#Bob Geldof Reveals Plans For a Live Aid Imax Doc and Reflects on Making ‘The Wall’: “I Don’t Like the Film”

Rocker and activist Bob Geldof made an appearance at this week’s EnergaCamerimage cinematography film festival, where he reflected on his career and revealed that an Imax film about Live Aid, the 1985 benefit concert that he organized, may be on the way to theaters.

He also didn’t mince words when he talked about his dislike for 1982 musical film Pink Floyd-The Wall, a screening of which he helped to introduce at Camerimage in Torún, Poland, with his friend, cinematographer and Lifetime Achievement Award honoree Peter Biziou. “I don’t like the film. I think I’m really bad. I’m not an actor, and I think it’s like an extended video,” he freely admitted of the Alan Parker film in which he starred. “I don’t think it’s a film, and I think that’s the nature of the exercise. It’s an album by Pink Floyd. I don’t like the record.

“I hated making The Wall,” he said, adding, “the only way that I could do the movie was because of Peter [Biziou] because he made it very easy. I was just embarrassed every day by how shit I was.”

Talking about the cinema landscape today, he’s optimistic about the availability of concert films, such as the recent Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour. “It’s good that cinema is being used because audiences are down,” he said. “It’s a great experience. It’s a shared experience. The sound is great in cinemas generally now.

“And as the media landscape spreads through streaming, etc., the need for content grows,” he added. “I know for a fact that they’re looking at doing an Imax film on Live Aid, and there’s a Disney series — four-part or six-part series — on Live Aid, and there’s a musical about Live Aid at the end of January in opening in London. So, that stuff will just continue.”

Live Aid, what Geldof describes as a “global jukebox,” famously raised money for famine relief and was held at Wembley Stadium in London and John F. Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, with a list of performers that included David Bowie, Queen, The Who, Elton John and Paul McCartney. “There were so many special moments. U2 were a small band, and that was the thing that put them over the top,” Geldof remembered. “Lots of things happened that afternoon.”