Sir Bob Geldof

At BFI Southbank, in the context of a TV festival leading up to the centennial of the BBC, Alan Yentob engages Bob Geldof in a wide ranging discussion of the personal, musical, technological, and political events which comprise the backstory to a defining moment in BBC history - the global TV event which was the Live Aid concert of 1985. 

Galvanised by a BBC News report by Michael Buerk which focused on a humanitarian crisis of ‘biblical proportions’ as millions starved in Ethiopia, Geldof reveals new details about how luck, serendipity, and ferocious willpower coalesced and uniquely brought together for a common cause many of the world’s most acclaimed musicians. 

From his awestruck encounters with the likes of Quincy Jones, Willie Nelson, Bruce Springsteen and many other other cultural titans, to lunch with presidents, to meetings with the heads of spy agencies, Geldof reveals how a network of global satellites - being used by broadcasters, private industry, governments, and intelligence agencies - were enlisted for the cause of one of the most widely watched events in human history.