All language subtitles for LIVE AID - 3 - Documentary [2025]

CROWD SHOUTS

CHEERING

Have a look at this,
ladies and gentlemen.

ROCK MUSIC

We don't have to send in our money.

We've just got to stop asking
starving people...

..to give back the money
our government's lent them,

plus interest.

That's about it.

CHEERING

Sounds good.

But the banks won't cancel the debts

unless the politicians
tell the banks to do that.

And the politicians
won't tell the banks

unless we tell them to do that.

So that's why I'm here.

Are you with me?

CHEERING

Are you?

ARCHIVE: It's 12 noon in London,

7am in Philadelphia.

And around the world
it's time for Live Aid.

40 years ago, music brought
the world together

to fight a famine in Ethiopia.

# We could be heroes... #

32 million human beings dying of
hunger in a world of surplus food.

And it's this simple thing
that drives me nuts.

It all began with a song.

The most remarkable number one ever.
It sold a million in a week.

Well, that's more than any other
record in the history of music.

CHEERING

It inspired Live Aid, one of the
biggest global events in history.

To be honest, it seemed
a harebrained scheme.

It seemed like
this could never happen.

I remember the stadium shaking.

I was singing my face off, honey.

# It was 20 years ago today
Sergeant Pepper... #

20 years on, Live 8 challenged

the leaders of the world's
richest countries

to address the causes of poverty
in Africa.

People were saying, "Why the hell
are we going to spend money

"over in Africa when we got road
problems in my state?

I said to Bob, "I'll do
the politics, you do the public."

Nothing can ever repair
the damage colonisation,

slavery did.

Nothing.

But this was demonstrating
what we can do.

This is the story of how a pop song
inspired a movement

that secured tens of billions
of pounds for Africa.

You can't change the world
with a song, or even a concert,

but you can plant a seed.

# Sergeant Pepper's
Lonely Hearts Club Band! #

2003,

I'm back in Ethiopia.

NEWS: 20 years ago, he formed
Band Aid to raise millions of pounds

in famine relief. Now he's back to
highlight a new crisis in Ethiopia,

a country where 12 million people
now face starvation.

I go to visit an orphanage,

and I see these children

whose parents have died

because of no food.

It annoys me to tears
of frustration.

I go ballistic at this point,
as ever.

"Get me Downing Street!"

We were in Evian

for the G8 summit, hosted by Chirac.

And an urgent message came
from the switchboard,

Number 10 switchboard,

that Bob Geldof
needed to speak to Tony.

Fortunately, I was next to Tony,

and these things could happen there
easier than other places.

Kate handed me the phone,
said, "It's Bob."

He came on the phone,

and, as ever with Bob,
went straight to the point.

I remember shouting,
"It's happening again!"

And he said, "Stop shouting.
What's happening?"

He just said, "Look, the situation
in Africa is absolutely dire.

"It's gone off the agenda.

"We've got to see how we revive..."

Not just revive
the sort of Band Aid campaign,

but put Africa on the agenda
of the top leaders in the world.

So I got a meeting
with the Prime Minister.

And the thrust of my argument was,
people dying of hunger

and dying of no hope
will not get resolved

until we get to the nub
of what poverty is.

And the first thing
that has to happen is

we remove debt from the poorest
countries of the world.

So, the issue of Africa's debt
was a massive, massive problem,

because a lot of countries
were paying vast amounts of money

in interest on a debt that, frankly,
it was highly unlikely

they were ever going to be able
to repay in full,

without devastating their country.

It was stunting their growth,

it was making them unable
to fund basic public services.

We needed someone who would chair
a commission

that's been asked to eliminate debt.

I said,
"It can't be an African leader,

"because African leaders
are essentially powerless.

If it's Blair, then he's
the Prime Minister of Britain -

deeply popular, except for Iraq -

and he's going to chair the G8.

He said, "All right, let's do it."

I wouldn't have reacted in
that way at anyone, but it was him,

with his track record,
his commitment, his knowledge,

his dedication -
and therefore it made sense.

NEWS: So today, Sir Bob Geldof
was back, this time flanked

by the Secretary of State
for International Development,

Hilary Benn,
to launch a new initiative -

a Commission for Africa.

Bob - crucially it was his idea,
the Commission for Africa,

so he was driving the political
agenda INSIDE government,

which was incredible.

It's almost like a report card
of the Live Aid generation,

who became animated and activated
by this subject,

a subject that was nowhere on the
world political agenda 20 years ago.

I think there were 17 members.

You had African politicians,
you had African business leaders,

but you also had
G8 representatives

and the UK government.

NEWS: Tonight, Mr Blair arrived in
the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa,

for a meeting
of his Africa Commission.

The African Commission,
you can read it both ways.

