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Live Aid at 40 When Rock 'n' Roll Took on the World Season 1 Episode 2
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00:00It's 12 noon in London, 7 a.m. in Philadelphia, and around the world it's time for Live Aid.
00:0840 years ago, music brought the world together to fight a famine in Ethiopia.
00:1532 million human beings dying of hunger in a world of surplus food,
00:21and it's this simple thing that drives me nuts.
00:26It all began with a song.
00:28The most remarkable number one ever. It sold a million in a week.
00:33Well, that's more than any other record in the history of music.
00:37It inspired Live Aid, one of the biggest global events in history.
00:42To be honest, it seemed a harebrained scheme. It seemed like this could never happen.
00:45I remember the stadium shaking.
00:48I was singing my face off, honey.
00:5020 years on, Live Aid challenged leaders of the world's richest countries
00:58to address the causes of poverty in Africa.
01:01People say, why in the hell are we going to spend money over in Africa
01:04and we've got road problems in my state?
01:06I said to Bob, I'll do the politics, you do the public.
01:09Nothing can ever repair the damage, colonisation, slavery, dead, nothing.
01:18But this was demonstrating what we could do.
01:21I'm not an admirer of dead.
01:23I'm more an admirer of what we can do for ourselves.
01:28This is the story of how a pop song inspired a movement
01:34that secured tens of billions of pounds for Africa.
01:37You can't change the world with a song or even a concert,
01:42but you can plant a seed.
01:50Bob Geldof announces his newest and biggest idea
01:54to help victims of the African famine.
01:56The band-aid record money was dwindling.
02:26Bob came in and said, I've got this idea
02:29and he announced the idea of Live Aid.
02:32I think we all thought it was technically impossible.
02:34This was a shock.
02:36One of the trustees whispered in my ear,
02:39Kennedy, he's mad.
02:41You have to stop him.
02:43We do not know anything about putting on concerts,
02:47but Bob knows a man who does.
02:48He brings Harvey Goldsmith into the trustees' meeting,
02:53one of the most successful promoters of all time.
02:56Bob asked me to come to a meeting of the Band-Aid Trust
03:00and just announced we're doing the concert.
03:02Harvey's doing it.
03:03See you later.
03:05Bob realised that he wasn't going to get enough global traction
03:09if we just did one concert.
03:11I needed something equal in the United States.
03:16If we had it on two continents,
03:18then we united Band-Aid and USA for Africa
03:21and that brought in those two countries.
03:24So for me it had to be the two,
03:27but also it had to be a spectacular.
03:29I stepped back and said, he's barking mad.
03:32How do we do that?
03:34Because that had never been done before.
03:36I've never seen in all my working life
03:41as many press that turned up
03:43for this gathering in the ballroom of Wembley Stadium.
03:48I kept saying to Bob, what are we going to say?
03:52At that stage, I can't really remember who we had.
03:57I listed a bunch of people who we'd probably talk to.
04:02The people taking part will be
04:06Brian Adams, Adam Ant, the Boomtown Rats,
04:12David Bowie, the Cars, Queen.
04:15I literally kept kicking himself.
04:16No, you can't say that.
04:17No, you can't say that.
04:18No, we don't know about this.
04:20No, we don't know about that.
04:21And about five minutes ago, we heard some wonderful news
04:24and that is that The Who,
04:26one of the greatest bands ever in rock music,
04:28are reforming specifically for this event.
04:32No, we weren't getting back together.
04:36It was blackmail, really.
04:38He was bullying because he believed
04:39that it was something that he passionately felt needed to be done.
04:43I don't think he would deny that he bullied us into doing it.
04:47I sort of winged it because of the Band-Aid record
04:50and the USA for Africa record.
04:53So I was absolutely certain that, you know,
04:57a good 80% of those guys would show up on the day,
05:00in which case we have got a serious concert going on.
05:04If I had done that, I'd be sued.
05:06I'd be short.
05:07I'd be, you know, a bit bald doing it.
05:09He got away with it.
05:11Box officers in London have been besieged
05:13by fans queuing for the tickets despite their £25 price tag.
05:18How much of the money do you think will actually reach Ethiopia then?
05:21I should imagine the majority of it.
05:23But, I mean, I wouldn't pay it if I didn't think it was going.
05:25No, I wouldn't pay 25 quid if it wasn't going to most of Ethiopia.
05:29Coming here for the music or for the charity?
05:32For charity and the music.
05:3525 quid is what the money is spent.
05:36Why are you doing that?
05:37Because I want to see David Bowie.
05:39That's it?
05:40You don't really care about the charity?
05:41You just want to see him?
05:42Well, not particularly, no.
05:43It's more, I find, sort of, I just want to see David Bowie.
05:47It's to be approved by either me or Mike Mitchell.
05:51I first came in contact with Bob through a mutual friend.
05:57This friend had known what I had done at the Olympics
06:00and knew what Bob was trying to do.
06:03You've got to put it in perspective
06:05from where people are coming from in 1985.
06:08In the Olympics, we have one location, L.A.,
06:14three satellites going to the world.
06:17In this particular broadcast,
06:20we would be drawing from seven locations
06:22using 16 satellites
06:24and mixing and going all back to the world.
