Live Aid

Live Aid was a multi-venue benefit concert and music-based fundraising initiative held on Saturday 13 July 1985.

The original event was organised by Bob Geldof and Midge Ure to raise further funds for relief of the 1983–1985 famine in Ethiopia, a movement that started with the release of the successful charity single "Do They Know It's Christmas?" in December 1984. Billed as the "global jukebox", Live Aid was held simultaneously at Wembley Stadium in London, attended by about 72,000 people, and John F. Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, attended by 89,484 people.

On the same day, concerts inspired by the initiative were held in other countries, such as the Soviet Union, Canada, Japan, Yugoslavia, Austria, Australia, and West Germany. It was one of the largest satellite link-ups and television broadcasts of all time; an estimated audience of 1.9 billion, in 150 nations, watched the live broadcast, nearly 40 percent 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 has said, "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." In another interview he stated that Live Aid "created something permanent and self-sustaining" but also asked why Africa is getting poorer.

The organisers of Live Aid tried to run aid efforts directly, channelling millions of pounds to NGOs in Ethiopia. It has been alleged that much of this went to the Ethiopian government of Mengistu Haile Mariam – a regime the UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher opposed – and it is also alleged some funds were spent on guns. Although the BBC World Service programme Assignment reported in March 2010 that the funds had been diverted, the BBC Editorial Complaints Unit later found "that there was no evidence to support such statements". Brian Barder, British Ambassador to Ethiopia from 1982 to 1986, wrote on his website that "the diversion of aid related only to the tiny proportion that was supplied by some NGOs to rebel-held areas".

One of the greatest performances in the history of Rock... With restored intro by comedians Griff Rhys Jones and Mel Smith.
Set:

Entrance
"Bohemian Rhapsody" -
"Radio Ga Ga" -
"Aye-Oh" -
"Hammer to Fall" -
"Crazy Little Thing Called Love" -
"We Will Rock You" -
"We Are the Champions" -
"The End Of Rock Music As We Knew It" UNTIL NOW:
(Short version: "Help stamp out 'Clickety-clap'! Get REAL music here: https://evetsocrates.bandcamp.com/ )
Long Version: I see a lot of people saying they miss freddie, or george, or bowie, or they want the '80s back! And that's great, people wanting that Spirit to come back again! Also, because I myself have always been suffused with that same spirit! If you're looking for that quality of music, you'll find it here on my bandcamp: https://evetsocrates.bandcamp.com/ Going to, buying, sharing, listening, and talking about this music you will be helping reawaken and share that Spirit again. As a profuse, demiurgic person, with over 1,200 songs written and recorded (yes simply look on my website for the list, www.evetsocrates.com), I have always continued to promote that creative healthy awakened spirit! If you're tired of that constant 'Clickety-clap' and want to hear something with substance, people playing actual instruments, please go to and share my bandcamp music. Rock on!
Miss you Freddie, David, Georgio, Stuart, Diana, Vangelis, Eddie, Prince, Neil, and All! "Keep those fires burning"! ~E.S.

Background

Michael Buerk's reports on the 1983–1985 famine in Ethiopia for BBC World Service helped spark the aid relief movement.

The 1985 Live Aid concert was conceived as a follow-on to the successful charity single "Do They Know It's Christmas?" which was also the brainchild of Geldof and Ure. In October 1984, images of hundreds of thousands of people starving to death in Ethiopia were shown in the UK in Michael Buerk's BBC News reports on the 1984 famine. The BBC News crew were the first to document the famine, with Buerk's report on 23 October describing it as "a biblical famine in the 20th century" and "the closest thing to hell on Earth". The reports featured a young nurse, Claire Bertschinger, who, surrounded by 85,000 starving people, told of her sorrow of having to decide which children would be allowed access to the limited food supplies in the feeding station and which were too sick to be saved. She would put a little mark on the children who got chosen, with Geldof stating of her at the time, "In her was vested the power of life and death. She had become God-like and that is unbearable for anyone." Traumatised by what she experienced she did not speak about it for two decades, recalling in 2005, "I felt like a Nazi sending people to the death camps. Why was I in this situation? Why was it possible in this time of plenty that some have food and some do not? It is not right".

