Musical Chairs

#68 And the lesson today is how to die

If the JFK assassination was the shot heard around the world, this was the stop heard around the world.

Forty years ago this week, as millions watched, Live Aid co-organiser Bob Geldof took to the stage with his band The Boomtown Rats. Shortly before 1pm, Geldof and co launched into their 1979 UK Number One single I Don't Like Mondays.

The song was written about a California school shooting earlier that year where 16-year-old perpetrator Brenda Spencer's explanation was an aversion to the second day of the week.

After the second chorus, the song - as on the record - drops to a hushed piano flourish as Geldof lowers his voice: "And all the playing's stopped in the playground now". Two more lines and then the closing words of the verse: "And the lesson today is how to die". The music stops dramatically, and Geldof is left centre stage, the world watching, arm raised in a defiant salute. And then the loudest roar you will ever hear as the congregation grasp the true significance of the moment, the true meaning of the day. 20 seconds of screaming emotion.

Over 1.5 billion people globally watched Live Aid, and the event raised over £40 million on the day alone. It's commonly acknowledged that two of the fundraising peaks were Queen's historic set and David Bowie's rightly lauded decision to sacrifice a song so that the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's video on the Ethiopia famine could be played to the gathered masses. But as a symbol of the day, the cause and the impact, there is nothing more powerful than Geldof's salute.

Apparently, the gesture was not pre-planned. Geldof described it like this: "It was only when I walked on stage with the band that the romance of it and the hugeness of it got to me. That moment when I pull up sharp on 'Mondays' - 'and the lesson today is how to die' - time became elastic, like I stood there for hours and my hand just stayed in mid-air."

The passing of time has brought scepticism and even criticism, but take five minutes out of your day to witness the stop heard around the world forty years ago this week. It'll give you goosebumps.