Midge Ure claims Live Aid wouldn’t happen in 2025 because people are “busy looking at screens”
Live Aid organiser Midge Ure has claimed the mammoth event wouldn’t be able to take place today due to society being too “busy looking at screens.”
The veteran philanthropist and musician spoke in a recent interview with BBC Radio 4 in celebration of Live Aid’s 40th anniversary. On the historic occasion, the music world came together across concerts in London and Philadelphia to raise over £150 million to aid famine relief in Ethiopia.
However, when asked whether it would be viable to stage the concert again in the present day, Ure had some reservations. He said: “Everyone’s all over the place. Everyone’s too busy looking at screens. Technically, you could organise it easier, but these days you have so many distractions.”
Expanding on this, the former Ultravox frontman added: “40 years ago, music was the be all and end all. You didn’t have smartphones. You didn’t have the internet. You didn’t have 24-hour anything at all. There were no distractions. You had no video games. You had none of that stuff. So, you could focus.”
Despite his negative opinion of the current technological climate, Ure did acknowledge that the legacy of Live Aid has had “a life beyond the life we ever thought it would have.”
To this end, he also noted in recognition of the anniversary: “I can’t quite believe I’m still here and the fact that we’re still talking about Band Aid and Live Aid at 40 years old, it’s quite magnificent.”
Elsewhere, although Ure pinned his reluctance on putting Live Aid together again on society’s technological dependence, another reason for his reticence could involve the “panic, exhaustion and worry,” which he cited as plaguing him during the planning of the concert in another recent interview.
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