"There are thousands of people outside. I have counted 10 rows and each row has more than 100 people in and I can only take 60-70 children today, but they all need to come in."

—1984 diary entry from nurse Claire Bertschinger outside a feeding station.

Shocked by the report, the British public inundated relief agencies, such as Save the Children, with donations, with the report also bringing the world's attention to the crisis in Ethiopia. Such was the magnitude of Buerk's report it was also broadcast in its entirety on a major US news channel—almost unheard of at the time. From his home in London Geldof also saw the report, and called Ure from Ultravox (Geldof and Ure had previously worked together for charity when they appeared at the 1981 benefit show The Secret Policeman's Ball in London) and together they quickly co-wrote the song, "Do They Know It's Christmas?" in the hope of raising money for famine relief. Geldof then contacted colleagues in the music industry and persuaded them to record the single under the title 'Band Aid' for free.] On 25 November 1984, the song was recorded at Sarm West Studios in Notting Hill, London, and was released four days later. It stayed at number one for five weeks in the UK, was Christmas number one, and became the fastest-selling single ever in Britain and raised £8 million, rather than the £70,000 Geldof and Ure had initially expected. Geldof then set his sights on staging a huge concert to raise further funds.

The idea to stage a charity concert to raise more funds for Ethiopia originally came from Boy George, the lead singer of Culture Club. George and Culture Club drummer Jon Moss had taken part in the recording of "Do They Know It's Christmas?" and in the same month, the band were undertaking a tour of the UK, which culminated in six nights at Wembley Arena. On the final night at Wembley, 22 December 1984, an impromptu gathering of some of the other artists from Band Aid joined Culture Club on stage at the end of the concert for an encore of "Do They Know It's Christmas?". George was so overcome by the occasion he told Geldof that they should consider organising a benefit concert. Speaking to the UK music magazine Melody Maker at the beginning of January 1985, Geldof revealed his enthusiasm for George's idea, saying, "If George is organising it, you can tell him he can call me at any time and I'll do it. It's a logical progression from the record, but the point is you don't just talk about it, you go ahead and do it!"

It was clear from the interview that Geldof had already had the idea to hold a dual venue concert and how the concerts should be structured:

The show should be as big as is humanly possible. There's no point just 5,000 fans turning up at Wembley; we need to have Wembley linked with Madison Square Gardens, and the whole show to be televised worldwide. It would be great for Duran to play three or four numbers at Wembley, and then flick to Madison Square where Springsteen would be playing. While he's on, the Wembley stage could be made ready for the next British act like the Thompsons or whoever. In that way, lots of acts could be featured and the television rights, tickets and so on could raise a phenomenal amount of money. It's not an impossible idea, and certainly one worth exploiting.

Live Aid production manager Andy Zweck said, "Bob (Geldof) had to play some tricks to get artists involved. He had to call Elton and say Queen are in and Bowie's in, and of course they weren't. Then he'd call Bowie and say Elton and Queen are in. It was a game of bluff."

Organisation

Bob Geldof, who successfully pitched the idea of the Live Aid concert to promoter Harvey Goldsmith

Among those involved in organising Live Aid were Harvey Goldsmith, who was responsible for the Wembley Stadium concert, and Bill Graham, who put together the American leg. On promoting the event, Goldsmith states, "I didn't really get a chance to say no. Bob [Geldof] arrived in my office and basically said, 'We're doing this.' It started from there."

The concert grew in scope, as more acts were added on both sides of the Atlantic. Tony Verna, one of the inventors of instant replay, was able to secure John F. Kennedy Stadium through his friendship with Philadelphia Mayor Goode and was able to procure, through his connections with ABC's prime time chief, John Hamlin, a three-hour prime time slot on the ABC Network and, in addition, was able to supplement the lengthy program through meetings that resulted in the addition of an ad-hoc network within the US, which covered 85 per cent of TVs there. Verna designed the needed satellite schematic and became the Executive Director as well as the Co-Executive Producer along with Hal Uplinger. Uplinger, the co-inventor of instant replay, came up with the idea to produce a four-hour video edit of Live Aid to distribute to those countries without the necessary satellite equipment to rebroadcast the live feed.

