By 1989 the single had sold 11.7 million copies and within a year of its release had raised £8 million for the charity, having become the fastest-selling single in U.K. chart history.

The unforgettable Live Aid concert that followed was held on Saturday 13th July 1985 at Wembley Stadium in London. Masterminded by Bob Geldof and Midge Ure, along with legendary producer and promoter Harvey Goldsmith, the concert aimed to raise further funds for the relief of the Ethiopian famine. A movement that began a year earlier with the recording of Do They Know it’s Christmas.

More than 72.000 fans flocked to Wembley Stadium that day for what was billed as ‘the global jukebox’, whilst another 89.000 filled the JFK stadium in Philadelphia in the United States, where the U.S. concert was due to be broadcast simultaneously with that in London, Phil Collins appearing in both, having flown across the Atlantic on Concorde immediately after appearing on stage at Wembley.

During the concert I photographed the artists individually in a specially constructed studio backstage. However, I also wanted to replicate the famous Band Aid group shot that I had taken in 1984. So we set up lighting in the Hard Rock Cafe area immediately behind the stage, where artists could relax and enjoy a drink. We eventually managed to gather most of the stars together for my group picture only to then cause what momentarily seemed like a major catastrophe when my assistant turned on our lights and, to my horror, blew the mains electrical circuit!

We had simply overloaded a system that was already stretched to capacity, with the result that the entire backstage area was plunged into darkness. My immediate thought was that I must have blown the lighting on stage as well. That was unimaginable given that the concert was being broadcast live to a global audience of 1.9 billion in 150 countries, a mere 40% of the world’s population at the time!

Thankfully a wonderful member of the stage crew came to my rescue. As we stood in complete darkness this figure suddenly emerged, clutching a torch and some huge electrical cables and informed me: “You have five minutes!” He then disappeared back into the gloom and somehow performed his magic, connecting the cables and bringing the lights back on in the Hard Rock. The artists hadn’t moved and I quickly shouted to get their attention and fired off a few frames before they decided they’d had enough of my antics and wandered off.

It was only afterwards, when I was looking through the images, that I realised how funny some of them obviously found my discomfiture. That was particularly true of George and Wham partner Andrew Ridgeley, who could be seen roaring with laughter. By the way, the stage did remain lit when we were blacked out, so, thankfully, I didn’t go down in pop history as the man who shut down Live Aid. ”