A View Of The Sea

Not as hot as yesterday and therefore not quite as busy. Last night we watched the Live Aid At Forty coverage - strange to think that when it was happening I was finishing off my Masters at the LSE, ready to start my adult life. Although I went to Wembley twice that summer, the Freight Rover Trophy Final in June and the Charity Shield in August, I didn’t attempt to get tickets for Live Aid. I was still keeping a diary then so I can see that my friend S was staying with me and we went to Hampstead Heath that afternoon and then to a different massive outdoor concert - the Music For The Royal Fireworks at Hyde Park to celebrate the 300th anniversary of Hayden’s birth and 400 years of the City of Westminster. I wrote that it had been a spectacular show but ultimately it was to prove less significant than Queen, Bowie, U2, Geldof et al a few miles away. Today we watched the three part documentary which included the Band Aid Christmas single and the twenty years on Live 8 concerts. Some great context and the whole thing was a fascinating example of putting on an event. Okay, so this one was full of pop stars but at its heart was a passionate individual who had an idea and made it happen, without too much agonising over it all. Lessons too about the tyranny of perfectionism. People criticised the event afterwards for its lack of African musicians but that seemed to miss the point. Geldof wanted to raise money, as much as possible, as quickly as possible, and therefore asked the biggest names. And it did raise a lot of money. Would it have worked as well if more ‘representative’ bands filled the schedule? And Bowie’s demand to replace one of his songs with the showing of a video of famine victims proved to be significant, almost blindsiding the massive audience at home with what it was all about just when the concert was at its most ebullient and joyful. Likewise the Live 8 concerts and the pressure on the G8 to cancel debt and double aid. The former was agreed and the fact the increase in aid was to take several years didn’t diminish what was achieved. The whole thing reminded me of a more optimistic time when it felt that it was still possible for people to come together across the world. This at the height of the Cold War, when the support of the Soviet Union for African regimes made it politically difficult for Western leaders to offer unconditional help. In the end they did, pressured by their own electorates. Which was why the Live Aid roster mattered, reaching as many people as possible and not just a more informed subset of the population. Seeing the images of the G8, with Blair and Bush and Putin around the table was in stark contrast to where we are now. Can people today come together to force change in a similar way - breaking the stranglehold the billionaires have on life on earth?