Live Aid was a benefit concert held on Saturday 13 July 1985, as well as an ongoing music-based

fundraising initiative. The original event was organised by Bob Geldof and Midge Ure to raise funds
for relief of the ongoing Ethiopian famine. Billed as the "global jukebox", the event was held
simultaneously at Wembley Stadium in London, UK, attended by about 72,000 people, and John F.
Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, US, attended by exactly 89,484 people.[1][2]
On the same day, concerts inspired by the initiative were held in other countries, such as the Soviet
Union, Canada, Japan, Yugoslavia, Austria, Australia and West Germany. It was one of the largest-
scale satellite link-ups and television broadcasts of all time; an estimated audience of 1.9 billion,
across 150 nations, watched the live broadcast,[3] nearly 40% of the world population.[4]
The impact of Live Aid on famine relief has been debated for years. One aid relief worker stated that
following the publicity generated by the concert, "humanitarian concern is now at the centre of
foreign policy" for western governments.[5] Geldof has said, "We took an issue that was nowhere on
the political agenda and, through the lingua franca of the planet – which is not English but rock 'n' roll
– we were able to address the intellectual absurdity and the moral repulsion of people dying of want
in a world of surplus."[6] In another interview he stated that Live Aid "created something permanent
and self-sustaining", but also asked why Africa is getting poorer.[5] The organisers of Live Aid tried,
without much success, to run aid efforts directly, channelling millions of pounds to NGOs in Ethiopia.
Much of this, however, went to the Ethiopian government of Mengistu Haile Mariam – a regime the
UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher wanted to "destabilise"[7] – and was spent on guns.[5][8]

Contents

 1Background
 2Organisation
 3Collaborative effort
 4Broadcasts
 5Stages and locations
o 5.1Wembley Stadium
o 5.2John F. Kennedy Stadium
 6Fundraising
 7Criticisms and controversies
o 7.1Led Zeppelin reunion
o 7.2Fund use in Ethiopia
 8Performances
o 8.1London, Wembley Stadium
o 8.2Philadelphia, John F. Kennedy Stadium
o 8.3Others
o 8.4Notable absences
 9Live Aid recordings
o 9.1Official Live Aid DVD
 9.1.1Charts
 9.1.2Certifications
o 9.2Official Live Aid audio
o 9.3Live Aid channel
o 9.4Unofficial recordings
 10Legacy
 11See also
 12References
 13Bibliography
 14External links

Background[edit]
The BBC News reports of Michael Buerk (pictured) on the Ethiopian famine sparked the aid relief movement.[9]

The 1985 Live Aid concert was conceived as a follow-on to the successful charity single "Do They
Know It's Christmas?" which was also the brainchild of Geldof and Ure. In October 1984, images of
hundreds of thousands of people starving to death in Ethiopia were shown in the UK in Michael
Buerk's BBC News reports on the 1984 famine.[9] The BBC News crew were the first to document the
famine, with Buerk's report on 23 October describing it as "a biblical famine in the 20th century" and
"the closest thing to hell on Earth".[10] The report shocked Britain, motivating its citizens to inundate
relief agencies, such as Save the Children, with donations, and to bring the world's attention to the
crisis in Ethiopia.[9][11] Geldof also saw the report, and called Ure from Ultravox (Geldof and Ure had
previously worked together for charity when they appeared at the 1981 benefit show The Secret
Policeman's Ball in London) and together they quickly co-wrote the song, "Do They Know It's
Christmas?" in the hope of raising money for famine relief.[9] Geldof then contacted colleagues in the
music industry and persuaded them to record the single under the title 'Band Aid' for free.[9] On 25
November 1984, the song was recorded at Sarm West Studios in Notting Hill, London, and was
released four days later.[12][13] It stayed at number one for five weeks in the UK, was Christmas
number one, and became the fastest-selling single ever in Britain and raised £8 million, rather than
the £70,000 Geldof and Ure had initially expected.[9] Geldof then set his sights on staging a huge
concert to raise further funds.[9]
The idea to stage a charity concert to raise more funds for Ethiopia originally came from Boy
George, the lead singer of Culture Club. George and Culture Club drummer Jon Moss had taken
part in the recording of "Do They Know It's Christmas?" and in the same month, the band were
undertaking a tour of the UK, which culminated in six nights at Wembley Arena. On the final night at
Wembley, 22 December 1984, an impromptu gathering of some of the other artists from Band Aid
joined Culture Club on stage at the end of the concert for an encore of "Do They Know It's
Christmas?". George was so overcome by the occasion he told Geldof that they should consider
organising a benefit concert. Speaking to the UK music magazine Melody Maker at the beginning of
January 1985, Geldof revealed his enthusiasm for George's idea, saying, "If George is organising it,
you can tell him he can call me at any time and I'll do it. It's a logical progression from the record, but
the point is you don't just talk about it, you go ahead and do it!"[14]
It was clear from the interview that Geldof had already had the idea to hold a dual venue concert and
how the concerts should be structured:
The show should be as big as is humanly possible. There's no point just 5,000 fans turning up
at Wembley; we need to have Wembley linked with Madison Square Gardens, and the whole show
to be televised worldwide. It would be great for Duran to play three or four numbers at Wembley, and
then flick to Madison Square where Springsteen would be playing. While he's on, the Wembley
stage could be made ready for the next British act like the Thompsons or whoever. In that way, lots
of acts could be featured and the television rights, tickets and so on could raise a phenomenal
amount of money. It's not an impossible idea, and certainly one worth exploiting.[14]

