Hollingsworth developed the plan for the first Mandela concert after talking to singer Jerry Dammers of The Specials ska band, who had written the song Free Nelson Mandela in 1984 and founded the Artists Against Apartheid organisation the following year.
Dammers told Hollingsworth that he had received a letter from Simple Minds, the Glasgow rock band, agreeing to perform at an event which Hollingsworth had suggested for the previous year.