LIVE AID CONCERTS: A LOGISTICS CHALLENGE

Bill Graham compares it to Woodstock. Michael C. Mitchell calls it an even bigger logistic challenge than last year’s Olympics.

They’re talking about Live Aid, the July 13 concerts in London and Philadelphia that shape up as the most star-studded in history. Portions of the shows will be broadcast live in more than 140 countries as part of a telethon designed to raise $50 million for famine victims in Africa. Among the 50 stars confirmed: David Bowie, Paul McCartney, U2, the Who and Stevie Wonder.

“It’s hard to compare anything to Woodstock (the 1969 rock festival in Upstate New York) because that word has become part of our vocabulary,” said Graham, the nation’s most respected rock concert promoter. “It was a cultural turning point . . . something that will always be looked back upon as a special moment for its generation. What we’re doing now is entirely different. The reason for the event is more important than the event itself.”

Graham, who will produce the concert at JFK Stadium in Philadelphia, added by phone from his office in New York that “we’re going to have an unbelievable lineup of musicians, but the real story is the good that will be done . . . the power of musicians to literally save lives. That’s a power that is unique to rock ‘n’ roll. Actors, poets, athletes couldn’t do it on this scale. We’ve seen evidences of this positive power for years, but it has always been on a limited scale. This project is taking it from the community and the country to the world.”

References to the Olympics dominated Mitchell’s discussion of the project.

“In many ways, this is a much greater effort than the Games,” said Mitchell, senior vice president of planning for the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles. “We had years to plan the Olympics. We’ve got weeks to do this one. That’s like floating down the wild river on a raft. But it’s going to work, and it’s going to bring the world together for a single cause in a way that never has been done.”

Mitchell, who is in charge of producing and marketing the worldwide concert telecast, continued during an interview this week in his Marina del Rey office. “The concerts are what everyone is talking about now. But they’re just the starting point. We want to marry the rock stars and that vitality to the traditional respect afforded people from other fields . . . religious leaders, government officials, artists and athletes together and urge people to get involved.

“We expect to have the biggest television audience in history and turn it into the biggest telethon in history. . . . But we’re not just trying to raise money with these shows. We’re also trying to educate people and show them that problems can be overcome if they work together. The main point we want to get across is that hunger is solvable. If we can get that point across, we’re home.”

The Live Aid concerts, which will be held at London’s 72,000-seat Wembley Stadium and Philadelphia’s 80,000-seat JFK Stadium, are the latest in a series of African famine benefit projects influenced by the recording late last year of a single--”Do They Know It’s Christmas?”--by a group of leading British rock musicians.

The project, titled Band Aid, has raised more than $10 million and led to American pop and rock figures recording the “We Are the World” single last January in Hollywood. That single and album have resulted in about $50 million in additional funds.

Bob Geldof, the Irish rock star who spearheaded the Band Aid recording session, has been trying to put the concerts together since late last year, but it wasn’t until after the “We Are the World” momentum that the plans were formalized.

The plan is to have both the London and Philadelphia concerts start at noon in their respective time zones, which means 4 a.m. and 9 a.m. respectively in Los Angeles. Tickets for the London show went on sale Monday and sold out immediately, while an announcement is due early next week on the Philadelphia tickets sales.

Though most of the tickets (priced at $50 and $35) will be sold in the Philadelphia area, efforts are being made to set up a national phone order service so that people around the country will have an opportunity to purchase them.

Mitchell said both concerts--which could stretch from 17 to 24 hours depending on final programming details--will be broadcast in full on MTV. In addition, ABC-TV will broadcast three hours live in the evening and numerous independent TV stations around the country will program several hours during the day. ABC radio affiliates will also carry the event. Negotiations are also in progress with radio and TV outlets around the world. In addition, corporate sponsorships (for multimillion-dollar fees) are being solicited, in much the manner of the Olympics game plan, he said.

Among the more than 50 attractions announced this week: Bowie, Elvis Costello, Duran Duran, Jagger, Elton John, McCartney, Robert Plant, the Pretenders, Paul Simon, Simple Minds, Rod Stewart, Sting, U2, the Who, Stevie Wonder and Neil Young.

One surprise--and early criticism of the project--was that so few black artists are included. Aside from Wonder, only Billy Ocean, Sade and Temptations were on the original roster.

In a phone interview Thursday, Geldof said he had invited more than a dozen major black artists, including Lionel Richie, Michael Jackson, Prince, Tina Turner and Miles Davis, and hopes many of them will agree to appear. Meanwhile, George Benson and the Four Tops were announced Thursday in Los Angeles as confirmed for the Philadelphia show.

As planned, each band will be on stage for 22 minutes, often joined by guest singers or musicians. Some of the British artists are expected to take advantage of the time differences to fly from London to Philadelphia to appear on both stages. During the eight minutes between acts, Live Aid producers will feature short taped messages by world leaders addressing the issue of hunger. These are already being made, Mitchell said.

“Again, it’s important to realize that the concert itself is just the starting point,” Mitchell, 39, added. “I don’t mean to downplay the importance of the performers. They are what is making it possible. But we wanted to build upon what they are doing.”

Graham and Mitchell agree that Geldof is the key figure in the project. Graham, who has often been described as outspoken and tireless himself, takes his hat off to the Irish rocker’s energy and determination in this charity campaign. “I can’t speak highly enough of his drive, obsession, mania--and I mean all that in a positive sense. He just doesn’t take no for an answer. He comes up against a wall and just butts his way through it. We’ve all been caught up in that spirit.”

Despite the extraordinary public and professional outpouring of money and emotion since the Band Aid recording last year, Geldof remains driven, demanding more of himself and those around him.

By phone from London, he said, “I was nervous that compassion and fatigue were setting in . . . that everyone was going to lose interest and it was going to move onto the back pages. Yet the situation in Africa was getting worse. I knew that if it was possible to do something (like the TV show) on a global scale, then you could get governments to make gestures commensurate with the scale of the event.

“That is what is important--to bring this awareness to that level, where governments can use their power and wealth to make significant gestures. And I agree completely (with Mitchell) that hunger can be solved. It’s just that governments ignore it because they choose to spend their money on other things because they don’t think people care about hunger. The best thing we can do--and I mean we in the widest sense--is show governments that people do care,” said Geldof.

“The real scandal is that anyone has to do this--to force world governments to face this and not be able to sweep it under the carpet any longer. I mean 130 million people are going to die if they don’t.”