Live Aid Wembley and Philadelphia

[Silver hill]

Geldof changed a good bit since then.

In that he's an even bigger tosser now?

[BennyCake]

Geldof changed a good bit since then.

In that he's an even bigger tosser now?

That's Bono you're thinking of 

[Baile Brigín 2]

Apparently the sound at Wembley that day was horrendous. The shape and design of the stadium wasn't right for a gig. Sound was bouncing all over the place.

I was only a youngster but it was a big deal. Would love to see it all again.

Same with Croker. Stadia are designed to bounce sound atound for atmosphere. Doesn't work with music

[sid waddell]

Queen were c***ts. Apartheid-propping up soup takers, music for people who hate music.

Bono's performance during Bad changed Ireland. It was quite shocking to see an Irishman get up there in front of the world without the merest trace of self doubt, and demonstrate in plain terms that U2 were the greatest band in the world. It was a remarkable, life changing performance, simultaneously full to the brim with anger and joy. He nailed it in outrageous fashion.

The decade of change in Ireland that was to follow started at that moment.

You could say the exact same about u2. Music for the brown shoed shirt tuckers.

You can say what you want, but you'd be wrong. U2 came from punk and evolved through new wave into the most vital band in the world, branched into blues, folk, dance and club music, and then pushed back the boundaries of what was possible in a live setting with Zoo TV. They were raw, they were explicitly political, they were highly literate and clued in to world around them, they were loud as hell and for 13 years, which is damn sight more than the vast, vast majority of artists, they were undeniably f**king brilliant. And from the mid-1980s on and particularly from Live Aid on, they were a towering presence over not just Irish and world popular culture, but over Irish life and society in general.

Ireland was largely an insular, backward little country up to the mid 1980s where deference to power and establishment was everything. By the end of the 1980s, we were smashing it in popular culture and sporting terms in a way we never had before and even while emigration continued, there was an energy beginning to surge through the country that had never been there before. Irish people started to look defiantly outwards in their worldview rather than inwards and within a short time the deference to establishment power had gone, and all the dirty little secrets of the past were coming out in the wash. By 1995 Ireland was a much, much different place than it had been a decade earlier, more confident, more open, more dynamic, more willing to face up to its past. That decade was the biggest era of change in this country since 1913-23 and U2, like the success of the Irish football team that followed them, cannot be divorced from that.

[Captain Obvious]

Geldof changed a good bit since then.

The death of a ex wife and daughter at such a young age would change plenty I can imagine.

[sid waddell]

Geldof changed a good bit since then.

In that he's an even bigger tosser now?

I quite like Geldof. Sure in some ways he's a bit of a toady, but he says what he thinks and doesn't care if people don't like what he says, and much more importantly, he's right on most things. I admire somebody who is stridently and unashamedly in favour of compassionate, humanistic, liberal values. f**k the begrudgers.

[Baile Brigín 2]

Queen were c***ts. Apartheid-propping up soup takers, music for people who hate music.

Bono's performance during Bad changed Ireland. It was quite shocking to see an Irishman get up there in front of the world without the merest trace of self doubt, and demonstrate in plain terms that U2 were the greatest band in the world. It was a remarkable, life changing performance, simultaneously full to the brim with anger and joy. He nailed it in outrageous fashion.

The decade of change in Ireland that was to follow started at that moment.

A good take on it. For all their popularity, Bohemian Rhapsody aside, Queen were a musically largely-irrelevant band I've always thought. Loved by the kind of people who read the Sunday World and play darts in the pubs on Sunday afternoons.

What absolute bollocks. They were hugely admired and innovative. Did metal, rock, disco, pop, bluegrass and mad opera shit in a superbly technical way. What other band could have the bikers and queens and everyone in between at the same show?

[whitey]

Geldof changed a good bit since then.

In that he's an even bigger tosser now?

I quite like Geldof. Sure in some ways he's a bit of a toady, but he says what he thinks and doesn't care if people don't like what he says, and much more importantly, he's right on most things. I admire somebody who is stridently and unashamedly in favour of compassionate, humanistic, liberal values. f**k the begrudgers.

Another phony limousine liberal who doesn't want to pay his fair share

https://www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2012/05/16/whys-bob-geldof-so-tetchy-about-his-tax-affairs/

[Eamonnca1]

Live Aid was well intentioned, but it's known now that the aid that was sent only made the problem worse. The BBC and most of the western media had portrayed the Ethiopian famine as a natural disaster caused by failed crops, but it was really a man-made disaster caused by a corrupt regime using starvation as a weapon in a civil war. Geldof supposedly called the Ethiopian leader a "c*nt" to his face when he went there to visit.

People are getting a bit more savvy about the impact of foreign aid nowadays. They reckon there's a correlation between corruption and the amount of aid a developing country receives. Foreign aid often ended up lining the pockets of corrupt officials. In fact aid is still harmful to this day. What's the point in a man in Ghana trying to set up a bicycle manufacturing business when the place suddenly gets inundated by free discarded bikes from rich countries?

People like Bono have been a bit more savvy about how to solve the world's problems, which is why he went after issues like debt forgiveness.

I think Bono is one of the most maligned Irishmen of the modern age. The list of charities he supports is as follows:

46664
ALAFA
Amnesty International
Charity Projects Entertainment Fund
Chernobyl Children International
Clara Lionel Foundation
Clinton Global Initiative
DATA
EDUN
Elton John AIDS Foundation
Every Mother Counts
Exploring The Arts
Food Bank For New York City
Global Fund
Greenpeace
Janie's Fund
Keep A Child Alive
Legacy of Hope Foundation
Live 8
Make Poverty History
Mencap
Millennium Promise
Millennium Villages
Mulago Positive Women's Network
MusiCares
Music Generation
NAACP
Not On Our Watch
ONE Campaign
Oxfam
(RED)
Red Cross
Simon Community
Special Olympics
The Lunchbox Fund
UNICEF
UN Millennium Project
War Child
Water.org
Wildlife Conservation Society
Witness
Zero Hunger

Plenty of fodder there for the begrudgers.

[BennyCake]

He must never get a minute to himself.

Maybe that's why U2's music has been so shit for years.

[Eamonnca1]

He must never get a minute to himself.

Maybe that's why U2's music has been so shit for years.

I saw them a few years ago. Bono's voice doesn't belt out the tunes as loudly as it used to but they're still damn good.

[Eamonnca1]

What exactly is your complaint? Is he spending too much time on philanthropy or not enough? Begrudgery-for-its-own-sake is hard to keep up with.

[Capt Pat]

What exactly is your complaint? Is he spending too much time on philanthropy or not enough? Begrudgery-for-its-own-sake is hard to keep up with.

How many of those charities has he actually donated a large amount of money to?  It is easy to say you support these charities.

[Eamonnca1]

He donated precisely one dollar less than whatever amount would be enough to satisfy the begrudgers.

[magpie seanie]

What exactly is your complaint? Is he spending too much time on philanthropy or not enough? Begrudgery-for-its-own-sake is hard to keep up with.

Wasting your time. The bar for being a worthwhile person is extremely high.....we can only aspire to it.