Live Aid (Various Artists) (Box Set) (DVD)

...Then came the cross continent Live Aid concert in Britain and America featuring more 80's pop music all stars, and attracting huge sell out crowds. Again the money was for the same charitable proceeds. All of these were unlikely events in the middle of the 80's- the decade of greed and cynicism.

Now the recordings of the 1985 concert have been released on DVD in a four disc set, comprising ten hours of near complete footage (one or ...
...and rugged and much more live wired version. And then Sade is up next (looking great and sparkling, as always) and performs perhaps an outstanding version of "Your Love is King". The performance is perfect and ultra smooth and hypnotic and angelic.

We then get the ballads of Sting's "Roxanne" and Phil Collins' "Against All Odds" and the two of them perform "Every Breath You Take", From that ... more

Bob Geldof was deeply moved by images of Third World famine and decided to use his music for charity. He gathered together a huge list of contemporary pop singers and formed Band Aid and together they recorded and released the 1984 Christmas single "Do They Know its Christmas", with the aim that all proceeds would go to the Third World charities. After Band Aid's single became the Christmas number one, the American group USA For Africa released "We Are The World", which is recorded to be near the biggest hit single ever. Then came the cross continent Live Aid concert in Britain and America featuring more 80's pop music all stars, and attracting huge sell out crowds. Again the money was for the same charitable proceeds. All of these were unlikely events in the middle of the 80's- the decade of greed and cynicism.

Now the recordings of the 1985 concert have been released on DVD in a four disc set, comprising ten hours of near complete footage (one or two of the American bands couldn't be put on, either because of lost footage or by the band's request). Fairly pricey at £32.99, but again all proceeds go to charity, and spending some money on charity during Christmas is me the great priviledge of having a heart of stone for the rest of the year.

The design of the DVD box itself is really beautiful in all masterwork terms. It opens out to the four case holder plates, making a complete picture of the huge Band Aid crowd on the left half of the picture and the crowds of starving Ethipoians on the right half with a brilliant dissolve effect to make them one crowd. Each disc is remarkably easy to pop in and out, and has its own performing artists and curved photographs of each singer on that disc circle the disc's outer surface, all revolving around the sphere of the world. All these singers are joival and caught mid performance. It's a great representation of the song's line.

"In our world of plenty, we can spread a smile of joy
put your arms around the world, at Christmas time."

There is a beautiful written note by Bob Geldof on the inner sleeve sleeve, and a 20 page pamphlet with some of his writings, reminding the purchaser of the great Band Aid event- remember the tragedy and the hope of that day, that everyone who contributes through purchasing is doing their small part to save lives. He also couldn't have said it any better when he describes the situation- "to die of want in a world of surplus is not only intellectually absurd, it is morally repulsive" Like the song, it's all about reminding you that there is a world out there and putting yourself in their shoes. It's every me and every you and about removing all these comfortable notions that it's out of sight, out of mind and doesn't concern us, and perhaps the biggest obstacle/convenience of all is the thought that there's nothing you can do about it anyway.

Still I think its a shame there isn't a list of "in memory of" dedications since more than a fair share of those artists involved have passed on in recent times.

Fullscreen 1.33:1
Main Feature: Dolby Digital 5.1 / Dolby Digital DTS 5.1 / Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo
Extras - Dolby Digital 2.0
Languages - English
Subtitles - English, French, Dutch, German, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese
Regions 2/3/4/5/6/PAL/Colour
Total Running Time 10 Hours

Disc One Tracklisting
BBC Television New Report
Do They Know It's Christmas (Video)-Band Aid
We Are The World-USA For Africa (Video)
Royal Salute-Coldstream Guards
Rockin' All Over The World-Status Quo
Caroline-Status Quo
Internationalists-The Style Council
Walls Come Tumbling Down-The Style Council
I Don't Like Mondays-The Boomtown Rats
Drag Me Down-The Boomtown Rats
Vive Le Rock-Adam Ant
Dancing With Tears In My Eyes-Ultravox
Vienna-Ultravox
Only When You Leave-Spandau Ballet
True-Spandau Ballet
All You Need Is Love-Elvis Cotello
Wouldn't It Be Good-Nik Kershaw
You Love Is King-Sade
Roxanne-Sting
Against All Odds-Phil Collins
Every Breath You Take-Sting & Phil Collins
Hide And Seek-Howard Jones
Slave To Love-Bryan Ferry
Jealous Guy-Bryan Ferry
Do They Know It's Christmas?-Paul Young
Come Back And Stay-Paul Young
Every Time You Go Away-Paul Young
That's The Way Love Is-Paul Young & Alison Moyet
Kids Wanna Rock-Bryan Adams
Summer Of '69-Bryan Adams
Sunday Blood Sunday-U2
Bad-U2

