Origins
The concert was conceived as a follow-up to another Geldof/Ure project, the successful charity single "Do They Know it's Christmas" performed by a colelction of British music acts billed as "Band Aid" and released the previous winter.
The concert grew in scope as more acts were added on both sides of the Atlantic. As a charity fundraiser, the concert far exceeded its goals: on a television programme in 2001 one of the organisers stated that while initially it had been hoped that Live Aid would raise £1 million ($1.64 million), when the money raised was finally totted up, it has raised more than £150 million (approx. $245.4 million) for famine relief.
Aftermath
Geldof's knighthood
Live Aid founder Bob Geldof subsequently received an honorary knighthood. (As a non British subject the Irish-born Geldof was legally precluded from being awarded a full knighthood.) Geldof, along with U2's Bono, has devoted much time since 2000 to campaigning against debt in Africa.Bob Dylan's comments
Bob Dylan's performance was marred by his insensitive comment - "It would be nice if some of this money went to the American farmers". (He is often misquoted, as on the Farm Aid web site[1] , as saying "Wouldn't it be great if we did something for our own farmers right here in America?"). In his biography Bob Geldof was extremely critical of the remark; he states - "He displayed a complete lack of understanding of the issues raised by Live Aid.... Live Aid was about people losing their lives. There is a radical difference between losing your livelihood and losing your life. It did instigate Farm Aid, which was a good thing in itself, but it was a crass, stupid, and nationalistic thing to say."Chumbawamba
In 1986 the anarchist band Chumbawamba released the album Pictures of Starving Children Sell Records, intended as an anti-capitalist critique of the Band Aid/Live Aid phenomena. They argued that the event was primarily a cosmetic spectacle designed to draw attention away from the real political causes of world hunger.Roger Waters
The success of Live Aid inspired Roger Waters' song "The Tide is Turning".Performers
(in order of appearance):
