Live Aid 1985

[Twocky61]

2015 is the anniversary of Live Aid which took place in 1985

Bob Geldof (of Boomtown Rats fame) fronted the event along with Midge Ure

[zabadak]

Re: Live Aid 1985

Yes, wish I'd had a VHS at the time!!!

[Twocky61]

Re: Live Aid 1985

I have the whole event on a four DVD box set

[Twocky61]

Re: Live Aid 1985

If you still have a VHS deck Zabadab pm me & I will record the whole box set onto VHS for you if you fancy it

[zabadak]

Re: Live Aid 1985

Thanks but I don't get time to watch the DVDs I buy!

[Twocky61]

Re: Live Aid 1985

okie - the offers still there :

[jason h]

Re: Live Aid 1985

Just watched the 4 Disk DVD set at the weekend with my older Sister (we watched it together back in '85). Sting was pretty selfish doing a set minus the rest of the Police but singing a stripped down version of Roxanne. He made no attempt to interact with the crowd. I loved Paul Young's set. He was in good form and sounded fantastic. Then there was Queen. Freddie Mercury was amazing - nothing else on that day compared to him. Of the Philadelphia show, I only enjoyed The Cars. Madonna seemed to care more on her dancing than how she sounded. I'd recommend the DVDs to anyone who saw it at the time.

[zabadak]

Re: Live Aid 1985

Sounds good. I don't remember the US leg much. Highlights for me were Geldof swearing, Quo, Queen (who stole the show) and Adam Ant doing his new single instead of a hit

[Twocky61]

Re: Live Aid 1985

Wembley & Philadelphia I think it took place

[staffslad]

Re: Live Aid 1985

I remember the day of Live Aid well. I was in and out of the house all day, catching whatever act was performing. We had a dreadful thunderstorm with very heavy rain in the late afternoon.

[DemonEyeX]

Re: Live Aid 1985

Be warned though.
The DVD box set is missing at least 6 whole hours of footage.

[lemonlime]

Re: Live Aid 1985

The ironic thing was that Queens performance wasn't really all that much better than anything they had done in the past. 70s shows like Hammersmith, Earls Court, Houston etc were a lot better musically speaking. By1985 Freddies voice was deteriorating, and they were mostly playing their radio friendly hits that day. A wise choice obviously, as they wanted the audience to hear songs they knew. Freddie was perhaps a bit more animated that day than most days, but he didn't have to pace himself for a 90 minute show and he knew a billion people were watching.

Suddenly, Queen were cool at school! They were seen as uncool dinosaurs in the mid 80s my most schoolkids. Heck they've been seen as uncool dinosaurs for almost all schoolkids since about 1980! Sadly, the excitement of Live Aid didn't last long at school and Queen faded into uncoolness again.

They certainly put on a tight professional musical performance that day but I often think Queens performance is so celebrated because it was in such stark contrast to the rest of the show, which was mostly either forgettable, or downright terrible. Even as it was broadcast I was actually laughing ( "LOL-ing, decades before anyone knew what that meant) at Adam & The Ants. And Led Zeppelin. Oh man. Don't blame Phil Collins for that fiasco, the entire band was awful. I honestly don't think it's actually possible for someone to perform live music that badly.

[Richard1978]

Re: Live Aid 1985

To be fair Queen had been on the upswing since their "return to form" album The Works released in 1982, restoring some of the damage done by 1982's Hot Space.