Organisation[edit]
Among those involved in organising Live Aid were Harvey Goldsmith, who was responsible for the
Wembley Stadium concert, and Bill Graham, who put together the American leg.[15]
The concert grew in scope, as more acts were added on both sides of the Atlantic. Tony Verna,
inventor of instant replay, was able to secure John F. Kennedy Stadium through his friendship with
Philadelphia Mayor Goode and was able to procure, through his connections with ABC's prime
time chief, John Hamlin, a three-hour prime time slot on the ABC Network and, in addition, was able
to supplement the lengthy program through meetings that resulted in the addition of an ad-hoc
network within the US, which covered 85 percent of TVs there. Verna designed the needed satellite
schematic and became the Executive Director as well as the Co-Executive Producer along with Hal
Uplinger. Uplinger came up with the idea to produce a four-hour video edit of Live Aid to distribute to
those countries without the necessary satellite equipment to rebroadcast the live feed.

Collaborative effort[edit]
The concert began at 12:00 British Summer Time (BST) (7:00 Eastern Daylight Time (EDT))
at Wembley Stadium in the United Kingdom. It continued at John F. Kennedy Stadium (JFK) in the
United States, starting at 13:51 BST (8:51 EDT). The UK's Wembley performances ended at 22:00
BST (17:00 EDT). The JFK performances and whole concert in the US ended at 04:05 BST 14 July
(23:05 EDT). Thus, the concert continued for just over 16 hours, but since many artists'
performances were conducted simultaneously in Wembley and JFK, the total concert's length was
much longer.
Mick Jagger and David Bowie intended to perform an intercontinental duet, with Bowie in London
and Jagger in Philadelphia. Problems of synchronisation meant the only practical solution was to
have one artist, likely Bowie at Wembley, mime along to prerecorded vocals broadcast as part of the
live sound mix for Jagger's performance from Philadelphia. Veteran music engineer David Richards
(Pink Floyd and Queen) was brought in to create footage and sound mixes Jagger and Bowie could
perform to in their respective venues. The BBC would then have had to ensure those footage and
sound mixes were in sync while also performing a live vision mix of the footage from both venues.
The combined footage would then have had to be bounced back by satellite to the various
broadcasters around the world. Due to the time lag (the signal would take several seconds to be
broadcast twice across the Atlantic Ocean), Richards concluded there was no way for Jagger to hear
or see Bowie's performance, meaning there could be no interaction between the artists, essentially
defeating the whole point of the exercise. On top of this, both artists objected to the idea of miming
at what was perceived as a historic event. Instead, Jagger and Bowie worked with Richards to
create a video clip of the song they would have performed, a cover of "Dancing in the Street", which
was shown on the screens of both stadiums and broadcast as part of many TV networks' coverage.
Each of the two main parts of the concert ended with their particular continental all-star anti-hunger
anthems, with Band Aid's "Do They Know It's Christmas?" closing the UK concert, and USA for
Africa's "We Are the World" closing the US concert (and thus the entire event itself).[16]
Concert organizers have subsequently said they were particularly keen to ensure at least one
surviving member of the Beatles, ideally Paul McCartney, took part in the concert as they felt that
having an 'elder statesman' from British music would give it greater legitimacy in the eyes of the
political leaders whose opinions the performers were trying to shape. McCartney agreed to perform
and has said it was "the management" – his children – who persuaded him to take part. In the event,
he was the last performer (aside from the Band Aid finale) to take to the stage and one of the few to
be beset by technical difficulties; his microphone failed for the first two minutes of his piano
performance of "Let It Be", making it difficult for television viewers and impossible for those in the
stadium to hear him. He later joked by saying he had thought about changing the lyrics to "There will
be some feedback, let it be".
Phil Collins performed at both Wembley Stadium and JFK, travelling by helicopter (piloted by UK TV
personality Noel Edmonds) to London Heathrow Airport, then by Concorde to New York, and by
another helicopter to Philadelphia. As well as his own set at both venues, he also played the drums
for Eric Clapton, and played with the reuniting surviving members of Led Zeppelin at JFK. On the
Concorde flight, Collins encountered actress and singer Cher, who was unaware of the concerts.
Upon reaching the US, she attended the Philadelphia concert and can be seen performing as part of
the concert's "We Are the World" finale.[17] In a 1985 interview, singer-songwriter Billy Joel stated that
he had considered performing at the event, but ultimately chose not to because he had difficulties
getting his band together and didn't want to perform by himself.[18]

