 'this is a TV broadcast and the performer in me is of course looking for some kind of 'moment'.'
Bono also admits that even though U2's stirring performance has been decreed a pinnacle of Live Aid, he can't bring himself to watch it.
'It was such a bad hair day,' he recalls. 'It's one of your most famous moments of your life … and you've got a mullet.'