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Live Aid - The Definitive Inside Story
by Paul Vallely
€ 22.99 Save €0.75 (RRP €23.74)
ISBN: 9781917923415
The authoritative, official inside story of 40 years of Live Aid, from Band Aid to today
In 1985, with GBP100+ million in his back pocket from Live Aid - the greatest rock concert the world had ever seen - Bob Geldof took a trip across Africa to decide how to spend the money he had raised for the Ethiopian famine. He asked Paul Vallely to go with him. Over the next four decades Vallely became one of Geldof's closest advisers - travelling with him to meet the world's top rock stars and politicians.
Here, for the first time, Vallely gives his full eye-witness account of those 40 years. The book, which has a foreword by Bob Geldof, is crammed with stories of how pop, poverty, politics and power are interwoven in the Live Aid story. Geldof encounters presidents, prime ministers and popes as well as the pop heroes who adorned his bedroom wall as a boy. Bob drinks late-night whisky with Margaret Thatcher, is forced to write a grovelling apology to Bill Clinton and meets Vladimir Putin on a boat in the Mediterranean. He pressurises The Who, sweet talks Pink Floyd, and is awestruck by Bowie. Is Bob Geldof a bully or a charmer, saint or 'white saviour', or simply a force of nature?
But there is more to this than music. The journey from Live Aid to Live 8 was one from giving money to calling for action, from charity to justice - and an entire generation went on it with him. Live 8 in 2005 was the largest gathering in human history. Its eight simultaneous concerts created a seismic event which the leaders of the world's most powerful nations could not ignore. It made a whole generation feel they could make a difference. In more ways than one, Live Aid rocked the world.
544 pages.
Export/Airside EditionNot Yet Published.
Printed on or after 06/11/25. Please note dispatch may take 5-10 days after publication date.
A separate order should be placed for this item. If you order this along with other items, your entire order will be held and despatched when complete.
Date of Publication: 06/11/2025
Trade Paperback