Broadcasts[edit]
Broadcaster Richard Skinner opened the Live Aid concert with the words:
It's twelve noon in London, seven AM in Philadelphia, and around the world it's time for Live Aid.

The concert was the most ambitious international satellite television venture that had ever been
attempted at the time. In Europe, the TV feed was supplied by the BBC, whose broadcast was
presented by Richard Skinner, Andy Kershaw, Mark Ellen, David Hepworth, Andy Batten-Foster,
Steve Blacknell, Paul Gambaccini, Janice Long and Mike Smith and included numerous interviews
and chats in between the various acts. The BBC's television sound feed was mono, as was all UK
TV audio before NICAM was introduced, but the BBC Radio 1 feed was stereo and was simulcast in
sync with the TV pictures. Unfortunately, in the rush to set up the transatlantic feeds, the sound feed
from Philadelphia was sent to London via transatlantic cable, while the video feed was via satellite,
which meant a lack of synchronisation on British television receivers. Due to the constant activities in
both London and Philadelphia, the BBC producers omitted the reunion of Crosby, Stills, Nash &
Young from their broadcast. The BBC, however, did supply a 'clean feed' to various television
channels in Europe.
ABC was largely responsible for the US broadcast (although ABC themselves only telecast the final
three hours of the concert from Philadelphia, hosted by Dick Clark, with the rest shown in
syndication through Orbis Communications, acting on behalf of ABC). An entirely separate and
simultaneous US feed was provided for cable viewers by MTV, whose broadcast was presented in
stereo, and accessible as such for those with stereo televisions. At the time, before Multichannel
television sound was enacted nationwide, very few televisions reproduced stereo signals and few
television stations were able to broadcast in stereo. While the telecast was run commercial-free by
the BBC, both the MTV and syndicated/ABC broadcasts included advertisements and interviews. As
a result, many songs were omitted due to the commercial breaks, as these songs were played
during these slots.
The biggest issue of the syndicated/ABC coverage is that the network had wanted to reserve some
of the biggest acts that had played earlier in the day for certain points in the entire broadcast,
particularly in the final three hours in prime time; thus, Orbis Communications had some sequences
replaced by others, especially those portions of the concert that had acts from London and
Philadelphia playing simultaneously. For example, while the London/Wembley finale was taking
place at 22:00 (10:00 pm) London time, syndicated viewers saw segments that had been recorded
earlier, so that ABC could show the UK finale during its prime-time portion. In 1995, VH1
and MuchMusic aired a re-edited ten-hour re-broadcast of the concert for its 10th anniversary.
The Live Aid concert in London was also the first time that the BBC outside broadcast sound
equipment had been used for an event of such scale. In stark contrast to the mirrored sound
systems commonly used by the rock band touring engineers, with two 40–48-channel mixing
consoles at the front of house and another pair for monitors, the BBC sound engineers had to use
multiple 12-channel desks. Some credit this as the point where the mainstream entertainment
industry realised that the rock concert industry had overtaken them in technical expertise.[19]

Stages and locations[edit]

Wembley Stadium[edit]
The old Wembley Stadium (exterior pictured) hosted the London concert