One is that it was generally a
good-faith effort to support Africa.

The other way you could read it is,

well, actually, Tony Blair,
it suited his narrative

to cast himself as some saviour.

When I come and see
what is happening here

and see what could happen,

I know that however difficult
politics is,

there is at least one noble cause
worth fighting for.

And it's here, on this continent.

After the meeting
and the press conference,

a Sun journalist said that
he had been to a little town

two hours away
and had identified and found Birhan,

the symbol of the crisis and famine

in '85.

So the request was,
"Would Tony meet her?"

which, of course,
the answer was yes.

I remember her coming in

and she had a great presence
about her, actually.

Tony - you know, he had
this kind of "Gosh, Bob,"

you know this sort of expression
that he had on.

And, you know,
I hadn't expected this coup.

Tony talked about the impact
she'd had on him

and the rest of the world.

It was a very moving meeting.

I mean, in politics you don't
often get many moments where you...

..think, "Well, that was good
that we did that. That was good."

And she brought home to me that

the whole thing that we were trying
to do was important,

because many people didn't survive,
weren't surviving.

But her being there was
a representation of the fact

it was possible to do something.

The UK was going to host
the G8 summit in 2005.

G8 summits, they are useful
for leaders to come together

and talk about things,
but they don't have big consequence.

I was very determined

that we should try and make this
a meaningful summit,

where we were going
to try and do huge things,

particularly on Africa.

The key to everything about getting
other G8 leaders was Bush.

To begin with at least, I think
he thought it was a bit crazy.

We should be talking about
the normal things - the economy,

a bit about global security,

and then get out of town
as fast as possible.

Good morning, Tony.

How are you?

I told the people here that
one of my customary habits

is to check in with my friend
in Great Britain,

so I'm glad
that we are able to talk today.

Because the relationship was
a very close relationship and...

You know, there are...
people who would disagree

with how close it was
for all sorts of obvious reasons.

But because it was so close,

we were in constant conversation
with each other.

And I thought there was a chance,

because we had formed
this commission

that Bob had asked us to do.

And then you had Bono.

Bob was "effing this"
and "effing that",

even with presidents
and prime ministers!

And Bono had this kind
of deep empathy with people,

and knew how to kind of appeal
to their inner souls.

# The heart is a bloom

# It shoots up through stony ground

# But there's no room... #

Bono and I are REALLY good friends
and very close.

By this time, he was a global
mega-superstar. I wasn't.

# Don't let it get away

# It's a beautiful day

# Touch me, touch me... #

He wants to give the world
a great big hug,

and I want to punch its lights out.

Live Aid -
it began a journey for all of us,

a lot of people on that stage,

from what you might call charity

to what you might call justice.

I don't believe anything like that
would have happened without...

..without Bob.

I had the fortune of working with,
you know, Bob Geldof and Bono.

We had a lot of momentum on
debt cancellation in 2000 and 2001.

But we had not completed the job.

The HIV Aids emergency
was running out of control.

We had not focused on that as much.

NEWS: The United Nations says
36 million people around the world

have HIV or Aids, and 3 million
will die in the next year -

80% of them in Africa.

What was happening with HIV Aids
on the continent of Africa

was about to undo everything.

And so the discussion was...

..what more could we do
alongside debt on HIV Aids?

The organisation we founded
was Data -

Data.org.

Bob comes up with Data

as an acronym.

The three biggest challenges

to the continent of Africa.

Debt. Aids. And trade.

I became aware of Bono

and his - at the time it was
called Data - organisation

a few months
into the Bush presidency.

But they were...
a pretty rinky-dink operation.

He's right. We were rinky-dink.

That's correct, actually.

I think it's true.

But that was, if I can say so,
the genius of the strategy.

So we're not coming in here
doing press conferences,

we are never going to...

I said, "Bono will never sing
in Washington DC.

"Not Happy Birthday, not "how are
you doing?", not a verse from One.

Nothing.

They were asking for Bono to have
a meeting with Condoleezza Rice.

Morning. Good morning. Morning.

I said I would present it to her.

I myself
was a bit sceptical about that.

Jendayi Frazer came in
and she said,

"Bono - do you know who that is?"

And I said, "Er, yes.

"I'm a huge fan of U2.
I would love to meet Bono."

I think she was a little surprised.

It was very weird

for the National Security Advisor
to meet a pop star.

Bono came talking about the facts.

He came with a very substantive
policy agenda.

My goal always was to know more
than the staff.

And Bono, to his great credit,
really took to that.

He was like, "Yeah,
I'm going to know more than them."

And that shocked people, you know,

cos they don't expect well-known
people to know the numbers.

It was very clear
after just a few minutes

that Bono wanted
to talk about the Aids pandemic,

and he wanted to talk about
the possibility of US leadership

in taking on that challenge.

