blimey. forty years ago today, then. well, 40 years ago at the time this got published, look you see. quite likely a lot further (or longer) back in time (or history) when you read this. oh, as for "what", i mean Live Aid, which i feel an unusual respectful need to use actual, proper capital letters for the name of.
just what is it i am going to write (yes, poorly, no doubt) about? mostly memories of the day. these will, of course, all be informed by what has happened since. if you are looking for an accurate or exhaustive history of the day, i would suggest this is not that. simply the tale of a, what, 12 year old boy quite impressed that it seemed everyone in the world was just watching bands play music for a day.
forgive, if you will, any "historical accuracies" or such. again, this is an attempt at capturing memories, yes possibly before they slip away from the maze of my mind forever.
and the lesson today is how to die
maybe just a little history, then. according to the legend, Bob Geldof was so emotionally distraught at the news footage of the famine in Ethiopia that he put a jar in his kitchen, insisting anyone who visited him donate to charity to help. his aim was (if i recall right) to raise £50 (more than you might think in terms of 1984) and was surprised at just how fast he hit that target. surprised and inspired to do more, which of course he did with his mate Midge Ure in terms of a song, and then going full tilt global with the idea of Live Aid.
what a f*****g start
sure, ok, the actual first "act" as such was a (i believe royal) brass band playing. but the bit what everyone remembers is the inspired decision to kick it all off with Status Quo doing Rockin All Over The World.
quite a lot has been said of Adam Ant and Live Aid, probably a post here or there from me on the subject. he did seem to get quite hard done by, as it was his time they cut away at when more and more artists joined the bill. exactly what happened is unconfirmed, but he has spoken of his regret at "doing what Bob told him to" which was just his latest single rather than a classic hit. as much as he is loved, cherished and admired to this day, it was that Live Aid marked his last day as a true a-list star.
getting all carried away would be to say that here, at Live Aid, is where U2 "started" their path to becoming (arguably) the biggest band in the world, but it certainly feels like it was a huge step in that direction. with the day being all catchy pop songs and limited time it was certainly a bold move for them to unleash Bad on a (fairly) global audience, what with the song clocking in at north of six minutes. from what i remember Dad bought the album (on record, or vinyl if you prefer the term) The Unforgettable Fire not long after Live Aid. it was not the usual sort of tape he would get.
could have backfired, i suppose. at some point someone will have gone "isn't that going to be a bit naff or obvious" or even "cringe" before the word got used to describe anything remotely embarrassing. no, it was absolutely perfect. remembering this was a time when music stars were if not strictly speaking aloof in a negative way they were "mysterious", distant and not in the public eye all the time, as it so often feels they are now. Quo kind of bucked that, as they always appeared open, down to earth, would make time for absolutely anyone and, most importantly, were dedicated to everyone having a good time all the time. we were tuned in for something important and serious, but they said we were all going to have fun whilst doing something.
my then favourites were on surprisingly early
i got to spend a good deal of that afternoon not watching Live Aid, as it happens, since they were kind enough to put a lot of my "top vibes" on at the start. without looking it all up i seem to recall that The Style Council and Adam Ant were the first ones on. think it was around the time Paul Young decided to open with Do They Know Its Christmas that i opted to take my bike out and see mates. it just felt wrong watching him do it not so much in July but without the other artists.
snowman melting from the inside
to state the obvious Live Aid was "global", with the main concerts being London (innit) and Philadelphia. something forgotten is other countries also held gigs. due to the joys of time difference the one in Australia, featuring someone (remember this was 1985) called INXS, happened "the day before" in proper time.
yet a surprise came in the middle of the day. we got shown footage of a band called Autograph (me neither) playing live from the Soviet Union. huh. this was all very much "business end" of the cold war, and we were all taught things like rock and pop were "banned" there, and that those in power blocked or manipulated world news to give it a pro-communist slant. it turned out that the Russians were just normal, actual people not too different from us, then. amazing how media, news and leaders can blind you from reality.
actually, it was excellent
never in my days did i think i would ever write a defence of Phil f*****g Collins, yet here i am doing precisely that. sentiment or age has got the better of me, maybe.
of all the Live Aid "things", time and revisionism has not been kind to this one. for those unaware, Phil, who was easily at least one of the biggest stars of 1985, decided he was going to play the same song at both of the major Live Aid gigs, playing early at Wembley and then taking Concorde over the Atlantic to play in Philadelphia. as an aside he also played with Sting at Wembley and an in all but name reformed Led Zeppelin in Philadelphia.
people have since dismissed this as a prime example of all wrong with 80s excess, that such a move was callous, self-centred and entirely inappropriate when the day was supposed to be helping the poor. well, i am telling you now, such a retrospective view is (and i am no fan of his) utter bullsh!t. it was an excellent, amazing thing to do. now that i think, between this, No Jacket Required and the extraordinary Invisible Touch album off of Genesis, i really miss this Phil Collins.
ascendency
it would, i imagine (or assume), be difficult for anyone post 1987, or 1988, to think of U2 as anything but a huge, massive group. they really weren't in 1985. they had managed a couple of hits, in particular Pride which is on the Now That's What I Call Music 4 tapes i love so much, but were not, say, Duran Duran, Wham or Frankie Goes To Hollywood big. hence them being "shoved on" early in the afternoon, and hence me being quite surprised to see U2 flags in the crowd.
