July 13, 1985Organized by Bob Geldof and Midge Ure (same as Band Aid)

Raise funds for relief of Ethiopian famine

Held at Wembley Stadium in London, England (attended by 72,000 people) and John F. Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia (attended by 100,000 people)

One of the largest scale satellite link ups and television broadcasts of all time

150 nations watched live

Geldof received an honorary knighthood for his work in Live Aid

Mick Jagger and David Bowie were supposed to perform at the two separate locations together, but technical difficulties occurred and they created covers of songs to play on the screens at the stadiums

Band Aid and “Do They Know It’s Christmas” closed the UK concert

USA for Africa’s “We are the World” closed the USA concert

Phil Collins performed at both of the concerts- he used a Concorde to get him from London to Philadelphia

QueenFreddie Mercury led the entire crowd of 72,000

Opened with Bohemian Rhapsody, closed with We are the Champions

Queen’s sound engineer had switched out the limiters that had been installed on the sound system so their performance would be louder than the others

Their performance has been voted as the greatest live performance in the history of rock music

Sang the first song of the three part Wembley finale “Is This The World We Created?”

U2- would be established as superstars

Bono jumped into the crowd to dance with a girl (who later said that she was being crushed by the crowd and he saved her)

David Bowie- “Heroes” dedicated to his son- and “All our children, and the children of the world”

Wembley- The Who performed “My Generation” and technical problems occurred (fuse blew) and “Won’t Get Fooled Again”

Paul McCartney’s “Let It Be”- microphone failed for first 2 minutes

Performers went out on the stage with McCartney to help sing back up since he couldn’t be heard (Bob Geldof, David Bowie, Alison Moyet, Pete Townshend all went out)

Bob Geldof was put on the shoulders of The Who’s guitarist Pete Townshend and Paul McCartney- symbolizing his great achievement of unifying the world for one day, in the spirit of music and charity

JFK StadiumMadonna performedTom Petty “American Girl”Bob Dylan- broke a guitar string

Ronnie Wood gave him his guitar, and played air guitar until someone brought him one

Mick Jagger ripped away part of Tina Turner’s dress during their duet of “It’s Only Rock n Roll” and she finished the song in basically a leotard

Reunions of Crosby Stills Nash & Young and original Black Sabbath (Ozzy Osbourne), Led Zeppelin (with Phil Collins and Tony Thompson sharing drum duty)

Teddy Pendergrass made his first public appearance since his near fatal car accident in 1982- performed “Reach Out and Touch” with Ashford & Simpson

Duran Duran- performed four songsThey would not perform together again in public until 2003

Simon Le Bon hit a wrong note in “A View to a Kill” known as “The Bum Note Heard Round the World”

Le Bon said it was the most embarrassing moment of his career

Geldof had an outburst when he was disappointed about the amount of money raised. After this, giving increased by 300 pounds per second.

Video was shown of starving and diseased Ethiopian children set to the song “Drive” by The Cars- rate of giving became faster right afterwards

Single largest donation came from the ruling family of Dubai

They donated 1 million pounds in a phone conversation with Geldof

Around 150 million pounds was raised for famine relief as a result of the concerts

Some of the performers at WembleyThe Boomtown Rats, Adam Ant, Spandau Ballet, Ultravox, Elvis Costello, Sade, Sting, Phil Collins, Bryan Ferry, Paul Young, U2, Dire Straits, Queen, David Bowie, The Who, Elton John, George Michael, Paul McCartney

Some of the performers at JFKJoan Baez, Four Tops, Billy Ocean, Black

Sabbath, Run DMC, Rick Springfield, REO Speedwagon, Crosby Stills and Nash, Judas Priest, Bryan Adams, The Beach Boys, George Thorogood and the Destroyers, Simple Minds, The Pretenders, Santana, Madonna, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Kenny Loggins, The Cars

Thompson Twins, Eric Clapton, Phil Collins, Led Zeppelin, Duran Duran, Patti LaBelle, Hall & Oates, Mick Jagger, Bob Dylan

“The logistics of this thing are staggering. But we tend to forget, in and amongst all the hoopla, what this is all about, and that is that this should be able to raise a lot of money to feed a lot of people.”

Bob Geldof

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ax0_lhKnHCY&list=PL2CEB3B442FF5AED2

This includes over 20 different performances from Live Aid

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4FNoIDgNE6o

This is Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody and Radio Ga Ga from Live Aid

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OM0g-7sZeSo

Freddie Mercury and Brian May “Is This The World We Created” at Live Aid