Get the latest gossip

‘We created a monster’: Midge Ure reflects on Live Aid as musical heads to West End

Ahead of a London theatre run in May, Ultravox singer says 1985 charity gig probably couldn’t happen today because of low attention spans

Sitting in the royal box at London’s Wembley Stadium, just shy of the 40th anniversary of the Live Aid concert that he helped make happen here, Midge Ure ponders its legacy. Live Aid was held to raise money for famine relief in Ethiopia, and Ure says that he and the team behind it were powered by a cocktail of naivety and rock-star arrogance – logistical hurdles were deemed immaterial. The Band Aid lyrics – such as Bono’s line “tonight thank God it’s them instead of you” – have prompted accusations of white saviourhood, and African artists such as Fuse ODG have argued it created a patronising and flattened view of a whole continent.

Get the Android app