Theatre & Tonic is off to Wembley - Just for One Day
Photography of the Toronto 2025 company by Evan Zimmerman.
Written by Penny for Theatre and Tonic
On Saturday 13th July 1985, the pop world came together to put on the biggest live concert ever seen, to raise funds for the relief of the famine in Ethiopia. A transatlantic endeavour, it was staged across two venues in London and Philadelphia, and was broadcast worldwide to 1.9 billion people across 150 nations, an audience that represented 40% of the world’s population. Live Aid was organised by a team led by The Boomtown Rats’ frontman, Bob Geldof, and Ultravox lead singer Midge Ure, who together wrote “Do They Know It’s Christmas” and organised the Band Aid supergroup that recorded and took the song to the Christmas number one spot.
As well as raising millions, Live Aid has gone down in music history – from Geldof’s alleged on-screen rant, “Give us your f**king money” (which he denies he actually said) to iconic performances from the world’s biggest stars – including Queen, Bob Dylan, David Bowie and Madonna – it was a huge moment in music history.
With all that in mind, it’s perhaps surprising that it took as long as it did for a stage production based around Live Aid to arrive. But, in January 2024, the musical Just for One Day opened at The Old Vic in London, the venue’s fastest ever selling musical, with its nine-week run selling out all performances.
Now, with the 40th anniversary of Live Aid coming up this summer, Just For One Day is back – moving into the West End’s Shaftesbury Theatre with performances starting on 15th May, with a special gala performance on 13th July to commemorate Live Aid’s 40th anniversary.
And where better to launch the show’s run than at the place where Live Aid happened – Wembley Stadium!
Hosted by DJ and presenter Jo Whiley, we were treated to some fantastic performances from the cast, led by the brilliant Craige Els in the role of Bob Geldof. Jo started by telling us she was 20 when Live Aid happened, and she remembers the massive chunky television in her living room being turned on all day and walking in and out of the room being aware that something seismic was happening, a very important and impactful thing in her life as a music fan and as a human being.
For Jo, remembering it all 40 years on, it’s an emotional and nostalgic experience. For Just For One Day’s young cast and audience members, it’s introducing a whole new generation to an incredible story that’s not just about the music or the event, it’s also about how millions of people came together for a common cause.
One of the music legends behind Live Aid, Midge Ure, spoke a little about the musical, and how as a jaded old rock star he did not expect it to be as moving as it was. Praising the musical arrangements, he said:
“I want to comment on how difficult it is to take some of the most classic rock songs of the 20th Century and interpret them for a musical. One song in particular jumped out for me, Bob Dylan’s “Blowing in the Wind”. The staging, the lighting, the presentation and the arrangement were all phenomenal and it changed my opinion on what theatre and musicals could be”.
Talking about the cast and creatives involved in bringing Just for One Day to the stage, he added:
“You can see a generation on stage here, most of them weren’t born or even a twinkle in their parents’ eyes when Live Aid happened, but the passion they have doing this is equal to the passion of the artists on the day”.
Jamie Wilson and Director Luke Sheppard both talked about their fathers’ passionate nostalgia for the event and pride in the way the country came together to make a difference, seeing it as something that can inspire younger generations, particularly in a modern world in which it can often feel impossible to effect change.
John Kennedy, from the Band Aid Charitable Trust, spoke about a role he thought would last a few months, maybe a year and that he is still doing 40 years on. He spoke about the mammoth task for the team of staging Live Aid: dealing with 16 satellites (the Olympics had only had two!), a space station and even Concorde! And then he talked about taking on the vital aid work at the heart of the Charity, with the Trustees keeping up with their day jobs and raising young families at the same time.
He told us that 10% of ticket sales from Just For One Day go to the Charity and so far £600,000 has been raised. They hope to raise at least £1million by the end of this year. He finished by pointing out that, of course, this is fantastic but he wants people to go and see the show because:
“You will laugh, cry, dance and sing. And if at the end you’re not on your feet giving the cast, the creative team and the story a standing ovation, Bob will personally give you your money back!”
Talking of Bob …
To end the event, we went out onto the Wembley terraces, in gloriously uncharacteristic British sunshine, to the sound of some of Live Aid’s most famous moments blaring out of the speaker system. Jo Whiley rounded things off with a Q&A with the “scruffy, foul-mouthed Irishman” (John Kennedy’s words!) and some of the Just for One Day team.
The main thing that struck me is that Geldof has lost none of the anger or the passion that those heartbreaking news reports from Ethiopia inspired back in the 1980s. He talked about the shocking fact that 40 years on from Live Aid, the issue is just as vital. There is so much horror in the world that our emotional bandwidth can hardly deal with it. He talked about how people in Africa are still suffering due to factors including war and disastrous US foreign aid policies. But he hoped that the musical would help Live Aid’s legacy to inspire a different generation, saying:
“It shows the possibility of what individuals can do together and refutes Margaret Thatcher’s dictum that there’s no such thing as society. What happened 40 years ago laid that to rest. There IS such a thing as society, human beings DO care about each other and they can rise above contemporary politics”.
Bob talked about Just For One Day, saying:
“I go to the theatre quite a lot but in all that time I have never seen a standing ovation at the interval, night after night, they took five minutes to go to bar and that’s just extraordinary!
I must mention the cast - when I’d go to workshops or rehearsals, the amount of energy (in the room), with the constant instructions from the choreographer and director, the writer sitting there re-writing on the hoof – it was a phenomenal experience!
People say it’s another jukebox musical. Dude, the concert was called the Global Jukebox! It can’t be anything else! The achievement is to take that sense of 40 years ago and make it vivid and relevant to now. That’s what this musical has done and we’re very grateful for that”.
The cast recording for Just For One Day will be released on 11th June 2025. It will be available digitally on all streaming platforms and for those wanting to fully embrace the nostalgic sound of these legendary songs, it will also be available on a double CD and also double vinyl. It’s not your typical cast recording. It’s a full 30 track studio album, recorded in the same spaces as many of the original iconic tracks. It showcases the extraordinary new arrangements of the songs heard in the show and features some incredible performances from the cast and band of Just For One Day.
Live Aid’s 40th anniversary is on 13th July. As well as a special gala performance of Just For One Day, that week, there is a book about the event coming out, as well as a three-part BBC documentary.
Bob finished by expressing his hope that in Live Aid’s anniversary week, he’d love once again to see that spirit all over the country, and for people to consider those who are enduring terrible suffering right now in Africa. Then not only should the show be a huge success, but we will also be in a position to carry on to the next moment when we are needed.
Just for One Day plays at the Shaftesbury Theatre from 15th May. Find out more and book tickets here.
