LIVE AID CONCERT:

July 13, 1985

On July 13, 1985, at Wembley Stadium in London, Prince Charles and Princess
Diana officially open Live Aid, a worldwide rock concert organized to raise
money for the relief of famine-stricken Africans. Continued at JFK Stadium in
Philadelphia and at other arenas around the world, the 16-hour "superconcert"
was globally linked by satellite to more than a billion viewers in 110 nations.
In a triumph of technology and good will, the event raised more than $125
million in famine relief for Africa.Live Aid was the brainchild of Bob Geldof,
the singer of an Irish rock group called the Boomtown Rats. In 1984, Geldof
traveled to Ethiopia after hearing news reports of a horrific famine that had
killed hundreds of thousands of Ethiopians and threatened to kill millions more.
After returning to London, he called Britain's and Ireland's top pop artists
together to record a single to benefit Ethiopian famine relief. "Do They Know
It's Christmas?" was written by Geldof and Ultravox singer Midge Ure and
performed by "Band Aid," an ensemble that featured Culture Club, Duran Duran,
Phil Collins, U2, Wham!, and others. It was the best-selling single in Britain
to that date and raised more than $10 million."Do They Know It's Christmas?" was
also a No. 1 hit in the United States and inspired U.S. pop artists to come
together and perform "We Are the World," a song written by Michael Jackson and
Lionel Ritchie. "USA for Africa," as the U.S. ensemble was known, featured
Jackson, Ritchie, Geldof, Harry Belafonte, Bob Dylan, Cyndi Lauper, Paul Simon,
Bruce Springsteen, Tina Turner, Stevie Wonder, and many others. The single went
to the top of the charts and eventually raised $44 million.With the crisis
continuing in Ethiopia, and the neighboring Sudan also stricken with famine,
Geldof proposed Live Aid, an ambitious global charity concert aimed at raising
more funds and increasing awareness of the plight of many Africans. Organized in
just 10 weeks, Live Aid was staged on Saturday, July 13, 1985. More than 75 acts
performed, including Elton John, Madonna, Santana, Run DMC, Sade, Sting, Bryan
Adams, the Beach Boys, Mick Jagger, David Bowie, Queen, Duran Duran, U2, the
Who, Tom Petty, Neil Young, and Eric Clapton. The majority of these artists
performed at either Wembley Stadium in London, where a crowd of 70,000 turned
out, or at Philadelphia's JFK Stadium, where 100,000 watched. Thirteen
satellites beamed a live television broadcast of the event to more than one
billion viewers in 110 countries. More than 40 of these nations held telethons
for African famine relief during the broadcast.A memorable moment of the concert
was Phil Collins' performance in Philadelphia after flying by Concorde from
London, where he performed at Wembley earlier in the day. He later played drums
in a reunion of the surviving members of Led Zeppelin. Beatle Paul McCartney and
the Who's Pete Townsend held Bob Geldof aloft on their shoulders during the
London finale, which featured a collective performance of "Do They Know It's
Christmas?" Six hours later, the U.S. concert ended with "We Are the World."Live
Aid eventually raised $127 million in famine relief for African nations, and the
publicity it generated encouraged Western nations to make available enough
surplus grain to end the immediate hunger crisis in Africa. Geldof was later
knighted by Queen Elizabeth II for his efforts.In early July 2005, Geldof staged
a series of “Live 8” concerts in 11 countries around the world to help raise
awareness of global poverty. Organizers, led by Geldof, purposely scheduled the
concert days before the annual G8 summit in an effort to increase political
pressure on G8 nations to address issues facing the extremely poor around the
world. Live 8 claims that an estimated 3 billion people watched 1,000 musicians
perform in 11 shows, which were broadcast on 182 television networks and by
2,000 radio stations. Unlike Live Aid, Live 8 was intentionally not billed as a
fundraiser—-Geldof’s slogan was “We don’t want your money, we want your voice.”
Perhaps in part because of the spotlight brought to such issues by Live 8, the
G8 subsequently voted to cancel the debt of 18 of the world’s poorest nations,
make AIDS drugs more accessible, and double levels of annual aid to Africa, to
$50 billion by 2010.