The Coldstream Guards band opened with the "Royal Salute", a brief version of the national anthem
"God Save the Queen". Status Quo were the first act to appear and started their set with "Rockin' All
Over the World", also playing "Caroline" and fan favourite "Don't Waste My Time".[20] "Bob told me, 'It
doesn't matter a fuck what you sound like, just so long as you're there,'" recalled guitarist and
singer Francis Rossi. "Thanks for the fucking honesty, Sir Bob."[21] This would be the band's last
appearance with bassist and founder member Alan Lancaster and drummer Pete Kircher.[22] Princess
Diana and Prince Charles were among those in attendance as the concert commenced.[9]
Bob Geldof performed with the rest of the Boomtown Rats, singing "I Don't Like Mondays". He
stopped just after the line "The lesson today is how to die" to loud applause.[3][17] He finished the song
and left the crowd to sing the final words. Elvis Costello sang a version of the Beatles' "All You Need
Is Love", which he introduced by asking the audience to "help [him] sing this old northern English
folk song".[23]
Queen's twenty-one minute performance, which began at 6:41 pm, was voted the greatest live
performance in the history of rock in a 2005 industry poll of more than 60 artists, journalists and
music industry executives.[24][25] Queen's lead singer Freddie Mercury at times led the crowd in unison
refrains,[26] and his sustained note during the a cappella section came to be known as "The Note
Heard Round the World".[25][27] The band's six-song set opened with a shortened version of "Bohemian
Rhapsody" and closed with "We Are the Champions".[3][28][29] 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...?"[29]
Other well-received performances on the day included those by U2 and David Bowie. The
Guardian cited Live Aid as the event that made stars of U2.[30] The band played a 14-minute rendition
of "Bad", during which vocalist Bono jumped off the stage to join the crowd and dance with a girl.
The length of "Bad" limited them to two songs; the third, "Pride (In the Name of Love)", had to be
dropped. In July 2005, the girl with whom he danced said that he saved her life. She was being
crushed by people pushing forwards; Bono saw this, and gestured frantically at the ushers to help
her. They did not understand what he was saying, and so he jumped down to help her himself.
[31]
 David Bowie's performance has been described by Rolling Stone as "arguably Bowie's last
triumph of the 1980s".[32]
In addition, the transatlantic broadcast from Wembley Stadium suffered technical problems and
failed during The Who's performance of their opening song "My Generation", immediately
after Roger Daltrey sang "Why don't you all fade ..." (the last word "Away" was cut off when a blown
fuse caused the Wembley stage TV feed to temporarily fail).[3] The broadcast returned as the last
verse of "Pinball Wizard" was played. John Entwistle's bass wouldn't work at the start, causing an
awkward delay of over a minute before they could start playing. The band played with Kenney
Jones on drums and it was their first performance since disbanding after a 1982 'farewell' tour. The
Who's performance, including an at times chaotic but blistering version of "Won't Get Fooled Again",
was described as "rough but right" by Rolling Stone, but they would not perform together again until
the 1988 BPI Awards.[33]
While performing "Let It Be" near the end of the show, the microphone mounted to Paul McCartney's
piano failed for the first two minutes of the song, making it difficult for television viewers and the
stadium audience to hear him.[3] During this performance, the TV audience were better off, audio-
wise, than the stadium audience, as the TV sound was picked up from other microphones near
McCartney. The stadium audience, who could obviously not hear the electronic sound feed from
these mics, unless they had portable TV sets and radios, drowned out what little sound from
McCartney could be heard during this part of his performance. As a result, organiser and performer
Bob Geldof, accompanied by earlier performers David Bowie, Alison Moyet and Pete Townshend
returned to the stage to sing with him and back him up (as did the stadium audience despite not
being able to hear much), by which time McCartney's microphone had been repaired.[34]
At the conclusion of the Wembley performances, Bob Geldof was raised onto the shoulders of the
Who's guitarist Pete Townshend and Paul McCartney.[35]
The Wembley speaker system was provided by Hill Pro Audio. It consisted primarily of the Hill J-
Series Mixing Consoles, Hill M3 Speaker System powered by the Hill 3000 amplifiers.[36] In an
interview with Studio Sound in December 1985, Malcolm Hill described the concept for the system in
detail.[37]

John F. Kennedy Stadium[edit]

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Stage view of Live Aid at John F. Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia

