Enormous egos, impossible demands, and backstage booze and drugs for the stars. The inside story of how Live Aid took charity global in the decade of greed
On July 13, 1985, nearly two billion people – a third of humanity – tuned in to Live Aid, the global jukebox that raised millions for the starving of Africa.
Only 72,000 were lucky enough to be at Wembley to see history in the making, but Dylan Jones was one of them.
Here, in an extract from his new book, he recalls the madness behind the event: from the promoter trying to get Nasa to fly Mick Jagger into space, to Stevie Wonder refusing to be the ‘token black artist’.
And he reveals a key figure’s VERY rude comments about Diana’s hair…
That day, Saturday July 13, 1985, everyone got up with the same purpose in mind.
It didn’t matter what you were doing, you knew where you would be. For months we had talked of little else.
We were going to Wembley to be part of the world’s biggest-ever charity concert, organised by Bob Geldof, a fading pop star who had been horrified by the famine in Ethiopia, and was determined to do something about it.
‘Everyone has a common experience of it, everyone remembers where they were and what they felt about it,’ said Harry Potter author JK Rowling.
‘It’s one of those little pegs that you hang all your other memories on.’