This was 6,000 Africans dying
every day

of a preventable treatable disease
concerning HIV.

But they don't have to.

If that population was anywhere
else, there is a treatment.

And we just have
to get it affordable

and accessible to these people.

I was a little bit worried
about bringing Bono in

to see the President.

The President, his tastes go toward
country music,

not toward rock music.

The President did not do
that sort of thing often,

because he felt that rock stars
would be using

the White House platform to advance
their own celebrity.

And so Josh is briefing me,

you know, you'll stand here, you'll
say to Bono this, Bono that.

I said, "I got it, Josh. I got it."

And he's leaving the Oval Office and
he turns over his shoulder and said,

"You do know who Bono is,
don't you?"

And I said, "Yeah, he married Cher."

And I turned around
and I looked at his face

and I could not tell
whether he was kidding,

and I said, "No, that's Sonny Bono,
who is dead."

And in comes the great star, Bono.

He surprised me by giving me
a Bible.

I don't think this was a way
to make me like him,

I think it was a way
he really wanted to share with me

a part of his being.

I knew he was a man of faith

and I thought he might enjoy
this ancient Irish Bible.

The first 10 or 15 minutes of
the conversation

between President Bush and Bono

was about the meaning of religion
in the public sphere.

Well, he made the case about people
dying of Aids.

I had campaigned and told people

a guiding principle of
my administration

was all life is precious

and we're all God's children.

I asked George Bush,
"Is there a hierarchy to sin?"

He gave me the best answer
anyone ever gave me. He said,

"Er, the sin of omission?"

The sin of omission.

Well, the sin of omission
would be to say,

"Oh, I'm not going to do it
cos I'm too busy,

"or cos, you know, whatever,

"and we'll let all those people
die."

I'm being informed
that there's a pandemic destroying

an entire generation of people
on the continent of Africa,

and at the time
that I'm the President of...

..which I consider the most generous
nation in the world,

and we're doing nothing about it.

It struck my heart.

As unappealing as it was
to U2's audience,

having their singer hang out
with a Republican,

it was just as much a bad photo op
for them.

A year passed from that fateful day
when Bono met President Bush,

and I assumed Bono was wondering,

"OK, what's happening
with Aids relief?"

And the President had decided
that he wanted to do it

in his State of the Union,

which is the moment
when the biggest ideas come forward.

APPLAUSE

I asked the Congress to commit

$15 billion
over the next five years,

including nearly $10 billion
in new money,

to turn the tide against Aids

in the most afflicted nations
of Africa and the Caribbean.

APPLAUSE

Bono got George Bush

to give $15 billion to black people

who don't vote, who have Aids.

I think a great nation also should
be a compassionate nation.

Nothing more compassionate than
helping people who are condemned

to death live.

Pepfar, the President's emergency
plan for Aids relief,

is the largest health intervention
in the history

of health interventions.

It has saved 26 million lives.

Bono, he never stopped pushing,

but he was also moving on
to other topics

in development,
including debt relief.

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

I've come because
Prime Minister Blair asked me -

and he may regret it.

LAUGHTER

In the largest sense,

I'm here because of a journey
that began in 1984, '85,

with Band Aid and Live Aid.

Live Aid raised

200 million or something like that.

That's what the African
continent's paying every week

in debt service.

Shouldn't we be offering
these struggling economies

across the world a brand-new start

by lifting that debt burden
from them?

That was the journey from charity
to justice right there.

The Prime Minister's
Africa Commission,

this can be a radical landmark.

It will have to be...

..if Bob Geldof has his way,

and it is hard not to give
Bob Geldof his way, is it not?

LAUGHTER

The Commission for Africa report
set out the broad agenda. It kind of

created the road map, or
as Tony Blair called it, the bible

of what he finally wanted
at the G8 meeting in Gleneagles.

This thing here is so doable.

NEWS: The plan for Africa
is radical,

including a 100% cancellation
of debt,

doubling aid to £26 billion a year
in the first instance,

and removing unfair trade barriers
so that Africa can sell

goods to the developed world.

I said to Bob, you know,

"I'll do the politics,
you do the public,

"but you've got to give me help
with those politics

"by mobilising the public
in favour of this,

"cos a lot of people are going to be
saying to me,

" 'Why are you making all of this
commitment to Africa?' "

I'd sworn to the Prime Minister

that I would do the public

if he implemented
the Commission for Africa...

..which was the cancellation of debt
to the poorest

and a doubling of aid.

I thought that I could be
a good bridge between

the complexity
of the Commission for Africa

and the simplicity of what
the public might respond to.

Myself and Bono and Bob spoke often

and we believed that we could come
up with an interesting campaign,

which was a campaign that turned
into Make Poverty History.