Live Aid under the lights at John F. Kennedy Stadium

The host of the televised portion of the concert in Philadelphia was actor Jack Nicholson. The
opening artist Joan Baez announced to the crowd, "this is your Woodstock, and it's long overdue,"
before leading the crowd in singing "Amazing Grace" and "We Are the World".[38]
When Madonna got on stage, despite the 95 °F (35 °C) ambient temperature, she proclaimed "I'm
not taking shit off today!" referring to the recent release of early nude photos of her
in Playboy and Penthouse magazines.[39]
During his opening number, "American Girl", Tom Petty flipped the middle finger to somebody off
stage about one minute into the song. Petty stated the song was a last-minute addition when the
band realised that they would be the first act to play the American side of the concert after the
London finale and "since this is, after all, JFK Stadium".[40]
When Bob Dylan broke a guitar string, while playing with the Rolling Stones members Keith
Richards and Ronnie Wood, Wood took off his own guitar and gave it to Dylan. Wood was left
standing on stage guitarless. After shrugging to the audience, he played air guitar, even
mimicking the Who's Pete Townshend by swinging his arm in wide circles, until a stagehand brought
him a replacement. The performance was included in the DVD, including the guitar switch and Wood
talking to stage hands, but much of the footage used was close-ups of either Dylan or Richards.
During their duet on "It's Only Rock 'n' Roll", Mick Jagger ripped away part of Tina Turner's dress,
leaving her to finish the song in what was, effectively, a leotard.
The JFK portion included reunions of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, the original Black
Sabbath with Ozzy Osbourne, the Beach Boys with Brian Wilson, and surviving members of Led
Zeppelin, with Phil Collins and the Power Station (and former Chic) member Tony
Thompson sharing duties on drums in place of the band's late drummer John Bonham (although
they were not officially announced by their group name from the stage, but were announced as Led
Zeppelin on the VH1 10th Anniversary re-broadcast in 1995).[41]
Teddy Pendergrass made his first public appearance since his near-fatal car accident in 1982 which
paralysed him. Pendergrass, along with Ashford & Simpson, performed "Reach Out and Touch".
Duran Duran performed a four-song set which was the final time the five original band members
would publicly perform together until 2003. Their set saw a weak, off-key falsetto note hit by
frontman Simon Le Bon during "A View to a Kill". The error was trumpeted by numerous media
outlets as "The Bum Note Heard Round the World",[25][42] in contrast to Freddie Mercury's "Note Heard
Round the World" at Wembley.[25] Le Bon later recalled that it was the most embarrassing moment of
his career.[42]
The UK TV feed from Philadelphia was dogged by an intermittent buzzing on the sound during Bryan
Adams' turn on stage and continued less frequently throughout the rest of the UK reception of the
American concert and both the audio and video feed failed entirely during that performance and
during Simple Minds' performance.
Phil Collins, who had performed in the United Kingdom earlier in the day, began his solo set with the
quip, "I was in England this afternoon. Funny old world, innit?" to cheers from the Philadelphia
crowd.

Fundraising[edit]
Throughout the concerts, viewers were urged to donate money to the Live Aid cause. Three hundred
phone lines were manned by the BBC, so that members of the public could make donations using
their credit cards. The phone number and an address that viewers could send cheques to were
repeated every twenty minutes.
Nearly seven hours into the concert in London, Bob Geldof enquired how much money had been
raised so far; he was told about £1.2 million. He is said to have been sorely disappointed by the
amount and marched to the BBC commentary position. Pumped up further by a performance by
Queen which he later called "absolutely amazing", Geldof gave an interview in which BBC
presenter David Hepworth had attempted to provide a postal address to which potential donations
could be sent; Geldof interrupted him in mid-flow and shouted "Fuck the address, let's get the
numbers". Although the phrase "give us your fucking money" has passed into folklore, Geldof has
stated that it was never uttered.[43] Private Eye magazine made great humorous capital out of this
outburst, emphasising Geldof's Irish accent which meant the profanities were heard as "fock" or
"focking". After the outburst, donations increased to £300 per second.[44]
Later in the evening, following David Bowie's set, a video shot by the Canadian Broadcasting
Corporation was shown to the audiences in London and Philadelphia, as well as on televisions
around the world (though neither US feed showed the film), showing starving and diseased
Ethiopian children set to "Drive" by The Cars. (This would also be shown at the London Live 8
concert in 2005.) The rate of donations became faster in the immediate aftermath of the video.
Geldof had previously refused to allow the video to be shown, due to time constraints, and had only
relented when Bowie offered to drop the song "Five Years" from his set as a trade-off.
Geldof mentioned during the concert that the Republic of Ireland gave the most donations per capita,
despite being in the midst of a serious economic recession at the time. The single largest donation
came from Rashid bin Saeed Al Maktoum, who was part of the ruling family of Dubai, who donated
£1m in a phone conversation with Geldof. The next day, news reports stated that between £40 and
£50 million had been raised. It is now estimated that around £150 million in total has been raised for
famine relief as a direct result of the concerts.

Criticisms and controversies[edit]

