During The Who's set, a red warning light at the front of the stage flashed to alert the band that their time was up. In response, Pete Townshend stepped on the warning light, broke it, and the band played for five extra minutes.
After performing at Wembley Stadium in England July 13, 1985, Phil Collins had only a few hours to make another appearance in Philadelphia. He crossed the Atlantic on a Concorde. Collins admitted in later interviews that some people perceived him negatively as "showing off" by playing both venues in one day. He was the only participating Live Aid performer to accomplish this unique feat.
Organizer Bob Geldof was quoted as saying that he felt Queen had the best sound and gave the best performance of the entire event. Geldof was in the booth at Wembley helping to organize the chaos and happened to pause for a moment. He overheard the music and realized that it was noticeably better than it had been all day (technical problems were rampant). He asked, "Who is that?" and the answer was "Queen". He stopped working for several minutes, captivated by the show. More than 60 artists, journalists and music industry executives voted for it as the best live performance of all time in 2005. Guitarist Brian May admitted that Queen had a big advantage over many other acts on the bill because they had become used to playing to huge stadium crowds in the first half of the 1980s, especially in South America.
Queen rehearsed their performance intensely for three days at the Shaw Theatre in London. Before taking to the stage at Wembley, the band's sound engineer switched the limiters on the PA system, meaning they would be louder than the other acts.
Live Aid holds the record for the most watched television special in history.