RELIVE LIVE AID

Musicians were rocking all over the world four decades ago. MARION McMULLEN looks at the line-up of the big day

- MARION McMULLEN

IT IS reckoned more than a billion viewers around the world watched Live Aid 40 years ago.

Broadcaster Richard Skinner kicked the event off by informing viewers “It’s 12 noon in London, 7am in Philadelphia and around the world it’s time for Live Aid” at Wembley on July 13, 1985, as a 72,000-strong crowd, who had each paid £25 a ticket, erupted.

Status Quo were the opening act in London and played Rockin’ All Over The World, which became an anthem for the event.

The music marathon in aid of famine relief in Ethiopia was organised by Boomtown Rats singer Bob Geldof and Ultravox’s Midge Ure and lasted for a combined 16 hours in the UK and USA.

They described it as a “global jukebox”. Bob and the Boomtown Rats performed I Don't Like Mondays and Rat Trap from the Wembley Stage. Elvis Costello caught the mood, appearing with just his guitar to sing The Beatles’ All You Need Is Love, introducing it as an “old northern English folk song”.