Bob Dylan's performance generated controversy after he said: "I hope that some of the money ...
maybe they can just take a little bit of it, maybe ... one or two million, maybe ... and use it, say, to
pay the mortgages on some of the farms and, the farmers here, owe to the banks".[3] He is often
misquoted, as on the Farm Aid website,[45] as saying: "Wouldn't it be great if we did something for our
own farmers right here in America?". In his autobiography, Is That It? (published in 1986), Geldof
was critical of the remark, saying "He displayed a complete lack of understanding of the issues
raised by Live Aid. ... Live Aid was about people losing their lives. There is a radical difference
between losing your livelihood and losing your life. It did instigate Farm Aid, which was a good thing
in itself, but it was a crass, stupid, and nationalistic thing to say."[46] Although Dylan's comments were
criticised, his remark inspired fellow musicians Willie Nelson, Neil Young and John Mellencamp to
organize the Farm Aid charity, which held its first concert in September 1985.[47][48] The concert raised
over $9 million for America's family farmers and became an annual event.[49]
Geldof was not happy about the Hooters being added as the opening band in Philadelphia. He felt
pressured into it by Graham and local promoter Larry Magid. Magid, promoting the concert
through Electric Factory Concerts, argued that the band was popular in Philadelphia; their first major
label album Nervous Night had been released almost three months earlier and had been a hit. In an
interview for Rolling Stone, Geldof asked: "Who the fuck are the Hooters?"[50] Ironically, in December
2004, Geldof appeared on the bill with the Hooters in Germany as their opening act.[50]
Adam Ant subsequently criticised the event and expressed regrets about playing it, saying, "I was
asked by Sir Bob [sic] to promote this concert. They had no idea they could sell it out. Then in Bob's
book he said, 'Adam was over the hill so I let him have one number.' ... Doing that show was the
biggest fucking mistake in the world. Knighthoods were made, Bono got it made, and it was a waste
of fucking time. It was the end of rock 'n' roll."[51] Geldof stated in his autobiography that Miles
Copeland, manager of Adam Ant and Sting, asked Geldof if he'd thought of asking Ant after Geldof
contacted him to get Sting to appear: "I hadn't. I thought he was a bit passé. But then so were the
Boomtown Rats, and each represented a certain piece of pop history, so I agreed. I also thought that
might entice him to encourage Sting, or perhaps all three of the Police."[52]
BBC coverage co-host Andy Kershaw criticised the event in his autobiography No Off Switch,
stating, "Musically, Live Aid was to be entirely predictable and boring. As they were wheeled out – or
rather bullied by Geldof into playing – it became clear that this was another parade of the same old
rock aristocracy in a concert for Africa, organised by someone who, while advertising his concern
for, and sympathy with, the continent didn't see fit to celebrate or dignify the place by including on
the Live Aid bill a single African performer." Kershaw also described the attitude of Geldof and his
showbusiness associates as "irritating, shallow, sanctimonious and self-satisfied".[53]

Led Zeppelin reunion[edit]

"I thought it was just going to be low-key and we’d all get together and have a play. But something happened
between that conversation and the day – it became a Led Zeppelin reunion."
—Phil Collins on the Led Zeppelin performance[54]

Led Zeppelin performed for the first time since the death of their drummer John Bonham in 1980.
Two drummers filled in for Bonham: Phil Collins, who had played on singer Robert Plant's first two
solo albums, and Tony Thompson. The performance was criticised for Plant's hoarse voice, Jimmy
Page's out-of-tune guitar, a lack of rehearsal, and poorly functioning monitors. Plant described the
performance as "a fucking atrocity for us. ... It made us look like loonies."[55]
Page later criticised Collins' performance, saying: "Robert told me Phil Collins wanted to play with
us. I told him that was all right if he knows the numbers. But at the end of the day, he didn't know
anything. We played 'Whole Lotta Love', and he was just there bashing away cluelessly and
grinning. I thought that was really a joke."[56] Collins responded: "It wasn't my fault it was crap... If I
could have walked off, I would have. But then we'd all be talking about why Phil Collins walked off
Live Aid – so I just stuck it out... I turned up and I was a square peg in a round hole. Robert was
happy to see me, but Jimmy wasn't."[54]
Led Zeppelin have blocked broadcasts of the performance and withheld permission for it to be
included on the DVD release.[57] Philadelphia named it "one of the worst rock-and-roll reunions of all
time", with Victor Fiorillo writing: "I'd like to be able to blame all of the awfulness on anaemic Phil
Collins, who sat in on drums, and Page himself later fingered the Genesis drummer for screwing up
the set. But Collins was just the beginning of the bad. Go ahead. Watch and remember. It
really was that terrible."[58]

Fund use in Ethiopia[edit]

In 1986 Spin published an exposé on the realities of Live Aid's actions in Ethiopia. They claimed that
Geldof deliberately ignored warnings from Médecins Sans Frontières, who had complained directly
to Geldof even before Live Aid, about the role of the Ethiopian Government
under Derg leader Mengistu Haile Mariam in causing the famine and that by working with Mengistu
directly, much of the relief funds intended for victims were in fact siphoned off to purchase arms from
the Soviet Union, thereby exacerbating the situation even more. Geldof responded by deriding both
the articles and Médecins Sans Frontières, who had been expelled from the country, and reportedly
saying, "I'll shake hands with the Devil on my left and on my right to get to the people we are meant
to help".[59][60]
According to the BBC World Service, a certain proportion of the funds were siphoned off to buy arms
for the Tigrayan People's Liberation Front.[61] This coalition battled at the time against Derg. The
Band Aid Trust complained to the BBC Editorial Complaints Unit regarding the specific allegations in
the BBC World Service documentary, and their complaint was upheld.[62]
Arguing that Live Aid accomplished good ends while inadvertently causing harm at the same
time, David Rieff gave a presentation of similar concerns in The Guardian at the time of Live 8.[63] Tim
Russert, in an interview on Meet the Press shortly after O'Reilly's comments, addressed these
concerns to Bono. Bono responded that corruption, not disease or famine, was the greatest threat to
Africa, agreeing with the belief that foreign relief organisations should decide how the money is
spent. On the other hand, Bono said that it was better to spill some funds into nefarious quarters for
the sake of those who needed it than to stifle aid because of possible theft.[64]
Performances[edit]
show
Click on show to view the contents of this section