Presenters:

• Richard Skinner—opened the show and introduced Charles, Prince of Wales and Diana, Princess of Wales
• Tommy Vance—introduced Coldstream Guards, Status Quo, the Style Council, the Boomtown Rats, Nik Kershaw and Dire Straits
• Harvey Goldsmith—introduced Adam Ant
• Andy Peebles—introduced Spandau Ballet, Elvis Costello, Noel Edmonds, Howard Jones, Bryan Ferry, Paul Young, Griff Rhys Jones with Mel Smith and David Bowie
• Noel Edmonds—introduced Sting with Phil Collins
• Griff Rhys Jones and Mel Smith—introduced Queen
• Jack Nicholson and Tommy Vance—introduced U2 and the Who
• Billy Connolly—introduced Elton John
• John Hurt—introduced Freddie Mercury and Brian May
   
• Bill Graham—introduced Jack Nicholson (before his first and last appearance), Chevy Chase w/Joe Piscopo, Marilyn McCoo, Dire Straits, Santana, Bette Midler, Don Johnson, Eric Clapton and Dionne Warwick
• Jack Nicholson—introduced Joan Baez, U2, Bryan Adams, the Who and Bob Dylan
• Chevy Chase and Joe Piscopo—introduced the Hooters
• Chevy Chase—introduced Four Tops, Billy Ocean, Black Sabbath, REO Speedwagon, Judas Priest, David Bowie, Kenny Loggins and Duran Duran
• Joe Piscopo—introduced Run-D.M.C., Rick Springfield, Simple Minds and Neil Young
• Marilyn McCoo—introduced the Beach Boys
• George Segal—introduced George Thorogood and the Destroyers
• Grace Slick—introduced the Pretenders
• Bette Midler—introduced Madonna, Thompson Twins, Patti LaBelle, Mick Jagger and the Cars
• Don Johnson—introduced Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers and the Power Station
• Jack Nicholson & Bette Midler—introduced Phil Collins
• Phil Collins—introduced Led Zeppelin
• Dionne Warwick—introduced Hall & Oates
• Molly Meldrum—introduced Oz for Africa
• Mladen Popović—introduced YU Rock Misija
• Vladimir Posner—introduced Autograph and made a speech between their performances
• Evelyn Selbert and Ken Janz—introduced Band für Afrika
• Udo Lindenberg—made a speech between the Band für Afrika performances
• Andy Kershaw—introduced Cliff Richard

​Notable absences

Bruce Springsteen decided not to appear at Live Aid despite his huge global popularity in 1985. Geldof had originally scheduled the event for 6 July, but moved the date to the 13th especially to accommodate Springsteen. Springsteen later expressed regret at turning down Geldof's invitation, stating that he "simply did not realise how big the whole thing was going to be" and regretted not performing an acoustic set. During the MTV broadcast, VJ Martha Quinn repeatedly and erroneously claimed that Springsteen would in fact make an appearance.

Michael Jackson declined to appear. His press agent, Norman Winter, released a statement at the time saying that Jackson was "working around the clock in the studio on a project that he's made a major commitment to," and consequently could not free up sufficient time to rehearse and perform at Live Aid. Winter added, "Michael is just about living in the studio, rehearsing and recording. I know, what could be more major than Live Aid, but Michael couldn't turn his back on his responsibility to the people he's working with. This affected employment for a lot of people."

Prince also declined to appear in person, but sent a pre-taped video of an acoustic version of "4 the Tears in Your Eyes", which was played during the concert in Philadelphia. The original version appears on the We Are the World album, while the video version was released in 1993 on Prince's compilation The Hits/The B-Sides.

Culture Club leader Boy George decided not to take part in the concert. He feared that Culture Club would fail to measure up performing for two billion people, and he disliked what he viewed as self-important posturing on the part of other participants. In his memoir Take It Like a Man he said his band members were angry with him because he had "ruined their chance of a part in history".

