Live Aid this week 30 years ago - 13th July 1985

SharpshooterTom

So this time apparently Live aid took place (13th July 1985).

Line up included the likes of Queen, Phil Collins, Dire Straits, Led Zepplin, INXS, Paul Young, U2, Paul McCartney, David Bowie, Mick Jagger, Elton John, Madonna, Duran Duran, Eric Clapton, Bob Dylan, Spandau Ballet, Adam Ant, Sting, Run DMC, Elvis Costello, Bryan Adams, Simple Minds, Nik Kershaw, Black Sabbath, Status Quo, Boomtown rats, Ultravox etc.

In all honesty all this stuff was really waaaaaaaaaaay before my time since I was only born in 1986 myself (29 next month), to have any real recollection of this somebody would have to be at least in their 40s now (or close to it), basically bit of an old fart now really. :P

You have to remember there were only 4 TV channels back in those days in the UK, so viewing figures would have been enormous for this, every other house in the neighbourhood would have had this blasting out, you wouldn't have been able to avoid it easily.

Music has changed a lot now, much more technology making it much more accessible with spotify etc, many people think chart music (and music generally) is far better now than it was back then. Most of my generation would laugh at this stuff, although I actually think some of its pretty impressive if I must say myself.

Queen and Freddie

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0omja1ivpx0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zBUJztI884M

Dire straits - one of my favourite bands of the 80s, a song I absolutely adore, the live aid versions for this is bloody great I think.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=plsMlX-qYP8

Anyone here old enough to remember it? What were your memories of that event and that summer? Do you look back with horror and think the younger generation have gotten music better?

NachoBusiness

Bono changing the lyrics of the end of Bad to Lou Reed's Walk On The Wild Side..

"Holly came from Miami F.L.A., hitchhiked all the way across the USA, she could feel the satellite coming down, pretty soon she was in London town... Wembley Stadium, and all the people went, Doo-Doo-Doo-Doo-Doo."

And of course, this..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zNm2mn86WNw

catallus

I'm sorry but this just reminds me of what a sad, tragic and painful loss Freddie Mercury's early death was.

The more I see of him the better he gets.

The Backwards Man

I was probably watching Bosco

PTH2009

really thought they would of done live aid 2015 but times move on

efb

Glad that fixed the Ethiopian hunger problem

the groutch

30 years of throwing good money after bad.

Zaph

ThomasFlynn wrote: »

to have any real recollection of this somebody would have to be at least in their 40s now (or close to it), basically bit of an old fart now really. :P

Ahem

efb

Zaph wrote: »

Ahem

He speaketh the truth, I remember Mercury's death better.

I'm a youthful 35 you see

wil

the groutch wrote: »

30 years of throwing good money after bad.

Still though, 30 years later, people are still talking about it.
Must "of" done something.

efb

wil wrote: »

Still though, 30 years later, people are still talking about it.
Must "of" done something.

legacy, awareness and other immeasurable non-tangible things they can use that can't be refuted

DEFTLEFTHAND

PTH2009 wrote: »

really thought they would of done live aid 2015 but times move on

They did one in 2005 for the 20th anniversary called 'Live 8', featuring live concerts in the G8 nations.

darkpagandeath

Forced relocation of people the government did not like to land that cannot grow food does not have the same ring to it as "Famine" Did we ever solve that Famine btw ? Last I heard the relatives and family's are still in them camps using aid as currency.

DEFTLEFTHAND

From looking back on the performances it's a shame Led Zeppelin agreed to do it, they were diabolical. Terrible to see a band with a brilliant live reputation give such a sub par performance.

The hadn't played together in the five years since John Bonham's death and apparently only barely rehearsed beforehand. Phil Collins while a decent drummer didn't suit their style at all.

wil

DEFTLEFTHAND wrote: »

They did one in 2005 for the 20th anniversary called 'Live 8', featuring live concerts in the G8 nations.

Then 7/7 happened during the G8:(

Zaph

ThomasFlynn wrote: »

Music has changed a lot now, much more technology making it much more accessible with spotify etc, many people think chart music (and music generally) is far better now than it was back then.

Anyone here old enough to remember it? What were your memories of that event and that summer? Do you look back with horror and think the younger generation have gotten music better?

The thing about music in general, and chart music in particular, is that at some point in time everyone decides that the current music is crap and what they listened to when they were younger was far better. Personally I think that almost all of what passes for chart music these days is an affront to my ears, but my parents probably thought the same of what was in the charts when I was younger.

