![Craige Els as Bob Geldof](/https/www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/theatre/2024/02/13/TELEMMGLPICT000366329798_17078464104670_trans_NvBQzQNjv4Bq8F80o5isucjTagtLTJeM-KjqJ5V6fjDU-BzwSWeSioc.jpeg?imwidth=680)
Just for One Day: this hit-filled Live Aid musical will fill you with nostalgia
Even the hardest cynic will admire this rip-roaring retread of the fundraising concert that held the world in thrall
![Craige Els as Bob Geldof](/https/www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/theatre/2024/02/13/TELEMMGLPICT000366329798_17078464104670_trans_NvBQzQNjv4Bq8F80o5isucjTagtLTJeM-KjqJ5V6fjDU-BzwSWeSioc.jpeg?imwidth=680)
We indirectly have the journalist Michael Buerk to thank for this rip-roaring, nostalgia-stirring new juke-box musical, which re-tells the story of the Live Aid concert that held the nation, and world, in fundraising thrall on July 13, 1985, using many of the songs heard on that sun-kissed day.
Buerk’s harrowing BBC news report on the “biblical famine” in Ethiopia in October the previous year caught the attention, and moral indignation, of Bob Geldof, in a bog of despond after the heyday of The Boomtown Rats. And the rest is musical history: following the phenomenal Band Aid single Do They Know It’s Christmas? came the most star-stuffed rock gigs ever assembled, with an estimated audience of 1.9 billion watching the broadcasts from Wembley and Philadelphia.
The show’s writer John O’Farrell duly shows us Geldof slumped, then transfixed, in front of a TV, taking that Buerk dispatch in. Though no spitting image of Saint Bob, Craige Els captures the rumpled messianic quality of the expletive-prone Irishman in his pomp, cajoling the big-wig acts to join in on a wing, prayer and impish pretence of others’ involvement.
The kernel of the piece is familiar – with Geldof getting on the blower to Midge Ure, his chief ally, roping in promoter Harvey Goldsmith and even badgering Thatcher over VAT. The main element of surprise lies in the handling of the musical material. With projections of photos of the Wembley crowds creating a due sense of the scale of the event, and the 26-strong cast populating the stage for much of the time, the playlist here re-energises old hits wearied through repetition.
Sure, there are nods to obvious highlights, the evening springing Status Quo on us early on, and winding up with a poignantly choral Let It Be. But the arranger and orchestrator Matthew Brind makes us hear many of the songs afresh, and the creative team - with Luke Sheppard (brilliantly) directing - tally anthemic tracks with the narrative business at hand. Hence, Radio Ga Ga transmits the way the whole country got an earful of the Band Aid single, Message in a Bottle relays Geldof’s frustration at its failure fully to alleviate the hunger crisis and In the Air Tonight gives a tingling sense of anticipation as the clock ticks towards the big day.
There’s even a version of Blowin’ in the Wind that might have swept in from the savanna. That won’t necessarily stave off criticism that this qualified celebration of what Live Aid achieved remains insufficiently Afro-centric. And you can carp about the moments of blunt exposition or the sketchiness of the characters, especially the sample of unsung toilers and concert-goers. But as with the day itself, cynicism melts into admiration. Whether you were there, in situ or on sofa, first time round or not, be prepared for a smile on your lips, a tear in your eyes and a lingering itch to do good.
Until Mar 30. Tickets: 0344 871 7628; oldvictheatre.com; (10 per cent of the ticket price goes to Band Aid Charitable Trust)