Liverpool’s British Music Experience, is to host a temporary exhibition looking at the legendary Live Aid concert 40 years on, through some of the personal archive of organiser Bob Geldof.
It was the 13th of July, 1985 and the world waited with anticipation as the stage at Wembley Stadium was poised to launch Live Aid. BBC Radio 1 DJ Richard Skinner famously declared: “It’s 12 noon in London, 7am in Philadelphia and around the world, it’s time for Live Aid.”
The ground-breaking concert was planned as a “global jukebox” and a continued response from the music industry and fans to the famine in Ethiopia. The concert was truly global – advances in technology allowed for its broadcast to over 150 countries. 72,000 people attended Wembley Stadium and 90,000 packed into the John F. Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia. Estimates of the global TV audience vary, though the upper end of 1.9billion would have equated to around 40% of the world’s population at the time.
Band Aid and Live Aid were conceived to help meet an immediate and pressing humanitarian need. For many, they will always be era-defining moments when music was used as the most powerful unifying tool. The story continued – Visual Aid for Band Aid, Fashion Aid, Sport Aid and then Live 8, the global series of benefit concerts timed to precede the G8 conference in 2005 featuring more than 1,000 musicians and with an estimated 30 million viewers worldwide. Importantly, government policy change was sparked as the enormous power of unity shown by record-breaking audiences and viewers was harnessed into action. No longer was it possible to turn a blind eye.
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Over the past 40 years, the Band Aid Charitable Trust has raised an estimated £480 million. The trust has utilised these funds to provide emergency aid and support long-term development initiatives, aiming to make a lasting impact on communities in need. The Trust continues to play a significant role in humanitarian efforts, with its fundraising activities and charitable work remaining active.
The British Music Experience, the UK’s museum of popular music in Liverpool is to reflect on the legacy by displaying some items from the personal collection of organiser Bob Geldof. Items include letters from Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher, planning documents for Live Aid, the very first test pressing for Band Aid, Peter Blake’s stage-side sketches of Live 8, hand-written re-worked lyrics for Band Aid 20 and much more. The British Red Cross have also kindly loaned a collage by artist Julia Miranda and a letter by Dame Claire Bertschinger – the nurse who appeared in Michael Buerk’s first report for BBC News on the effects of the drought in Ethiopia.
Music promoter, British Music Experience chair of the trustees and Live Aid and Live 8 organiser, Harvey Goldsmith CBE, said: “Forty years on, Live Aid remains a defining moment in music and humanitarian history. It was a bold, chaotic, and surprising endeavour that united the world for a cause greater than ourselves. The passion and unity we sparked in 1985 continues to inspire, reminding us of music’s power to drive change. Bob’s personal collection from that time gives us all a look behind the scenes and we are delighted to host this at the British Music Experience.”
Sir Bob Geldof, added: “As Live Aid turns 40, I look back at that day in 1985 when music became a global force for unity, bringing 1.9 billion people together to fight famine in Ethiopia. Our bid to change policy—pushing for debt relief and fairer aid—helped save millions of lives, proving that a song, a stage, and a shared purpose can tilt the world toward justice.”
Midge Ure, OBE, singer, songwriter and co-organiser of Live Aid comments on the upcoming anniversary, said: “”Forty years on, Live Aid’s legacy burns bright as a testament to music’s power to unite the world. It showed us that together, we can confront the greatest challenges with compassion and action, creating a ripple effect of hope that still resonates today.”
The exhibition will run from 5th June 2025 to 4th January 2026 and the Museum’s merch store will be selling limited original, official Band Aid and Live Aid merchandise after 40 years locked in a storage time capsule, with profits going to the Band Aid Trust.
The temporary exhibition celebrating Live Aid 40 is included with all general entry tickets purchased. All general entry tickets are valid for 12 months and each eligible visitor has the opportunity to support the Museum by Gift Aiding the cost of admission.
There will also be a launch night featuring an In Conversation with Goldsmith on Wednesday 11th June 2025, from 7pm. Back in 1985, Goldsmith was recruited to help turn Bob Geldof’s concert vision into reality but preparations could only begin in earnest when he returned from accompanying Wham! on their historic trip to China. Goldsmith will talk about the preparation, promotion and management of Live Aid and Live 8, as well as the legacy work of the Live Aid trust, in this special conversation event which launches Live Aid 40 at the BME.
Image: Unofficial and unseen images from photographer given exclusive access to this historic concert, courtesy British Music Experience
