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 Mirror
an hour ago
- Daily Mirror
Bob Geldof tells why, 40 years on, Live Aid, wouldn't work today
As Live Aid celebrates its 40th anniversary, Sir Bob Geldof has told how it wouldn't work as a fund-raiser today because rock'n'roll no longer has the currency it did in the 1980s. And the Boomtown Rats star, who was knighted for his 1985 effort to raise money for starving victims of the Ethiopian famine, also claimed there was 'no such thing' as white saviour complex, and dismissed criticism that the event, which raised £350m in today's money, should have had more black British artists performing. 'Rock'n'roll was so powerful it was beyond language,' he explained. 'When Little Richard said 'a wop bop a loo bop, a wop bam boo' we all knew what he meant and by 1985 the entire world used the common language of rock 'n' roll. 'It won't happen again because this sort of thing isn't romantic any more, it's not a thing,' he said. 'Rock'n'roll is the most powerful art there has ever been - but it has ceased to be the spine of our culture, it was of the moment and could transmit an idea to the game-changing part of the population, but I'm not sure that exists now. 'The Six O'Clock News was a communal event - the news now is broken up, the algorithm is an echo-chamber of your own prejudices. It's sh*t and its dangerous but it can be used brilliantly.' Speaking after a BAFTA screening of a new BBC documentary to celebrate Live Aid's milestone anniversary, Sir Bob said it was up to others now to come up with new 'mad and fun' ideas, but added: 'Taylor Swift is a phenomenon. You could do one just with the women. That would be very effective.' Sir Bob, 73, said that complaints about 'white saviour complex' infuriated him, claiming it was a 'cultural artefact' that didn't exist. 'There isn't such a thing,' he told BBC journalist Maryam Moshiri, who interviewed him at the event. 'You can f*** off! It's nonsense. To pay lip service to this tripe is belittling. 'It was about 32 million people dying, live on TV, in a world of surplus food. Millions of people are alive today because us lot watched a f***ing pop concert. That's nuts. It's disgraceful.' He said that critics, including a journalist from The Voice who appears in the three-part series, were wrong to say there should have been more black British artists involved. 'It wasn't about black representation, it was about getting the artists who sold the most records so we could raise the most money,' he insisted. 'It was about stopping people from dying. 'That man from The Voice - name the band we should have had? Imagination and Aswad? They weren't huge. They sold 80,000 records, so do I take them, or the ones that sold 20million? These bands were not big enough.' Sir Bob also revealed that watching Michael Buerk's famous BBC news report, shot by cameraman Mohamed Amin, still makes him emotional. 'If I see that footage again, it makes me cry - it still bothers me a lot. It's won endless awards - it goes to, particularly in this day and age, reporting the truth, showing it how it is. "I remember Michael's report verbatim simply because the words were so well chosen. And Mo Amin's pitiless, cyclops eye. You could tell Michael's rage. He was being the objective reporter but his shame at what he was having to show us, that's why the entire country reacted as I did.' The I Don't Like Mondays singer said that plenty of people needed that sort of help today, but there was now embarrassment around the words aid and charity. 'I'm not embarrassed in the least by the word 'charity', but we can't say it any more, we have to put into inverted commas now.' He said it was hard 'not to see hurt, not to know, right now, 2.5million children in Sudan are not getting the American food that they were getting in February - and not react.' Blaming US policy, he branded Elon Musk, President Trump and Vice President Vance a 'confederacy of dunces' for freezing all the country's humanitarian aid, with Musk describing it as putting USAid 'In the wood chipper' at the start of the year. Dad-of-four Bob said:'Seriously? The strongest nation on earth, the most powerful man on the planet and the richest individual on the planet cackle over feeding aid to the weakest, most vulnerable people in the world into the wood chipper. There is something seriously f***ed about that.' He said that reports from reputable sources claim that a minimum of 300,000 people had died as a direct result of that policy. 'And I would argue that it's conceivably ten times that. In the UK, we need to re-arm right now and so does the rest of Europe. We're being invaded by a thug and he needs to be stopped.' With the wars in Ukraine and Palestine also ongoing, Bob feels that people didn't now have the 'emotional bandwidth' to cope with all the devastation in the world. 'It's just too easy to go 'f*** you'. If we can use this anniversary then perhaps there's a glimmer, a slight chance, that we can put back the argument that it is really not in our interest to abandon the marginalised.' He said he found it hard to watch the BBC documentary, quipping: 'I hate the stupid f***ing things I say, I hate looking at myself' and he also moaning that he wasn't keen on all the music choices the programme-makers had made, which included Status Quo, U2, Phil Collins, Paul McCartney and Queen. 'If you had Pete Townshend talking about The Who, I'd have had The Who on,' he said. 'And I would have had Bob Dylan's disastrous performance.'