06:27So, it had never been done.
06:30I didn't know enough that it was impossible.
06:33No one had ever had 16 hours of anything on television.
06:37Even the Olympics weren't that long.
06:40Band-Aid's inspiration now spends 20 hours a day on the phone.
06:43See, the point is that for the first time,
06:47the whole world is linked physically through electronics.
06:51Its organizers say it will be broadcast live
06:53to more than 150 countries.
06:56In charge is Bob Geldof,
06:57who also put together the Band-Aid project.
07:00He joins us live from London this morning.
07:02Good morning, Bob.
07:03And here in New York is a veteran rock promoter, Bill Graham,
07:06who's in charge of promoting next week's sold-out concert in Philadelphia.
07:09Good morning, gentlemen.
07:10Good to have you both here.
07:10There were some complaints that a lot of black performers
07:14were not as involved in this whole production
07:17as there should have been.
07:18In fact, only 10% were black performers.
07:20Any reason for that?
07:21I think that's why you're off.
07:23Yeah, go ahead.
07:24Go ahead.
07:25Well, we asked everybody.
07:27I mean, we asked Michael Jackson.
07:29We asked Lionel Richie.
07:30We asked Anna Ross.
07:31We asked Prince.
07:33We asked the biggest stars.
07:35You asked everyone.
07:36We asked the biggest stars there are.
07:38I couldn't understand why all those people
07:42who were concerned about the issue at USA for Africa,
07:48where were they?
07:49Everyone had their own reason.
07:52Politically speaking, yeah.
07:55Philosophically speaking, who knows?
07:58I mean, I didn't have a chance to meet with Mike or Stevie.
08:00I made a conscious decision at the very last minute
08:03to get on the plane and go
08:04because I just felt it was necessary to do it.
08:06A journalist who suggests there should be more black performers
08:09on the bill at Wembley gets short shrift.
08:12And I don't care if they're orange, luminous pink, or green.
08:16The object is to stop people dying.
08:19This was a global event.
08:21Very good reasons why it should be happening.
08:24What Bob Geldof was doing is coming from a good place,
08:28but it's coming from a very kind of white paternalistic place,
08:31and we were unhappy with that.
08:33If you're putting on events of this nature for people in Africa,
08:37it would seem to me to make sense
08:39that you would include artists of colour from this country.
08:44If there had been a black British artist,
08:48if there had been a Stormzy back then,
08:51that's the change in the culture,
08:52that's the change in the society here.
08:54If there had been anything like that,
08:57I'd have been on my knees begging.
09:00There simply wasn't.
09:01What he was doing at that time,
09:03there's no way a Stormzy could ever have come through.
09:06But there were some black artists,
09:08as I've said at the time, who were big.
09:10Five Star, Imagination, Still Pulse,
09:14were a very kind of political group at the time.
09:16Asward.
09:18What about so-and-so?
09:19Yes, but they weren't selling records.
09:21We'd have got whoever was selling millions.
09:26This is an entirely practical, logical endeavour.
09:33How do we stop as many people dying as humanly possible?
09:40It's the most ambitious pop project ever attempted.
09:43If everything goes to plan,
09:45up to 1,500 million people will see the show beamed live
09:49through 11 satellites from more than 100 countries.
09:53We have this television running order
09:55which dictates things to the minute and a half kind of thing,
09:58and that's not rock and roll.
09:59Rock and roll never works to the minute and a half.
10:02Rock and roll works when they're ready.
10:05Each group has its own equipment,
10:07so a revolving stage is being built,
10:09so two groups can set up and tear down
10:11while a third performs.
10:12If that stage behind me is actually finished for Saturday,
10:17I think a few people are going to be well and truly surprised.
10:20Scores of workers are putting together the stage.
10:22It's 140 feet across.
10:25There's eight tonnes of scaffolding involved,
10:27two huge video screens either side,
10:30and there's some five miles of cabling behind that stage work.
10:34Just dealing with the technology
10:36of how to dovetail two shows in,
10:39where everybody can see it,
10:42where we can show what's going on in Philadelphia
10:44over here and vice versa,
10:46and keeping the timings together,
10:47which is a nightmare.
10:49I had no idea whether they were going to get our pictures
10:52or we were going to get their pictures.
10:54Even the experts didn't have a clue
10:56whether it was going to work or not.
10:58This scene here at Wembley is by no means unique
11:00because, of course, all this activity
11:02is being duplicated in Philadelphia.
11:04This is the biggest stage ever built for a rock concert.
11:07It's 100 feet high,
11:09300 feet wide, the size of a football field,
11:12and it even revolves,
11:14allowing one band the time to set up
11:16while another band performs.
11:18There's not a little voice in the back of your head
11:20that's regretting starting all this.
11:22I know that it's a tremendously good cause,
11:24but regretting you being up front and carrying the cab.
11:27I don't mind that.
11:29Because if you fail, it's not from want of trying.
11:32Radio 1 will be in FM stereo
11:41in simultaneous broadcast with BBC TV.
11:46And to get the best effect,
11:48you should switch your receivers to FM stereo 88 to 90.2 megahertz
11:53and position the speakers on either side of the television set
11:56a few feet away.
