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Express Tribune
16-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Express Tribune
Live Aid stars gather for 40th anniversary
Musicians who performed at Live Aid, the transatlantic concert that raised millions for famine relief in Ethiopia, reunited in London on Sunday to mark the event's 40th anniversary, attending a special performance of the musical Just For One Day. Among the stars gathered at Shaftesbury Theatre were Live Aid organisers Bob Geldof and Midge Ure, Queen guitarist Brian May, musician Nik Kershaw and actor Vanessa Williams. On this day in 1985, some of the biggest names in music came together for the televised international charity show, held simultaneously at London's Wembley Stadium and the John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia. An estimated 1.5 billion people globally watched Live Aid via live satellite broadcasts. The event raised about USD100 million and spawned similar events all over the world for decades afterwards. Irish rocker and activist Geldof told Reuters that Live Aid was still important because it showed the power of collaborative action. "And today in the age of the death of kindness, which [US President Donald] Trump, [Vice President JD] Vance and [Elon] Musk have ushered in, it probably resonates all the more strongly," Geldof said. The musicians attended a performance of Just For One Day: The Live Aid Musical, a behind-the-scenes stage musical featuring songs from Sunday's attendees as well as Bob Dylan, David Bowie, Madonna, Elton John and Paul McCartney. The musical, which had a run at London's Old Vic in 2024, transferred to the Shaftesbury Theatre in London's West End in May. It is produced with the permission of the Band Aid Charitable Trust, which gets 10 per cent from the sales of all tickets. "It made me very emotional at the time. Even thinking about it now makes me emotional," May told Reuters, referring to Live Aid in 1985. Queen's performance that day at Wembley Stadium is widely regarded as a landmark concert in rock music history. "There has never been a day like that in my life," May said. Reuters
Bangkok Post
14-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Bangkok Post
Bob Geldof and Brian May mark Live Aid's 40th at London musical
LONDON - Musicians who performed at Live Aid, the transatlantic concert that raised millions for famine relief in Ethiopia, reunited in London on Sunday to mark the event's 40th anniversary, attending a special performance of the musical "Just For One Day". Among the stars gathered at Shaftesbury Theatre were Live Aid organisers Bob Geldof and Midge Ure, Queen guitarist Brian May, musician Nik Kershaw and actor Vanessa Williams. On this day in 1985, some of the biggest names in music came together for the televised international charity show, held simultaneously at London's Wembley Stadium and the John F. Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia. An estimated 1.5 billion people globally watched Live Aid via live satellite broadcasts. The event raised about $100 million and spawned similar events all over the world for decades afterwards. Irish rocker and activist Geldof told Reuters that Live Aid was still important because it showed the power of collaborative action. "And today in the age of the death of kindness, which [U.S. President Donald] Trump, [Vice President J.D.] Vance and Musk have ushered in, it probably resonates all the more strongly," Geldof said. The musicians attended a performance of "Just For One Day: The Live Aid Musical", a behind-the-scenes stage musical featuring songs from Sunday's attendees as well as Bob Dylan, David Bowie, Madonna, Elton John and Paul McCartney. The musical, which had a run at London's Old Vic in 2024, transferred to the Shaftesbury Theatre in London's West End in May. It is produced with the permission of the Band Aid Charitable Trust, which gets 10% from the sales of all tickets. "It made me very emotional at the time. Even thinking about it now makes me emotional," May told Reuters, referring to Live Aid in 1985. Queen's performance that day at Wembley Stadium is widely regarded as a landmark concert in rock music history. "There has never been a day like that in my life," May said.