I remember Live Aid vividly. I was 17 and despite it being a hot sunny day outside, I sat plonked in front of the TV for the whole day, even though it meant sitting through some awful crap, because I knew it was history unfolding right in front of my eyes and we'd never see anything like it again. Highlights of the day were amazing performances by David Bowie, U2 and Queen. Interest dropped a bit when they switched over to Philadelphia, but in part that was because there were a good few artists there who weren't very well known or popular on this side of the Atlantic. There was also some video links with other concerts in Moscow and Australia, but all I can remember of them was that a couple of INXS songs were played. The other hugely memorable part of the concert was when a video was played showing some pretty harrowing scenes from Ethiopia with Drive by The Cars as the accompanying music. It was quite a while after that before anyone said anything. Apparently it was the time when donations peaked, and it wouldn't have been shown at all if David Bowie hadn't volunteered to play one song less in his set. Whether the whole thing made any lasting difference will always be the subject of debate, but it really was an event in the proper sense of the word and I wouldn't have missed it for the world.

crockholm

Was only about 5 at the time and I gave one quarter of what was in my bank account(5 pounds) to the starving 30 million Etheopians-it seems to have worked,there's about 80 million of them now.

MadsL

We can be heroes, just for one day...

Banjo String

Most trolling lyrics ever.

well tonight thank God it's them, instead of you....

Eh ok Bono.

Zaph

MadsL wrote: »

We can be heroes, just for one day...

Live Aid was the first time I'd ever heard Heroes as I was never really a Bowie fan. It's been one of my favourite songs since then.

Zaph

Banjo String wrote: »

Most trolling lyrics ever.

Eh ok Bono.

Well to be fair, he didn't write them.

il gatto

ThomasFlynn wrote: »

So this time apparently Live aid took place (13th July 1985).

Line up included the likes of Queen, Phil Collins, Dire Straits, Led Zepplin, INXS, Paul Young, U2, Paul McCartney, David Bowie, Mick Jagger, Elton John, Madonna, Duran Duran, Eric Clapton, Bob Dylan, Spandau Ballet, Adam Ant, Sting, Run DMC, Elvis Costello, Bryan Adams, Simple Minds, Nik Kershaw, Black Sabbath, Status Quo, Boomtown rats, Ultravox etc.

In all honesty all this stuff was really waaaaaaaaaaay before my time since I was only born in 1986 myself (29 next month), to have any real recollection of this somebody would have to be at least in their 40s now (or close to it), basically bit of an old fart now really. :P

You have to remember there were only 4 TV channels back in those days in the UK, so viewing figures would have been enormous for this, every other house in the neighbourhood would have had this blasting out, you wouldn't have been able to avoid it easily.

Music has changed a lot now, much more technology making it much more accessible with spotify etc, many people think chart music (and music generally) is far better now than it was back then. Most of my generation would laugh at this stuff, although I actually think some of its pretty impressive if I must say myself.

Queen and Freddie

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0omja1ivpx0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zBUJztI884M

Dire straits - one of my favourite bands of the 80s, a song I absolutely adore, the live aid versions for this is bloody great I think.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=plsMlX-qYP8

Anyone here old enough to remember it? What were your memories of that event and that summer? Do you look back with horror and think the younger generation have gotten music better?

People who think music is better now have no knowledge of music or haven't listened to older stuff with the intention of enjoying it. I listen to stuff from the 50s to today and i'm still finding incredible music. I hear crap chart music and derivative guitar music these days. And I thought it was the age thing, but realised I was still finding the odd band I loved. Turns out it wasn't age. Most of the music is, in fact, crap.
I was 7 1/2 when Live Aid happened. Pretty sure I watched it but it was everywhere. Unavoidable. So now I'm wondering did I actually watch it or the additional coverage. It was what the whole world was watching so I'd say I did.
"When Harry met Bob" is a good film based on it. Really enjoyed it.
Remember the Freddie Mercury concert vividly. I was a huge Queen and Guns'n'Roses fan. Wasn't quite Live Aid but still massive. Nothing like it these days. In music anyway.

kfallon

13th of July is next week OP.........

Timberrrrrrrr

Banjo String wrote: »

Most trolling lyrics ever.



Eh ok Geldoff/Ure.