Our motto was
launch, launch, and launch again.

We just launched as many times
as we could.

Then we had this opportunity
for Nelson Mandela

to launch it again.

Millions of people in the world's
poorest countries,

they are trapped in the prison
of poverty.

It is time to set them free.

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

Mandela's presence was

to bring a very strong African
leadership to it,

and my presence was to say,

"Well,
we're organising globally,"

and to bring a global presence
to it.

Even that launch was heavy celebrity
focused, right?

Of course, a conversation broke out
about celebrocracy,

which is the domination
of public space by celebrities.

But I had to convince folks
that the blunt truth is

we had access to people in power,

but nothing like what the
celebrities were able to deliver.

It seemed to me that if the
Make Poverty History campaign

could have a...second Live Aid,

then it might be possible to make it
something which was noisy

and popular and famous
and therefore more effective.

I can't overdramatise
how much of a refusenik I was.

I was not going to do this.

Then Bono, who knows me very well,

came and said...

Imagine if Paul McCartney...

# 20 years ago today

# Sergeant Pepper taught the band
to play... #

It WAS 20 years ago today.

Live Aid was 20 years ago today.

Walking onstage,

Paul McCartney...

..and U2.

And I went...

..cos he had me.

Then you got a sense
that it might be magnificent.

And he came up with Live 8,

in other words do a concert
in each of the G8 countries.

I call up Harvey.

He goes, "We're not fucking doing it
again!"

You know, so... And I said,

"No, we're not.

"This time it's in eight places,"
you know?

Well, I have,
15 times in the last week.

He's an awkward bugger.

If he wants something,
he doesn't stop.

I had an office with a spare sofa

and a very tolerant staff.

Hello? Bob always had his phone
on speaker,

which meant that you could hear
every conversation he ever had,

and he talks very loud
in order to convince people.

Did I have to call all these people
again?

The embarrassment of it, you've
no idea how I have to steel myself.

I sort of said,
"Hey, Pete, it's Bob."

Or, "Madge, it's Geldof again."

It's not. It's like...

Mick?

It's Bob.

Hi, Bob. I'm here to haunt you.

APPLAUSE

NEWS: Bob Geldof walked into

a London hotel today to do
what he had promised never to do,

stage another concert
like Live Aid.

Good morning.

July the 2nd isn't the end of
our 20-year trek,

it's the beginning of the final leg.

What Live Aid did joyously,
enthusiastically,

was open up the avenues of
possibility.

Finally, Live 8 invites you
to walk down them.

When was the last G8?

When did you ever read about it?

When will...? What was the agenda?

And did you know the leaders had
even gone?

And when they came back,
did the press question them?

No.

A million people on the streets

of every capital city,

that was my plan,

so that the journalists were totally
focused

and it was called Live 8.

8, 8, everywhere.

I get a call from the President of
the Nelson Mandela Foundation

who says to me...

.."Kumi,

"Mandela is very upset

"that there's no concert in Africa.

"I mean, these guys are talking
about Africa, Africa, Africa

"and there's nothing in Africa.
How can that be?"

And the logic was, you know,
if we had something,

even if it was smaller-scale than
the other eight concerts,

at least Africa is not invisibilised

and then you don't have
the white man saviour complex.

I said, "OK, I think we can
pull it off in Johannesburg."

NEWS: This global gig is going
to make itself heard.

NEWS: Shows will run
throughout today.

They're intended to put pressure on
the leaders of the G8 countries

to tackle global poverty.

As many as 200,000 people

are expected in Hyde Park in London.

Everybody here's not only here
for the music,

but they're just to show
that we, as a nation, are committed

to ending poverty.

CHEERING

PRESENTER: It's two o'clock
in London

on July the 2nd, 2005.

Hyde Park welcomes the world

to Live 8.

Just the start of Live 8,

U2, we're in our dressing room,

we close the door,
have this prayer thing.

Our manager, Dennis Sheehan,
God rest his soul,

he knows nobody can come in
in that moment,

it's a private moment.

HE KNOCKS ON TABLE

Don't answer the door.

Finish the prayer.

I ask Dennis, I said,

"What was that at the door?"

He said, "Oh, that was, erm...

"That was Sir Paul McCartney."

I said, "Paul McCartney? Oh, God."

Ran out.

I go, "Paul!

"So sorry."
He said, "What were you doing?

"What were you doing?"

I said, "We just have a little
prayer moment, you know?

"One of those prayer moments."

"Why didn't you ask me? Why...?

"I mean, if you'd asked me,
I'd love to be part of that."

He said, "Have it again, with me."

It was the most poetic prayer.

And then we went onstage.

