Live Aid: Music That Fed the World (and Filled My Parents’ Basement)

This Week In Ag #124

This past Sunday marked the 40^th anniversary of the greatest PR and musical event in history. It was held at Wembley Stadium in London. And at JFK Stadium in Philadelphia. It was viewed by nearly 40% of the world’s population. The event was Live Aid, a benefit concert to raise money and awareness for famine relief in Africa. It was the event that forged a generation, my generation, Gen X. I’ll never forget that day. Dad was among the first in our neighborhood to purchase a satellite dish. I threw a party that day, attended by seemingly every college-aged aggie in the county (or at least dad seemed to think so). We had country kids packed shoulder-to-shoulder into my parents’ full-sized Midwestern basement, with comings and goings all morning, day and night long. The event kicked off on MTV (they were Music Television back in those days) in the wee hours of the morning and carried on well into the late hours of the evening. The show was the brainchild of Irish rocker-turned-activist Bob Geldof, who gathered the world’s top musicians a few months prior to perform the charity anthem “We Are The World.” 

While the day was all about music, the cause was all about food. Or specifically, the lack of it. The African nation of Ethiopia was suffering from a famine crisis of Biblical proportions, brought upon by years of recurring drought, failed harvests and regional conflict. It was one of the century’s worst humanitarian catastrophes. More than 1 million people perished from the famine, with countless others left destitute and displaced. Live Aid raised $150 million and brought awareness to the horrific events taking place an oceans’ away. And in doing so, shined light on devastating effects of food scarcity and the need to create and maintain not only resilient food production systems, but also food distribution systems.

The show’s performers were a who’s who of musical icons: David Bowie, Elton John, Madonna, Mick Jagger, Tina Turner, U2, Sting, The Who, Paul McCartney and more. Phil Collins pulled double duty and performed in both cities, boarding the supersonic Concorde (another ’80s icon) to make the transatlantic flight. But the show-stealing performance – and the greatest 21-minute performance in the history of music – came from the British band Queen and their dynamic frontman Freddie Mercury. You can check it out here. Then all you hear is radio ga-ga, radio goo-goo…