Bob Geldof says there is one thing he is more ‘proud’ of than Live Aid

Sir Bob Geldof has spoken about why he is not “proud” of the Live Aid concert, stating that it is what came afterwards that he is most “glad” about.

The Irish rock star, 73, conceived the 1985 major benefit concert together with fellow musician Midge Ure.

Queen, U2, David Bowie and Paul McCartney were among the stars to have played London’s Wembley Stadium, with Madonna, Led Zeppelin and Bob Dylan performing simultaneously at the John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia.

The concert was watched on TV by an estimated 1.5 billion people in 150 countries. It raised more than $140m (£114m) for famine relief, and raised awareness over Ethiopia’s devastating food shortages.

Geldof, 73, spoke about Live Aid and its legacy at the 2025 Hay Festival, which has partnered with The Independent for a second year.

After recalling how he managed to unite some of the biggest names in music, Geldof was asked whether he is still “proud of that moment”.

“I’m not really proud of it because I have to talk about it every f***ing day of my life,” he said, eliciting laughter from the crowd.

“The pride thing doesn’t happen to me,” Geldof explained. “I’m not particularly proud of any of the songs I did or the positions in the charts or anything like that. I wish I did. It’s a failing.”

The former Boomtown Rats frontman went on to explain that while he is not proud of the concert itself, he is “glad” of its outcome years later.

“The one thing I know – because I didn’t do well in school – the one thing I really am glad and happy I did was persuade Tony Blair to do the commission for Africa,” he said.

“Because it became the blueprint for what subsequently happened that really did tilt the political world on its side and took tens of millions of people out of poverty.

“And that’s extraordinary – to go from a little Christmas record [“Do They Know It’s Christmas?”] to corralling the great economic and political structures of the world and make them bend to the boys and girls with pianos.”

In 2003, Geldof was instrumental in persuading then prime minister Blair to establish his Commission for Africa, which paved the way for a landmark agreement by the world’s richest nations to boost aid and write off debt.

“It’s not the [Live Aid] event [that I am proud of],” said Geldof. “It’s the actual commission that I stayed on for a year with the leaders of Africa and the global north. It was fascinating and I didn’t know I’d be fascinated by that.”

He continued: “I didn’t want that report to sit on a shelf for a desk gathering dust, so it was necessary to take it to the G8 [for which the UK held the presidency in 2005] and implement it. I’m glad about that. That’s the one thing I’m glad of.”

In December 2024, government files revealed that Geldof had urged Blair to take the lead in overhauling the system of international development for Africa as he considered African leadership on the issue to be “very weak”.

Official papers released showed that behind the scenes he cautioned Blair not to share leadership with an African co-chair as he was “scathing about the ability and worthiness of virtually all African leaders”.

“I do think this needs to be a direct commission from you personally – your vision, your authority, your weight,” he wrote at the time.

The story of Live Aid was revisited in a 2024 stage musical titled Just For One Day.

Its announcement, however, brought criticism from some people who debated whether in hindsight the concert contained elements of white saviorism: white people helping non-white people for self-serving purposes, such as admiration from others.

For The Guardian, critic Arifa Akbar highlighted how some viewed the benefit as reinforcing “a patronising image of Africa as a continent desperate for, and dependent on, western aid”.

Geldof pushed back against the criticism, dismissing it as “the greatest load of b****cks ever”.

“That’s the first thing. And it would be typical of the Guardian critic classic Islington bien pensant,” the singer told radio presenter Mariella Frostrup.