The Boomtown Rats star announced yet another exciting project to follow the 40th anniversary of the legendary concert as it approaches.
Bob Geldof looked back on the legacy of Live Aid 40 years on insisting there was still more work to be done – as he launched a musical telling the remarkable story and a new album. The 73-year-old, who organised the original 1985 event alongside singer Midge Ure, reunited at Wembley Stadium today.
It was where it all started, when icons like David Bowie, Queen with Freddie Mercury and Elton John took to the stage to raise funds for the famine in Ethiopia. Bob says the charity still has so much work to do, as he announced the Just for One Day – The Live Aid Musical album. “We wake up every day with 10 or 12 emails dictating the latest horror from the hungry lands,” he said.
READ MORE: Bob Geldof insists Queen had nothing to do with the success of Live Aid
“We couldn’t possibly know that 40 years down the track that the issue would be as vital. The world and it’s emotional bandwidth with Gaza and Ukraine and Trump and all that evil and accept that in Sudan 2.5m are being forced to starve as an instrument of war because America has decided not to send any grain, then 5 million people in Africa are in peril of their lives from AIDS because Trump has decided that’s not fun anymore.”
The Boomtown Rats star told Radio 1 host Jo Whiley, “Wembley doesn’t look any different, looking around Wembley Stadium.” Although it appeared shiny and new, it still looks awful.
He said he wasn’t entirely convinced of the idea at first but was blown away by the performance when he spoke at the launch of the musical Just For One Day, which tells the story of the Live Aid concerts taking place in the US’s national football stadium in London and Philadelphia. He admitted, “I was mortified as I read the script.” You’re reading a version of yourself, I tell you.
Midge agreed, “I went to see the Old Vic show.” I entered as a jaded, obedient old rock star anticipating cheese.
However, both men described how impressed they were by what they saw. The musical is remarkable, according to Bob. Its political relevance is what makes it unique, in my opinion. People used to understand, but now it’s about Freddie and everything else. The musical offers a contemporary perspective on the subject.
“When you hear (The Who’s) My Generation sung like that. I took Pete Townshend to see the show. He couldn’t imagine his song, which is beyond at anthem… He clutched my knee and I knew he was thinking ‘Should I record it like that?’”
Midge added: “One song in particular jumped out for me. Bob Dylan’s Blowing In The Wind. The interpretation was phenomenal and it changed my option of what musicals and theatres could be. Fred and Ginger was all I could conjure up. The passion they have equals the passion of the artists on the day. This is a different way of getting the message out, which is incredibly important.”
The Old Vic hosted the musical’s premiere last year. It has so far raised £600,000 for the Band Aid Charitable Trust, and it is anticipated to have raised more than £1 million by the year’s end.
The musical “presents” the idea of what people could do together in a different generation,” Bob said. It’s another jukebox musical, I read somewhere. It’s true, dude! That is the name of it. It was repeatedly hit. The result is to bring that sense from 40 years ago to life and relevance. And that is what it accomplishes.
On May 15, the Band Aid Charitable Trust will receive 10% of the proceeds from Just For One Day’s return to London’s Shaftesbury Theatre. The album will be released on July 11 in preparation for Live Aid’s 40th anniversary on July 13.
Source: Mirror
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