We begin with a fairly lengthy BBC news coverage of the Ethiopia famine. It's long and explicit and harrowing and really makes you feel unpleasant and feel angry and helpless. It holds no bars in showing the grisly images of malnourished bodies, malnourished children, the dying and the dead. It shows you the massive food waiting lines and the desperation and really places you there in the starving crowd, in their life or death situation. It then counts up the bodies of who died that day and estimates alarming figures. As usual the newscasters use melodramatic terms, but their description of "a famine of biblical proportions, but here in the 20th century" is very appropriate.

We then get the Band Aid "Do They Know Its Christmas Time" music video, and its perfectly placed afterwards. It is hopeful, it is compassion in action, a promise of dedication to change.

It would be no exaggeration to suggest that "Do They Know its Christmas" could possibly be the best song ever written. It goes through several motions perfectly, from the opening tolling bell beautifully conveying a sense of mortality, through the first verse of joival Christmas togetherness and hope, to heart bleeding, pleading tales of "the other ones" you should give a thought for, and just when you think this is going to be Sunday School cliche, it suddenly dares to point the finger and slap you in the face with the lines:

"And the Christmas spells that ringing, of the clanging chimes of doom
Well tonight thank God it's them, instead of you!"

After that it has you! It's under your skin and your hairs are tingling. It's a very powerful song. It's picturesque, haunting and periodic with the magic of Christmas spirit. It's lyrics are collectivising, tragic, topical, optimistic, compassionate, vindictive, guilt-mongering and dareing all at once. An 80's classic doesn't cover it, it's an 80's masterpiece! Plus it was written completely from the heart and gut of the artist's beliefs.

We then get the USA For Africa video for "We Are The World", which I've always thought of as too long, too twee and too melodramatic. Even so it is an interesting mirror image of Band Aid and a snapshot of 1980's musical new age positivity and unprejudiced love- and it comes off as noting if not sincere. Plus the vocals of Stevie Wonder and Bruce Springsteen make the song.

The concert then begins. Status Quo does the opening numbers. I've always found Status Quo very bland as Rock bands go, and most of their lyrics are obscured by the music, but still they have good stage presence and movement. They do two numbers and then its Style Council, adding a bit of brass and SKA to the affair and dressed very colourfully. Paul Weller sweats into his aggressive performance here and it alleviates a lot of the angst.

The camera movememnts are wide and tracking and never stay still. On one level it captures the sense of the concert crowd, the intimacy, the wildness, but in a sense its also like someone in the concert being annoying and keeps moving places and distracting you.

When Bob Geldof arrives with his Boomtown Rats, as the king of the event he gets the facial close-up as the music becomes more mellow. the singing becomes more precise and on beat rather than sung with the typical rushed aggressive panic that you often get at the beginning of concerts. Adam Ant arrives next and delivers more loud rock music and loud fashion and spontaneous stage presence, and then Ultravox give the best vocal performance so far, as Midge Ure manages to maintain perfect, on beat delivery, whilst his band do well to perform both "Dancing With Tears in my Eyes" and a very crackling version of "Vienna". Spandau Ballet also arrive in bold, New Romantic chocholate colours (think mint green and red and blue ribbon), and seamlessly perform "Only When You Leave" and "True".

At this point I take a pause. I find it difficult to sit through a single disc, let alone all 10 hours in one go.
I then resume, and then Eric Clapton performs a very mellow, swing and sway version of All you need is Love, and he sings it with precision and potency. The camera is more disciplined at this point, more containing, makes use of fading and dissolving and slow, careful tracking and beautifully melds the intimacy between the performer and the crowd, with the same smoothness of the song. At this point in the viewing I stood up and started dancing and swinging too by the sheer effect of it.

Then Nik Kershaw arrived to perform “Wouldn’t it Be Good”. An appropriate, deadpan yet comical look at underpriviledged envy. A new romantic song that most children of the 80's know well. But here he performs a really raw and rugged and much more live wired version. And then Sade is up next (looking great and sparkling, as always) and performs perhaps an outstanding version of "Your Love is King". The performance is perfect and ultra smooth and hypnotic and angelic.

