Saturday, July 13, 1985, will forevermore be often known as one of many greatest days in music historical past. Bob Geldof, the scruffy, scrappy frontman of The Boomtown Rats, strongarmed artists, venues, satellite tv for pc firms, and even heads of state into taking part in a large live performance occasion to lift cash to fight a catastrophic famine in Ethiopia.
Over a 16-hour broadcast, Reside Support, break up between Wembley Stadium in London and JFK Stadium in Philadelphia, introduced in over US$125 million in humanitarian assist from a world TV viewers estimated at 1.9 billion — almost 40 per cent of the world’s inhabitants — in 150 nations, together with the Soviet Union. Queen’s 20-minute set is broadly considered one of many biggest of all time. Bono’s dancing with a girl from the viewers is now thought of iconic. And Phil Collins jetting by way of Concorde to look on each levels? Loopy.
There has by no means been, nor could there ever be once more, a extra highly effective demonstration of how music could be a highly effective agent for social and political change. Nearly 40 years later, folks nonetheless speak about Reside Support. And the discuss has been rekindled, due to a brand new musical based mostly on the occasion referred to as Simply For One Day (sure, the title is from the Bowie track, Heroes.) It follows a number of characters who keep in mind that day and intertwines real-life occasions with over 30 songs carried out at Reside Support.
After a run on the Outdated Vic in London’s West Finish (the opinions had been good), the manufacturing’s subsequent cease is the Mirvish Theatre in Toronto from Jan. 26 to March 25, 2025. Geldof was in Toronto to speak concerning the manufacturing. I sat down with Bob for about half an hour. And Bob being Bob, I received in precisely two questions throughout that point. Right here’s a gently summarized model of our chat.
Alan Cross: You by no means struck me as a fan of musical theatre.
Bob Geldof: Nicely, in the event you’re a Catholic, you could have your affirmation at 11. My dad took me on my affirmation deal with to see South Pacific and it blew me away. I received it. I actually like Oklahoma. I’m a phrases man. I tune into phrases first and the phrases are so sensible [Bob quotes back a bunch of lyrics from Oklahoma]. After which West Facet Story was simply phenomenally good. Why wouldn’t I be into [musical theatre]? What I’m not into is stuff like Cats. That form of nonsense doesn’t do it for me.
AC: Relating to Reside Support — the precise occasion — lots of people right now don’t understand how massive of an occasion that was. We in ’85 hardly ever received to see our heroes, particularly if we had been within the hinterlands. Reside Support was transformative as a result of expertise allowed us to see our folks.
BG: That’s completely key. Rock ‘n’ roll is a perform of expertise. Elvis and Little Richard wouldn’t have communicated if not for the brand new whiz-bang transistor radios. Six years later, in comes these 4 younger [men] who don’t perceive why they need to be deferential. So that you abruptly received by way of your TV in a really black-and-white, still-bankrupt, postwar Britain … color! Optimism and pleasure.
The Rolling Stones! There’s no WAY they’d have damaged by way of with that racket [without television]! Pure punk! Utter contemptuous insolence simply staring out at you from the display! Trying bizarre, you recognize? However all of us received it concurrently. That’s primarily the story for Band Support and Reside Support.
As I watched that information clip on the 6 o’clock BBC information [reporter Michael Buerk’s story on the Ethiopian famine], I assumed this calls for one thing of the self.
The Boomtown Rats had been off the boil. There’s Duran Duran, Spandau Ballet, Boy George, Eurythmics. I’m not assured successful, so why don’t I get these guys — who I knew, as a result of my missus [Paula Yates] was the host of the rock present of the hour, The Tube. So I referred to as her and requested, “Who’s there?” Fortunately, there was Midge [Ure, the future co-writer of the Band-Aid song Do They Know It’s Christmas]. And that’s how that started. A perform of expertise.
[After a trip to Africa after the Band-Aid project, Geldof was shocked to find that none of the grain purchased with the funds raised could get to the people who needed it because a cartel was holding up the trucks.]
I went again to the Band Support belief and reported on the journey. “I feel we must always do a live performance” [to raise money for the trust to buy its own trucks]. I started to enter Bob Mode. All of a sudden, the world might hearken to these things. A perform of expertise. “If we do it globally,” I mentioned, “then we will do that.”
I learn that the LA Olympics was the one Olympics that made cash, so let’s get the man who did the LA Olympics. I received ahold of him and I mentioned, “That is what I wish to do. Are there sufficient satellites?” They mentioned, “Nicely, there are however lots of them belong to the navy and there are quite a lot of secret ones up there.” After which I mentioned, “Can we get them?”
I went to dinner with the president of France [François Mitterrand] at Elysée Palace, such as you do, and I mentioned, “Mr. President, France has a satellite tv for pc over central Africa that I wish to be in on this. I actually need Africa to be concerned on this, to know that they’re not alone.” He goes, “Nicely, I don’t know if we’ve received satellites.” So this common was referred to as in who mentioned “Non, non, non! Cette unattainable!” Then Mitterand mentioned, “Common, I’m your president. The query is, ‘Do we’ve got satellites that function over central Africa?” The man mentioned, “Sure, Mr. President, we do.” “Bob wish to use them for twenty-four hours.”
—
Get each day Nationwide information
Get the day’s prime information, political, financial, and present affairs headlines, delivered to your inbox as soon as a day.
So always remember what that is. In our world, it’s about this nice second of music when the best acts ever did their biggest songs ever and carried out method over their norm. And it’s reverberated down by way of the years.
We — properly, he — spoke for a while after this, ultimately shifting to Reside Eight, one other international live performance occasion that happened in 2006. He additionally hinted at extra fortieth anniversary Reside Support occasions coming in 2025 plus a celebration of The Boomtown Rats’ fiftieth anniversary.
Tickets for Only for One Day go on sale Monday, Oct. 7, at 10 a.m. ET.
—
Alan Cross is a broadcaster with Q107 and 102.1 the Edge and a commentator for International Information.
Subscribe to Alan’s Ongoing Historical past of New Music Podcast now on Apple Podcast or Google Play
© 2024 International Information, a division of Corus Leisure Inc.
