Remembering Live Aid: A Look Back at the Iconic 1985 Charity Concert

The Wembley gig ended with an all-star rendition of Do They Know It’s Christmas? Meanwhile in Philadelphia things came to a close with a performance of We Are The World, the USA for Africa charity track, which had topped the charts in both the UK and US earlier in the year - keep reading for more on this track.

They managed to pull off one of the biggest events of all time. Michelle Visage, Radio 2

Critics of Live Aid point to a lack of diversity in the line-up, although Bob Geldof defends this in new BBC programme Live Aid at 40: When Rock'n'Roll Took on the World, saying if there had been an artist of the calibre of Stormzy available they’d have been on the bill, and pointing out Michael Jackson and Prince both declined to appear.

One viewer watching at home in New Jersey, USA was future Radio 2 presenter Michelle Visage.

\"July 13th 1985 - I would've been 16-years-old and Live Aid was everything!\" she tells Radio 2's Live Aid: The Fans' Story.

\"When I tell you the world stopped to watch this event that is not one word of a lie because there were no computers, there were no phones, it was just the telly, that's all we had.

\"Looking back at Live Aid, I don't know if we'll ever have anything like that or ever see see anything like that again, it was a moment in time where a lot of people, like my family, didn't have much but we knew we could get together and fight one cause. And the cause was hunger.

\"They put together a show of all shows. I don't know how they did it back then because the technology was not great, and they managed to pull off one of the biggest events of all time. And I just feel lucky enough to have witnessed it live.\"

In 2005, Geldof and Midge Ure organised Live 8, ten concerts around the world that aimed to highlight global poverty. Live Earth followed two years later, spearheaded by US politician Al Gore to raise awareness of climate change, but met with criticism from Geldof who felt there was no end goal to this initiative.

40 years on, Live Aid retains its place in history as a once-in-a-lifetime ground-breaking endeavour, which raised millions in response to a major human tragedy.

According to the source: BBC.