Last Updated on November 21, 2024
Bob’s Your Uncle
On a blazing hot Saturday mid-July 1985 the world came to a standstill to watch two televised pop concerts, one in London at Wembley Stadium and the other at the John.F.Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia. Featuring over 70 acts, with many of the leading music stars of the day appearing, Live Aid was organised by two musicians, Bob Geldof of Irish punk band The Boomtown Rats, and Midge Ure of electronic pop pioneers Ultravox. The idea was to bring the world together for a fundraising event to raise money for famine relief in Ethiopia. The concert was a follow-up to the chart-topping Band Aid charity single “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” which had been inspired by BBC journalist Michael Buerk’s iconic news report from the region featuring the emotive soundtrack of the Cars’ song Drive that depicted the starvation that was affecting millions.
It has been estimated that the concerts were watched by nearly 40 per cent of the global population. I remember spending the day in my flat with a bunch of friends all of us glued to the TV. For those of us who were the same generation as the performers and as a musician myself, it felt that by watching and donating we were doing something that was both responsible and fun; that it was possible to circumvent the self-serving platitudes of hand-wringing politicians who couldn’t seem to deliver much more than sound bites.
So now the event has been turned into a musical with a cast of 26. There’s a book by John O’Farrell (“Mrs Doubtfire”, “Something Rotten”) and direction is by Luke Sheppard (“& Juliet”, “The Little Big Things”). Jukebox musicals live or die on the quality of the songs. That’s not an issue here with a choice of repertoire that draws from the artists performing at Live Aid including Bob Dylan, David Bowie, The Who, U2, Queen, The Police, Elton John, Paul McCartney, The Pretenders, The Cars, Status Quo, Sade, The Boomtown Rats, Diana Ross, and Ultravox.
But despite the inherent drama of the day, with the many logistical hurdles to overcome and the challenge of managing one of the largest gatherings of out-of-control egos in the history of the planet, pre-show I had some doubts about whether Live Aid could be turned into a theatre show. As Bob Geldof has said about the production, “It better not be shit!”
Director Luke Sheppard had previously directed & Juliet, a vehicle for the songbook of pop-songwriting god Max Martin, and the influence of that show on this is clear. However Just for One Day plays out on a much bigger scale. Much of the work is structured in a ‘rock choir’ format; a 6-piece band is on risers at the back, and there is a diverse cast of sassy young people cutting some energetic shapes. Some of the songs lose their subtlety through the choral treatment but others such as Queen’s epic Bohemian Rhapsody work brilliantly and all were effective drivers of the plot rather than performance fillers.
The main thrust of the narrative centres around Bob Geldof’s story but this is interleaved with tales of the ordinary people who worked on the production or went to the show. This is a smart move as an endless succession of preening lookalike superstars doing karaoke versions of their hits would have been wearisome. John O’Farrell’s book has real heart with a couple of heartwarming love stories playing out as the story develops.
Craige Els’ performance as Bob Geldof, the punk superstar whose career was on the rocks, drives the show. Els’ appearance is a bit more hangdog and world-weary than ‘Saint’ Bob’s was in the mid-1980s, but he captures Geldof’s self-doubting truculence and chutzpah, making a good fist of the songs even if he doesn’t quite have The Boomtown Rats frontman’s signature adenoidal whine.
Vocal plaudits must go to Jack Shalloo as spivvy Ultravox frontman Midge Ure who aced his performance of Vienna, a paean to a fantasy MittelEuropean past, with his glorious tenor voice.
In retrospect, some criticism has been aimed at Live Aid’s tone-deaf programming, the execution of the event and the delivery of the aid. The show is not afraid to address these issues through the characters of Naomi Katiyo’s Jemma as the voice of the contemporary younger generation – who contemporises The Who’s My Generation – and in particular Abiona Omonua as the aid worker Amara who brings real pathos to her role as she makes life or death decisions on how to apportion the meagre aid supplies.
But the show has plenty of comedy with the highlight being the standoff between Julie Atherton’s Margaret (Thatcher) and Geldof and the government over the issue of VAT being withheld on the Band Aid single. The song Mrs T/Mr G features some delicious wordplay with lyrics by Geldof himself demonstrating that the singer hasn’t lost his power as a wordsmith.
Arranger Matthew Brind has added some clever musical touches; there’s an R&B-inflected take on Madonna’s Get Into The Groove and an interpolation of Johnny Fingers’ piano intro to I Don’t Like Mondays into Eric Clapton’s Layla. Special mention should go to Howard Hudson and the sound team. With so many open mikes on stage and a live band, the sound was perfectly balanced, not too loud, and seamlessly switched to the ‘stadium’ ambience. Ashley Campbell’s role as Jim the tech responsible for Paul McCartney’s mike going down channeled David Jason nicely.
It’s not the job of Pop Stars to eliminate poverty, but it is extraordinary how a motley collection of Punks, New Romantics and old farts challenged the political Status Quo (who were the first act on) to achieve something worthwhile and transformative through what became a national endeavour. With $127 million raised for famine relief, there is no doubt that lives were saved. Just For One Day is an emotional rollercoaster that reaches out across generations. It’s probably not suitable for young kids as the show is a bit sweary but there were lots of teary-eyed parents with teenage kids happily reliving their youth.
26 Jan–30 Mar 2024
The Old Vic,
The Cut,
London
SE1 8NB
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