U2 Tour Programmes: Live Aid

Event: This program is for the Live Aid concert from 1985. Organised by Bob Geldof to help raise both awareness and money for the strickening famines in Ethiopia and Sudan, Live Aid was a truly global event with concerts being held simultaneously right around the world. The most memorable being those held at Wembley Stadium in the U.K. and John F. Kennedy Stadium in the United States.

Both concerts were televised globally with most of the major recording artists of the day doing 10-15 minute sets.

With the release the single 'Do They Know It's Christmas' at the end of 1984, the Band Aid charity was formed to channel the proceeds from the single and other donations into food, medicine and shelter for the starving people of Ethiopia and Sudan. But Geldof knew that this was never going to be enough, so he helped organise the global concerts to raise more funding of the Aid relief effort.

Dates covered in program: The Live Aid concerts were held on July 13, 1985.
No. of pages: 162
Size: 30cm x 21cm
Printing: The cover and rear are thickened glossy paper. The pages within are also glossy, with various stories about the Band Aid charities efforts up to that point, some harrowing pictures of the starving, a piece about the recording of the Do They Know It's Christmas Time single, running orders of the bands for both the Wembley and JFK concerts, as well as brief bio's on all the groups scheduled to play at the Wembley Stadium concert.

The bio's are in alphabetical order, so U2's start on page 128 and runs for 3 pages

Cost: This program is quite easy to find on ebay. Some ambitious sellers price it around £100, but in all reality, in auction, you should be able to pick up a nice copy for between £35 and £50. Some even come with press clippings and 'How to get there' travel leaflets from the day thrown in. I paid £46 for mine in auction and I've no complaints. On the day of the concert they sold for £5 as shown on the cover of the program.