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The Latest Breaking News from Live Aid

Charting protest pop: How music can bring about change

The 1980s was a period of profound popularity for political pop. Now, 40 years later, it’s what we desperately need again

The National (Scotland)

Bob Geldof was left 'mortified' when he read the script for the Live Aid musical

Bob Geldof was left "mortified" when he read the script for the Live Aid musical, but wanted to make sure that it still remained "pertinent" in the current political climate.

BANG Premier

"It better not be s**t!" Producer reveals Bob Geldof's words of warning ahead of the recording of new album from the cast of Live Aid musical Just For One Day

Just For One Day - The Live Aid Musical (Original Cast Recording) will features covers of timeless anthems from artists who made history at 1985's legendary Live Aid concert

Louder

From analysis to the latest developments in health,
read the most diverse news in one place.

‘We created a monster’: Midge Ure reflects on Live Aid as musical heads to West End

Ahead of a London theatre run in May, Ultravox singer says 1985 charity gig probably couldn’t happen today because of low attention spans

The Guardian - UK

Bob Geldof says he's 'blue in the face' hearing Freddie Mercury's Live Aid performance with Queen

The musician and activist was at Wembley for the launch of Just for One Day - The Live Aid musical ahead of it’s West End opening

Evening Standard

Bob Geldof says another Live Aid event is ‘unlikely’ because of social media

The singer was speaking at a launch event at Wembley Stadium for Just For One Day, a musical about the charity event.

Evening Standard

‘They didn’t call us for Live Aid’: the stars behind Black Britain’s forgotten charity record

In 1985, a star-studded lineup of Black UK musicians, including Aswad, Dennis Brown and Janet Kay, recorded a charity single to raise funds for famine-stricken Ethiopia. Why are their efforts so little known?

The Guardian - UK

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“I had a dreadful hangover, so I put my dark glasses on and we played Children Of The Grave, Iron Man and Paranoid”: What happened when Black Sabbath reunited for one day only at Live Aid 1985

Back To The Beginning won’t be the first time Black Sabbath’s founding lineup briefly got back together to raise money for charity…

Metal Hammer

“The Edge is multiple echoes and jangling guitars… I’m not convinced… I don’t want to burst the Edge’s bubble”: Midge Ure talks The Edge missing Band Aid and his Thin Lizzy baptism of fire

Plus nearly joining the Sex Pistols and why Lizzy didn’t play Live Aid

MusicRadar

“Phil Lynott said, ‘Gary Moore is out the band. Could you come over tomorrow?’ My initial reaction was, ’I’m not the guy you should be asking’”: When Midge Ure joined Thin Lizzy on a make-or-break US tour, he had just one day’s notice and no rehearsals

The Live Aid orchestrator and Ultravox synth-pop pioneer looks back at his trial by fire with Thin Lizzy, swapping out his Yamaha electric because it wasn’t cool enough, refusing to join the Sex Pistols, and how The Edge might have changed Band Aid’s charity single

Guitar World

“They just asked me if I wanted to join – they hadn’t asked if I actually play”: Thin Lizzy guitarist and Live Aid mastermind Midge Ure was asked to join the Sex Pistols – but he didn’t think twice about turning them down

Ure claims he was scouted for his look by Pistols manager Malcolm McLaren and his punk co-conspirator (and later, the Clash manager) Bernard Rhodes

Guitar World

Live Aid campaigner Bob Geldof was ‘scathing about African leaders’, files reveal

Singer urged Tony Blair not to appoint African co-chair to commission on aid, UK government papers show

The Guardian - UK

“I just keep forgetting it”: Watch Phil Collins work out his drum part for Do They Know It’s Christmas in 40-year-old footage

A new documentary sheds light on the genius performance that you may not have noticed

MusicRadar

OPINION - I am sick of people criticising Band Aid — this is why they're completely wrong

“Do they know it’s Christmas?” Fuse ODG (real name Nana Richard Obiana) turned down the offer to take part in the 30th anniversary of the original song in 2014 which was to be refashioned to raise money for the Ebola crisis. He says: “I pointed out to Geldof the lyrics…

Evening Standard

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The Independent UK

Live Aid promoter dismisses ‘woke do-gooders’ questioning Band Aid after Ed Sheeran statement

Harvey Goldsmith’s comments come after Sheeran said he had changed his stance on the charity single ‘Do They Know It’s Christmas?’

The Conversation

Band Aid at 40: how the problematic Christmas hit changed the charity sector

In November 1984, BBC journalist Michael Buerk presented a series of dispatches from the small town of Korem in northern Ethiopia. He described the scenes he encountered as a famine of “biblical proportions” and that aid workers in the region had told him it was “the closest thing to hell…

MusicRadar

"Still stands as a rebuke to that period in which it was first heard": Bob Geldof announces new remixed version of Do They Know It’s Christmas for single’s 40th anniversary

But how effective will it be as a fundraiser?

The Guardian - UK

Band Aid’s Do They Know It’s Christmas? reissued as all-star mashup – including three generations of Bono

Fortieth-anniversary edition is spliced together by Trevor Horn from previous versions of the song, including snippets of George Michael, Ed Sheeran and more

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The Guardian - UK

Wrangling with Abba, risking jail for the Stone Roses … the lawyer behind pop’s big spats

John Kennedy sparred with the Swedes over Mamma Mia! and took on the Rolling Stones for Richard Ashcroft – he tells us why he’s still arguing with Bob Geldof after 40 years

Newcastle Herald

Enjoy an evening with Bob Geldof at Newcastle's Civic Theatre

The Live Aid founder is touring Australia in March.

MusicRadar

“I got one minute to try something I’ve always wanted to try”: Paramore’s Hayley Williams channels Freddie Mercury at Live Aid with call-and-response vocal routine at Wembley during Taylor Swift Eras Tour show

“Ayyyyyyyy-ohhhhhhhhhhh!”

MusicRadar

“I’m sitting on the bus aware that someone behind me is singing Do They Know It’s Christmas?”: Nik Kershaw recalls his “insane” encounter with David Bowie at Live Aid

“I remember sitting in the Royal Box watching Queen do their thing and thinking ‘people are going to remember this. This is a bit special’”

MusicRadar

"We’re thinking, why would we do someone else’s song? Why can’t you take one of our songs?": How Simple Minds' Don't You (Forget About Me) eventually became the perfect meeting of worlds – but two other stars turned it down first

They didn't want to record Keith Forsey's song, but it became a US No. 1 for the Glasgow band via The Breakfast Club and fan John Hughes

The Guardian - UK

The week in theatre: Dear Octopus; The Picture of Dorian Gray; Just for One Day – review

Lindsay Duncan and co create a living period piece in Dodie Smith’s rarely performed marvel of a family portrait; Sarah Snook’s one-woman Wilde is so wrong it’s almost right; and the music carries a tame Live Aid nostalgiafest

The Guardian - UK

Live Aid promoter announces global concerts to tackle climate crisis

Harvey Goldsmith’s Earth Aid Live set to last 10 years and take place across multiple cities and continents, with lineups still to be announced

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