It was the 13th of July, 1985 and the world waited with anticipation as the stage at Wembley Stadium was poised to launch Live Aid. BBC Radio 1 DJ Richard Skinner famously declared,
“It’s 12 noon in London, 7am in Philadelphia and around the world, it’s time for Live Aid”.
The ground-breaking concert was planned as a “global jukebox” and a continued response from the music industry and fans to the famine in Ethiopia. The concert was truly global, advances in technology allowed for its broadcast to over 150 countries. 72,000 people attended Wembley Stadium and 90,000 packed into the John F. Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia. Estimates of the global TV audience vary, the highest of which (1.9billion) would have equated to around 40% of the world’s population at the time.
Band Aid and Live Aid were conceived to help meet an immediate and pressing humanitarian need. For many, they will always be era-defining moments when music was used as the most powerful unifying tool. The story continued – Visual Aid for Band Aid, Fashion Aid, Sport Aid and then Live 8 – the global series of benefit concerts timed to precede the G8 conference in 2005 featuring more than 1,000 musicians and with an estimated 30 million viewers worldwide. Importantly, government policy change was sparked as the enormous power of unity shown by record-breaking audiences and viewers was harnessed into action. No longer was it possible to turn a blind eye.
Over the past 40 years, the Band Aid Charitable Trust has raised an estimated £480 million. The Trust has utilised these funds to provide emergency aid and support long-term development initiatives, aiming to make a lasting impact on communities in need. The Trust continues to play a significant role in humanitarian efforts, with its fundraising activities and charitable work remaining active.
What are your memories of that day?
I asked that question a month ago, and some of you responded. Thanks!
My wife remembers watching it all day and then her dad forcing them to turn the telly off because it was getting too hot and they had to go outside in the sunshine because it was a lovely sunny day in Leicestershire where they were living at the time.
Her brother was (and still is) a huge Queen fan and was devastated.
I remember being particularly taken by Phil Collins performing on the Wembley stage and then being helicoptered to catch Concorde to the USA.
Collins joined Led Zeppelin for a fairly shambolic reunion.
Please tell me more about the sets you particularly remember.
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