11:58And, of course, you can use stereo headphones if you want.
12:02The time is coming up to 12 noon.
12:06I'm sorry to interrupt.
12:07We have to go.
12:08We're just chatting.
12:09We just all have to wait.
12:11It's 12 noon in London, 7 a.m. in Philadelphia,
12:16and around the world, it's time for Live Aid,
12:2016 hours of live music in aid of famine relief in Africa.
12:24And now, to start the 16 hours of Live Aid,
12:28would you welcome Status Quo?
12:32Outcomes Quo.
12:34And what does Rossi say?
12:38He walks out and he goes,
12:39It was so perfect, you know,
12:48so rock and roll, you know.
12:52All right.
12:53And then...
12:54The moment the panic lifted for me,
13:17the way physically I can still feel it now,
13:19was when Status Quo started.
13:21Prince Charles says,
13:34Hey, have you picked these chicks?
13:39And then I said,
13:40Well, sir, status quo.
13:42And I said,
13:44They are archetypal rock and roll.
13:48And I said,
13:50Well, you know, long hair,
13:52denims.
13:53What do you think about what's going on here today?
14:05That's brilliant.
14:06One at a time.
14:07You.
14:07Brilliant.
14:08It's really, really good.
14:10Why?
14:11Because it's all the group.
14:12It's just wonderful.
14:13Wonderful.
14:14Wonderful.
14:14Lovely.
14:15You can fuck off home there.
14:17You're finished, right?
14:18It was great.
14:26Just wish we could have been on there a bit longer.
14:27It all went too quickly.
14:30One to Simon,
14:31saying something like,
14:32Your dad's great.
14:33To Phil.
14:35I love all these instructions on what has to be written.
14:37To Simon, right?
14:38To Phil.
14:39Is it grain or is it transport that this money's going to be spent on?
14:43Oh, everything.
14:44Drilling wells, planting trees, transport, medicine, shelter.
14:48I'm off.
14:48I know you've got to go on stage.
14:50And here now is the band that's led by the man who was the spark,
14:54Bob Geldof and the Boomtown Rats.
14:57The size of this, the enormity of this,
15:12hadn't struck me.
15:20Like, everyone I've ever said hello to in my life,
15:26or just nodded to,
15:28is conceivably watching this.
15:31That's mad.
15:31That doesn't happen to people.
15:33The second chip inside her head
15:38Gets switched to overload
15:41And nobody's gonna go to school today
15:45She's gonna make them stay at home
15:49There's a build-up to that line.
15:52They can see no reasons because there are no reasons.
15:55No reasons, what reasons do you need?
15:59Oh, whoa, whoa, whoa, tell me why
16:02And bang, suddenly the line I'm going to sing now
16:06That's fucking mad.
16:08Soon we'll be learning and the lesson today
16:11Is how'd you die?
16:17There is literally no reason why these human beings
16:21should die or need to die.
16:25We live in a world of surplus food.
16:27Thank you very much.
16:32I've just realized today is the best day of my life.
16:36You might have heard Bob say,
16:38I just realized this is the best day of my life
16:42and I gotta think it just might be.
16:44Of course, and musically,
16:45this is the best day of all of our lives.
16:47Coming up this morning,
16:48Sting, Phil Collins, their whole set.
16:51We won't be cutting away.
16:53Stay with us.
16:53And the figure of money
16:54raised and pledged in Britain
16:56£228,000 so far.
16:58People were starting to give money.
17:00They were dribbling.
17:01It was a new, you know,
17:03I think most of the people watching on TV
17:05didn't really know what to do
17:07as much as we kept telling them.
17:17I'll make sure there's some up there.
17:20There's Billy.
17:22It's probably in the room.
17:26Every breath you take
17:28Every move you make
17:32Every vow you break
17:35Every step you take
17:37I'll be watching you
17:39Every single day
17:44I'd just broken up with the police,
17:47so I wasn't going to be with the police,
17:50but I said I'd do it on my own.
17:53And then Bob teamed me and Phil Collins up together.
17:57Oh, can't you see
17:59Because he was on his own too.
18:00Johnny No-Mates.
18:01You belong to me
18:03Because Bob had been so successful
18:06with his first project
18:08Usually successful
18:09I thought, okay
18:11He thought that would work
18:13Let's see if this works.
18:15Since you're gone
18:16I'll be lost with all our dreams
18:19I dream that I can only see your face
18:23Crowd in a bit.
18:24Hello, Dave.
18:24How do you two lads come together
18:25to collaborate on this one?
18:28I don't know how we did it.
18:30I don't know.
18:31What are you doing here, anyway?
18:32I don't know.
18:33You know, we actually
18:33I was going to do it
18:35and Sting was going to do it
18:36and we just decided
18:36that it makes sense
18:37to do it a bit together, you know.
18:38Right.
18:39Make it look a bit more organised.
18:40We reversed on the telephone.
18:42I had a reversal over the telephone
18:43and that was it.
18:44Didn't want to be over-reversed.
18:46No.
18:47No, you shouldn't be, really.
18:47I'll be watching you
18:50And then for some reason
18:52he got on Concorde
18:53and went to America.
