Live Aid lied to us. It would be 20 years from that legendary transatlantic charity knees-up before an all-star Bob Geldof production would rock all over the world.
That happening – minus Status Quo themselves, who had opened Live Aid in 1985 with an iconic “Rockin’ All Over the World” but had other commitments this time – would be its follow-up, Live 8: a global cavalcade of major A-list concerts staged 20 years ago this week in Philadelphia, Edinburgh, Berlin, Moscow, Rome, Ontario, Paris, Johannesburg, Cornwall, Chiba in Japan and the concept’s hub in London’s Hyde Park. The event may not have had the historic significance of its 1985 predecessor, with its table-thumping primetime swearing, its Freddie Mercury and its £100m raised for famine relief. But Live 8’s numbers far surpassed those of Live Aid.
