BBC News, Somerset
BBC Radio Somerset presenter
BBCVideo of a town’s Live Aid fundraiser will be shown to the public for the first time to mark 40 years since the concert.
Many of the biggest names in music came together in 1985 – including David Bowie, Queen and Madonna – to perform at Live Aid at the old Wembley Stadium to raise funds for Ethiopian famine relief.
Musician Bud Martin was so inspired by the star-studded show that he lined up 17 bands in Yeovil, Somerset, for their own version of the event.
Mr Martin has now restored an old VHS tape of the town’s “enormous” event, which will be shown at the Quicksilver Mail pub on 28 August. “It would be nice for them to see these people back to life on the screen,” he said.
Yeovil Live Aid was held at the Johnson Hall, now the Octagon theatre, on 30 August 1985, with £3,500 raised for Bob Geldof’s charity, The Band Aid Charitable Trust.
Speaking to BBC Radio Somerset, Mr Martin said the late former Yeovil MP Paddy Ashdown attended, along with the former mayor of Yeovil.
Mr Martin said: “Having watched the original concert at Wembley I was absolutely amazed at the spectacle and after a little while I thought ‘could we possibly do something like this in Yeovil?’.”
He asked his friend and bass player of local Yeovil band New Direction to help and said that “bit by bit, it all took off”.
He said that by mid-evening on the night of the event, “it was going in such a way I had never foreseen”.
“There were so many people, the hall was absolutely packed out,” Mr Martin said.
“Johnson Hall had in those days held about 600 people maximum. We had well over that.
“In the end they were sitting out on the grass verges outside and having a great time. It was an enormous evening, fantastic evening.”
Yeovil MailMr Martin and his brother, Dale Fender, are organising the event to reshow the concert, which will see several songs from each band played.
Mr Martin wants anyone who attended the night, including former band members from 1985, to come and watch the film next week.