18:56I got on to British Airways
18:58and said,
18:58I've got the most fantastic idea for you
19:02to promote Concorde.
19:03If you're watching TV
19:05there's actually a helicopter
19:06landing very near the Bage area
19:09and Phil Collins
19:10will be jumping into that
19:10to fly off to America
19:11and take part in that end of it
19:13in a little while as well.
19:14Listen, whose idea was this whole trip,
19:16this Philadelphia idea?
19:18No idea.
19:19No, it was, um...
19:20We thought if it could be done
19:22wouldn't it be good to do it?
19:23And then we went into the logistics
19:25and we found out that it was possible.
19:29Did you ever think
19:30that it wouldn't come off?
19:31That it wouldn't?
19:32No, I never did.
19:34I mean, it is an outrageous proposition
19:36to get everybody to work for nothing.
19:37When he first decided
19:38I thought that it would work
19:39because I think there's been...
19:41Right when they did the record
19:42there was such a wonderful spirit
19:44around it
19:45and people did want to do it for free
19:46and they did want to donate
19:47the plastic for the record.
19:49That was free.
19:50Yeah.
19:50So I thought the concert would happen
19:51as long as Bob continued
19:53to be so determined.
19:54All of the spirit
19:55has continued to this very day.
19:56We go backstage now
19:57and over to Janice Long.
19:59Janice.
19:59Thank you very much indeed, Richard.
20:01And the amount at the moment
20:02£338,000
20:03still rising
20:05and the address
20:06if you want to send your donations is...
20:08It's Gyro Bank
20:09PO Box 200
20:10Liverpool.
20:12Still to come
20:12here in London
20:13Brian Ferry,
20:14Paul Young and Alison Moyer
20:15playing together
20:16and then we link up
20:17with Philadelphia
20:17in the United States
20:19at around about 5 o'clock
20:20that'll be
20:20and start alternating
20:21between the two shows.
20:24Wembley,
20:25will you please welcome
20:26America
20:26to Live Aid Day?
20:30Hello, America.
20:31Welcome to the world.
20:32Have a great day.
20:33Have as good a day
20:34as we're having
20:35and please, please
20:36give us as much money
20:38as we know you have
20:39like everybody else
20:40around the world.
20:41Have a good day.
20:42Well, it's been billed
20:44as the concert
20:44to end world hunger.
20:46It has about as much chance
20:48of doing that
20:48as World War I had
20:50of being the war
20:50to end all wars.
20:52But it certainly has been
20:53a multinational effort
20:54involving the United States,
20:56Britain, Australia,
20:57Japan,
20:58even the Soviet Union.
21:00And certainly
21:00its pronounced purpose
21:02cannot be fault.
21:03Direct from London,
21:05Bill tells me,
21:06a group whose heart
21:07is in Dublin, Ireland.
21:11Whose spirit
21:12is with the world.
21:14A group that's never
21:15had any problems
21:16saying how they feel.
21:17You two.
21:26What I hope is
21:27this as a public thing
21:29will affect public opinion,
21:31which ultimately
21:32will affect the politicians
21:33and the policy makers.
21:35This is a song called Barry.
21:36I can't look back
21:40at this moment
21:40with two eyes
21:42because it was
21:43such a bad hair day.
21:45Honestly,
21:46can you imagine
21:46one of your most
21:47famous moments
21:49of your life
21:50and your activism?
21:52You've got a mullet.
21:53I mean,
21:54it's not good.
21:56It's just not good.
21:58And so I can't
21:59look at that
21:59fucking thing.
22:00We thought,
22:19like so many other people,
22:21this is a humanitarian crisis
22:24and the problem
22:25is not an African one
22:28or an Ethiopian one.
22:29It's a European
22:30and an American one.
22:32We just have
22:32a little tiny redistribution
22:34of resources
22:35and we can sort out
22:36the problem.
22:37This is not true.
22:43But it was
22:45as an act of charity,
22:47a masterful one.
22:48Every running order
22:55had on it
22:56this big mantra
22:57with big bold letters
22:57at the bottom.
22:58Kill time
22:59and you murder success.
23:02Bono,
23:03he did an extended song
23:04where he jumped down
23:05off the front of the stage,
23:06went to see a girl
23:08in the front of the crowd
23:09that he thought
23:09needed rescuing.
23:12As true as it was
23:14that I'm looking out
23:15for somebody slight
23:16in the middle of the crowd,
23:17I'm also very conscious
23:19that this is a TV broadcast,
23:22not just a show.
23:29And the other side of me,
23:32the performer in me,
23:34is of course looking
23:35for some kind of moment.
23:44Didn't end up playing the hit,
23:46Crying the Name of Love,
23:47because the singer
23:48fucked off into the crowd.
23:50Band wanted to fire me
23:51as a result.
24:03I just knew
24:04we were part of something.
24:05I didn't know
24:06what it would turn out to be,
24:07but something went on
24:09at Live Aid
24:11that is still with us.
24:22Live Aid,
24:23the biggest musical event ever,
24:25is still going on
24:25at Wembley Stadium in London.
24:27It's being beamed
24:28to more than 100 countries
24:30around the world,
24:30with about a billion
24:31and a half people watching.
