Live Aid

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.

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

I got this DVD for Christmas and I spent the whole day going through it. Awesome. Just awesome. It's sitting there with all my other DVDs but I already know it will get the most use. All of my favorite bands were there for this historic concert and I'm sure a lot of people can say that. This DVD brings me back to a moment in time where people seemed to be doing the right thing. Banding together to help others. It's re-inspiring me to be a person who does great things. The DVD itself is missing a lot of stuff but apparently everything they had is in there. According to the insert, Mtv dismantled their footage from Philadelphia because Geldof wanted to avoid future legal problems. *shrug* I don't know what that was about, but I wouldn't have listened to him. But even still, this concert is fantastic. All the mullets a girl could ask for and some incredible live performances, especially U2 and Queen. Freddie continues to kick everyone's can to this day. And Bono inciting chicks to squeeze themselves out of the crowd for a hug. Priceless. Seeing my faves like Paul Young, Howard Jones, Adam Ant, Wham! and Duran Duran, in that perfect moment in time. *swoon* Oh, what I wouldn't do to go back there, especially since some there that day are gone now. If you were a fan of music in, oh, let's say the last 40 years, there should be something in there for you, and you should definitely give it a watch, if not a buy.

There are some extras that include INXS from Australia, and other Live Aid performances from around the world, and the original "Feed the World" and "We Are the World" videos. The only thing that I wish they'd have done was an up-to-date documentary with some of the acts talking about the event and what it means almost twenty years later. But that would just be gravy. I could go on forever about this, it's become my most prized possession in just 24 hours.

Finally, we got the DVD! I bought it 2 days ago and watched it almost the whole Sunday. I was turning 19 that year and the event meant nothing but the brightest gem on the gleamy crown of the 80's optimism, happiness, joy, global spirit and most of all - search for ultimate humanity. There's no need to emphasize that LIVE AID (and everything else connected to it) is the singular event of the rock'n'roll history, greater then anything seen before or after. Not only for the plead of the spectacular names that joined the effort, but mainly for the cause and the relevance of it. It's probably the only time in our history when people joined hands globally to help people in need. Thank Sir Bob for the good you brought us and unforgettable moments of our lives.

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.