Huey Lewis and the News were scheduled to play the Philadelphia leg, and were in some of the promotional material, but decided on 28 June to pull out over concerns that the money raised by relief efforts thus far had not been reaching those it was intended to help. "It was a very tough decision", Lewis told Rolling Stone. "We felt, having done the USA for Africa thing, that we should wait and watch that ... The prudent thing to do is to see how that money translates into food for the people before we do another one." Harry Belafonte, who had organised USA for Africa, responded harshly, calling Lewis's scepticism "disruptive and divisive". He had himself recently returned from a trip to Africa to see how the money had so far been spent, and suggested that Lewis do the same. "For him to sit back here and send out information based on hearsay is unfair to his colleagues and very unfair to the victims."

Annie Lennox, whose hits as the vocalist of Eurythmics included 1983's "Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)", was forced to pull out of performing at Live Aid due to a serious throat infection; she appeared at Live 8 held in Hyde Park, London in 2005.

Cliff Richard later stated he had been unable to perform as he was already committed to a gospel charity concert in Birmingham the same day.

A reunited Deep Purple were also due to appear from Switzerland via satellite, but pulled out after guitarist Ritchie Blackmore refused to take part. Deep Purple (minus Blackmore, who left the band in 1993) appeared at Geldof's Live 8 sequel 20 years later, performing at the Toronto leg of the event. Bill Graham is said to have turned down Foreigner and Yes because there was no free space on the bill for them.

Marillion, riding high in the UK charts that summer with their Misplaced Childhood album and "Kayleigh" single, missed out on an invitation to perform at Wembley because their manager had deemed it not worthwhile for singer Fish to participate in the "Do They Know It's Christmas?" single. Fish was quoted: "When it came to the bill for the concert we were passed over."

UB40 lead singer Ali Campbell admitted that his band was also ignored by Geldof while planning the list of musical acts of the British leg of the event: "We weren't asked to do Live Aid because Uncle Bob didn't like our music much. It was a great gig, but I thought it was a bit dodgy not having any black acts on the bill when it was raising money for Africa."

Thin Lizzy keyboard player Darren Wharton expressed regrets about the band not being asked to perform: "That was a tragic, tragic decision. It could've been and it should've been the turning point for Phil (Lynott). And I think that really did Phil in quite a lot, that we were never asked to play. I mean Phil, he had a few problems at the time, but at the end of the day, if he would've been asked to play Live Aid, that would've been a goal for him to clean himself up to do that gig. We were all very upset of the fact that we weren't asked to do it because Phil knew Geldof and Midge Ure very well indeed. I was surprised that we weren't asked to do that. I don't think Phil ever forgave Bob." Lynott died less than five months after the concert, from complications associated with his drug and alcohol addictions.

"I tried to pitch into Live Aid," recalled Roger Waters, "They asked me to put Pink Floyd back together for it and I said no, but I'd bring my new band to play. They didn't want that. But that's alright. I went along on my own." Waters appeared backstage at the Wembley Stadium leg of Live Aid (where he was interviewed), and the classic Pink Floyd lineup reunited for the follow-up to Live Aid, Live 8, in 2005.

Neil Peart, drummer of Canadian rock band Rush, said: "Geddy was involved with the Northern Lights charity record here in Canada, although Rush weren't invited to participate in the Live Aid event—mainly because if you look at the guest list, it was very much an 'in-crowd' situation. We were 'out' by then. We didn't refuse to take part because of any principles. Mind you, I wouldn't have been happy being part of this scenario. Those stars should have shut up and just given over their money if they were genuine. I recall that Tears for Fears, who made a musical and artistic decision to pull out of the concert, were subsequently accused by Geldof of killing children in Africa—what a shockingly irresponsible and stupid attitude to take. But I have nothing bad whatsoever to say about Bob Geldof; he sacrificed his health, his career, everything for something he believed in. But others around him got involved for their own reasons. Some of those involved in Northern Lights were actually quoted as saying that their managers told them to get down to the recording sessions because it would be a good career move!"