Live Aid recordings[edit]

When organiser Bob Geldof was persuading artists to take part in the concert, he promised them
that it would be a one-off event, never to be seen again. That was the reason why the concert was
never recorded in its complete original form, and only secondary television broadcasts were
recorded. Following Geldof's request, ABC even erased its own broadcast tapes. However, before
the syndicated/ABC footage was erased, copies of it were donated to the Smithsonian Institution and
have now been presumed lost. The ABC feed of the USA for Africa/"We Are The World" finale does
exist in its entirety, complete with the network end credits, and can be found as a supplemental
feature on the We Are The World: The Story Behind The Song DVD.
Meanwhile, MTV decided to keep recordings of its broadcast and eventually located more than 100
tapes of Live Aid in its archives, but many songs in these tapes were cut short by MTV's ad breaks
and presenters (according to the BBC).[74] The BBC also decided to erase fragments of the
performance due to storage limitations, to pave the way for newer programmes.[citation needed] Many
performances from the US were not shown on the BBC, and recordings of these performances are
missing. There were four separate Audio Trucks in Philadelphia provided by David Hewitt of Remote
Recording Services. ABC had taken the decision that no multi track tape recordings would be
allowed, so no remixing of the Philadelphia show was possible.

Official Live Aid DVD[edit]

An official four-disc DVD set of the Live Aid concerts was released on 8 November 2004.
A premiere to launch the new DVD was held on 7 November and shown in DTS surround sound
featuring a short compilation of the four-disc set. The screening was held at the Odeon
Cinema in Kensington, London and included guests such as Brian May, Anita Dobson, Roger Taylor,
Bob Geldof and partner Jean Marie, Annie Lennox, Midge Ure, Michael Buerk, Gary Kemp and The
Darkness.[75] Other theatrical premiere’s were held
in Zurich, Milan, Rome, Vienna, Hamburg and Berlin.[76] A 52-minute compilation was later released
as a limited edition DVD in July 2005 titled 20 Years Ago Today: Live Aid.[77] The box set contains 10-
hour partial footage of the 16-hour length concert. The DVD was produced by Geldof's company,
Woodcharm Ltd., and distributed by Warner Music Vision. The DVD has since been out of print and
no longer available in stores. The decision to finally release it was taken by Bob Geldof nearly 20
years after the original concerts, after he found a number of unlicensed copies of the concert on the
Internet.[78]
The most complete footage that exists is used from the BBC source, and this was the main source of
the DVD. During production on the official DVD, MTV lent Woodcharm Ltd. their B-roll and alternate
camera footage where MTV provided extra footage of the Philadelphia concert (where ABC had
erased the tapes from the command of Bob Geldof). Songs that were not originally littered with ads
were also used on the official DVD.
Working from the BBC and MTV footage, several degrees of dramatic license were taken, in order to
release the concert on DVD. Many songs had their soundtracks altered for the DVD release, mainly
in sequences where there were originally microphone problems. In one of those instances, Paul
McCartney had re-recorded his failed vocals for "Let It Be" in a studio the day after the concert (14
July 1985) but it was never used until the release of the DVD. Also, in the US finale, the original USA
for Africa studio track for "We Are the World" was overlaid in places where the microphone was
absent (consequently, it includes the vocals of Kenny Rogers and James Ingram, two artists who did
not even take part in Live Aid).
Some artists did not want their performances to be featured on the DVD. At their own request, Led
Zeppelin and Santana were omitted. The former defended their decision not to be included on the
grounds that their performance was 'sub-standard', but to lend their support, Jimmy
Page and Robert Plant pledged to donate proceeds from the DVD release of Page & Plant: No
Quarter to the campaign, and John Paul Jones pledged proceeds from his American tour
with Mutual Admiration Society.[79]
Judicious decisions were also made on which acts would be included and which ones would not,
due to either technical difficulties in the original performances, the absence of original footage, or for
music rights reasons. Rick Springfield, the Four Tops, the Hooters, the Power Station, Billy
Ocean and Kool and the Gang were among those acts that were left off the DVD. Several artists
who did feature on the DVD also had songs that were performed omitted. Madonna performed three
solo songs in the concert, but only two were included on the DVD ("Love Makes the World Go
Round" was omitted). Phil Collins played "Against All Odds" and "In the Air Tonight" at both
Wembley and JFK, but only the London performance of the former and the Philadelphia
performance of the latter were included on the DVD. The JFK performance of "Against All Odds"
was later included on Collins' Finally ... The First Farewell Tour DVD. Tom Petty performed four
songs, and only two were included on DVD. Patti LaBelle played six songs but only two songs were
included.
In 2007, Queen released a special edition of Queen Rock Montreal on Blu-ray and DVD formats
containing their 1981 concert from The Forum in Montreal, Canada, and their complete Live Aid
performance, along with Freddie Mercury and Brian May performing "Is This the World We
Created...?" from the UK Live Aid finale, all re-mixed in DTS 5.1 sound by Justin Shirley-Smith. Also
included is their Live Aid rehearsal, and an interview with the band, from earlier in the week.
On its release, the then British Chancellor of the Exchequer, Gordon Brown, decided
the VAT collected on sales of the Live Aid DVD would be given back to the charity, which would
raise an extra £5 for every DVD sold.
On 14 November 2004, the DVD entered the UK Official Music Video Chart at number one and
stayed in the top position for twelve consecutive weeks.[80]
Charts[edit]

