FRESH from afternoon tea with Gordon Brown, Bob Geldof was in a buoyant mood last night at the premiere screening of the new DVD of the 1985 Live Aid concert.

Sporting a jaunty black cap and a smart suit, he could barely contain his delight as he said that Mr Brown had phoned him and practically begged to refund millions of pounds in VAT on purchases of the boxed set.

Geldof said: “Gordon phoned me when I was in the Congo a couple of days ago and said: ‘What about the VAT?’ I said I hadn’t even thought about it.

“I’ve just had tea with him and it could mean about eight million quid. It’s great and indicates a political climate change.”

The Conservative Government in 1985 did not waive the tax, but it did give a donation to charities working in Ethiopia and Chad equivalent to the VAT collected on sales of the original 1984 Band Aid record.The man whose famous plea “give us your f***ing money” made it to the Oxford Dictionary of Quotations decided to release the four-disc, ten-hour DVD set because bootleggers were making a fortune from recordings of the concert.

He also wanted to refocus attention on Africa on the twentieth anniversary next year at a time when Britain will chair the G8 economic forum and have the presidency of the European Union. Then Tony Blair and Mr Brown will have even more political clout globally, he said.

“It’s preposterous that more people still die of hunger than of Aids, malaria and polio,” Geldof said.

Back in 1985 cynics accused many of the Live Aid stars of relaunching flagging careers on the back of the concert. It was difficult not to be reminded of those sentiments last night.

As Geldof chatted to the press, Brian May, the Queen guitarist, waited for several minutes to be interviewed before sloping off after everyone ignored him. Roger Taylor, his band-mate, fared little better.

Midge Ure and Spandau Ballet’s Gary Kemp were given more attention, but most of the enthusiasm was reserved for Justin Hawkins, from The Darkness, and the solo artist Katie Melua, who, together with Coldplay, Travis, Busted and Robbie Williams, will record a version of Do They Know It’s Christmas? next week.

Ure, who is executive producer of the single, said: “We’ve got a fantastic line-up. We’ve had ten years of insipid dance music that’s meant to be danced to, not listened to, so I’m hoping that a new generation will rediscover Eighties music from Live Aid and the new Band Aid single.”

Explore UK News

• Crime News

• Education News

• Health News

• Scotland News

Times Recommends

• 5 Christmas romance confessions
• Has champagne lost its sparkle?
• Your tailor-made Christmas