He World Rock Day was established in 1986, in honor of a mega-event on July 13 the previous year, when two massive concerts with the presence of most of the great figures of the time, with the aim of raising funds for the fight against hunger in Ethiopia.
Both festivals took place at the same time at Wembley Stadium in London and John F. Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, with unprecedented participation, both from the in-person and television audiences, as well as artists committed to the cause. Musicians of the caliber of Queen, Tom Petty, Madonna, Eric Clapton, Led Zeppelin, Neil Young, U2, Mick Jagger, David Bowie, Duran Duran, Phil Collins y Bob Dylanamong others.
The idea of Live Aid was to reflect the spirit of the most popular music on the planet: rock, with all its predecessors and successors, plus everything it had and has to say, from that position that rebels against all injustices, that screams without asking for blood for everything. what needs to change.
As Pete Townshend defined and later quoted Charly García in his first solo album, “If you scream for truth instead of help, if you commit yourself to a courage you’re not sure you possess, if you stand up to point out something that’s wrong but It doesn’t ask for blood to redeem it, so it’s rock and roll.”
An annual tribute
Live Aid gave rise to this date being a celebration of rock from around the world, becoming known from the following year as World Rock Day.
It is an annual tribute to the most important musical and solidarity event in history and the great gathering of European and American rock artists of the time.
The reason was raise funds to benefit African countries, specifically Ethiopia and Somalia. A few months before, with the help of the musician and activist Bob Geldof, the song was released Do They Know It’s Christmas? with the same purposes, giving shape to a kind of We Are The Worlda topic that was also done for solidarity purposes.
The origin of the festival
After a great drought between 1983 and 1985 in the arid region of northern Ethiopia, what was called “hell on earth” occurred: lack of food and little water, which caused massive death of the population from the hunger.
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Tocan “Bohemian Rhapsody
When the BBC television network showed what was happening, musician and actor Bob Geldof (from the group Boomtown Rats and the movie The Wall) traveled to find out what was happening in Africa and then created the Band Aid Trust foundation, with the purpose of managing and distributing all the aid that could be raised.
First, to get the world’s attention, Geldof and his friend Midge Ure, from Ultravox, managed to summon a large number of great figures from the English scene to record the song in 1984. Do They Know It’s Christmas?which was a worldwide success and broke sales records.
Then the idea to do a benefit concert to help the victims and raise money for Ethiopia supposedly came from Boy George and Culture Club drummer Jon Moss.
The idea, then, was to do the biggest event in history. The television rights, the tickets sold, and everything else might be able to raise a lot of money for Africa. Finally they decided to put together two festivals simultaneously, one in the United States and another in England.
The great participation of artists made the event a great success and marked part of musical history, showing the world that music could raise awareness and help the people of Africa.
The concert featured the return of bands such as Queen, Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, The Whoto the participation of great music legends such as a member (Paul McCartney) of the largest and most influential band in history, the Beatles.
The collection exceeded 100 million dollars, the concert was broadcast live via satellite in more than 72 countries and was one of the most watched musical events in the world.