We then get the ballads of Sting's "Roxanne" and Phil Collins' "Against All Odds" and the two of them perform "Every Breath You Take", From that point on, the camera doesn't stray away from the artist to the audience, in-fact the audience is so quiet, you can almost hear the singer's echo. No-one touches a drum or cymbil and its simply the vocals and either the guitar or the clarinet or the piano, the camera doing well to show the precision involved in hitting the right keys and notes. It makes the ballads more fleshy and momentary, apart from "Every Breath you Take" which is rushed through, but no big con.

And then Howard Jones performs "Hide and Seek", like Phil Collins, he relies on the ebony and ivory as he sings one of the more inspirational songs of the event so far. A song about the beginning of time, the desolation and loneliness of the world and the current search for purpose and emotional bridges we all take on. It sounds very appropriate to the humanity of the event.

After which we get Bryan Ferry and Paul Young to bring back the rhythm and the rock, from then on its again about bringing the audience back into the picture, its about loud suave suits, strangling guitar rifts and a lot of onstage dancing and movement. There’s a great charm in watching Bryan Ferry’s amusing facial contractions and Paul Young’s flamboyant dancing. Paul’s own songs “Come Back and Stay” and “Everytime You Go” are played as New Wave Rock, but then when he sings the opening verse of “Do They Know It’s Christmas” he brings along backing soul singers and then duets with Alison Moyet who really belts it out for “That’s the Way Love is” to make it all very Gospel, and its perfectly on form.

Then we actually see the synchronised concert over in America, hosted by Jack Nicholsen! He introduces Bryan Adams and we immediately get the sense of it being far more Rock N’ Roll over there. He gives a great, sweaty and channelled performance of "The Kids Won't Rock" and "Summer of '69" and then come U2 to pick up the reins, and they perform the last two songs of the first disc- "Sunday Bloody Sunday" and "Bad".

You'll probably notice that a lot of the performed songs don't really connect with the Band Aid theme. Most of them are performed for familiarity. It makes sense- the crowd only comes to be partially preached at, they mainly come for the entertainment. But still I'm charmed by some of the song choices that in some way hit the nail on the head about the situation. And U2's excellent "Sunday Blood Sunday" may be all about the troubles in Northern Ireland, but its superb commentary on society's apathy to tragic and ongoing world events are especially potent here- with lines like "The trench is dug within our hearts" and "It's true we are immune, when fact is fiction, reality", words and philosophies which are perhaps ahead of their time. The song is at its core about humanity, about feeling how you should feel, being outraged, being disgusted and spreading the message. There is power in the anger, so don't turn your back on moral outrage otherwise things won't change.

"I can't close my eyes and make it go away
How long? How long must we sing this song?"

They then perform “Bad” superbly, it’s an extremely disciplined build-up from mild, contemplative vocals to really rocking out and it is totally energising and unending as he moves along the stage, greeting crowd surfers and women with kisses and dances and sways with them. It’s a brilliant song to go out on, and just when you think it couldn’t get any better, we’re greeted with a wonderful surprise back in Britain. I won’t say what it is- you’ll have to watch the DVD but it is so tickling and incredible a moment.

And so ends the first DVD, just when I started to feel I could watch the whole thing in one go- but of course I have a busy day. But this has been really jovial and entertaining and invigorating indeed in a way I haven’t experienced in quite a while. In-fact I feel I can recommend the whole collection now based on the quarter of it I have seen so far which seems to be worth the price of admission alone.

I do not wish to write over form so from now I shall write no more than three paragraphs on each of the other three discs.