24:33Hello, world.
24:34Hello, this is Vienna, Austria.
24:36Hello from the JRT-studio
24:38in Belgrade, Yugoslavia.
24:40Rock and pop
24:40in 16 hours
24:42directly from London
24:43and Philadelphia.
24:47There is not enough money
24:49coming in
24:49and all these people
24:50are not playing
24:51for the good of their health.
24:52They're playing
24:52for the good of other people's health.
24:54So get your money out now
24:55and phone up
24:57and give us the money.
24:58Oh, majesty!
24:59Queen!
25:00I've got no idea
25:05why Bob had this thing
25:08about not having them on,
25:09but he didn't.
25:10He didn't want them on.
25:11Bob sort of came
25:12from the post-punk explosion,
25:15so he had pretensions
25:16of being a bit punk.
25:18He probably thought
25:19we were slightly dinosaurs
25:20or something, I don't know.
25:25I just thought
25:26it was overblown operatic.
25:28You know, we used the studio
25:30as an instrument.
25:31Oh, fuck off!
25:36Subsequently, of course,
25:37we all have to admit
25:38that we thought
25:38the songs were great.
25:40So with age,
25:41we're allowed to admit it.
25:43In the beginning,
25:44it didn't seem
25:45like a reasonable possibility.
25:46To be honest,
25:47it seemed a harebrained scheme.
25:48We were all very keen
25:50to do it, you know.
25:50You said some of the biggest
25:51and best-known groups
25:53around the world
25:54are taking part.
25:55Why not us?
25:56It really is
25:56a gathering of the rock
25:57world elite
25:58and already rehearsing
25:59in here are some
26:00of rock and roll's royalty.
26:04We had three rehearsal days.
26:08Talking to Bob,
26:09he described it
26:10as a global jukebox.
26:12We just packed
26:13a few bangers
26:15into our set.
26:16We'll see you next time.
26:29We'll see you next time.
26:30We'll see you next time.
26:44We'll see you next time.
26:45We'll see you next time.
26:58We'll see you next time.
26:59We'll see you next time.
27:13We'll see you next time.
27:26We'll see you next time.
27:27We'll see you next time.
27:28We'll see you next time.
27:29We'll see you next time.
27:30they were going to be seen by a lot of people of course everybody went into that show
27:36it's a double-edged sword everybody was behind they thought it was a great thing to be doing
27:40a great cause but of course we realized it was it was a potential um incredible showcase
27:48just in case you forget who we are here's what we've done and they did this fantastic 18-minute
28:01non-stop set and freddie was just on top form
28:18it's like a lot of kids doing something that they enjoyed and they had the feeling that it
28:30was going to do some good in the world
28:48i'd asked what was happening with money and very little and i was trying to work out why because
29:09everyone had been primed it's about cash it's about cash you know you've got to get on the phone and
29:15take the money out of your pocket don't go to the pub tonight please stay in and give us the money
29:20there are people dying now so give me the money and here's the numbers i think i said this stay
29:28at home give us give us give us the money you know and he said that's right and remember here's the
29:35address and i went no let's fuck the address let's get the numbers because that's how we're going to
29:40get it i think we're going to have to have the address first a fucking address you know what is
29:45this 1832 sort of thing you know so that's why i said you know fuck the address you know stay home
29:53and give me the money now and i think that got then immediately translated get us and give us your
29:59fucking money you know no matter what you say on this program that will be what i've said no matter
30:05what what i say ladies and gentlemen welcome back to london to wembley and live aid will you meet and
30:10greet david bowley i'd like to dedicate this song to my son to all our children and to the children of the
30:23the world
30:42i have to meet david and harvey around 11
30:46at night and the discussion was to be what you want me to do david want so what do you want me to do and
30:52i said look before we go any further i've just i've been given this we want to watch so the three
31:00of us sat there and watched this appalling horror david did not hesitate and he just said i'll give up
31:10one number you have to put that on so i'm dropping a song i said please don't drop the song and he goes
31:24because i'm introducing this or i'm not doing this show
31:40thank you i'd like to introduce a video made by cbc television the subject speaks for itself thank you
31:47good night please send your money and then they look up at the screens because david has asked him to
32:09look and their faces freeze who's gonna tell you when it's too late
32:25who's gonna tell you things
32:27suddenly it's switched from being very jolly hey hey hey we're doing this to like oh my god this is
32:40why we're doing this nothing's wrong
32:48he's gonna
32:57uh
33:09who's gonna
33:10join your heart
33:11um
33:13tonight
33:19um
33:25it's pictures like that that started this whole thing off and there's not really much you can say
33:32after seeing those makes music sound rather minor but your contributions to this event can help
33:39relieve that kind of thing in future that's when the phone lines quite literally collapsed
33:47i can announce that we have already raised in wembley 950 000 pounds there's not long to go
33:57here they're just getting ready for paul mccartney in wembley stadium but i'm i'm dearly hoping that
34:03we're actually going to be able to go to philadelphia and uh and uh and see madonna but uh somebody
34:09yelling in my ear actually tells me that they're uh they're not quite ready madonna of course was
