Live Aid founder's rallying call 40 years on from iconic concert - 'It's up to you now'

A mastermind of the biggest concert in history, which raised over £150million for famine relief, said the cause is just as important today. Today, Live Aidorganisers Midge Ure and Bob Geldof will mark the 40th anniversary of the two-venue event at Wembley and Philadelphia.

The pair, along with Live Aid performers U2's Bono, Queen's Brian May and Chrissie Hynde, will attend a matinee of Just For One Day: The Live Aid Musical at London’s Shaftesbury Theatre. Midge, 71, said: “It’s a story that’s as important now as it was 40 years ago. We’re living in an incredibly uncertain, scary world.” He said it’s nearly time for him and Bob to “hand the baton to the next generation”.

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Live Aid, described as the greatest show on Earth,and 1984’s charity single Do They Know It’s Christmas? were sparked by famine in Ethiopia, which claimed up to 1.2 million lives. Performances from some of the biggest names in music, including Queen, George Michael and David Bowie, were beamed around the world.

Midge still cannot believe what they achieved. “It’s a ridiculous story,” he smiled. “If you sat down and wrote it as a Hollywood script, it wouldn’t ring true. But it has been. You know, a couple of dodgy musicians get together, write a song, galvanise all these people who felt something, felt the need, the desire and the empathy to help someone else. It gave them a vehicle to kind of latch onto.

“This is a story about hope. We did do something quite incredible. We did change politics, we changed people’s opinions, we changed laws. That’s just incredible.”

He praised Bob’s dogged attitude - and said “the planet needs people like Bob”. “Realistically, wouldn’t it be lovely if we had more people who were as motivated as he is, as driven as he is, and as knowledgeable about the subject as he is?” he said.

“He hasn’t stopped doing this. I was kind of unscathed coming out of Band Aid and Live Aid. I’m still a trustee, I’m still there, I’m still doing my bit. I was allowed to go back into being a musician.

"I was allowed to go back on tour. Bob was seen as a spokesman for youth, seen as a quasi-politician. He was in the UN, he was lambasting Margaret Thatcher. We need people who just don’t hear the word no, can’t, won’t, shouldn’t, couldn’t.”

Continuing their fundraising work through the musical Just For One Day, Midge said he never dreamed it would get to this point. “We’d never anticipated that something like this could happen,” said Midge.

“But this will get across to an audience that wouldn’t, wouldn’t normally go to rock concerts or engage. So maybe young people will walk out of this and go, ‘You know, I can do something. It’s not impossible.’” Issuing a rallying call to the next generation, he said: “It’s up to you now."

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