PAUL VALLELY co-wrote Bob Geldof’s 1986 autobiography, Is That It?, and now he tells the story of Live Aid, beginning with Michael Buerk’s 1984 BBC report of the famine in Ethiopia — “the closest thing to hell on earth” — leading to the fund-raising record “Do they know it’s Christmas”, written by Geldof and Midge Ure from the Boomtown Rats, joined by Bono from U2, and the emergence of Band Aid. The following summer brought Live Aid concerts in Wembley and Pennsylvania, and celebrating its 40th anniversary in 2005 the eight simultaneous concerts of Live 8 around the world were claimed to be the largest gathering in human history.
It is a remarkable story of the raising of hundreds of millions of pounds, although there is not much detail here about who decides how the money is spent or monitors the outcomes. In any case, Vallely characterises it as moving away from alleviating poverty to addressing its underlying causes, a journey from charity to justice.
During these 40 years, Geldof and, in the United States, Bono took up the issues of debt, supporting the Jubilee 2000 campaign, and trade, especially where tariffs prevented less developed nations from helping themselves. It comes as a surprise to learn how directly and personally they were involved with leaders such as Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, not least in the policymaking around the G8 Summit in 2005, where the Live 8 concerts were designed to promote real change.
Vallely credits much of the change that did happen to Geldof himself, with his sweary and selfless determination, supported by the rock-music royalty he assembled. If he was manipulative and arrogant, if he was criticised for being a “white saviour”, he would simply point to the results.
Not everyone saw it his way, especially in the existing development agencies, where some felt their work to have been reinforced, but others, such as Médecins Sans Frontières and, at one point, the leadership of Christian Aid, found his approach counter-productive. Even where he was part of initiatives such as Jubilee 2000 or Make Poverty History, he was not an easy colleague.
The claim that Live Aid created a shift in the North-South divide seems somewhat overblown now that UK overseas aid is reduced to a pittance and trade barriers are growing. Vallely points out that it began at the height of Thatcherism and the “me” generation, perhaps hoping that there could be a similar reaction today against a prevailing culture of self-protective nationalism and, at best, philanthropy determined by those holding on to the power.
If, in Live Aid, rock music, celebrities, and global technology brought the world together, where might a younger generation find such inspiration today?
The Rt Revd Michael Doe is a former General Secretary of USPG
Live Aid: The definitive 40-year story
Paul Vallely
Putman Publishing £30
(978-1-917923-38-5)
Church Times Bookshop £27