Today (July 13), marks the 40th anniversary of that historic event--a bold audacious musical spectacle to raise funds for a "biblical" famine in Ethiopia that would kill 1.2 million people. Conceived and organized by Irish rockstar Bob Geldof, Live Aid "was two epic concerts held in London and Philadelphia" on the same day. Geldof persuaded "many of the world’s most top artists at the time to play for free, including Queen, David Bowie, Madonna, the Who, Elton John, Tina Turner and Paul McCartney." The two shows were seen by over 160,000 people live and by 1.5 billion people on TV in over 150 countries (~a third of the world's population at the time), raising more than $140 million (the government of the UAE, incidentally, was the single biggest donor).
While the horror of that devastating famine is thankfully behind us, Live Aid remains a cultural touchstone. In all 70 artists performed live over 16 hours at Wembley and JFK Stadium. The complete set list for both venues is here. While there were many great performances, by consensus three stand out:
3. David Bowie: Following Queen (see below) at 7:20pm in the evening his set included energetic renditions of TVC-15, Rebel/ Rebel, Modern Love, and a memorable version of Heroes, which became the event's anthem of sorts. Bowie was supposed to play five songs but agreed to cut one "so that his time could be used to show documentary footage of the famine in Ethiopia instead." Bowie quietly introduces the clip (set to the Car's Drive) after Heroes and asks people to send their money in. It was a somber reminder to everyone watching about the gravity of the situation. Apparently, that's when the donations came flooding in.
2. U2: Bono was already changing the world, but the band's performance "not only showcased their musical prowess but also cemented Bono as a passionate activist." U2 was set to play at least three songs, Sunday Bloody Sunday, Bad, and Pride. However, Bono spontaneously jumped into the crowd to dance with a fan during “Bad,” turning what could have been a musical disaster into an emotional and unforgettable moment. Years later, drummer Larry Mullen remarked: "It was kind of excruciating. We didn’t know whether we should stop, we didn’t know where he was, we didn’t know if he had fallen.” After Bono went AWOL for several minutes the rest of the band heroically filled in a very elongated (11-minutes long) version of Bad that "so searing" it cemented the band's reputation. The downside was it meant they didn't have time to play Pride. And Bono does have one regret from that day.
3. Queen: The best live performance in the history of music? Yeah, everyone agrees it probably was; certainly on that night, at least. Pete Townshend: "Queen were in the middle of a tour, walked out there, took the whole thing, and turned it into an advert for themselves. Dave Grohl: “Queen smoked ’em. They just took everybody. They walked away being the greatest band you’d ever seen in your life, and it was unbelievable.” But it almost wasn't, as Queen initially backed out of playing. They did in the end and rest is history...
Interestingly, all three played almost one after the other. So, it must have been the most electrifying portion of an already amazing event. The Wembley evening playlist was:
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