Disc Two Tracklisting
Wouldn't It Be Nice-Beach Boys
Good Vibrations-Beach Boys
Surfin' USA-Beach Boys
Money For Nothing-Dire Straits & Sting
Sultans Of Swing-Dire Straits
Madison Blues-George Thorogood & The Destroyers
Bohemian Rhapsody-Queen
Radio Gaga-Queen
Hammer To Fall-Queen
Crazy Little Thing Called Love-Queen
We Will Rock You-Queen
We Are The Champions-Queen
Ghost Dancing-Simple Minds
(Don't You) Forget About Me-Simple Minds
TVC15-David Bowie
Rebel Rebel-David Bowie
Modern Love-David Bowie
Heroes-David Bowie
Ethiopian Famine Film
Amazing Grace-Joan Baez
Stop Your Sobbing-Pretenders
Chain Gang-Pretenders
Middle Of The Road-Pretenders
Love Reign O'er Me-The Who
Won't Get Fooled Again-The Who
Footloose-Kenny Loggins
Bennie And The Jets-Elton John
Rocket Man-Elton John
Don't Go Breaking My Heart-Elton John & Kiki Dee
Don't Let The Sun Go Down On Me-Elton John & George Michael

Disc 2 launches us breathlessly into the beginning of the Beach Boys, giving a three-set performance which reminds us that despite being easily labelled and lambasted as "pop", they're actually very good musicians with charisma and a fine ear for melody and instrumental shift. I found Disc 2 immensely entertaining, and actually introduced me to great songs I'd never heard before, which immediately hit all my pleasure sensors with rhythm, sheer instrumental dynamism and smooth variance, striking lyrics and epic length, such as Dire Strait's "Sultans of Swing", The Destroyers' "Madison Blues", Queen "Hammer to Fall", The Who "Love Reign O'er Me" and each of the Pretender's three set numbers. Incidentally in the British concert it begins to turn evening, and so they make more use of stage lighting- and The Who are treated to the best lighting however David Bowie suffers to overexposed lighting.

Queen was treated to the longest set of five songs- obviously some shortening was needed and with "Bohemian Rhapsody" and "We Will Rock You" they had to sing only the opening verses of both. Freddie's performance was the most raunchy of all -and why not? he was a good looking bloke- but some of his brief lewd gestures were quite offputting to me actually, but still they played very well. But for me I'd say either Dire Straits or Simple Minds and even Kenny Loggins one set performance of "Footloose" were my favourite, performing their songs that have honestly never sounded better than at this event. To be honest I found David Bowie's set quite dragging, initially. But then he performed "Modern Love" and really lifted the mood again, and then in closing he performed the best performance of "Heroes" I've ever heard.

David then introduced a CBC Ethiopia Fammine Film. I expected a documentary and narrated details, but it wasn't like that- it was pieces of footage of the Ethiopia famine with "Drive" by The Cars played over. Images of children struggling to walk upright, either besause of weak legs or failing motor functions, malnourished children with families, dead children. It's unpleasant and sad and its impossible to not be upset by it all- it is really overwhelming and distressing- even for me, and I thought I was desensitised, I actually feel choked up and want to cry after seeing it and I am being sincere when I say that. It makes you realise how easy a life we've had compared to them. And followed by Joan Baez singing "Amazing Grace" couldn't have been a finer emotional unwind, followed by the Pretenders (dressed to impress- 80's style) who thoroughly cheer me up again. The second disc ends with Elton John (who appropriately gets bathed in pink light), doing a four set with his photogenic guests George Michael and Kiki Dee (a real spunky delight) and ends on "Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me" and even though I was only half listening, I must say I picked up on some striking and sincere lyrics indeed.

Disc Three Tracklisting
Holiday-Madonna
Get Into The Groove-Madonna
Is This The World We Created?-Freddie Mercury & Brian May
Let It Be-Paul McCartney
Do They Know It's Christmas?-Band Aid Finale
American Girl-Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers
Refugee-Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers
Paranoid-Black Sabbath Featuring Ozzy Osbourne
Can't Fight This Feeling-REO Speedwagon
Roll With The Changes-REO Speedwagon
Teach Your Children-Crosby, Stills & Nash
Living After Midnight-Judas Priest
Green Manalishi-Judas Priest
Just What I Need-The Cars
Heartbreak City-The Cars
The Needle And The Damage Done-Neil Young
Nothing Is Perfect (In God's Perfect Plan)-Neil Young
Revolution-Thompson Twins, Steve Stevens, Nile Rogers & Madonna
White Room-Eric Clapton
She's Waiting-Eric Clapton
Layla-Eric Clapton
In The Air Tonight-Phil Collins (In Philadelphia)
Union Of The Snake-Duran Duran
Save A Prayer-Duran Duran
The Reflex-Duran Duran
Imagine-Patti Labelle
Forever Young-Patti Labelle

Disc 3 begins with Bette Midler presenting Madonna in her spunky youth, as she performs the opening numbers "Holiday" and "Into The Groove", backed by two male dancers giving a brilliant synchronised dance routine, and despite Elton John's recent inane criticisms, I can guarantee she does not lip-synch (however she might have snogged Tiffany and Debbie Gibson if this had been performed three years later). Her opening numbers are all about carefree joy and forgetting the world's problems. However a fair ammount of the songs on this disc are actually the most relevant to the situation. Queen's quiet ballad "Is This the World that We Created" in its context here has never been so moving and sad, the Band Aid finale (closing the British concert) of "Do They Know its Christmas Time" is ten times more passionate, more angry and sonically powerful than the original single.

