Live Aid: The Authorised Biography

by Vallely, Paul and Geldof, Sir Bob | Music biography, specific bands & groups 
Published 06/11/2025 by New Modern (Simon & Schuster) in the UK
Hardback | 544 pages

The authoritative, official inside story of 40 years of Live Aid, from Band Aid to today

In 1985, with £100+ million in his back pocket from Live Aid – the greatest rock concert the world had ever seen – Bob Geldof took a trip across Africa to decide how the money should be spent. He asked Paul Vallely to accompany him. Over the next four decades Vallely became one of Geldof’s closest advisers – travelling with him to meet the world’s top rock stars and politicians.

Here, for the first time, Vallely gives his full eye-witness account of what happened backstage at Live Aid – and Live 8, the biggest collective event in human history. Both of them, watched by more people than saw the moon landing.

Vallely reveals for the first time exactly how Geldof reunited the Pink Floyd, drank late night whisky with Margaret Thatcher, witnessed Bob Dylan take singing lessons from Stevie Wonder and met Vladimir Putin on a boat in the Mediterranean. Why was Bob forced to write a grovelling apology to Bill Clinton? What did Maria Carey say when Geldof told her that her dress was too short? Why did the prime minister of Italy once hide from Bob in a bathroom? Is Bob Geldof a bully or a charmer, saint or a ‘white saviour’, or simply a force of nature? This book reveals all.

With a foreword by Bob Geldof this is the authoritative behind-the-scenes guide to four decades which rocked the world.