34:14joined by nile rogers and the thompson twins as well madonna was madonna she was killing it back
34:21then a woman who pulled herself up by her bra straps and who has been known to let them down occasionally
34:34she's great she's hot she's a lot like a virgin she's madonna
34:42some guy scream from the audience take it off baby because she had just done that nude thing i guess
35:09for penthouse or something and some dude said take it off baby and madonna hit him with
35:15no i ain't taking shit off today
35:17you might hold it against me 10 years from now
35:23she can you know conquer the world she could care less
35:29when this was happening he said you've got to come on and sing you know i said i can't bob i haven't got a band together now he said well you just sit at the piano and do your own number
35:51how's that for a gildorf person so that was it you know i just had to come simple as that
36:07and choose the song that he chose he chose it running the whole bloody show
36:11one of the few negative memories of live aid for me is the fact that uh paul mccartney's microphone failed
36:32which i've been forever embarrassed about and never been invited to work with paula since
36:50there were a bunch of people standing around
37:13and either pete or david said to me come on let's help them
37:19let it be
37:21everybody
37:23let it be
37:25let it be
37:26let it be
37:27let it be
37:28let it be
37:30let it be
37:32there's gonna be an answer
37:35let it be
37:37i've been watching it all day on the television you know just the feeling uh that's being generated is
37:43it's a first you know it's never been done and it's uh
37:47it's a huge event you know it could be the start of something big
37:50it wasn't planned
37:52mccartney was the end that was the plan
37:55i think you know the next song
37:58it might be a bit of a cock up but if you're gonna cock it up you may as well do it with two billion people watching this
38:07so let's cock it up together
38:11it's hard to convey to you
38:15the sort of collegiate atmosphere
38:18the fun of it
38:19and the sense of what everyone was doing i know that sounds really crap like a hollywood movie but it's absolutely true
38:26absolutely true
38:41ooooh
38:43ooooh
38:45ooooh
38:46ooooh
38:48ooooh
38:51ooooh
38:55That was such a magical moment.
38:57I was one of the special people who were allowed to experience that day.
39:01Be the world, let them know it's Christmas time.
39:11That's it.
39:21On stage in Philadelphia, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers.
39:35And don't forget, Vision continues on BBC One.
39:41The deputy commissioner from Ethiopia in charge of relief, Brahana Duresa.
39:48Brahana Duresa.
39:49All the way to Ethiopia, give him a nice hand.
39:52Come on, you can do better than that.
39:54I was invited to speak.
40:00I got on the stage and I said, thank you.
40:11And thank you.
40:12And I left the stage.
40:16I didn't say anything because these people are there to enjoy the music.
40:21Young people, including myself.
40:24I enjoyed the music in spite of the tragedy.
40:27It's been a long day, hasn't it?
40:29Yeah, it has.
40:30The most impressive thing is that everybody's spirit, like, pulling together.
40:34Because then a lot of people could have lost a lot of face.
40:37I don't think anybody bothered too much about that.
40:39I mean, there were no sound checks, to my knowledge.
40:43This was one of the bands that didn't sound check.
40:45So I think that everybody did it with a spirit and that was the best thing about the day.
40:50Great.
40:51Well, we're going to go back to JFK now for a little more.
40:56I think it's Phil Collins that we're about to see.
40:58Mark Ellen talking to Sade there.
41:00We can go live to Philadelphia onto stage at, what, one o'clock in the morning British time.
41:05That makes it, heaven knows what time this takes, about eight o'clock in the evening.
41:09Phil Collins, live from Philadelphia on Live Aid.
41:12It was the connection between the London show and us.
41:16Good evening, America.
41:17Good evening, London.
41:19Good evening, the world.
41:21Retrospectively, it glued the two events together more than just being the same name, you know, Live Aid.
41:29I was in England this afternoon.
41:32Funny, old Lord, isn't it?
41:36But this is the other song that I know on the piano.
41:42He sat down at the piano and all of us in the production crew cried.
41:52We literally all cried because it was impossible.
41:58It's kind of part of something bigger.
42:01Well, I've been waiting for this moment.
42:06Oh, boy.
42:08Well, that's good.
42:10Oh, boy.
42:11Well, I can feel it in the air tonight.
42:16Oh, love.
42:18Oh, love.
42:22Well, I've been waiting for this moment.
42:25Oh, my love.
42:28My love.
42:29Oh, love.
42:46Where do you think Rain Day can go from here?
42:49Well, I don't think this should be done again.
42:51I think this is a one-off, you know.
42:53It shouldn't be repeated.
42:57Something else that will, I'm sure, will rear its head.
43:01Someone will have a good idea somewhere.
43:02Why don't we do this?
43:03Why don't we do that?
43:04Maybe playing in the first space shuttle or something like that.
43:07Something unadventurous like that.
43:09Janice, are you downstairs?
43:12Have you got someone with you?
43:13Well, it's three past two on a Sunday morning.
43:16We're still here.
43:17And with me is Lenny Henry.
43:19Before you say anything, can I just say,
43:21Nick Jenkin has pledged to auction his Bentley.
43:24And if you don't, we'll send the boys around.
43:26And the total at the moment stands at £2 million and £126,000.
43:31£2 million and £126,000?