CHEERING

MUSIC: Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts
Club Band by The Beatles

# Well, it was 20 years ago today

# Sergeant Pepper taught the band
to play

# They've been going in and out
of style

# But they're guaranteed
to raise a smile

# So let me introduce to you

# The band you've known
for all these years

# Sergeant Pepper's
Lonely Hearts Club Band... #

They went onstage
and we opened the show

with a fanfare, and there it was,
"20 years ago today".

# We're Sergeant Pepper's
Lonely Hearts Club Band

# We hope you will enjoy
the show... #

As we heard the names of who was
going to be performing

in the London concert,

people were getting concerned that
actually they were not seeing

African names,

and it's not like Africa
as a continent is poor

in musical talent.

Will it alter the politics of the G8

to have genius African musicians on?

Will it force the G8
to do what we ask?

No.

I think we all consistently
disagreed with Bob on this,

myself and Bono.

It was clear that, you know,
there should be more

African representation in Live 8.

And there was a great
African musician, Youssou N'Dour.

He did perform. I wish his voice had
been heard more.

Thank you!

# Boul ma sene

# Boul ma guiss madi re nga fokni
mane

# Khamouma li neka thi sama souf
ak thi guinaw... #

Youssou N'Dour was a key voice
in making the argument

that debt cancellation, for example,
should be done in such a way

as African citizens could keep
an eye on their leaders

and keep an eye on how the money
was spent.

So he was able to articulate
that nuanced point

in a way that it was very hard for,
you know, Irish rock stars to do.

# Beaucoup de sentiments de races
qui font qu'ils desesperent

# Je veux les deux mains ouvertes

# Des amis pour parler de leurs
peines et de leur joie

# Pour qu'ils leur aient des infos
qui ne divisent pas

# Changez... #

We did our best to make it more
involving of African acts...

..and failed.

We fucked up.

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

Africa!

United! Thank you!

What we had that none of the other
concerts had,

we had the most moral,
ethical human being

who was going to be in Johannesburg,
and that was Nelson Mandela.

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

I am pleased...

..to be here today...

..to support Africa standing tall
against poverty...

..in concert...

..with Live 8.

CHEERING

Generations to come

will judge our leaders

by the decisions they make

in the coming weeks.

CHEERING

Hyde Park, make some noise for

Ms Dynamite!

It's so beautiful to be here.

It's so beautiful to see
all of these beautiful faces

in front of me.

We, as a nation, have robbed,
killed,

stolen and tortured the Third World
for centuries.

If there is a debt to be paid,

surely we're the ones that owe.

CHEERING

# Old pirates, yes, they rob I

# Sold I to the merchant ship

# Minutes after they took I

# From the bottomless pit

# But my hand was made strong

# By the hand of the Almighty

# We forward in this generation

# Triumphantly

# So won't you help to sing

# Redemption song?

# What's going on?
Nothing's changed

# We're still exploiting the poor

# Slavery never ended, no

# It just changed course

# Aids and free trade

# Decimating the young

# Famine everywhere
but why never a shortage of guns?

# Conflict all over the globe

# It's dictated by our leaders

# War in the motherland... #

BOTH: # But no African arms dealers

# The West robbed the Third World

# Of every single cent

# Now there's Third World debt

# How does that make sense?

# Won't you help to sing

# These songs of freedom?

# Redemption song. #

Thank you so much.

Well, thank you, Ms Dy-Na-Mi-Tee!

JONATHAN ROSS: Well, I'm going
to hand you downstairs to Jo,

because she has Lenny Henry
with her. Jo?

Lenny, is there a lack today...?

I had to represent
so many black people today.

But was it a problem for you today?

Actually, what's been very,
very good is that

there's been more than you think,
actually.

And I think that's all right.

I've enjoyed it today.

There's always a criticism
about not being enough black acts.

I didn't care whether they were
black, brown, green or yellow.

If they were a big act,

and they were great,
and they wanted to play, great.

I want to say hello to Philadelphia.
Welcome, America, to Live 8!

CHEERING

And the reason that millions of you
have tuned in

is because every three seconds,

in one of the poorest countries
in the world,

a child dies
as a result of extreme poverty.

Please watch this.

The click campaign was a way
of making the reality,

the horror of the thing...

..immediately accessible.

CLICK

Dead.

Everybody, let me see your hands!

Let me see your hands!

All over the world, here we go.

CLICKING

Let these world leaders know.

If you were a politician
sitting in Gleneagles

and the screen splits up
to the world all going click,

you're going to go, "Ah."

And if I was a political adviser,

I'd say,
"Prime Minister, Mr President,

"can I just show you this?"
You know?

Thank you for being
a part of Live 8.

CHEERING

I know for us
we're the young generation,

and a lot of young people
look up to us,

so we actually,
one of the reasons we're here is

to take advantage of the celebrity.

