Forty years ago, Live Aid, the largest concert ever organised, brought together a host of stars in London and Philadelphia to raise funds for famine relief in Ethiopia, spearheaded by Bob Geldof of the Boomtown Rats, who also initiated Band Aid and the hit “Do They Know It’s Christmas?”
Following the success of “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” in late 1984, Bob Geldof ambitiously planned a global charity mega-concert. This resulted in Live Aid: a concert at London’s Wembley Stadium, followed hours later by another concert at Philadelphia’s JFK Stadium.
On 13 July 1985, at noon, Prince Charles and Princess Diana inaugurated the first concert before an audience of 72,000 at Wembley. The stage hosted acts such as Dire Straits, Elvis Costello, Sade, Sting, Phil Collins, Bryan Ferry with David Gilmour on guitar, U2, The Who, Elton John, Paul McCartney, David Bowie, and Queen.
In Philadelphia, about 90,000 gathered at JFK Stadium for performances by Joan Baez, Billy Ocean, Black Sabbath, Run-DMC, Bryan Adams, The Beach Boys, Simple Minds, Santana, Madonna, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, Duran Duran, and Mick Jagger, among others. Eric Clapton and Led Zeppelin were joined on stage by Phil Collins, who had swiftly flown from London to the US on the Concorde. Bob Dylan, with The Rolling Stones’ Keith Richards and Ronnie Wood, closed the show.
Ultimately, Live Aid was watched by two billion viewers in over 100 countries, raising $127 million for the cause.