43:33£127,000.
43:34Why?
43:34Because I did two shows in Southend tonight.
43:37Hello to everybody in Southend.
43:38And we raised £1,342 just through donations from the audience.
43:44So, well done, Southend.
43:48Janice talked to me.
43:49And I remember her being just very kind and very generous.
43:53And I think I might have sounded a bit hyper.
43:59But we were all swept up with it on the day.
44:01The feeling of having helped is not to be underestimated.
44:07You can talk about it and intellectualise about the imagery of it as much as you like.
44:12But at the time it was, we need to do something now.
44:17We can now go live to JFK in Philadelphia
44:20because on stage is one of the most exciting black lady performers in America.
44:23This is Patti LaBelle.
44:25My manager said, would you like to do Live Aid?
44:38When they said it was in Philly, I said, wow.
44:41Don't even ask me silly questions.
44:43You know, who wouldn't want to do that?
44:45I did Forever Young and kicked my shoes off.
45:13And I walked in the audience and it was a bunch of water and wires.
45:26Everybody thought I was going to get shocked and electrocuted.
45:29Woo!
45:29That's a great thing when you just sing and people don't look at you.
45:36They don't look at you if you're a woman or a man or black or white.
45:40You're just there giving your talent.
45:43It's just beautiful.
45:50Patti LaBelle.
45:52Patti LaBelle giving everything she has got to Live Aid.
45:55And that's what's been going on all day, of course, performers and viewers as well.
45:59The money has been pouring in.
46:00We're way over the £2 million mark in Britain alone.
46:03But here's the man who knows all about the money, Harvey Goldsmith, who's the promoter of Live Aid.
46:07We're given an understanding that from our auditors who are walking around with a phone by his side,
46:13and he gives us an estimate by the end of tonight of about £40 million, which is pretty staggering.
46:18The concert may be over here at JFK Stadium, but we're not.
46:33What was that?
46:35$40 million.
46:36We just got the word from the stage that they raised.
46:41We're going to go to the stage now.
46:44Something very special we want to do right now.
46:47I remember pulling up backstage.
46:50Every massive artist was there.
46:53The audience was there.
46:54The campaign was there.
46:56It was just massive.
47:04But now we need to make the statement that it's not about us in England.
47:09It's not about you in America.
47:10It's about us as a planet.
47:13The rehearsal of the finale is a blur.
47:30Did we rehearse?
47:31I don't remember.
47:32I was singing my face off, honey.
47:35It was just, ooh, one of those moments.
47:40We are the ones who will make a brighter day.
47:44So let's start giving.
47:45And it was so wonderful.
47:47And it was, everybody was out there.
47:49So many, so many people.
47:53We got you!
47:54We got you!
47:55We got you!
47:56We got you!
47:57The finale was so overwhelming.
48:03You turn around behind you, and there's this sea of artistry.
48:07You turn around in front of you, there's a sea of humanity.
48:09And a better marriage, just you and me.
48:14The greatest show on earth, the Live Aid Rock Festival, has turned out to be the greatest fundraising event in history.
48:32The twin performances in London and Philadelphia reached an emotional climax early today.
48:37And already, the target fund for Africa's famine victims has been exceeded four times over.
48:43And there is more acclaim pouring in tonight for the man who is responsible for pulling off what many said could not be done.
48:49Members of both British and Norwegian parliaments tonight say they will nominate Irish rock promoter Bob Geldorf for the Nobel Peace Prize.
48:57But as one professional said, the biggest mistake that could now be made would be to think that those who are so skilled in raising money are just as good at spending it.
49:07The trustees of the Live Aid Fund have decided to spend 60% on long-term development aid, 20% for sudden emergencies, and another 20% on urgent transportation problems.
49:18What about the Ethiopian government itself?
49:20Do you think they should perhaps get their house in order, their priorities in order, before the suffering can really stop?
49:25Well, they will have to, but we can stop the suffering.
49:28I mean, I don't want to impose intellectual colonialism.
49:30Now, you must do this.
49:32Whatever the system is that they operate under, we can't tell them that that's wrong.
49:36We have no, that is not our business.
49:37As far as I understand, our belief is to keep people alive.
49:41And if they impose onerous conditions on us, we'd say, fine enough, we keep them alive somewhere else.
49:46Bob Geldorf left Britain today on another tour of African countries stricken by famine.
49:50He'll be looking at how the millions of pounds raised by the Live Aid concert have been spent, and at what still needs to be done.
49:58The relief effort has now been extended to another four countries.
50:02Unlike in Ethiopia, most of these other countries were not in a state of war, so the actual famine figures were not as grotesque.
50:14First stop on this African tour, Mali, landlocked, devastated by 16 years of drought, where a million and a half people are on the knife edge of starvation.
50:24We needed to be told by people on the ground what their priorities were.
50:37The official welcome by ministers and aid workers was effusive for the pop singer, whose reputation as the man with the means to feed Africa's Hungary has aroused genuine hopes here of an improvement in Mali's desperate plight.
50:51I knew I knew I had to meet many of the leaders of these countries because now I was an international figure.
51:01The Bob Geldorf tour of sub-Saharan states continues at full speed, with the singer meeting heads of state, aid officials and famine victims.
