Tsunami Relief Cardiff: How 'Live Aid II' was pulled off in weeks
2025-01-22
Category: entertainment

It was one of the biggest charity gigs to be held in the UK since Live Aid - but it very nearly didn't happen.Spurred on by the horrors of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, three friends came together with the idea of staging a fundraising concert at Cardiff's Millennium Stadium.Dubbed "Live Aid II" by the papers, the Tsunami Relief concert quickly built momentum. But it needed an A-list headline act and none were willing to commit until, just as they were about to give up, one of the most famous guitarists in the world saved the day.
"We got a call from the manager of Eric Clapton," said Paul Sergeant, the boss of the stadium."And he said, 'Eric will do it'."With Clapton confirmed, everything else followed. Craig David, Snow Patrol, Lulu and Manic Street Preachers were among 18 acts that played for seven hours in front of almost 70,000 music fans on 22 January, 2005.
'Crazy' plan
Four weeks earlier, Paul had been drinking a glass of wine on his sofa when he saw a newsflash about a tsunami hitting several countries in south and southeast Asia on Boxing Day 2004."I think it impacted everybody," he said, in a new BBC documentary.The tsunami was one of the worst natural disasters in recorded history, leaving 225,000 people across 14 countries dead and about two million people displaced.
Those who had escaped the torrent were battling to survive in the aftermath, and desperately in need of aid.It was the story of a two-year-old boy, who survived the wave and was reunited with his father in a Thai hospital, that really stirred something in Paul."He was very similar to my own son," said Paul."It was constantly on the news and in the newspapers. The public wanted to do something."The next day, Paul got together with two friends - promoter Pablo Janczur and ex-Wales international Rupert Moon - and they sketched out a "crazy" plan on the back of a napkin.
"I knew [Paul] had been involved with Live Aid before because he'd worked at Wembley. And so he said, 'how about a concert'?" said Rupert.They had the Millennium Stadium, known today as the Principality Stadium, at their disposal.But the gig needed to happen fast, while public emotions were still running high and before rugby's Six Nations tournament began.They set a date - just over three weeks away - and began frantically trying to make things happen.A number of Welsh bands and artists quickly signed up, including Katherine Jenkins, Feeder and Goldie Lookin' Chain (GLC).
But to raise enough money for the disaster relief fund, and to secure prime-time BBC coverage, the concert needed an A-list headline act.That was proving much more difficult."It was like, 'look at what we're trying to do, this is going to be amazing, you can be a part of it, why don't you just put your name in?'" said John Rostron, a promoter who volunteered his time to help.
With just 14 days to go, it became make or break."It was a statutory requirement to give notice to police officers two weeks out from the show. And we were fast approaching that," said Paul.The team started calling around all of the potential A-list acts again, but to no avail.They were just minutes away from giving up for good, when the phone rang.
"I'll never forget, it was seven minutes to three," said Paul."We got a call from the manager of Eric Clapton. And he said, 'Eric will do it'."
'We're on'
"There was this moment of absolute yes - we're on," said John.But the elation was quickly replaced by the realisation that they now needed to make the whole thing happen in just two weeks."There's normally months and months of work, sometimes a couple of years of work, that have got to go into this," said Paul.With Clapton confirmed, however, things started to go to plan.
"We started receiving calls from artists that wanted to help," said Paul.Then all 66,000 tickets sold in a matter of days."I'll never forget on the Saturday morning walking with Paul to the [ticket office] - and there was a queue of people down the street," said Rupert.
Who was on the line-up?
Badly Drawn BoyCharlotte ChurchCraig DavidEmbraceEric ClaptonFeederJools HollandKatherine JenkinsKeaneKelly Jones of StereophonicsLuluLiberty XManic Street PreachersSnow Patrol
With a week to go, 18 artists were signed up.On the day of the concert, a freezing Saturday, tens of thousands packed into the stadium while hundreds of thousands watched live on Welsh language channel S4C and millions tuned into a highlights show on BBC Two.
Towards the end of the night, Lulu told the stadium crowd that the event had raised more than £1m."It was one of those moments where you think, 'wow'," said Paul.The night ended with Jools Holland and Eric Clapton performing Shake, Rattle & Roll, joined by the other artists on stage."The atmosphere was great as it was a Cardiff crowd, who are special and are very warm, and because they cared about why we were all there," said Holland.
The event raised £1.25m for the Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC)."I'd do it again in a heartbeat," said Paul, who remained stadium chief executive until 2007."When there's something that people want to get behind, they'll get behind it with the same level of passion and commitment as we experienced there."
The Impossible Show: Tsunami Relief Concert will air on BBC One Wales and BBC iPlayer at 20:00 GMT on 22 January.