Flip through the latest issue of Gulf Weekly.
The iconic 1985 Live Aid concert at Wembley Stadium, featuring acts including Queen, U2, David Bowie and Paul McCartney, is being turned into a musical to be staged in London next year.
The musical, entitled Just For One Day, will tell the story of the Live Aid concerts held in London and Philadelphia on July 13, 1985, originally organised by Bob Geldof, a former member of The Boomtown Rats and ex-Ultravox co-lead singer Midge Ure to raise money for famine relief in Ethiopia.
Bob has given playwrights the greenlight, along with the Band Aid Charitable Trust which will receive 10 per cent of every ticket sale, to stage the musical based on the concerts featuring songs played on the day by Elton John, Queen and Sting.
“This isn’t a tribute thing,” Bob told BBC News. “I wouldn’t have anything to do with that. So, there isn’t a person dressed up as Freddie wearing a crap moustache. The songs drive the drama along. The story is based on actual testimony from the day. It’s real people telling their story throughout this. So it’s complex theatre.”
The plot of Just For One Day, named after a line in Bowie’s song Heroes, will boast a behind-the-scenes look at how Band Aid and Live Aid came together, with a love story inspired by real events.
Mrs Doubtfire musical writer John O’Farrell, originally conceived the Just For One Day play with the & Juliet musical director Luke Sheppard. Bob will be played by Craige Els, known for Ripper Street and Dr Who.
The play will run from January 26 to March 30, 2024 at London’s Old Vic Theatre.
Live Aid was attended by about 72,000 people at London’s Wembley stadium, and, more than 89,000 people were at the John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, US. Meanwhile, an estimated 1.9 billion people from across 130 countries watched the TV broadcast.
A 20th anniversary event called Live 8 was held in 2005 in G8 countries and South Africa and last year, Tears For Fears opened up about missing Live Aid in 1985.
