A DVD release of the 1985 Live Aid concert, held at London's Wembley Stadium and JFK Stadium, Philadelphia, is at long last due out this Christmas, mainly due to chief organiser Bob Geldof's annoyance at the amount of bootleg DVD's flooding the market. Geldof tipped off police after pirated DVDs were found on the internet for £110 for a 10-disc set. Police raided a property in Lancashire and made one arrest.

The live 16-hour broadcast instantly raised £80m for African famine victims. Organisers have now decided to auction the rights to release the DVD of Live Aid, which has never come out officially on CD, video or DVD. The successful bidder will have to get the permission of all performing artists, which included U2, Madonna and Sir Elton John. Geldof hopes the classic DVD will raise "a few million pounds" during the planned release next Christmas, almost 20 years after the historic event.

Bob Geldof "sees it as an asset of the people of Ethiopia" that was not being fully utilised, according to fellow founding Band Aid trustee John Kennedy. "Because of piracy, it's becoming available without earning any money." On getting the artists permissions, he said "we don't expect any of them to be anything other than co-operative"

As part of the show, David Gilmour appeared with Bryan Ferry. At the time, Ferry did not intend doing any shows to promote his Boys and Girls album, on which Gilmour guested. He wanted to continue with the next album before thinking of playing live again. Geldof managed to convince him to perform at what has been the biggest live event in the world ever.

The set, which included the songs Sensation, Boys And Girls, Slave To Love, and Jealous Guy, was beset by technical problems: Andy Newmark broke a drumskin with the first beat on his snare drum, Ferry performed most of his set holding two microphones as they were intermittently playing up, and Gilmour's Stratocaster experienced a power failure during the first song. Obviously Floyd fans will hope that the DVD set will include, at the very least, a brief bit of the Ferry/Gilmour performance...