FYP

padd b1975

Zaph wrote: »

Live Aid was the first time I'd ever heard Heroes as I was never really a Bowie fan. It's been one of my favourite songs since then.

He pretty much murdered it that day IMHO....

Menas

Queen were brilliant that day...but as a young fella I was mad in to U2 at the time.
Will we be marking the anniversary of Self Aid too? I hope not!

Banjo String

Zaph wrote: »

Well to be fair, he didn't write them.

Yeah, I know but thatl'll always be Bonos 'line' in my memory. He even had the same line (with altered lyrics) in the new version.

anncoates

I was 14 so was probably loudly denouncing it as a "commercial", "plastic" farrago but secretly hoping Phil Collins would do Sussudio.

Summer wind

We were just after moving house and didn't have a TV. I was 9 and I was in the brownies and was getting ready to go away for the weekend with them. Our neighbour had a TV already and we watched a lot of it with them. I think that weekend belonged to one man alone the one and only Freddie Mercury.

Vex Willems

DEFTLEFTHAND wrote: »

They did one in 2005 for the 20th anniversary called 'Live 8', featuring live concerts in the G8 nations.

What??? That was 10 years ago??? :eek::eek:

I was thinking sure they did that live 8 thing a few years back!

jprboy

One of the things that always comes to my mind about the day is that Phil Collins allegedly became the first artist to perform on two different continents on the same day.

Flew via Concorde to New York after his London performance and then got a helicopter to Philadelphia.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tykdly0PLow

walkingshadow

Thank goodness Live Aid ended all hunger in the world. Imagine, before 1985, some people in this world didn't have enough food to eat.

keano_afc

It was great, all that money really helped eradicate hunger in Africa.

Oh, wait...

DColeman

The music was gash back then.

The younger generation will be glad they avoided it, awful musical generation. It only just goes to prove how superior the 21st century music scene is.

Harry Palmr

What I remember was that it was raining here and gloriously sunny in London :mad:

The other thing is that it turned out to be a brilliant wheeze for boosting album sales. Pretty much every U2 and Queen platter went back in the charts the following week. Que much controversy about who was gaining from this beano.

Not too mention that it inspired Self Aid.

A dark day indeed! :pac:

bnt

I's say Band Aid & Live Aid, and other aid to the region, have worked well enough. Infant mortality has dropped from ~ 140 per 1000 births to 72 in 2005-2010, while the birth rate is dropping slowly. The total population of Ethiopia was ~41 million in 1985 and is projected to reach ~ 92 million this year.

seenitall

I was 11 and just "getting into" pop-music as teens/pre-teens do. Watched it, loved it, Queen was definitely the most memorable part of it. Freddy Mercury played that crowd like a top class conductor with an orchestra in awe. What a stage presence, and what a voice.

I still watch parts of it on YouTube when I've nothing better to do; I love especially Sting's eerie rendition of Every Breath You Take, with Phil Collins clapping along in the background, or also Eric Clapton singularly performing Layla at such a fast pace and in a kind of a spasm, as if he's only 5 minutes left to live (with Phil Collins on drums, the hardworking man).

Two fireballs of uninhibited sexuality that were Tina Turner and Mick Jagger performing State of Shock together.

The 1992 Freddy Mercury Tribute concert was also something to behold. I pity anyone who wasn't young then... :cool:

Enjoy Heroin Responsibly

walkingshadow wrote: »

Thank goodness Live Aid ended all hunger in the world. Imagine, before 1985, some people in this world didn't have enough food to eat.

efb wrote: »

Glad that fixed the Ethiopian hunger problem

keano_afc wrote: »

It was great, all that money really helped eradicate hunger in Africa.

Oh, wait...

Funny I must have missed the bit where anybody at the time claimed it would ?

Cold War Kid

Ah the auld "What they did didn't solve the hunger problem fully" in relation to something at least being done... by people who did zero about it themselves.

I was seven and had no interest - bunch of dinosaurs to me. Although I adored Madonna at the time, however I think it was only the Wembley one on TV for us - she was in Philly. I did love a bitta Nik Kershaw too, but I was only aware of the Quos and Queens and Stones and Bowies, who were just... zzzzzzzzz to me at the time (boy did I change my attitude later on; well, in relation to Bowie and the Stones anyway).