Then we switch over to America (where it is still sunny daytime) where we are 'treated' to the massively corny "Teach Your Children" by Crosby Stills and Nash. We also get the ever topical Neil Young who's "Nothing is Perfect (in God's perfect Plan)" is a traditional rock n' roll blues song about the fortunes we take for granted. It's a shame he hadn't written "Keep on Rocking in the Free World" yet (not till '89) as that would have fit the event like a glove. We then get various acts performing a cover of "Revolution" -originally by the Beatles. A fairly abrasive, chaotic performance but its still a fantastic song of hope- possibly my favourite Beatle's song.

Then Duran Duran (dressed to kill, as always) perform "Save a Prayer", a song of living the extremes of religion, hedonism and highs and lows, which they dedicate to a message of living by peace and respect to one another, regardless of judgements. And Patti Labelle closes the evening melodramatically with covers of John Lennon's (who was murdered in 1980) "Imagine" (another one of the best songs ever written) and "Forever Young" (which suffers slightly to poor sound reception at the closing moments). Both songs about shareing, unity, and Christmas and New Year themes of family and holding onto your values and making resolutions and upholding them for the future.

What's interesting is the other musical choices of the concert which contradict those compassionate values, such as the ruthless apathy of Phil Collin's performance of his soulfelt and vengeful classic ballad "In the Air Tonight", and to a less noticeable extent, the cold blooded sexual hedonism of Judas Priest's "Living After Midnight". As for the rest, the concert again highlights the incredible, precise musical talents of bands I'd previously taken little interest in, as Black Sabbath and REO Speedwagon both give excellent performances that truly blow me away. After that point, the second half all becomes more mellow, for the most part smooth and nothing too abrasive, but nothing that incredible either. It's a comfortable unwind.

Disc Four Tracklisting
Maneater-Hall & Oates
Get Ready (Cos Here I Come)-Hall & Oates With Eddie Kendricks
Ain't Too Proud To Beg-Hall & Oates With Eddie Kendricks & David Ruffin
My Girl-Hall & Oates With Edd Kendricks & David Ruffin
Just Another Night-Mick Jagger
Miss You-Mick Jagger
State Of Shock-Mick Jagger & Tina Turner
It's Only Rock 'n' Roll-Mick Jagger & Tina Turner
Blowing In The Wind-Bob Dylan With Keith Richards & Ron Wood
We Are The World-USA For Africa Finale

By this point it is nighttime in America too and the opening song "Maneater" by Halls and Oats actually blends well into the night time with its cautionary (and yes, obnoxious and probably sexist) lyrics about the monetary predator woman of the nightbars. It opens the fourth disc immediately on beat. They then introduce and perform with Motown Kings Eddie Kendricks and David Ruffin, both formerly of The Temptations, and whether its the mojo-boosting player's anthem "Get Ready 'Cos Here I Come" or the sweet, sincere romantic plattitudes of "Ain't Too Proud to Beg", their vocals are as robust and golden as ever. The fourth disc is mainly about catering to the older crowd and resurrecting those golden oldies for them.

So we then get Rolling Stone's, Mick Jagger dominating with a four-set, delivering some good old pub performance rock n' roll and is still as wild and fire spirited as ever and fills the stage well with movement and great humour, and energises the event some more. He is joined for his last two songs by Tina Turner and the two have great chemistry and flirt brilliantly together to the point of a "wardrobe malfunction". And then we get the legendary Bob Dylan with guitarists Ron Wood and Keith Richardson performing alone the penultimate song, the tender and soul searching "Blowing in the Wind" performed accoustic and very traditional and mellow. Then we end on the obligatory "We are the World" finale, and it actually comes off really well and performed live, it sounds far more human.

