Live Aid, the legendary concert organized by Bob Geldof and Midge Ure in 1985 to raise money for famine relief in Ethiopia, is getting The Old Vic treatment.

The concert will be turned into a musical called Just For One Day, a callback to a line from David Bowie’s song “Heroes,” and will be on at The Old Vic Theatre in London from January 26 to March 30, 2024, according to the BBC.

The musical will feature songs from the bands involved in the concert such as Queen, U2, Sir Elton John, Sir Paul McCartney and Sting.

Geldof wants to make it clear, however, that it isn’t a tribute so no one will be pretending to be the singers. “So there isn’t a person dressed up as Freddie [Mercury] wearing a crap mustache. The songs drive the drama,” he said.

Just For One Day’s plot will be balanced between a look behind the scenes at how Band Aid and Live Aid came together, as well as a love story that was inspired by real events.

Geldof explains that the story is based on “actual testimony from the day.” He adds, “It’s real people telling their story throughout this.”

The musical, with permission from the Band Aid Charitable Trust, will give 10% of every ticket sale to the organization.

John O’Farrell, who wrote Mrs. Doubtfire The Musical, and Luke Sheppard, director of the musical & Juliet, who came up with the idea were not initially confident when they approached Sir Bob Geldof with the proposal.

“They came and said, ‘we know you are going to say no, but we want to do it because our dads have never stopped talking about this day. And we think it’s theatre,” Geldof relates.

The singer-songwriter and political activist also attended the workshops, along with the other Band Aid Trustees. He said they wanted to make sure that they liked what they saw before endorsing the project. “We were blown away. I have to say there was not a dry eye in the house,” he said, talking about their reaction to the musical.

Geldof will be portrayed by English actor Craige Els.

“Let me be completely blunt. It’s bad enough being Bob Geldof. It’s slightly worse seeing someone else pretending to be you,” he says. However, there is one advantage to that. “The one upside for me is that he’s got an amazing voice, stage Bob, so that people will think I actually sing as good as that,” he added.

“And he got the language right,” Geldof laughs, recalling the profanity he became famous for during the BBC broadcast of the concert when he forcefully asked the presenter to read out the phone numbers to drive donations.