# Say my name, say my name... #

We've been to Africa
and we've seen the children,

so anything we can do to help,
we're here.

# I know you say
that I am assuming things

# Something's goin' down,
that's the way it seems

# Shouldn't be no reason
why you're actin' strange

# If nobody's holdin' you back
from me

# Cos I know how you usually do

# Where you're sayin' everything
to me times two

# Why can't you just tell the truth?

# If somebody's there
then tell me who... #

You see, the difference
between '85 and '05.

In '85 we had Tina...

..Patti LaBelle,
Teddy Pendergrass,

but it wasn't Michael Jackson,
it wasn't Stevie Wonder.

At Live 8, we had Destiny's Child,

Beyonce, Will Smith, Jay-Z.

CHEERING

You know, they're spending billions
and billions of dollars

to kill people.

We just spent billions and billions
of dollars to help people live,

and we appreciate all y'all help.

I don't want to get too political.
Let's play some music, man.

Come on! Come on, Jay.

# Who you know fresher than Hov?
Riddle me that

# The rest of y'all know
where I'm lyrically at

# Can't none of y'all mirror me back

# Yeah, hearing me rap is like
hearing G Rap in his prime

# I'm young HO,
rap's Grateful Dead

# Back to take over the globe,
now break bread

# I'm in Boeing jets, Global Express

# Out the country
but the Blueberry still connect

# I'm on the low but the yacht... #

As I said, there are gigs going on
all over the world,

so let's see what's happening
in Paris.

It's with the Chateau de Versailles,
I believe.

CHEERING

Bonsoir, Paris!

Comment allez-vous?

CHEERING

This is Moscow.

Tokyo.

This is Canada.

Huge gathering there in Berlin.

In Rome, we have a band performing
called Nek.

Grazie!

Alla prossima.

Over 200,000 people have gathered
here today in London.

A worldwide audience we think
of in the region of

5 billion people.

Hi.

You were great.
That's Jeanne, my missus.

Hello. That's Tiger.

AS VOICEOVER: Madonna is not only
an avatar of the '80s,

but became emblematic of the whole
adventure of Live Aid

through to Live 8.

See this little girl?

She had ten minutes to live
20 years ago.

And because we did a concert
in this city and in Philadelphia,

and all of you came and...

Last week,
she did her agricultural exams

in the school she goes to in
the northern Ethiopian Highlands.

She's here tonight,
this little girl.

Birhan.

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

Don't let them tell us
that this doesn't work.

Ladies and gentlemen,
from one immensely strong woman

to another,
the queen bee of rock and roll,

Madonna!

# Oooh... #

Wow.

# Life is a mystery

# Everyone must stand alone... #

Madonna, this healthy, beautiful,
talented woman onstage

with this infant who had seconds
to live 20 years ago.

If anything could have told
the journey of Band Aid,

it was this image.

# When you call my name,
it's like a little prayer

# I'm down on my knees... #

# Just like a prayer,
you know I'll take you there... #

# When you call my name,
it's like a little prayer

# I'm down on my knees,
I wanna take you there... #

Yeah, quite a lot.

Well, Harvey's been stressed
for fucking weeks.

Let's go now.

Can we go now?

One, two, three, four!

# Ooh-ooh

# Every breath you take

# And every move you make

# Every bond you break,
every step you take

# I'll be watching you... #

Spitting Image had used that song,
Every Breath You Take,

as the end song of one their shows,

and "we'll be watching you",

and it was all of the world leaders
were puppets.

# We'll be watching you... #

So I took that as my lead.

That's what the song
became about that day,

we'd be watching you.

Surveillance the other way.

# Democracy

# This is the daily plan

# No matter we say... #

You can't change the world
with a song,

or even a concert,

but you can plant a seed.

If you plant a seed in a young mind

about fairness, about human rights,

about the nature of governments,

that seed can bear fruit,

and it does.

# Every single day

# Every word you say

# Yeah, oh-oh-oh-oh. #

CHEERING

We did overrun.

It was a problem,

and I had to deal with

a platoon of policemen

marching towards the stage

at just about 15 minutes
before the official curfew time.

And I was threatening them,
you know?

I said, "Pull the fucking plug."

They didn't quite understand

that the planet, 3.2 billion people,
were watching.

And they didn't care.

And I was going ape-wire,

I was so afraid
we wouldn't get to Paul.

Someone found Tessa Jowell,

who was having a nice time
watching the show,

and dragged her backstage.

He came through the crowd

and said to my kids,

"I need to borrow your mum."

I said to the guys,

"The Minister for Culture is coming.

"I advise you to get your hand away
from that plug."

I didn't expect to be
on the front line

of whether or not
the concert carried on.

I simply said,
"This is on my shoulders."

