Live Aid blog

 In Social Studies, we talked about the Live Aid concert. The event was held in two different places, Wembly Stadium in London, and JFK Stadium in Philadelphia. It was headed by multiple people, two of the more known are Bob Geldof and Midge Ure, musicians in their own respective rights. In this blog, we talk about them.

Bob Geldof was an Irish musician, born in 1951. He studied in a Catholic school and worked odd jobs, before going to Canada to work as a music journalist. Eventually, in 1975, he became the lead singer of the Boomtown rats, a punk rock band.

He was famous for their first UK hit single, "Rat Trap", and the upcoming song that was also popular, "I don't like Mondays". In 1981, he took part in a concert for Amnesty International and in 1984, he moved from rock star to international celeb for raising awareness of humanitarian charities.

In the summer of 1985, with Midge Ure and others, he was involved in the Live Aid concert, and made the song "Do they know it's Christmas Time?" a year earlier, to raise awareness about the famine spreading throughout Africa.

And the other person, Midge Ure, one of the known participants and organizers in the Live Aid event.

Midge Ure was a key member in the band Ultravox, and many other bands. He formed a band "Visage" with a few others, and replaced multiple people in other following bands, like Gary Moore in Thin Lizzy and John Foxx for Ultravox. He was a massive factor in their success, doubling as a producer.

He was famous for his role in Ultravox's success, as mentioned above. He also made records with Steve Harley and Modern Man.

And together with Bob Geldof, they formed "Band Aid" to assist efforts in Ethiopia to fight the famine in 1984. They both organized Live Aid as a benefit charity, and they still continue to make music. 

Live Aid was a rock-music concert benefit held on July 13, 1985, to raise awareness and boost efforts for the famine in Ethiopia. Led and conceived by Bob Geldof, when he heard about the famine on radio and visited to see it himself. When he got back, he and Midge Ure made the song "Do They Know It's Christmas Time". The song was made so that it could be released during the holidays. 

It was continued by holding two simultaneous 16-hour concerts in Philadelphia and London. Multiple artists like Paul McCartney and the band Queen received immense popularity during the concert. The concert raised $127 million and was broadcasted over to over 110 countries. Geldof, after the concert, went to Ethiopia to oversee the distribution of supplies, so that they're distributed fairly.