35 Years Ago Today; Live Aid from London's Wembley Stadium and Philly's JFK Stadium

[Dennis Donovan]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Live_Aid



Live Aid was a dual-venue benefit concert held on Saturday 13 July 1985, and an ongoing music-based fundraising initiative. The original event was organised by Bob Geldof and Midge Ure to raise funds for relief of the ongoing Ethiopian famine. Billed as the "global jukebox", the event was held simultaneously at Wembley Stadium in London, England, United Kingdom (attended by 72,000 people) and John F. Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States (attended by about 100,000 people).

On the same day, concerts inspired by the initiative happened in other countries, such as the Soviet Union, Canada, Japan, Yugoslavia, Austria, Australia and West Germany. It was one of the largest-scale satellite link-ups and television broadcasts of all time; an estimated audience of 1.9 billion, across 150 nations, watched the live broadcast, nearly 40% of the world population.

The impact of Live Aid on famine relief has been debated for years. One aid relief worker stated that following the publicity generated by the concert, "humanitarian concern is now at the centre of foreign policy" for western governments. Geldof states, “We took an issue that was nowhere on the political agenda and, through the lingua franca of the planet – which is not English but rock 'n' roll – we were able to address the intellectual absurdity and the moral repulsion of people dying of want in a world of surplus.” He adds, Live Aid "created something permanent and self-sustaining", but also asked why Africa is getting poorer. The organisers of Live Aid tried, without much success, to run aid efforts directly, so channelled millions to the NGOs in Ethiopia, much of which went to the Ethiopian government of Mengistu Haile Mariam – a brutal regime the UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher wanted to "destabilise" – and was spent on guns.

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YouTube Live Aid mix

[Throck]

1. Awesome Thread

[tavernier]

2. I've watched the Queen set well over 100 times on YouTube.

Most amazing piece of (music) film ever recorded IMO.

Also Queen celebrates their 50 year anniversary this month. I got the commemorative UK stamp set from my friend in London.

Thanks for your post... great memories of a great event.

[AllyCat]

17. Stamps? That is so cool!

Love Queen.

[tavernier]

18. Me too... Freddie sings in my head all the time :)

https://loudwire.com/queen-postage-stamps/

[Ferrets are Cool]

21. I have the DVD. It's close to the top of what gets played in my theater room.

[sunonmars]

3. I have the DVD's of this, I will be playing this today.

[PCIntern]

4. Wow! Thank you for that...

I remember it well. I was working in Center City Philadelphia that Saturday and the electricity in the air was remarkable. We had it on the TV while we were seeing patients and it was a once-in-a-lifetime spectacle.

Thanks for the thread!

On edit: JFK stadium was torn down quite a while ago, and there will never be another stadium like it. As opposed to a standard bowl stadium it tapered from the field outwards at a relatively low angle and of course was enormous, holding over 100,000 people routinely in the old days and capable of holding many more if required. It was originally called Sesquicentennial Stadium after the ill-fated exposition held in 1926 here in Philly. The army navy game was played there for many years because Philadelphia was roughly halfway between Annapolis and West Point so it was considered neutral ground.

[luv2fly]

5. 35 years... geez

Seems like just yesterday, but I know it wasn't since I have all of Live Aid recorded on Sony Betamax video tapes.

[sunonmars]

6. I wish they had the foresight to record it all properly, Geldof thought no one would ever play it

He thought it was just a one off and no one would be interested again, consequently a lot of the performances were lost or of terrible quality.

A shame really.

[bbernardini]

13. Actually, pretty much every last second has been archived and is available.

Well, sort of. A guy in the Netherlands has done an amazing job at collecting multiple radio and TV broadcasts from different networks in different countries and put together comprehensive collections of the entire day, as well as related material like the Oz for Africa concert. He even included the only known audio of that guy who opened the show in Philly at the last minute, which was in the background of a radio interview.

Unfortunately, he was having issues with his host, so he's currently in the process of uploading the massive collection to a new one.

I'm thinking I might throw the mp3 or FLACs on my phone and listen to the whole thing today.

[TNNurse]

7. I was working and set video tapes for as long as I could while I was gone.

Last edited Mon Jul 13, 2020, 09:00 AM - Edit history (1)

I did go from room to room in the hospital and watched their TVs. I remember standing watching Mick and the Stones, an older nurse walked up behind me and said " You like that?" and I just replied "Oh, yes". She just walked away.

[sunonmars]

10. Whoever she was, needed to take a happy pill, you cannot not enjoy the stones in full flow.

You don't need people like that in your life, if they don't enjoy music or pets, i won't go near them.

Damn good indicator of a person.

[TNNurse]

15. Oh, she was a woman who married at 15, had worked as an LPN for a long time,

she did not have the same opportunities. She was sweet and told great dirty jokes and took good care of her patients. She was just a different generation.

[Duppers]

8. Awesome !!

Thank you! Bookmarking.

I have a friend Who Was There! He flew over and stayed in London with a friend of his.

[NBachers]

9. And of course, Phil Collins playing in London, taking the Concorde to New York, and choppered to JFK

[sunonmars]

11. In the air tonight.....still gives me goosebumps.

[mountain grammy]

12. Can never watch this enough

Amazing event. 35 years, wow! Thanks for posting.

[NameAlreadyTaken]

14. An unforgettable day. I watched it live.

I remember being astounded at the number of big-name acts who got involved. Much bigger than Woodstock or any rock festival. I remember the feeling that it was an historic day. And it just went on and on and on. But then not too much later, it seemed like it was pretty much forgotten, fairly quickly. It's nice to see that it is still remembered.

[LittleGirl]

16. I wasn't able to watch! Thanks so much for posting

My Mother got married that day and of course, it was all day so no VCR had that many tapes. I've never watched any videos either and never once thought about going to You Tube to find them. Thanks so much for sharing these videos! Cheers!

my 5700th post.

[FakeNoose]

19. It was probably the most awesome concert EVER!

I remember it well and I did see most of it the day it happened - on TV, not in person.

It was a hot, sticky day and the performers and concert-goers were out in the hot sun. Because of the time difference, and the fact that the concert was going on in different cities (& different countries) made it so COOL!

Thanks for these videos, Dennis Donovan! I'm just going to bookmarked this page and keep playing them. Sadly, this great humanitarian effort was never able to solve the problems of famine in Africa.

[Ferrets are Cool]

20. The best concert in the history of concerts. IMO

[tavernier]

22. I recently read Elton's book where he reminisces

about that day. He said that when he came off the stage Freddie Mercury said to him, “What are you wearing, darling? You look like the Queen Mother.”
But they were best friends so Elton had a big laugh. I think only Freddie would’ve been allowed to get away with that.

[cbdo2007]

23. I watch the Queen performance about once per month...watch the others regularly as well

Great show, lots of great moments, and a wonderful memory watching it live on tv in my childhood.

[tavernier]

24. Me too.

I had to watch it at 1:41 today, 6:41 in U.K. because it’s the anniversary, and what else did I have to do?
It has been watched 46 million + times on YouTube.

[Trek4Eva]

25. VCR set to record ! What an amazing world event !

[SMC22307]

26. Aaaah, that rush of early U2... I still feel it decades later.

And RIP Freddie and David, two greats who got me through junior and senior high.

[AwakeAtLast]

27. I remember watching it with my sister

I was 15. Wow, what a great memory! We were definitely 80's kids!