She said - very cold, very strict -

"I am telling you now,

"with the authority
of the Prime Minister...

.."that this concert finishes
appropriately."

Done.

Pop and politics at this point

had blended almost seamlessly.

# Na-na-na, na-na-na-na... #

Come on!

# Na-na-na-na, hey, Jude... #

Come on, everybody,
don't keep me waiting!

# Na-na-na, na-na-na-na

# Na-na-na-na, hey, Jude

# Na-na-na, na-na-na-na

# Na-na-na-na, hey, Jude... #

Ah, we hope
you're going to hear us.

We hope you're going to hear us!

# Na-na-na, na-na-na-na

# Na-na-na-na, hey, Jude

# Yeah... #

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

# Ohh, oh-oh-oh. #

Thank you!

See you in Edinburgh.

BAGPIPES SKIRL

We hadn't got the Africa deal
before the summit began,

it wasn't across the line,

and there was still quite a lot
of opposition to it.

The Americans had a strategy
for a while that the top issue

that would get agreed at Gleneagles
would be debt cancellation,

and we wanted a doubling of aid
for Africa as well.

On Africa, I was negotiating

the text with Faryar Shirzad

as he was flying in with Bush.

Michael and I essentially had
to kind of figure that process out.

I kept saying to him,

"Listen, we can pledge to double
development assistance,

"but committing to do it,
well, is a complicated thing."

And we had three or four hours
on the phone,

with me in Gleneagles, him in the
plane, trying to get him to agree.

There was no relationship
the President had around the world

that was closer than the one he had
with Tony Blair,

and so he made it very clear to me
that this summit had to be

a success, an outside success,
for the Prime Minister.

BAND PLAYS: Hail To The Chief

You get to places like Gleneagles,

where a character like
President Bush is more than bemused

at the sight of myself and Bob
running around.

And I didn't have any clue
who "Geldorf" was.

Yeah, he and Bono came in and...

Bono, at least somewhat presentable.

Geldorf looked like he'd crawled out
from underneath the ground.

But he was a good guy.
He cared deeply, and...

LAUGHS: ..I'm sure
I insisted upon the picture,

to prove I actually met Geldorf.

I personally felt like it was
almost arrogant of us being there,

but it was very nice of
the Prime Minister to have us there.

So the corridors, which once
would have been

just the G8 leaders having
a fireside chat,

now were full of us all
making sure that

the partnership with Africa
and the developing world

was part of the conversation
in a central way.

The Prime Minister and the President
had a private breakfast that morning

and then joined the setting.

There was kind of a patio area

and an inner lounge
that was available to the leaders.

The meeting started, but it had only
been going, I suppose,

15, 20 minutes or so,
when news began to come in.

Newsbeat. In the last few minutes,
we've been getting reports

of an explosion
between Liverpool Street

and Aldgate Stations in London.

All the windows were blown out
on one of the trains.

An eyewitness described a loud bang
and black smoke...

The police have declared it
a major incident.

I remember Jonathan coming in
and telling me,

"There's been a set of incidents
in London,

"and we don't know
exactly what's happened,

"but we think
it's a terrorist attack."

The Prime Minister was quite shaken
by the news that he had heard,

and he shared it with
the other leaders at that point.

President Bush spoke up first.

I told Blair, "Get down to London.

"We can handle our own up here,"
you know?

"Get down there and do your job."

And then the question was,
"Well, what'll happen to the G8?"

And they agreed, "Well, the G8
must go on, because if it stops,

"then the terrorists will be seen
to have won."

Today's bombings will not weaken
in any way our resolve...

..to uphold the most deeply held
principles of our societies.

We shall prevail,
and they shall not.

NEWS: There were at least
six explosions, the Home Secretary

has just confirmed, one of them
on a bus packed with commuters.

I remember just looking
and being a bit confused by this,

being horrified by the bombs.

I mean, for a moment, we just...
We had to collect ourselves.

We had to say,
"OK, what are we going to do now?"

We had to group and say,
"What's the next plan?"

With Tony Blair gone, it was
then agreed that I would then...

I would then chair the meeting
at lunch.

You know, him leaving,
it could've all fractured.

One of those leaders
could've taken advantage of it,

blocked the issues we were still
trying to get across the line.

Schroeder found the text
quite difficult to accept,

particularly the text on Africa.

The Germans were not on board.

Aid to Africa wasn't seen
as a particularly German thing.

Germany was more interested
in Eastern Europe and so on.

The German Chancellor, Gerhard
Schroeder, I'd had a beer with him.

I say, "Look,
I'm actually going to Berlin,

"coming to a stadium near you,

"and I am going to have
to tell people

"if you're signing
or you're not signing.

"So...are we in or are we out?"

Like a good politician,
he doesn't agree.

