Bob Geldof vows to carry on 'vital' work as he launches Live Aid musical
As the 40th anniversary of the iconic concert approaches, the Boomtown Rats star announced another exciting project back where it all began
Bob Geldof looked back on the legacy of Live Aid 40 years on insisting there was still more work to be done - as he launched a musical telling the remarkable story and a new album. The 73-year-old, who organised the original 1985 event alongside singer Midge Ure, reunited at Wembley Stadium today.
It was where it all started, when icons like David Bowie, Queen with Freddie Mercury and Elton John took to the stage to raise funds for the famine in Ethiopia. Bob says the charity still has so much work to do, as he announced the Just for One Day - The Live Aid Musical album. 'We wake up every day with 10 or 12 emails dictating the latest horror from the hungry lands,' he said.
'We couldn't possibly know that 40 years down the track that the issue would be as vital. The world and it's emotional bandwidth with Gaza and Ukraine and Trump and all that evil and accept that in Sudan 2.5m are being forced to starve as an instrument of war because America has decided not to send any grain, then 5 million people in Africa are in peril of their lives from AIDS because Trump has decided that's not fun anymore.'
Looking around Wembley Stadium, the Boomtown Rats star quipped to Radio 1 host Jo Whiley: 'Wembley doesn't look any different. I expected it to look shiny and new but it looks as crappy as before.'
Speaking at the launch Just For One Day, a musical which tells the story of the Live Aid concerts in the national football stadium in London and Philadelphia in the US, he said he wasn't totally sold on the idea at first but has been blown away by the show. 'I was mortified when I was reading the script,' he admitted. 'You're reading a version of the self.'
Midge agreed: 'I went to see the show at the Old Vic. I went in as a jaded old rock star and expecting cheese.'
But both told how they have been impressed by what they've seen. 'The musical is extraordinary,' said Bob. 'My main thing is that it's politically pertinent. Forty years ago people understood but these days it's about Freddie and all of that. What the musical does for us is put it in a contemporary perspective.
'When you hear (The Who 's) My Generation sung like that. I took Pete Townshend to see the show. He couldn't imagine his song, which is beyond at anthem… He clutched my knee and I knew he was thinking 'Should I record it like that?''
Midge added: 'One song in particular jumped out for me. Bob Dylan 's Blowing In The Wind. The interpretation was phenomenal and it changed my option of what musicals and theatres could be. Fred and Ginger was all I could conjure up. The passion they have equals the passion of the artists on the day. This is a different way of getting the message out, which is incredibly important.'
The musical launched at the Old Vic last year. It's made £600,000 for the Band Aid Charitable Trust so far and is expected to raise more than £1m for the charity by the end of the year.
'The musical brings it to a different generation and the possibility of what individuals can do together,' said Bob. "I read somewhere it's another jukebox musical. Dude, it is! That's what it was called. It was hit and hit. The achievement is to make that sense of 40 years ago vivid and relevant to now. And that's what it's done.'
Just For One Day will return at London's Shaftesbury Theatre on May 15, with 10% of all proceeds being donated to the Band Aid Charitable Trust. The album is released on July 11 - ahead of the Live Aid 40th anniversary on July 13.
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