Peak
Charts (2004) Ref(s)
position

Dutch Music DVDs Chart 2 [81]

Spanish Music DVD Chart

8 [82]

(Promusicae)

UK Music Video Chart (OCC) 1 [80]

US Top Music Video (Billboard) 2 [83]

Certifications[edit]
 Certificatio
Region Certified units/sales
n

Australia (ARIA)[84] 2× Platinum 30,000^

Austria (IFPI Austria)[85] Gold 5,000*

Canada (Music Canada)[86] 2× Diamond 200,000^

France (SNEP)[87] Platinum 15,000*

Switzerland (IFPI Switzerland)[88] Platinum 6,000^

United Kingdom (BPI)[89] 6× Platinum 300,000^

United States (RIAA)[90] 10× Platinum 1,000,000^

*
sales figures based on certification alone
shipments figures based on certification alone
^

Official Live Aid audio[edit]

An audio copy of Live Aid was officially released by the Band Aid Trust label on 7 September 2018
on digital download. When first released in 2018, the Queen performance was excluded. The band's
set was, however, later included as a part of the digital download in May 2019. It has a total of
ninety-three audio tracks.[91]

Live Aid channel[edit]

On 12 September 2018, YouTube launched the Official Live Aid channel with a total of 87 videos
from the Live Aid 1985 concert. According to the channel, all earnings from viewings go to the Band
Aid Trust.[92] As with the digital download release, a few notable performances are not included for
unknown reasons, although Queen's set was uploaded to the channel with its inclusion on the digital
download.

Unofficial recordings[edit]
Because the Live Aid broadcast was watched by 1.5 billion people,[93] most of the footage was
recorded on home consumer video recorders all around the world, in various qualities. Many of
these recordings were in mono, because in the mid-1980s most home video machines could only
record mono sound, and also because the European BBC TV broadcast was in mono. The US MTV
broadcast, the ABC Radio Network and BBC Radio 1 simulcasts were stereo. These recordings
circulated among collectors, and in recent years, have also appeared on the Internet in file sharing
networks.
Since the official DVD release of Live Aid includes only partial footage of this event, unofficial
distribution sources continue to be the only source of the most complete recordings of this event.
The official 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.

Legacy[edit]
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.[94]
Many artists and performers at Live Aid gained prominence and positive commercial influence. For
all the cultural, charitable, and technological significance of 1985's Live Aid, its most immediate
impact was on the charts. In the UK, for example, No Jacket Required by Phil Collins and
Madonna's Like a Virgin leapt back into the top ten. Queen's three year old Greatest Hits rose fifty-
five places into the top twenty, followed by Freddie Mercury's Mr. Bad Guy. Every U2 album
available at the time also returned to the chart.[95] In 1986, Geldof received an honorary knighthood
from Queen Elizabeth II for his efforts.[94]
Queen's performance at Live Aid was recreated in the band's 2018 biopic Bohemian Rhapsody.
[96]
 Footage from the 1985 performance can be seen to match with the movie performance.[96] In
February 2020, Queen + Adam Lambert reprised the original Queen setlist from Live Aid for the Fire
Fight Australia charity concert in Sydney, Australia.[97]
The background to the staging of the concert as a whole was dramatised in the 2010 television
drama When Harvey Met Bob.[98]