I go to Berlin, I do call him out.

Leadership means that between
all these rich countries,

we get $50 billion a year
for the poorest of the poor,

something we have not yet got today.

And so we do not applaud
the Chancellor.

But if...

..he can deliver this...

..by four o'clock tomorrow...

..your Chancellor, in my mind,

will be a hero.

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

Tony Blair came back from London,
exhausted.

Quite late that evening,
he called me

and said, "Look, what's been
going on while I've been away?"

I said to Tony Blair, "Look, you're
going to have to talk to Schroeder."

And then he went down into the bar

with all the leaders there
and their wives. I remember him...

Not to exaggerate, but he had
Schroeder up against a wall,

saying, "We're going to do
this deal, aren't we, Gerhard?"

And at that moment,
I think Schroeder gave in

and we got across the line
with the Germans.

What had been really hanging
in the balance,

in terms of getting the commitment,
it came through.

And all the leaders
played their part in that.

To be frank, even President Putin
played his part in that.

You know, he had the ability
to wreck that whole summit

if he wanted to, and he didn't.

He's Putin, you know?

We did it with all the leaders
standing there, signing up to it,

with the African leaders
in attendance.

It was definitely
the most extraordinary weekend

I had in my time as Prime Minister.

It was...

..probably one of the last moments
of truly global solidarity...

..that I can remember.

NEWS: The figures agreed
sound immense -

$50 billion extra in aid
for the developing world by 2010,

$25 billion of that for Africa.

A number of the NGOs in this area
are saying that 2010 is too late,

that the money is needed
more urgently in Africa now.

This is a natural course of events.

You get fed up with
parts of the NGO community,

because whatever you do
is never enough,

and they ask you to do something,
you do it

and they still criticise you.

And Bob and Bono
just weren't like that at all.

Debt relief equivalent to billions
was a giant leap,

to the benefit of most of
the impoverished states.

NEWS: Disappointment with the deal -
and some of its famous backers -

came to a head
later in the afternoon.

The fact that aid was delayed
till 2010

meant there's a lot of room
for wriggle-out, right?

Because five years,
people have forgotten,

the context has changed,
all of that.

Our reading is that the G8
has listened,

but their response has not been
a roar but a whisper.

I do my "People roared
and G8 whispered,"

and then Bob takes the thing
and goes...

.."According to my calculation,
this is how many lives will be

"saved as a result of
this aid money,"

which will come five years later.

When did ten million people alive
become a whisper?

At what point was that a whisper?

APPLAUSE

It was a very, very intense moment.

I'm just thinking,
"We're getting through this

"and we're advancing our cause
and we're not over."

A mountain has been climbed,

and...only to reveal higher peaks,
for sure, on the other side of it.

But it's worth just stopping
for a second

and looking back down the valley
at where we've all come.

Doubling aid to Africa
has not been easy.

What Bono said, we could live with.

You know, after the event was over,
Bono said, "Every army needs

"to have a mad general,
and Geldof is our mad general."

CHEERING

MUSIC: Do They Know It's Christmas?
by Band Aid

# At Christmas-time,
it's no time to be afraid

# It's Christmas-time
Let in light and banish shade

# And in our world of plenty,
we can spread a smile of joy... #

I think there were very many
good people, with good intentions,

that were involved
both with Live Aid and Live 8.

I think that there was
not enough sensitivity

to understanding that it's not right

for a bunch of predominantly
white male folks to get together

and say, "We're going to frame
a continent like this."

# Tonight, thank God it's them
instead of you... #

Getting this stuff right
is really hard,

because you are essentially
raising an alarm.

What Bob and Bono and others
have done over the years

has resulted in, I don't know,

probably millions of people living
who otherwise would have died,

and I don't think
there's any type of, you know,

remote ideological argument that
should stand in the way of that.

# Feed the world... #

The 20th anniversary
was just a convergence of...

..good fortune and good actors
on the world stage.

But what's happening now in politics

means this anniversary could be
a funeral...

..for the last 40 years.

It was unique.

It has saved lives.

But now, can we bring
this kind of passion,

can we involve human beings
across the world

to act the way you acted
in the 1980s to save lives?

What I love is that
there are younger people,

and they say, "We're not going
to do it like they did it" -

and they're right,
cos I don't think that'll work -

"but I can utilise
this new stuff I've got

"to do something weird and mad
and wild."

And if that's what we leave behind,

then that's what I'd love to be
the parting shot.

That's the end of our show!
You've been a fantastic audience!

Thank you, thank you very much!

CHEERING

We're back to Philadelphia now.

Thank you very much for coming.

Please leave the stadium
slowly and quietly.

It's been the most fantastic day.
Thank you, thank you!

CHEERING

Over to you, Philadelphia!