I remember the day quite well though. From what I recall, there were no ads for the duration of the event, just information films about the situation in Ethiopia.

cajonlardo

I lived in a tiny bedsit back then.
I had a radio cassette recorder and was recording a load of stuff from the concert when a mate called and wouldn't leave me in peace. Kept at me to go into town. In a nightclub I met the woman I am still happily married to.
Good man Geldof.

Nik Kershaw forgot the words and sang the same lines again in Wouldn't it be Good.

The montage of photos shown during the Cars "Drive" was the bit I remember most.

ongarboy

Zaph wrote: »

The thing about music in general, and chart music in particular, is that at some point in time everyone decides that the current music is crap and what they listened to when they were younger was far better. Personally I think that almost all of what passes for chart music these days is an affront to my ears, but my parents probably thought the same of what was in the charts when I was younger.

Agreed. The 80s are far and away my favourite decade for music but I was watching a random Top of the Pops episode from 1984 or 86 the other day (Youtube has 100s of TOTP episodes) and there was a fierce amount of ****e in the charts back then as well as demonstrated by the acts that were on the episode I watched - most I never heard of! I think we sometimes look back at the best songs, the ones that are still played today etc and combined with nostalgia, we put the era on an artificial pedestal as regards music. Saying that, I do think more of "my type" of music was present back then. Synthesizer beats rock!!:)

Giving away my age here but I was 10 when Live Aid was on and remember fairly clearly the broadcast. I wouldn't have been as familiar with many of the acts then as I am of them now. I remember being enthralled by the satellite simulcast between Wembley and Philadelphia seeming so technologically advanced and Phil Collins flying between the two cities to perform at both concerts being so cool.

Galwayguy35

DColeman wrote: »

The music was gash back then.

The younger generation will be glad they avoided it, awful musical generation. It only just goes to prove how superior the 21st century music scene is.

Not half as "gash" as what you posted.

I remember Queen playing that day and nobody these days would even come close to having a lead singer like Freddie Mercury.

Cold War Kid

Thought the main acts apart from U2 were a bunch of seriously auld ****ers who needed to make way for the younger talent coming through.
I'm now nearly in the same age group. D'oh.

Cold War Kid

cajonlardo wrote: »

I lived in a tiny bedsit back then.
I had a radio cassette recorder and was recording a load of stuff from the concert when a mate called and wouldn't leave me in peace. Kept at me to go into town. In a nightclub I met the woman I am still happily married to.
Good man Geldof.

Ah fantastic!

bodhrandude

Neil Young and Crazy Horse done a great set on the American end, I also remember George Thorogood & the Destroyers done a brilliant set too.

Mesrine65

KungPao

DColeman wrote: »

The music was gash back then.

The younger generation will be glad they avoided it, awful musical generation. It only just goes to prove how superior the 21st century music scene is.

Could you provide us with examples of contemporary music you like that trumps the "gash" of the '80s?

Wacker The Attacker

KungPao wrote: »

Could you provide us with examples of contemporary music you like that trumps the "gash" of the '80s?

Havent you heard. Taylor Swift and one direction trump bowie, the police, the stones, queen, u2, dire straits etc

il gatto

DColeman wrote: »

The music was gash back then.

The younger generation will be glad they avoided it, awful musical generation. It only just goes to prove how superior the 21st century music scene is.

I suppose. I mean all those classic albums of the last 10 years like................um.
When this era starts releasing the likes of Rubber Soul, Exile on Main Street, The Queen is Dead, The Bends, Ziggy Stardust, Appetite for Destruction, Led Zep 2, Electic Ladyland, Darkness on the Edge of Town etc. etc. etc. you might have a point. Otherwise you need to stop talking and grow some ears.

BrianD3

I was 7 and too young to be into music - but I do have some vague memories of the event being on TV. 10 years later in 1995 several hours of it was shown on TV in an anniversary special which was good, I have some of that programme on VHS tape.

One of my favourite performances is Bowie's. Check out the blonde backing singer - her name is Tessa Niles.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xJxOL_eFGEk

30 years ago, a long time. One thing I was thinking about recently was who of those involved have died since. Freddie Mercury, Carl Wilson, John Entwistle, a couple of members of The Four Tops, Benjamin Orr of The Cars, Albert Collins (played with George Thorogood and was introduced as "the master of the telecaster") probably others too. Also of the presenters, Mike Smith and Mel Smith are dead as is Bill Graham who was killed in a helicopter crash in 1991.