Live Aid

I was just a young pup with barely enough allowance to cover a movie. I never could have bought the pay per view. Now that I'm an adult I'm paying a fortune for bootlegs and authorized versions.

That's the thing about nostalgia, what seemed unimportant as a child becomes the stuff that dreams are made of sitting in a cubicle all day. Still, the official release is worth picking up.

I'm disappointed some acts chose not to participate in the re-release. I guess Led Zepplin doesn't need any new publicity but if I was the Hooters I'd be begging for a chance to get back into daylight, never mind the spotlight.

This was probably the greatest gathering of rock talent since the halcyon days of pop festivals in the 1960's. Just imagine a bill featuring everyone from Run D.M.C. to Led Zeppelin. This was perhaps the greatest show in the history of popular music and all the musicians played pretty much for free and made it one of the most memorable events not only in music history, but in the history of the world. Too bad that spirit didn't carry over into the 90's. Maybe the world would be a better place.

Queen's twenty one minute performance, which began at 6:41 PM, has been voted - by more than 60 artists, journalists and music industry executives - the greatest live performance in the history of rock. Queen's lead singer Freddie Mercury at times led the crowd in unison refrains, and his sustained note during the a cappella section came to be known as "The Note Heard Round the World". The band's six song set opened with a shortened version of "Bohemian Rhapsody" and closed with "We Are the Champions". Mercury and fellow band member Brian May later sang the first song of the three-part Wembley event finale, "Is This the World We Created." At the conclusion of the Wembley performances, Bob Geldof was raised onto the shoulders of the Who's guitarist Pete Townshend and Paul McCartney. Live Aid eventually raised $127 million in famine relief for African nations, and the publicity it generated encouraged Western nations to make available enough surplus grain to end the immediate hunger crisis in Africa. It's also worth noting that the official Live Aid DVD is the only authorised video release in which proceeds go directly to famine relief, the cause that the concert was originally intended to help.

Courtesy of Neville Cawas Bardoliwalla OBE

...as New Wave peaked, rap was starting to emerge slightly, and hard rock was ascending to dominate the airwaves the next few years, along with dance pop. This review basically turns into a review of the DVD set, since that is the only way I know you can see the event in its entirety.

The mammoth charity rock concert was held on two continents simultaneously. Organized by Boomtown Rats singer Bob Geldof after seeing a BBC news story about famine in Ethiopia, this was preceded by two smash hit charity singles: "Do They Know It's Christmas?" in the UK, and "We Are the World" in the US. The videos for each precede the concerts on the DVD's as well. The concert started early morning in London's Wembley Stadium, and as the morning broke in the US, the American half started in Philadelphia's JFK Stadium. They would alternate back and forth, with each country's performances being shown in the other's stadium on Jumbotron-type screens. The event is spread across 4 DVD's.

The first disc features artists such as The Staus Quo, The Style Council, The Boomtown Rats, Adam Ant, Ultravox, Spandau Ballet, Elvis Costello, Nik Kershaw, Sade, Sting, Phil Collins, Howard Jones, Bryan Ferry, Paul Young, Alyson Moyet, and Bryan Adams. The closers for disc 1 are by far the best: U2, on the precipice of becoming one of the biggest bands of the decade, blow the preceeding artists off the stage.

The second disc includes The Beach Boys, Dire Straits, George Thorogood, Simple Minds, Joan Baez, Pretenders, The Who, Kenny Loggins, Elton John, and George Michael. The best of this disc are David Bowie, who does a great 4 song set, and Queen, showcasing Freddie Mercury's command of the stage to great effect.

The third disc has Madonna, Paul McCartney, a group performance of the "Do They Know..." song as the British half of the concert ends, Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers, Black Sabbath (with Ozzy), REO Speedwagon, Crosby Stills & Nash, Judas Priest, The Cars, Neil Young, Thompson Twins, Duran Duran, Patti LaBelle, and Phil Collins, who flew on the Concorde from the British concert to perform in Philly as well. The best of the disc was Eric Clapton, who does fine versions of Cream's "White Room" and Derek & the Dominoes "Layla".

The fourth and final disc wraps up the concert with Hall & Oates performing with members of The Temptations, Mick Jagger, Tina Turner, Bob Dylan with Keith Richards and Ron Wood, and finally everyone on stage to close out the show with "We Are the World". Also included on the fourth disc are extra performances that were shown via remotes such as INXS in Australia, B.B. King at a Dutch jazz & blues festival, Teddy Pendergrass, Run-DMC, and Cliff Richard.

All told, it ran about 9+ hours. I saw bits when it was on back in 1985, since it was broadcast on a few stations. This DVD set allowed me to see the whole thing (as far as I know).

I happened to be in England at the time of this concert and was able to buy a ticket. I got there early and took a place on the field. The crowd was different than at an American concert -- mellower and nicer overall. Once U2 came onstage, though, things changed. The crowd started to move toward the stage in massive wave-like surges. It was a little anxiety-provoking, but nobody got hurt that I could see.

The line-up was nothing short of spectacular and I was particularly happy to see The Who, David Bowie, Sting, Queen and Paul McCartney. This was in Paul's anxious phase, after John was killed; Paul only did one song and seemed to be hiding behind the piano. The surprise stand-out act of the day for me was Queen. Freddy Mercury really knew how to work the crowd and he had 50,000 people (or whatever) in the palm of his hand.