Bob Geldof reveals Live Aid For Palestine requests but says pop music has lost its influence
Live Aid legend says only 'proper politics' can bring about a two state solution
Bob Geldof has revealed he is constantly being asked to stage a “Live Aid for Palestine” concert.
But the 73 year-old dismissed the idea that a pop gig in today’s world could bring an end to the deadly conflict, saying this required a two-state solution and “to just f**king stop killing people.”
Speaking at London’s Shaftesbury Theatre, following a performance of the musical Just For One Day, which celebrated the legacy of Live Aid on its 40th anniversary, he confirmed the frequent requests to stage a music concert for Palestine to “stop the horror and the carnage.”
But he reasoned:”The thing is pop music doesn’t do that anymore.”
Looking back at Live Aid he said:”Pop music back then was the spine of society, it defined what we could articulate. What we were and where we should go.
“That’s been sublimated by social media these days. So a concert wouldn’t work. The point about a concert is you need an end that is achievable.
“The end to Palestine, my answer always is… what is it? The two state solution … the end to Palestine is to just f**king stop killing people.”
The legendary 1985 Live Aid concert raised over £100 million to ease famine in Ethiopia at the time.
With pop music no longer able to initiate change, Geldof said “proper politics” was now required, but that “unfortunately the bravery of that simply isn’t around now.”
In the audience as the former Boomtown Rats singer spoke were Live Aid promoter Harvey Goldsmith, Alistair Campbell, Brian May, Katherine Ryan and Sally Lindsay.
Geldof has previously spoken of his own family background, which included his Jewish grandmother, Amelia Falk, saying:”I was a quarter Catholic, a quarter Protestant, a quarter Jewish and a quarter nothing. The nothing won.”
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