25 Years Ago Today ....

Beasty

I know many of you were not even born in 1985 - but for those who are old enough, what were you doing 25 years ago today - 13th July 1985?

I had finished my accountancy exams 2 days earlier - the last exams I ever did. Then on Friday, 12th July I caught a train down to London from Leeds where I was living then, staying in a tacky hotel around Kings Cross.

The following morning I caught the tube over to Wembley Stadium, where one of the greatest music events in history was about to take place. I had paid £25 for my Live Aid ticket

The gates opened at 10am, and the first issue was smuggling my camera into the event - in those days they would take cameras off you at many events - I put the lens in the body of a thermos flask, and strapped the body of the camera to my back - they did a quick check, but when they are trying to get 100,000 people in they don't have much time, so I safely got in and made my way to a position about 25 metres in front and slightly to the left of stage, where I stayed for the next 12 hours - didn't even have a toilet break for the sake of keeping my place.

12.02 and it kicks off - Rocking All Over The World with Status Quo - a great start to the event. Each act had about 12 minutes and they were trying a rotating stage for the first time, giving themeselves only a few minutes for each changeover.

Quo were followed by the Style Council, then Bob arrived - he had the audience eating out of his hand. A few more acts, then Elvis Costello with "All You Need is Love". All the time I was clicking away with the camera - until it came to Spandau Ballet - I could not take any picture on principle - they were the only act I have no photos of.

U2 almost raised the roof, but them Freddie arrived to steal the show. Great performances by Bowie, the Who and Elton John followed.

It was getting towards 10pm, when the whole thing was due to close down - I had a train to catch, so started moving towards the exit, continuing to take photos of McCartney and the Finale.

I never saw the US show, except for the bits they showed on the screens at Wembley - I have the DVD , and will get round to watching it some day. I also have over 500 photos - which I take out every so often to remind me of the greatest gig I have ever seen

So what are your memories of the day?

mike65

I was sat in the front room with the rain outside as London was bathed in summer sun (as per usual!). I had a bunch of empty cassettes ready to go for recording the audio from the video deck. Dad hit the phones to donate a sum, I cant remember for sure but I think it was about 50 pounds. Queen and The Who were easily the highlights for me. Nothing at the American end was much cop.

Lets see some of those pix!

blastman

mike65 wrote: »

Lets see some of those pix!

What he said!

Malice

I remember sitting in the front room with my parents watching it on television. We recorded the whole thing on a bunch of Betamax video casettes which we still had up to a few years ago before they got thrown out. I was a bit too young to appreciate the enormity of the event (the concert, not the throwing out of the video tapes) at the time.

Minstrel27

I was enjoying my summer holidays from school. I was five at the time.

Beasty

mike65 wrote: »

Lets see some of those pix!

Pre-digital age, so I need to work on it, but I will have a go at scanning some in over the next day or 2

ghosttown

Jeez ! 25 years today. Was 18, played football that morning, went to a disco bar in Dublin with team and gf's, it was on a projector, we were transfixed watching it, drinking liter glasses of Furtsenberg ! Buckets came around, was amazed afterwards that they'd collected over £1,000 in a small place, and being proud to hear Ireland gave the most per head of all countries watching..........

Long time ago !:) Happy memories.

Beasty

Couple of tasters - Bob and Midge:

Beasty

And then there was Freddie...



I'll try and sort some more out later

thehamo

I had just turned 2 and was more than likely running about the house like a lunatic!:p

kenon

I was 4 months old...but I hope on some subconscious level I was enjoying Queen stealing the show and David Gilmour helping out Bryan Ferry.

dasdog

I was nine and can still vividly remember watching it all day and in to the night. Status Quo/U2/Queen were the standouts. I recorded it on a VHS tape and which I re-wound if I didn't like what was had just been played and my dad, who has some of the worst musical taste known to mankind, even enjoyed Queen. Can't remember much about the US show except finding Led Zeppelin disappointing (I was only nine but knew some of their songs from my older cousins). It must have been great actually being there.

ricero

and then there was sheamus and dustin

Dudess

I was seven and I remember it clearly. Arrived home after a few days' "holidays" at my cousins' (remember when that was a holiday? And a great one too! And they were only living about 90 minutes' drive away... ) Started watching it - found it too dinosaur-ish due to a lack of Nick Kershaw/Baltimora/Strawberry Switchblade etc so gave up. Am I remembering correctly that there weren't any ads on TV, just info films? And I remember being really haunted by the images...

Kold

My heartbeat was just about audible through my mothers belly, I had what would develop into teeth and nails. I remember I made my Mum puke. Dems was the days.

Beasty

Dudess wrote: »

found it too dinosaur-ish due to a lack of Nick Kershaw

Especially for you:


And a few more hairstyles from the day:

spurious

I flew to Bristol to meet a Polish friend who had travelled from Poland on a coal boat via Rotterdam. She was supposed to be coming to Dublin, but had been given wrong information that the whole of Dublin Port was closed when in fact it was just one company's coal loading place had some sort of strike action.

So, they unloaded in a place called Barry near Cardiff, which must have had some sort of unfortunate radiation leak, judging by the number of 'not right' people I saw there.

She had a visa to enter Ireland, but not the UK, so my father rang (and got through to) the British Ambassador who told us to personally use his name if there was any problem with her going into Cardiff on a day trip from the boat.

The trip probably cost her the best part of a year's wages back then. She got to see whatever James Bond film starts with them snow surfing at the start, got a cheap make up set from Boots and we both missed Live Aid.

IrishWhiskeyCha

I can remember this also ... a great day ... I taped it on VHS and by and far Queen were the highlight ... really got the crowd going and eventhough not a great song Radio Gaga was a real spectacle with all the crowd doing the clap hands in the air routine.

However I remember it being a lovely day in the south of Ireland too.

Excellent pics keep them coming.

Beasty

Mr Bowie:

Beasty

Let it Be ...




I was heading towards the exit at this stage - it allowed me to get a few more panoramic shots. I was also running out of film.

Beasty

A bit more Freddie:

blastman

I was working on the evening of the day of Live Aid in the local pub, my first real job in the summer between leaving school and starting college. I watched most of the early bands at home, thought Queen and U2 were great. That evening in work, it seemed everyone in the bar was a Dylan fan, as most of the talk was of his show-closing appearance on the American half. Two of the lads I worked with were brothers and the plan was to go back to their house to watch the end of the gig, which we did. I knew next to nothing about Bob Dylan at the time and thought he was terrible! The following day, most of the guys in the bar agreed.

IrishWhiskeyCha

blastman wrote: »

I knew next to nothing about Bob Dylan at the time and thought he was terrible! The following day, most of the guys in the bar agreed.

Dylan has always been hit or miss. But it is not a case of good days and bad days ... it is nearly good years and bad years :eek:

blastman

IrishWhiskeyCha wrote: »

Dylan has always been hit or miss. But it is not a case of good days and bad days ... it is nearly good years and bad years :eek:

I've seen him a few times myself since then and it's been pretty much all miss, to be honest.