MTV was a powerhouse in those early days. One of the bigger acts to come from the widespread British exposure on MTV (it took a while for America to catch up with ready-made British film clips, which they’d done since the 1960s) was the Boomtown Rats, with Bob Geldof at the center. The “Up All Night” video was played in heavy rotation on MTV. He starred in the cult classic, Pink Floyd: The Wall. At the center of the Irish new wave, Geldof had heavy influence in the post-punk atmosphere of the UK. So when Geldof watched a six-minute BBC news report on Oct. 23, 1984 by Michael Buerk, he had no idea it would take him into the political arena so quickly and infamously.
Geldof had the brainstorm to do a one-off charity single for Christmas 1984 to raise money for Ethiopian aid. He gathered a bunch of friends and fellow UK artists to record “Do They Know It’s Christmas,” the song he and Midge Ure from Ultravox wrote. It was released Nov. 29, 1984, having been recorded four days prior. It proved successful (No. 1 for five weeks in the UK, raising 8,000,000 GBP). Geldof was stunned, thinking he’d only raise about 70,000 GBP.
Not all were happy; Morrissey, in 1985, said, “I’m not afraid to say that I think Band Aid was diabolical. Or to say that I think Bob Geldof is a nauseating character… one can have great concern for the people of Ethiopia, but it’s another thing to inflict daily torture on the people of Great Britain.”
Inspired by Geldof’s success, Quincy Jones, Lionel Richie and Michael Jackson gathered everyone from Cyndi Lauper to Billy Joel to… Dan Aykroyd? Yes. Dan Aykroyd was the star of the second-biggest comedy of 1984. OF COURSE Aykroyd was going to be in on it. The kicker: Aykroyd’s a Canadian. Released in March 1985, “We Are The World” was a No. 1 smash. Geldof was in the group, but not the prime mover.
In Dec. 1984, Boy George of Culture Club had mused about having a concert to benefit the Ethiopian famine. Geldof talked with George after Culture Club’s six-night stand at Wembley and began to start thinking about it in earnest. From a charity concert to a dual-venue, trans-continental behemoth it grew. Wembley Stadium in London and JFK Stadium in Philadelphia would host, attended by 72,000 in the former and 100,000 in the latter. You have to understand 30 years ago, a transatlantic phone call was unheard of, much less a live broadcast. Ten years later, we’d be watching missiles hit Iraq with precision on live television, but in 1985, the world was much larger than it actually was.
July 13, 1985 was the day. Kicking off in Wembley at 1 p.m. local time with the Prince and Princess of Wales’ arrival and the Status Quo, the first few hours were devoted to the Wembley concert. JFK Stadium began in earnest after Paul Young performed. Bryan Adams kicked off the festivities, followed closely by U2 at Wembley and, proving their relevance, the quintessentially American band, the Beach Boys. Even Brian Wilson — crazy, Dr. Eugene Landy-influenced Brian Wilson — performed “Wouldn’t It Be Nice” in front of 100,000 people.
Queen, giving possibly their greatest live performance, made 72,000 people pound out the beat to “We Will Rock You.” David Bowie, Mick Jagger, Sting, Madonna… these were and are giants who came out in support of famine relief. Ultimately, there were nine countries (INXS and Midnight Oil at a sister concert in Australia, B.B. King in Holland) who participated in Geldof’s dream.
Live Aid was a massive success, bringing in about $283,000,000. There was enough to hire nine freighters that brought 100,000 tons of relief to Africa. Three ships set sail every week with medicine, food, and clothing. But Geldof’s idealism sadly clashed with geopolitics. According to the DVD booklet of the concert, for every $1 spent on aid, another $2 was taken in unfair trade.
Reality has not deterred Geldof, organizing the Live 8 concert in 2005. He stated, in 1985, “to die of want in a world of surplus is not only intellectually absurd, it is morally repulsive.” Imitator concerts, like Farm Aid and Live Earth, supporting causes such as American farmers and water sustainability sprang up, but without as much a mark as Live Aid. Geldof returned to Band Aid in 1989, when he re-recorded “Do They Know It’s Christmas” using the stars of the day, like Kylie Minogue, Wet Wet Wet, and Lisa Stansfield. It outsold Madonna’s “Like A Prayer” in the UK.
Geldof did not want the concert recorded; the only reason I’m watching it today is because some people stashed B-roll footage and tapes in the BBC and at MTV. Eventually, he relented to release it on DVD, with the caveat that the proceeds go to The Band Aid Trust, which still exists as a registered charity.
My cousin Mike is no longer with us. He never made it to the 25th anniversary, much less this year’s 30th. But every time I watch the Style Council, or Spandau Ballet, or Howard Jones, I think of him. Most of us have demons inside us, and a pop song can temporarily alleviate our trauma. When I sat down this year to watch the concert again, I couldn’t help but think of those days where the love of music bonded us together in front of MTV and the lessons he taught me. Music can cure almost everything. Bob Geldof and I believe that. Call us both idealists, but we believe that.
