bobbieliveaidepq

Live Aid: Against All Odds is a TV documentary that was first broadcast on BBC Four on the 13th July 2010. The two part documentary received critical success when it was first broadcast on television. As a part of my EPQ project I am going to watch both episodes in order to improve my knowledge of the event and why it happened. I believe that it will help me to understand the details which allowed the event to continue as well as the factors which may have almost stopped it from happening. BBC documentaries have also been reliable as it is a Public Service Broadcaster and therefore they will be monitored by OFCOM in making sure that their resources are reliable.   The first part to the documentary is called Against All Odds and this episode outlines the reason why it was started and the events that led up to it. Many people were sceptical of the event as they thought it would be catastrophic and would not turn out the way in which Bob Geldof envisioned it. The first vision of ...

 I have began my research into the Live Aid event itself, I am however struggling with locating reliable resources at this current time. I am also struggling with my question itself and how far to go into the topic of Live Aid itself. I am not sure how much I should focus on the event or the topic of whether Live Aid could happen again. 

Part of my EPQ is to look into whether or not a Benefit Concert like Live Aid could happen again. Therefore, I wanted to look into other charity concerts which have taken place before or after Live Aid. I read an article by E Online which gave an overview of these concerts and this is what information I gathered from it.  1) The Concert for Bangladesh in 1971 was an event organised by Beatles member George Harrison. It consisted of two concerts in Madison Square Garden on 1st August 1971. It was organised to raise money and awareness for East Pakistan refugees. This was because they were struggling to establish themselves as Bangladesh as the time of the concerts. There was an all-star line up including Ringo Starr, Eric Clapton, and Bob Dylan. The concert for Bangladesh was the first of many benefit concerts of its kind and was attended by a total of 40,000 people. At the time it raised nearly $250,000 for Bangladesh relief and was administered by UNICEF. However, the live album ...

NME published an article asking the question of whether or not there could be another Live Aid. I read this as a part of my research and the knowledge that I gained from the article has proven very useful to my research into the same idea. The article explains the view in which the Live Aid creator Bob Geldof has when it comes to his own opinions on whether or not Live Aid can be recreated. The Sir announced that he believes the massive charity concert format would not work in the modern digital age. He believes that social media has rendered charity concerts on that scale redundant. This shows that even the creator of the major scale charity event feels as if it is impossible to recreate or host another Live Aid and therefore answers the question which I am asking.  In an interview with the Irish Independent, Geldof states that "I don't think that works now, there's a whole new age. You can do something, you can start generating things online now, whether that's as ef...

Live Aid holds the record for the most watched television special in history. This would make it hard to recreate in the future as it would mean there is a lot to live up to in trying to make it watchable. There were many things that went both right and wrong when it came to creating/broadcasting Live Aid in 1985. These are all factors that would make Live Aid not achievable to recreate as things would either not be able to happen again or things would simply be improved, taking away the one time memorable feel to the widespread charity event. Examples of factors which would simply be improved due to better technology includes the fact that a generator exploded during The Who number, causing the satellite link to be lost. It is unlikely that this would happen now because of modern technology and the fact that Wembley now employs major electricity and lighting companies to help broadcast and power the concerts. This takes away the nostalgic feeling that Live Aid holds because a new mode...

Live Aid, a benefit concert held simultaneously at Wembley Stadium in London and JFK Stadium in Philadelphia on July 13, 1985 was organised by Boomtown Rats front man Bob Geldof and Ultravox vocalist Midge Ure, the event drew an estimated 1.5 billion television viewers and raised millions of pounds for famine relief in Ethiopia. Years of drought and failed attempts at government control of the grain market in the early 1980s led to a catastrophic famine that threatened hundreds of thousands of lives in Ethiopia. After seeing a television news report on the subject in 1984, Geldof wrote the lyrics for “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” Ure crafted the melody of the song, and Geldof recruited some of the biggest names in the British music scene to sing on the potential number one hit. The single, recorded in November 1984 and marketed under the name Band Aid, sold over three million copies and inspired similar all-star benefit projects. Most notable among these was USA for Africa, which incl...

Research why and how Live Aid took place (the struggles that came with it). Brief outline of what happened on the day. Controversies which may be a factor as to why it may not happen again. The legacy created by the event and why it may be hard to recreate it. Determine whether or not something like Live Aid could happen again.  Similar events that have taken place