Nik Kershaw - The Riddle (Live Aid 1985)

Nik Kershaw performing 'The Riddle' at Live Aid in front of 72,000 people in Wembley Stadium, London on the 13th July, 1985. The event was organised by Sir Bob Geldof and Midge Ure to raise funds for the Ethiopian famine disaster. Broadcast across the world via one of the largest satellite link-ups of all time, the concerts were seen by around 40% of the global population.
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BAND AID - How the Money is Spent

In the financial year to 30 November 2024 Band Aid has awarded grants of £3m across 16 projects to date.
Activities in 2024 include:

Provision of life saving medicines and medical supplies
Access to basic healthcare for rural communities
Strengthening the support of health services in Tigray
Therapeutic food for malnourished children and vulnerable adults
Emergency grain supplies
Drought resistant crops
Income generating activities and vocational training
Construction of basic housing to support old and vulnerable people
Construction of emergency shelters for refugees
Provision of clean water and sanitation training across multiple refugee camps in Ethiopia
Training to prevent gender-based violence in communities
Hygiene and sanitation support for adolescent girls
Construction of schools and libraries, and provision of classroom furniture
Cash distributions for vulnerable households
Rehabilitation of boreholes and wells for schools and communities
School feeding programmes in Tigray to support children returning to education

The estimated number of beneficiaries totals more than 350,000 people.

Money raised from BandAid40 will continue to fund similar activities in Ethiopia and the surrounding countries.

More information can be found at

[_Urahara_Kisuke_]

2024 and still listening to Nik Kershaw. His unique way of interplaying the words with the timing of the melody and rhythm is just genius. ❤

[alasdairross]

He was an under rated star of Live aid. Solid performance.

[tenitchyfingers]

The fact that he could sing a harmony that logically does not make any sense while also playing a different guitar progression that is also insane at the same time without exploding is incredible. This song is crazy, in the best possible way. All of that INSANITY going on during the I can’t deal with it. Absolute banger still dragging pretty much every pop song composed ever since through the goddamn mud.

[timhancock]

He is one of the most underrated songwriters around. There isn't a bad song on his album The Riddle or Human Racing. They are both well worth a listen 38 years later.

[gandlar]

He supposedly had stage fright but still put on an outstanding performance.

[therealdoug]

The complexity of this song, lyrically and melodically is amazing.

[piotrkanarek]

Nik Kershaw is one of the best songwriters EVER. So beautiful, so complex, so haunting...

[KaoruSakata]

He is sooo cute! And the song a masterpiece of course

[mssee]

Nik Kershaw is the most underrated 80's pop star. Dude was a musicians' musician. This song is more proggy than most prog rock.

[daleywhaley]

I've never seen anyone ask a crowd to whistle along before!

[justmadeit]

July 13th 1985. I was 10’years old at the time and living in New Zealand. We only had 2 tv channels then and live aid was shown, I saw some of it at the time. I’m now 50

[utesommer]

I never saw a live performance by Nick Kershaw before. As a Teenager in the 80's i feel really delighted !

[HouseholdDog]

The lyrics turned out to be complete gibberish.
Apparently he hadn't written the lyrics for the song before he started recording.
So he recorded some random phrases as a basis for the tracks.
They later recorded some real lyrics. But decided they kind of liked the gibberish.
So they went with the gibberish and named the song The Riddle. To make people think there was some sort of meaning to the song.
Fricken Genius.
Also Nik Kershaw's gibberish is fricken awesome!

[marinchan]

僕が中学生の時、繰り返し聴いてた大好きな曲です。
一生、忘れられないメロディーです。

[spikethejackrabbit]

When a live band can sound like playback, you know damn well that band are nothing short of spectacular. I'm 19, definitely not the right generation for this, but Nik Kershaw is genuinely my hero! Queen stole the show this day, but this here is MY favourite performance, and it makes me so upset not to have been born at the right time to experience this myself. Nik Kershaw is genuinely one of the best musicians of all time, best songwriters, best guitarists. Criminally underrated!

[wilsonnperez]

This song deserved to have reached the Top 20 on Billboard's Hot 100. Instead, it reached just #107.

[Becks]

Love this! Has got to be one of the best 80's records without a doubt!! The military style drumming is awesome not to mention this live performance. Nik is so cheeky here and he certainly did Live Aid proud. I was a teenager when this song was released, i'm 49 now and love it as much today as I did way back. Total class so it is!!

[Nemrico]

One of the best 80s songs of all time.

[DarkCornerProductions]

Why NIK KERSHAW is the MOST UNDERRATED ARTIST EVER

Wrote the no1 song "The One & Only" which Chesney Hawkes recorded
Wrote "Old Friend" for Elton John for Elton & Him to Sing.
Nik also, played Guitar on Elton's "Nikita" & "Act Of War"
Wrote "I Wanna Change The Score" for Tony Banks's Album (he sung on)
Wrote "Dangerous" for James Blunt
Appeared on Vocals for Steve Hackett 'GENESIS' Revisited Tour SONG: "The Lamia"

Attracted admirers like Elton himself who described Kershaw as "The Greatest Songwriter of A Generation"
Miles Davis (The Jazz King) Was heavily into Nik's music and was routining one of Nik's songs for a Live show before he Died.
Eric Clapton & Jimmy Page were fond fans & attended his Gigs at Hammersmith Odeon in 1984
Eric also apparently recorded a version of 'Wide Boy' which has not seen the light of day
He wrote "He's Got A Hold Of Me" which Bonnie Tyler recorded

but yeah, the list goes on... he's written for so many artists lol
definitely one of the best ever songwriters

[Rickstar]

Even though i'm a teenager this is still my favourite song. I've always appreciated 80's songs, especially Nik Kershaw's songs!