Sixteen hours of event, even if I count that at certain moments the two concerts – one in Wembley, in London, the United Kingdom, the other at the John Fitzgerald Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the United States: each with a different spindle – overlapped, well, the duration was also superior. Three steps in the future: Phill Collins managed to take a plane and perform in both, feeling in a science fiction novel. But also novel stories: during the crossing he found himself next to Cher, who knew nothing (!) Of the event and convinced her to participate in the last. There is no doubt, for numbers, cultural impact and literature on the matter – including that of those who did not agree to go, such as the Tears for Fears – the live AID was the largest rock concert in history, on stage on 13 July 1985, forty years ago, and with televisions connected from all over the world, in one of the first examples of shows transmitted everywhere, of unique language, in short of globalization (well and for good). The opportunity was beneficial, raise funds for the enormous famine that had hit Ethiopia. It was history, simply.

And of course, there would have been the replica of Live 8 twenty years later, in 2005, eight cities united with the purpose, still charity, but it is known that the original is always better than the copies a little bitter. Curiosity: last spring had begun to circulate the rumor that, for 2025, it could have been a trio, sugar had spoken of it, but nothing was done. Who knows why. In any case, this “emptiness”, if we can speak of emptiness, must make us reflect on how the spirit of time, the fashions, our relationship with the stars, as is true that the election of Trump has sanctioned a huge defeat for the so -called soft power For the characters of the world of entertainment, in itself very influential, who had lined up against him. But no, in 1985 we believed itand how. Or maybe we were all more naive?

The story of the event

We are at the end of 1984, in fact, when Bob Geldof – Rocker famous the right in England, mostly unknown in the rest in the world – brings together the band Aid, a supergroup that raises funds for Ethiopia, then torn apart by a huge economic and social crisis, which he had discovered through a documentary on TV, remaining upset. The result, the first, is a single, Do they know it’s Christmas?that that Christmas makes a bang, involving almost all the star-system of the then British music, from U2 to Sting, passing through the Duran Duran, the Wham!, the Ultravox, Paul Young, the same Collins and Midge Ure of the Ultravox, director of the operation with Geldof. The success, sensational despite a long pull and gives up with the Tatcher government to give in charity the funds deriving from the Vat (our VAT, which therefore belonged to the state), pushes the United States to do the same, with We are the world And relative, another star-System (from Michael Jackson down) to be released already in January 1985, opening the way to the great event shared, in fact, of the live AID.

That, let’s be understood, was legendary. Seventy artists, including some absolute giants, such as Paul McCartney (to which in She it be jump the microphone), and over 150 million pounds collected, as Tony Blair points out in the documentary just made by the BBC, Live Aid at 40: When rock’n’roll Took on the world. “Millions of people today are alive thanks to that event”: it is a fact. But it was a generational watershed for all music and the culture of the time: for all the eighties, from then on, charity events would have been followed, becoming a sort of standards. And then, dozens of guests of that afternoon, from that stage, in a worldly, they would have taken flight, on all U2 (with an incredible performance) and Madonna, but also the Queen themselves, whose epic set is worthy of the history books – or in any case, is one of the most viewed videos of all time on YouTube. And then, again, the money: as explains, among others, Gabriele Medeot in his book just released, Live Aid, the sound of an era (Tsunami), all came to their destination, as far as the problem was, once in Africa, to interface with greedy and selfless heads of state to help their citizens. He missed familiarity, not good faith, effort.

All contradictions of an era

Yet, of course, the contradictions were not lacking and there is still no shortage of today. Beyond the rhetoric so much to the kilo of the event, partly connected to a simplism and a superficiality typical of the period (the “good” spirit, the feeling that charity, alone, can solve structural problems), even then there were criticism, however inevitable if we talk about such a great concert. More than the goodism of some – however, still, the money was the collected – it was the fomo of others, of those who agreed to participate more so as not to feel excluded, to take advantage of the importance of that stage to do, also advertising, which for anything else. Let’s not make fun of: in the eighties the music industry was already the obscene and brazen creature that is today, in all senses, so it was clear that his vices, in some way, would also have infected the live AID. Translated: now look around, look at the difficulty with which the artists expose themselves, come out of strictly advertising dynamics, and realize that a legacy of all this, today, is not there. The Live Aid, at the historical level, has not traced a way, nothing.

And yet, on the other hand, the even symbolic message that showed all those names together, free of charge, remains. As well as the nostalgia of a group of musicians who, beyond the personal gain, still thought in great, they probably probably events of historical scope, believed that light music should unite people. That they could be, here, their common language, towards a better future. And change the world. Perhaps the naive, returning at the beginning, were they too. But it was so beautiful.