Music for a Cause. Review on Live 8 Concert

For those of you who watched the Live 8 concert (if you didn’t, you really should have), here is a lowdown on how it all got started.

Bob Geldof, the Irish rocker born in 1954 in Dun Laoghaire, near Dublin, made it big during the mid 70’s when he formed his band The Boomtown Rats. Their rise to fame was favored by the controversial subject matter in their songs. Case in pint – their immensely famous song ‘I Don’t Like Mondays’ (1979), was based on the actions of a San Diego teenager, who shot and wounded eight schoolmates and killed a teacher and caretaker.

The popularity of Bob Geldof increased when he played the lead role in the film Pink Floyd - The Wall (1982).

During the height of his career in 1984, BBC telecasted a report on the prevailing Ethiopian famine. After watching this report, Bob was triggered to act. He united 36 artists together to record the single ‘Do They Know It’s Christmas?’ which sold over 3 million copies.

The following year, Bob Geldof inspired Live Aid, a 16-hour concert initiated at Wembley Stadium, London, and continued at the JFK Stadium in Philadelphia. He said to the people “Give Us your money”, and that is exactly what they did. When the Band Aid trust was wound up in 1992, it had raised more than $140 million!

Since then Geldof has received many accolades for his work. He was nominated thrice for the Noble Peace Prize. He also received an honorary knighthood (1986) from Queen Elizabeth II.

In an interview for BBC last year (2004), he expressed that he isn’t satisfied with his work, since most of Africa is still plagued by debt and the lack of facilities.

He teamed up with Bono (from U2) and a host of other people to hold Live 8, a concert held in eight different countries to initiate eight of the most powerful men in the worlds to get rid of poverty. The goal behind Live 8 is much simpler than its precursor twenty years ago. Show your support by adding your name in the Live 8 list or by singing the peace declaration on https://live8live.com or https://one.org respectively (if you haven’t already).