51:10He's now in the Sudan.
51:11The only thing I can think to do, rather than divvy up, you get this, you get that amount of money, was, can we all just meet in one place, please?
51:23We were working a lot with local NGOs.
51:25That was a huge area of work we did.
51:29So being able to apply directly to band-aid was a huge opportunity.
51:33There are definite improvements.
51:35Many more agencies are on the ground giving a relief aid.
51:37There's much more thought being given about long-term solutions to these problems.
51:41My opinion of Bob Geldorf changed at the first meeting because before I met him, what I'd heard about him was he had a very loud mouth and a propensity to swear.
51:52And secondly, that he was fairly critical of established relief agencies, one of which I represented.
51:58But once one met him, I found he'd had a good propensity to listen and to learn, and he was interested in what people were saying.
52:07I was well aware that I needed to learn from the experienced people who'd been through hell, who lived in hell, who knew that the people they were helping would probably die.
52:18Will the government buy that and distribute it, or will it be up to the agencies?
52:21The government has very little money, so the government, as you know, has real, real financial problems.
52:26So it'll be largely up to the agencies.
52:29I think the good thing about band-aid, it never went operational, which might have been tempting for it.
52:33In other words, it didn't bring in its own teams of people.
52:37They had its logo on trucks, if I remember, but these trucks were then given to people like Oxfam or Save the Children or to other agencies to deploy, which was the best way of doing it.
52:48It was never meant to be a big organisation in the same field as the Oxfams.
52:53That was always very clear.
52:55It was never going to turn into something else.
52:57Bob Geldof, organiser of Live Aid, makes a return visit to Ethiopia.
53:05It was from refugee camps in these remote areas that, a year ago, horrific television pictures of starvation and death shocked the world and mobilised international aid.
53:18Thanks to a concerted relief effort, there is no longer starvation in the camps.
53:23But some Western officials have questioned the morality of the Ethiopian government spending millions on arms instead of on relief aid.
53:32A group of French doctors charged yesterday that the Ethiopian government has killed an estimated 100,000 of its own people by its programme of forced resettlement.
53:42The group, Doctors Without Borders, said the US and other Western countries should stop food aid unless Ethiopia modifies the resettlement programme.
53:50The way they had been brought to this resettlement was terrible.
53:55Thousands of people had died on the way.
53:58People were fleeing these new settlements.
54:03What I saw were two Antonov transporters, a long line of people.
54:11The first problem was, none of these people were consulted about it.
54:15They were coerced.
54:17Then, none of the people where they were supposed to settle were consulted either.
54:23Some critics charge resettlement is really coercion, designed to weaken separatist movements in the north, a charge Ethiopia denies.
54:32This villagization and settlement program was about taking the peasants from crowded, degraded, overused land to more spacious areas where they are less affected by drought.
54:54It was more like labor camps than new villages where people starting a new life.
55:03MSF was established around that time.
55:07It was young French radicals who thought they would change the world.
55:11Everything was wrong for them.
55:14They were destructive.
55:15MSF had a kind of more kind of liberationist sort of approach, and they were more kind of confrontational, and they couldn't understand why agencies like Oxfam and Save the Children seem to be tolerant of this resettlement program.
55:37When we know what we know, when we see what we have seen, we cannot keep quiet.
55:43We have to say to the public opinion what is really going on in Ethiopia, because we have asked the public opinion to support our endeavors, to bring relief, to provide relief to the Ethiopian people.
55:56We have to tell them what is going on now.
55:58Geldof says such critics should accept that the situation transcends politics.
56:03They don't have to trust the government.
56:05They should trust the RRC, which are the people who are here to coordinate the famine effort.
56:12And as all the aid agencies in the country, not only the big boys like UN, UNICEF and Red Cross, but the Oxfams and Save the Children, as they implicitly trust them, then they are the ones, they are the experts, they are the ones who work here.
56:25If they say trust them, then we must do the same.
56:28But the NGOs didn't have a problem with it.
56:30I mean, 40 of them, including Oxfam, signed a letter even later in the day saying that they approved of the policy.
56:39It was the implementation of it that was so brutal.
56:44We had a job to do, and there was something we call the humanitarian imperative, where we have to work in lots of difficult environments and do the best job we can.
56:53It was really angry and mad with Band-Aid and Bob Geldof.
56:59Involving his name in this critique, I think the forced relocation would have stopped immediately.
57:07The French organization, Médecins Sans Frontieres, is tonight preparing to leave Ethiopia after being ordered out of the country by the government.
57:17You're either in politics or you're there to help the people you say you'll help.
57:22That's it.
57:22Many disasters took place in this world and particularly in Africa, but even with the sufferings of a greater magnitude in other parts of Africa, even with that, nothing similar to live aid happened in the world.
57:49That effort, which Bob started, saved so many lives.
57:56There is no doubt about that.
57:58It began a journey for all of us from what you might call charity to what you might call justice.
58:27Don't let them tell us that this doesn't work.
58:33He and Bono came in, and Bono, at least somewhat presentable, Gildorff looked like he crawled out from underneath the ground.
58:41We hope you will enjoy the show.
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