safe to say that the U2 set was one of the "most" iconic moments, in particular of course Bono jumping into the crowd and the lengthy hug he gave a lady, to the confusion (and frustration) of the rest of the band. perhaps it was all of this, their involvement in Band Aid and then Live Aid, that gave them the confidence and courage to bear their souls and give everything they had to The Joshua Tree. after that album, yes, the rest is indeed an ongoing history. speaking of iconic.......
crowning glory
describing any gig as "the greatest in history" is a bit misleading. who decides that, with what criteria and how many concerts had they been to so as to declare such a thing. that said, the 20 or so minute set what Queen did at Live Aid regularly gets described as "the best ever", and if we are honest it is actually really f*****g difficult to immediately suggest one that tops it.
this was a performance no one saw coming, it really did feel like it came out of f*****g nowhere. of course Queen were great, but there was a sense they were "past it" and no longer headliner stuff. that's why, perhaps, they were shoved on early evening, before the "big" acts.
on instances when i consider the life i have had the Queen performance comes to mind. for some reason all of us - me, Mum, Dad, Richard and Gillian - were all watching it together. we certainly hadn't watched all of the day together, i think mostly i watched on a portable tele in my room. probably around tea time, or dinner time (if posh), likely we were all waiting for The Who. i can vividly remember all of us being spellbound (or whatever) by the performance. every now and then i glanced at Dad and saw how much he was loving it. that twenty or so minutes shall forever be a "happy place" for me. should i ever end up in a coma (more likely than i would like to think) or in some vegetable state, then i can only hope my mind takes me there, leaving me to reside in that memory until i expire. or come out of it.
it's only rock and roll
certain bits of Live Aid became famous for perhaps not the best of reasons. for a start you don't find the performance of A View To A Kill on the official videos (discs) box set with good reason, for Duran Duran kindly requested it be dropped. one of the biggest selling points for the gig was The Who agreeing to perform at it.
unfortunately if you were not at Wembley you didn't get to see a significant chunk of this highly anticipated performance. i can remember us all sat in the lounge watching it, watch the band start and then watched as the picture on the tele froze, just before cutting away to an apology for some technical issues. a generator or something had blown, apparently.
when coverage resumed it turned out they were doing songs that, at the time, i wasn't really familiar with. at that stage all i knew of them was Tommy, and even then the Ken Russell film of it what Mum and Dad had taped (on actual video) and thought was quite class to let us kids watch. so, no, then, i likely did not appreciate this as much as i should have.
in regards of the other reunion, i would suggest that i had no idea who or what a Led Zeppelin was at this stage of 1985. might have had some vague idea that a version of one of their songs was used as the theme for Top Of The Pops for a bit, but that would be it. don't think i even watched any of their set from Philadelphia, sorry.
do i really even like this David Bowie bloke?
at this stage my devotion to Bowie was (very much) in its infancy. i shall not link yet again, but scattered all over this blog are tales of the Tonight tape i "borrowed" out of Dad's car (yes, still have it right here with me) and i liked what i heard. well, Blue Jean and Loving The Alien. so yes, i was fairly excited about seeing him live at Live Aid.
perhaps anticipating the sense of entitlement more commonly associated with this century i eagerly anticipated his performance, reasonably expecting Blue Jean at the least, possibly Loving The Alien too. well, they were his most recent singles. instead we (i?) got "heroes", which i was aware of, Modern Love, which had the least interesting video off of the Let's Dance album and, i think TVC something that i had never heard of. oh.
for a "not to be" moment, the original idea was for Bowie and Jagger to do Dancing In The Street as a live duet. alas, they tested it, and the broadcast technology at the time meant the delay between London and Philadelphia was so significant it was just not possible. wonder if our "lightning fast" communication technology of today would allow for such a thing, you would think so. no matter, and for those interested, Dancing In The Street was class, and yes i have indeed previously taken to task some harsh criticism of it.
the American version
got quite bored of it really, then tired. from what i remember i was asleep before most of the favourites i had hoped to seen had played, and i hadn't thought to set a video off recording it.
coverage of the American Live Aid in the UK was really bad. it had that gaudy, faded colour to it and the sound wasn't so good. just as well they didn't try that Atlantic duet, then. i think i can sort of remember at least seeing Phil Collins, and also have a vague memory of being disappointed that Madonna didn't do any of what i considered to be her "hits".
end of the London set
it more or less finished on time, nearly everything went as planned and the finale performance was one of those great moments. no, despite rumours and mythology , there was no "Beatles" reunion, Ringo and George did not "sneak on" to join Paul at the end. nice to think that they would have, if anyone had thought to suggest it before the gig.
could this ever happen again?
a question to which the obvious (or immediate) answer is "no" but actually i think "yes". no matter what i think of the sorry state of modern music there are still some huge, major acts out there, and in terms of popularity or audience reach reasonably on a par with what there was in 1985. mostly it's a shame that, 40 years on, there are likely causes that would need this kind of thing. is this the world we created, indeed.
doubtful that many causes would have the general (it was not overwhelming, with some American acts in particular kicking off against it all) support Live Aid did. we live in a decidedly divisive world, and as the fiasco around the 40th anniversary of Band Aid showed, there are certain acts that will be critical of anything (charity or otherwise) if it helps promote them instead. whereas one would hope there is never, ever another incident like it again, in the modern world it would be that Manchester concert which was closest in spirit, community and giving to what Live Aid was.
ultimately, or in the end, the only thing to remember is something Mr Geldof said. i don't recall the exact words, but it was along the lines of if you participated that day, if you contributed whatever you could, then someone got to live as a result of that. just because you can't throw your arms around the world doesn't mean you shouldn't try.
be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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