Following the all-star Band Aid "Do They Know It's Christmas?" benefit single the previous December, it was 20-odd hours of music transmitted globally by 16 satellites to 169 countries, for a reported audience of nearly two billion.

To mark the Live Aid anniversary, the BBC and CNN have co-produced a documentary series, “Live Aid: When Rock ’n’ Roll Took On the World.” It also covers Band Aid and Live 8, concerts that Geldof organized in 2005 that helped pressure the world’s richest countries to cut the debt owed by the poorest countries and increase aid spending.

Bob Geldof says Live Aid still resonates today 40 years on from benefit concerts - Live Aid was a two-venue benefit concert held on July 13 1985 that raised money for the famine in Ethiopia.