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Sonicbond Publishing [Publication date 30.08.24]
Although the fortieth(!) anniversary of Live Aid is next July, this book by Andrew Wild gets in early on any anniversary events/books and is a great way to jog the memories of those who were lucky enough to be either at Wembley or Philadelphia, or like this reviewer watching all day on the BBC. Another good reason in invest in this book is that all author royalties and publisher profits from the sale of this book will go to The Live Aid Trust.
On Saturday, 13 July 1985, just before noon in London, 7 am in Philadelphia, and around the world, it was time for Live Aid. This pair of huge concerts had been arranged in fewer than four months by Bob Geldof of The Boomtown Rats. The day would feature sixteen hours of music, seventy-plus artists and close to two hundred songs. These concerts were watched by a huge global audience and raised millions of pounds for the starving in Ethiopia.
The author goes through the whole day on both sides of the Atlantic, detailing the acts and which songs they performed and adds in archive interviews with the artists in some cases, plus those of the presenters Mark Ellen and Andy Kershaw. He also adds a little bit of what happened post-Live Aid for each act.
There were also concerts happening that day in Moscow, Blegrade, Cologne, Graz, the Hague (which featured blues icon BB King), Tokyo and Norway’s Live Aid song ‘Stavanger For Africa’, whose contribution the author surmises with a deadpan sentence, ‘It’s for a good cause’. Indeed, these one liners surmise the likes of the Thompson Twins ‘they do win the prize for the biggest haircuts’, who had a less than successful set at Live Aid, to great and witty effect.
The show stealing set by Queen is covered, as are the day’s other big winners on stage including U2 and David Bowie. You can even find out who performed first at Live Aid, and no, it wasn’t Status Quo (Francis Rossi and Rick Parfitt crop up throughout the day and the book). The less said about the ramshackle Led Zeppelin the reunion the better!
Shame we rock fans had to stay up late here in the UK to catch the likes of REO Speedwagon, Rick Springfield, the Hooters and Judas Priest, who were shown late into the night from performances recorded earlier in the day in Philadelphia.
Andrew Wild has written a perfect reminder of a momentous day in both musical and fundraising terms. ****
Review by Jason Ritchie
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