The DVD image quality is overall pretty good- mostly extremely clear and bright, occasionally film is quite grainy, and particularly the crowd shots are a bit blurry sometimes. There is also occasionally the overexposed marks on the camera from heavy lighting and the runny lines effect shows up now and again. Most of the sound quality is good, apart from some of the moments in "Forever Young" and the "We Are the World" Finale. Most of it is unnoticeable however and does little to really spoil. Besides it marks the period nostalgically, and this is a great piece of history.

Disc Four Bonus Tracks
What You Need-INXS
Don't Change-INXS
Why I Sing The Blues-B.B. King
Don't Answer The Door-B.B. King
Rock Me Baby-B.B. King
Reach Out And Touch-Ashford & Simpson With Teddy Pendergrass
King Of Rock-Run DMC
A World Of Difference-Cliff Richard
Various-Overseas Contributors
Dancing In The Streets-David Bowie & Mick Jagger
Food & Trucks & Rock 'n' Roll - Documentary (65 Minutes)

In the extras, we get footage of some performances in America that were never transmitted originally and some of the international performances for the charity.

At the Australia concert INXS appear and give a rock sensuous performance of "What You Need" amidst a fluorescent and lazer light show by night. However these scenes lack the same arena feel and the audience is hardly ever glimpsed, obscured by the dark or ignored by the camera.

The North Seas Jazz Festival performance, dominated by BB King is excellent and classy and chic and all the things Jazz is. BB King brilliantly fills the camera with his sweaty and robust performance where he truly gives it all. And the mellowed out, kaleidoscopic Jazz music is unendingly sastisfying and infectiously danceable.

Then we get the JFK Stadium performance of the legendary crooner Teddy Pendergrass, he is wheelchair bound but sincerely dedicated and moved by the concert, and gives a truly soothing performance of "Reach Out and Touch" which could qualify as the most heart on sleeve, beautiful moment of the collection.

Then we get the untransmitted performance of Rap act Run-DMC at the concert. DJ Jam Master Jay introduces with some superb scratching and flipbacks. The rapper duo Daryl and Run then arrive and flawlessly perform the Rock tinged "King of Rock" which is brilliant Arena Rap. It's a short bit but from beginning to end it's all loud and solar plexus punching and you cannot resist nodding your head to it all.

Cliff Richard also has a three minute recorded segment, performed in a small studio. He's on accoustic guitar and plays "A World of Difference" and he's actually fairly good, somewhat bland but still the lyrics are potent and appropriate.

In the next clip we go to several spots in the world and are launched into a limbo rhythm and although its Austrian language and subtitled you do pick up on some pretty potent lyrics "Ethipoia, you were once a princess, now you are a beggar". Then we go to Germany and lyrically their little piece is even more poetic: "Here the sins of our forefathers/ and our indifference take their toll/ and the motto is take no prisoners/ flesh and blood must pay the bill". Then in Japan we are treated to some 80's J-Pop and some J-Metal, but no subs for either. Its quickly on to the USSR where we still get no subs but some fine dynamic guitarism. We also see clips from Yugoslavia, where the subs return for the corniest of all the aid songs, followed by and ending on the nearly as corny but English sung Norwegian single, which has its own quaint charm.

We then get a three minute music video of David Bowie and Mick Jagger's "Dancing in the Streets" duet. It's set simply in a derelict house and a nighttime street and the two perform alone, and yet in terms of directing and dance choreography and screen presence of the two, the video is truly mind blowing.

And now for the final piece- the hour long documentary "Food and Trucks and Rock 'n' Roll". Covering the recent history of the famine and drought in Africa, the plight of the population, and Bob's involvement and his forming of Band Aid, from the Christmas single to the concert and beyond. It's a very educational and historic film, full of all the dimensions and facts- the methods of aid distribution, the obstacles they faced- in politics, transport and the stranglehold of world bank debts. It also picks up a lot of public viewpoints and most importantly presents Bob Geldof's explicit opinions on the plight and the disgrace it marks on modern times that this could happen. There's a brief moment where he gets confrontational with the then Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. It brilliantly blends the harrowing images of poverty with the optimistic images of aid and public support, but at the same time reminds you that the famine still hasn't gone away and that long term aid is constantly needed.

I cannot recommend this set for Christmas more- its thoroughly entertaining, historic, educational and does its little bit to finance the aid work.
 

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