ONE MAN, ONE GOAL, ONE VISION

"I suppose that's what Bob Geldofis at the moment, the Mother Theresa of rock'n'roll."

I think Live Aid is a very good cause. We have done things for charity before - we've all done individual charity things in the past, I'm sure - but this is an immense effort, a community effort, where all of us are doing it together.

I think Bob Geldof has done a wonderful thing in actually sparking it off. I'm sure we all had it in us to do that, but it took someone like him to actually drive it. It is like a driving force, to get us all to come together. To get some of the biggest stars in the world together at one event is quite a feat

When I first saw the television report it disturbed me so deeply I couldn't • to watch it. I had to switch the television off. I don't like to dwell on it. I know it's there. There's that thing where you just sit back and think, "Well, l can I do?" Unless you think you're the Mother Theresa of rock'n'roll and can suddenly rush out there and organise something. I suppose that's what Bob Geldof is at the moment, the Mother Theresa of rock'n'roll.

I have never felt guilty about being rich, and those feelings weren't there It) 1 decided to perform in Live Aid. What I felt was sheer sorrow and a deep upset that something like this was going on in our world, and I felt for time quite quite helpless. The point of this concert is to wake people up to the starvation end famine, to make everyone realise just what is going on, and to do something positive that will hopefully touch people and make them them dig into their pockets.

You don't have to identify with poverty on that level to give money or to help people. Why should you? Sometimes it is very black and white. Some people have money and they want to help the ones in need.

I don't think that people should actually think in terms of the British helping Africa, as it were, or, "Why don't we look on our own doorstep first?" I think something as large as this should be universal. We shouldn't have any kind of parallels. We shouldn't be looking at it in terms of us and them. It should be all of us. I think when people are starving, we are all humans and we should be looked upon as one.

I'm quite a generous person. If I can do anything in my little ways, I do it. In terms of money, I have enough. I'm not afraid of giving it to other people, as long as it gets to the right places.

It's a little bit like when I did the ballet thing for Save the Children. And I remember also there was a charity event where Queen songs were performed at the Albert Hall, to benefit leukaemia research, and it was attended by one of the royals. I remember we did the first one, then I think the Beatles did the second one, and McCartney attended it, and the Queen. And Joan Collins sang Imagine — which was dreadful, apparently!

I would have loved to have been on the original Band Aid record, to have participated in that too, but I only heard about it when we were in Germany. And I don't know if they would have had me on the record anyway. I'm a bit old. And then when the American one came out, the way all those stars gelled together, well that was superb. I think it sort of snowballed into this Live Aid concert, which is very nice. And then Bob actually called Brian up and it went from there. I think we thought that we shouldn't be left out.

Queen seems to be in various parts of the globe quite a bit, so this time, being in the country at the right time, we made an effort to say, "Ok, we'd better make sure that on this date (July 13th 1985] we're free." We're looking forward to doing it.

Live Aid is going to be chaotic. It has to be. I mean we're not all wonderfully behaved kids, are we? That's actually going to be the nice part of it. Lots of friction, and we're all going to try and out-do each other.

We're just going to go on there and play. We're going to be doing our best songs. At the moment we haven't decided exactly which ones, but I think we're going to do bits of Rhapsody and Champions. Basically you're not trying to put across your new material or anything. No, you hit them with your best-known material.

Brian and I were thinking about poverty going on all around the world and that's why Is This The World We Created came about. I think for Live Aid we're actually going to do that as a special thing, right at the end. And the funny thing is it was written before, but it seems to fit in quite well.

It's very odd, but we composed that particular song well before the Live Aid project. It was a song we wrote about the suffering and starvation of children 411 over the planet, and it matched the situation so well that we decided it was definitely one song we would do.

I tell you, when it comes to that duet, Is This The World We Created, it's an integral part of what's going on, and the song seems to convey a lot of what the event is about. I think that's probably going to bring tears to my eyes when we do it. I'll have to make sure I do it properly.

It's amazing, the first line is 'Just look at all those hungry mouths we have to feed. I can’t believe it. It's as if someone actually asked us to write a song for it event, but we had one already. Actually it was Jim Beach's idea. Jim thought of It. Because it was there, all written, and that's why they've given us a special spot.

We want to perform all the songs that people are familiar with and can identify with. The concert may have come out of a terrible human tragedy, but we make it a joyous occasion. It's not a promotional thing.

To be honest it, let’s face it, all us rock stars still want to be in the limelight and this is going to showcase it. Ok we're helping out, but from the other point of view it's going to be a worldwide audience, an all over simultaneous broadcast. That's what we're all about as well and we shouldn't forget that. I doubt there is one artist that's going to appear who hasn't realised that fact. So there's that to consider as well.

I don't think I'd be doing it out of guilt. Even if I didn't do it the poverty would still be there. It's something that will always be there. "We'll do all we can do to help because it's a wonderful thing. But as far as I'm concerned I'm doing it out of pride. It's something to be proud of - that I'm actually in with all the biggies - all the biggest stars - and that I can do something worthwhile. Yes, I'm proud more than anything.

Sometimes you do feel helpless, and I think this is my way of showing that I can do my bit. And that's as far as I want to go.

Chapter thirteen

Date: 2015-02-03; view: 893