The National
an hour ago
- The National
Brandi Carlile poses with Irn-Bru, Scotch whisky and Saltire at Glasgow gig
Carlile, 44, is best known for her hit song, The Story, and has collaborated with artists including Hozier, Miley Cyrus and Alicia Keys. She is currently on her "Lost Time Tour" across the UK, and played at the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall on Thursday night. On her Instagram, she shared an image of her with a Saltire flag, Slatire heart pin badge in her mouth, a bottle of Ardbeg whisky and Scotland's other national drink, with the caption: "FREEDOM!". Former first minister Nicola Sturgeon reshared the image, along with another showing Carlile holding a Saltire on stage, and wrote: "Love @brandicarlile (even more so now [laughing emoji]). Gutted not to see her in Glasgow last night. Carlile, an 11-time Grammy Award-winning artist, was the most nominated woman at the 61st Annual Grammy Awards in 2019, receiving six nominations, including nominations for Album of the Year, Record of the Year and Song of the Year. She recently teamed up with Sir Elton John - famous for hit songs such as Rocket Man, Tiny Dancer, and I'm Still Standing - to write and record a joint album titled Who Believes in Angels? which was released on April 4. Carlile taught herself to play piano after being introduced to the music of John as a teenager. Last week, he was in the audience as she performed at London's Royal Albert Hall. READ MORE: 'Stop the Genocide': Kneecap release film with Gaza surgeons ahead of Glastonbury set The two also had a sit-down conversation with Schitt's Creek star Dan Levy in March, and discussed their lives and music careers. Announcing the tour, she said: "My pre-adolescent Elton discovery was a gateway drug to Queen, The Beatles, U2, Kate Bush, George Michael, Sinéad O'Connor, David Bowie, Radiohead and I imagined a moody, and mysterious utopia of complicated musical bliss. "I had visions of myself on stage Royal Albert Hall. I dreamed it was me standing on the stage at Live Aid, clutching a half mic stand, and singing Radio Gaga instead of Freddie. When I finally made it over, I was in my 20s, and it was everything I knew it would be. It wasn't easy! "I've been working my whole life, and touring the UK and Europe as a baby band is not for the faint of heart. Nevertheless, I did THE zebra crossing; drank a real Guinness; had my first Ardbeg, and I experienced the European countryside to me. "I met my wife in London & got married at Chelsea Town Hall, and I now cross the Atlantic more than I could have ever hoped for - but not nearly enough to play my music, and bring my art home to the place where it really came from."
Daily Record
3 hours ago
- Daily Record
This Morning's Alison Hammond announces break as she details exhaustion
This Morning star Alison Hammond appeared on the ITV show on Friday, where she opened up about taking a step back from one aspect of her career after being left 'exhausted'. On the recent episode of This Morning, TV personality Alison Hammond disclosed that she would be taking a hiatus from one element of her career. Chatting with Alexandra Burke and Lesley Joseph about their upcoming musical stint in The Addams Family, the host delved into how performing live can take its toll. Alexandra opened up about the intense schedule of touring, noting that performers can face eight to 12 shows weekly. She remarked: "You don't really get a life outside of it, but that's ok because you're entertaining other people." Lesley brought attention to Alison by saying: "We're looking at the panto Queen! Birmingham. Three panto Queens sitting on the sofa." To this, Alison confessed: "But the thing is, you've been doing it year after year. I'm having a year off because I was so exhausted from last year and the year before. It is a discipline." Lesley went on to express her love for the theatre and stressed the significance of pantomime in entertainment, reports Wales Online. She said: "The whole family comes and it's the one time in the year that anybody, grandma down to the youngest children can come and really love it. You know, you've done it now." Alison acknowledged this, reflecting on how the cast becomes akin to a secondary family due to the extensive time spent together. Previously, Alison impressed audiences as the Magical Mermaid in Peter Pan at Birmingham's Hippodrome Theatre, also sharing moments with This Morning viewers before gracing the stage. Wearing her costume, Alison shared her highlight of being in the play last year, at the time she said: "Do you remember last year when lovely Dermot (O'Leary) and the whole team brought me a wonderful chair with the plaque of my mum's name on it? "It's dead centre in the middle of the stage and literally, it's like I'm performing to my mum. It means the world to me, it's beautiful. It's lovely to be back. "I look at the person (in the seat, the person thinks I'm looking at them, I'm not! I'm seeing my mum!" Alison's mum, Maria, sadly died from lung and liver cancer in January 2020, and her father Clifford died just months later.
