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HISTORICAL FACTS: 3 - Caught on Camera

“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

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“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

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 Independent UK

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…

The Conversation

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"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?

MusicRadar

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

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

The Guardian - UK

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

The Live Aid founder is touring Australia in March.

Newcastle Herald

“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

MusicRadar

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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

The Guardian - UK

Monica Dolan: ‘Mr Bates vs The Post Office affected people because they saw their worst nightmare unfold’

The actor, 54, tells Hayley Myers about her scientific parents, missing Live Aid, working on accents and Velma, her Siberian husky

The Guardian - UK

Live Aid led to the patronising ‘save Africa’ industry. We don’t need a musical about it

Thirty-eight years since the concert, the false narrative about a broken continent plagued by poverty, conflict, corruption and disease still persists

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The Guardian - UK

Bob Geldof gives nod of approval to the Old Vic’s Live Aid musical

Just for One Day to tell stories around 1985 fundraising concert during two-month run next year

Daily Mirror

Rare images of rock icons Queen as chief roadie from band's heyday shares his photo album

Nicknamed Ratty for his long, greasy hair, Peter Hince recalls seeing Queen in action for the first time in November 1973, the year their first album came out

The Guardian - UK

Tina Turner obituary

Rock’n’roll singer whose comeback after her turbulent early career made her one of the great superstars of the 1980s and 90s

Daily Mirror

Kids risk their lives digging for water in East Africa's worst drought since Live Aid

At this time of the year the River Baragoi is usually in full flow and the villagers have had no problem using water for drinking, cooking and washing - not any more

Daily Mirror

Worst drought since Live Aid devastating East Africa with children dying of hunger

The Mirror spoke to families desperately trying to survive the sixth year without a rainy season - watching beloved children, siblings and parents die of starvation

Daily Mirror

'Huge' star-studded Live Aid-style gig announced at Wembley to raise money for Ukraine

A huge benefit concert is set to be held at Wembley stadium this year, with big-name performers such as The Rolling Stones and U2 invited to play in order to raise money for the victims of the Ukraine conflict

Daily Record

Midge Ure reveals he initially refused to allow Ladbaby to use his Band Aid song

Scottish music great tells how he had to be reminded that raising funds was aim of Do They Know It's Christmas? as he mulled over letting YouTuber rework his hit song.

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