Live Aid Concerts Raised $82 Million, Audit Shows

The international telecast of Live Aid rock concerts from Philadelphia and London last July 13 raised more than $82 million for African famine victims, concert organizers reported Wednesday.

Including revenue from all of the Live Aid efforts orchestrated by British pop star Bob Geldof during the first eight months of 1985, as well as the proceeds from a song recorded by the all-star band Band Aid, the total generated for African relief was reported to be $92,127,000.

Besides the $50,590,000 in telephoned pledges from the American and British rock fans who watched the all-day, all-star concerts on television, Live Aid broadcast rights, ticket sales and other revenue traceable directly to the July 13 events yielded $14 million more.

The audit also included royalties from the sale of Band Aid’s original anti-famine anthem, “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” That recording alone, released in the United States by CBS Records, raised $9,166,000, according to the audit, which was conducted by the accounting firms of Laventhol & Horwath in the United States and Stoy Hayward in Britain.

Rock fans who watched the July 13 telecast in 21 nations other than the United States and Britain were responsible for donating an additional $17.4 million. The accounting results indicated that Geldof and his Band Aid Trust will ultimately be responsible for raising more than $100 million last year, once an audit of the entire year’s efforts are complete.

The audit of contributions and other income released Wednesday in London is only for income that the Band Aid Trust and its American counterpart, the Live Aid Foundation, received as of Aug. 31.

Since then, several other fund-raising spinoffs of the Live Aid concerts have raised even more.

To date, about $20 million of the Live Aid/Band Aid money has actually been spent. A total of 73 relief agencies, such as the Red Cross and UNICEF, have received grants.

Father Harold Bradley, chief of Georgetown University’s Center for Immigration Policy and Refugee Assistance, has been given the responsibility for distributing the bulk of the Live Aid largess.

Since October, Bradley and his staff have been examining more than 400 project proposals from African relief agencies.

The 60-year-old Jesuit priest said earlier this month that he expects to make recommendations by the end of February on how to spend all of the remaining Live Aid funds in Africa.