Yahoo
12-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Sir Bob Geldof brands Elon Musk a 'sociopathic loser' in blistering tirade against UK and US leaders
Sir Bob Geldof delivered a fiery address at London's Shaftesbury Theatre on Wednesday evening, branding Elon Musk a 'sociopathic loser' and condemning political leaders in the UK and US for what he described as a betrayal of the world's 'most vulnerable'. The outspoken campaigner appeared on stage following a performance of Just For One Day, the musical inspired by the 1985 Live Aid concerts he co-founded. The show donates 10 per cent of all proceeds to the Band Aid Charitable Trust and has already raised nearly £900,000 since its sold-out Old Vic run and start of its West End run. Lauding the cast for their contribution, Sir Bob praised the musical for turning entertainment into impact: 'They've already built hospitals and schools and stuff like that by doing their job tonight.' But his tone quickly turned blistering as he criticised Musk over comments the billionaire made during a February podcast, claiming he was combating what he referred to as 'civilisational suicidal empathy.' At the time, the Tesla founder was heading up DOGE, the Department of Government Efficiency, to drastically shrink the size of government by aiming to cut $1 trillion or more in government spending, ultimately cutting thousands of Federal jobs. 'A couple of weeks ago, that prime w**ker Elon Musk said the great weakness of Western civilisation is empathy,' Sir Bob said in response to Musk's empathy remark. 'The great weakness? You ketamine-crazed fool. You sociopathic loser. 'Empathy is the glue of civilisation. Empathy is the glue of humanity,' he added. 'It's how we do things together, how we sit here together and clap because we actually understand that this is the stuff that works.' He went on to accuse US officials of misleading the public over the consequences of recent cuts to foreign aid, claiming at least 300,000 people have died as a result. 'The strongest nation in the world, the most powerful man on earth and the richest person ever in the history of the planet decided to declare war on the poorest, the weakest, the most vulnerable people on the planet' he said. 'I despise them.' The 73-year-old then branded Musk, Donald Trump, J.D. Vance and US Secretary of State Mark Rubio 'liars'. 'When they say they're sending food to the starving children of Sudan who are being held captive and starved to death, when they say they are helping gang-raped women who are broken and their panicked children, that's a lie,' he claimed. 'They are not so it's down to us lot and you lot to get scrape a million quid.' Closer to home, Geldof didn't spare the Labour leadership either. He criticised Keir Starmer and Shadow Chancellor Rachel Reeves for cuts to international aid during a period of domestic hardship while also calling Vlamdir Putin a 'thug'. 'Times are really tough in this country, we need to get more money - 'But really? Really? We're going to stop helping the people you've just clapped for to make a few bucks'. We need to be helped, we need to have the NHS, we need to rearm because there's a thug currently invading our continent, but really? All that intellect, that's all you can do.' 'Snatch it from those people?' he continued. 'No it can't work like that. It doesn't have to work like that and it began not working like that in 1985 and we took it all the way 20 years later to Live 8 and that really tipped the balance in favour of those we want to help. 'This is Great Britain, this country can do anything.'
Perth Now
01-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Perth Now
Another Live Aid unlikely due to social media: Geldof
Bob Geldof says another Live Aid-style event is "unlikely" because of social media. The 73-year-old singer, who organised the original 1985 event alongside singer Midge Ure, told PA news agency he doubted a similar event could take place in the 2020s, "even though your brain is filled with the horror of Gaza or the horror of Ukraine". The Boomtown Rats frontman said: "I think it's very much of its time, we didn't even expect this to be a thing. "From my point of view, rock and roll turned out to be almost a 50-year pop, which ended, conveniently for us, with the summing up at Live Aid, then that was subsumed by social media, so whatever's going to happen now will happen through social media. "Unfortunately, social media seems to be a sort of isolating type medium. "So could the same thing happen again? Unlikely, in my view unfortunately, when it was mono-media, when you had just essentially two stations in the UK, everyone saw the same thing, which we didn't realise, we saw the newscast, we wrote a song, we thought we'd raise like STG100,000. "Suddenly it becomes the focus of all that rage and disgust and shame, and that has lasted for 40 years, much to our dismay." Geldof was speaking at a Wembley Stadium launch event for 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, on July 13 1985, which were organised by Geldof and Ure to raise money for the Ethiopian famine. Speaking about the musical, Geldof told PA: "It's amazing that both of us are alive, frankly. But we set out as quickly as we could, I called him (Ure), he was on a rock show, and he said, 'yeah, let's do something'. "We literally cobbled this song together as quickly as we could, and 40 years later, there's musicals, there's celebrations, there's documentaries all geared towards something that happened here 40 years ago. "So it's really odd for us, is it gratifying? No, because can you believe there are starving people in the 21st century, it was unnecessary then, it's totally unnecessary now." Just For One Day will return to London's Shaftesbury Theatre on May 15, with 10 per cet of all proceeds being donated to the Band Aid Charitable Trust.
