Live Aid at 40

[Andy]

Next Sunday will be the 40th Anniversary of Live Aid.

What are your memories of that day?


What was the best act?


(Queen of course)

[MarkV]

Next Sunday will be the 40th Anniversary of Live Aid.

What are your memories of that day?


What was the best act?

Part of my 68 year old brain can not believe that Live Aid was 40 years ago. Have memories of watching it on TV all day in our current home which at the time we were basically camping in it while doing it up.  

[Jules Gray]

What are your memories of that day?

Lying on a bed with Julia Wilcox.

Jules

[Glen S]

Unbelievable that it's 40 years ago! A childhood friend had recently moved from his Mum & Dad's place, to a room in a rented cottage in Tackley. Several of us spent the whole day and night there watching Live Aid on the TV. He also had use of a VCR which was quite the luxury item back then, and was able to tape the whole thing.

Queen were at the top of their game and completely understood what was required of the event. Get on stage, play all the hits, engage the audience and then clear off again. An astonishing 21 minutes! I can also remember being very impressed by Midge Ure's (Ultravox) vocal on "Dancing With Tears In My Eyes". I would very happily sit through the whole event again!

The following year I met a girl at a "Mean Fiddler" gig in Harlesden, which led to a brief but happy friendship. Her flat in Neasden was a short distance (as the crow flies) from Wembley Stadium, and she recalled being able to hear much of Live Aid, clearly floating across the London rooftops!  

[John From Austin]

We watched the whole thing on MTV in the U.S., and recorded hours of it on our VCR. I also taped large portions of the simulcast in stereo off the local FM radio station, on cassette. Frustratingly, in retrospect, I kept turning off the recorders when "contemporary" artists (such as Ultravox, Madonna, Duran Duran and George Michael) took the stage. For some reason, I was conserving tape.

I was really fired up for The Who, and of course the transatlantic feed went dark right after Roger sang, "Why don't you all f-f-f-ade away?" It came back just in time to hear the final "sure plays a-mean pinball..." It failed again in the middle of Won't Get Fooled Again, so we initially didn't get to see where the band got lost and forgot to perform the bridge.

[Poor Will (Bill)]

Down on the south coast our TV signal suffered badly from interference when the weather conditions were governed by high pressure.
On the day of Live Aid it was a very hot day and the TV reception was just about as bad as I had ever seen it. At times we were picking up a French TV station clearer than BBC!
Somewhere in our loft there is a VHS tape telling the whole sorry story.
Fortunately as the day cooled down normal service was resumed.

[Lubiloo (Lorna)]

I watched it all with my then best friend, in her mum’s hippyish cottage, which smelled of camomile tea and barley cup.. I was so taken with the lifestyle, I think I became a right pain to my own mum at the time. I was there more than at home and Live Aid is one of the great memories.

If I don’t look anything up, the things which spring to mind are Phil Collins going transatlantic, Bono hugging a fan who had been  squashed and/ or ill and ..of course, Queen!

[GubGub (Al)]

Down on the south coast our TV signal suffered badly from interference when the weather conditions were governed by high pressure.
On the day of Live Aid it was a very hot day and the TV reception was just about as bad as I had ever seen it. At times we were picking up a French TV station clearer than BBC!
Somewhere in our loft there is a VHS tape telling the whole sorry story.
Fortunately as the day cooled down normal service was resumed.

That's interesting. We used to suffer that problem too, just 10 or so miles up the road from you. I remember the Boris Becker Wimbledon final being completely wiped out. Was that '85 too? I don't recall any issue with Live Aid though. I watched the whole thing until 4am apart from a bit while I was fitting a stereo in my Mum's car so I listened to that section on the radio. I also taped loads of it onto cassettes which I searched for yesterday but no longer seem to have. I know I dumped a ton of cassettes some years ago but I am surprised I didn't keep Live Aid for their historic value. I could digitalise them now. Maybe they will turn up.

The three part documentary on BBC2, particularly on the politics of the whole Ethiopian relief effort.

[Dan O.]

Status Quo playing Rockin' All Over The World - couldn't have been a more perfect way to start a concert dubbed a "global jukebox" !

[Glen S]

The three part documentary on BBC2, particularly on the politics of the whole Ethiopian relief effort.

Have just finished watching episode 1 on iPlayer...The "Beeb" is so good at this kind of documentary!...Fascinating if at times harrowing...

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m002fp3r/live-aid-at-40-when-rock-n-roll-took-on-the-world-series-1-episode-1?seriesId=unsliced

[davidmjs]

In retrospect, that whole 'we can change the world' with a gig thing is rather cringeworthy, and I loathe most of the sets that people regard as iconic (especially that one).  But it does all seem a long time ago...I had just finished my A-levels (in Hants) and was grumpily up with my parents (in Lincs, where they'd retired) where I'd seen the Rats play in Peterborough only a few weeks before.  I mostly listened on the radio, but watched a fair bit too.  In general though it all felt a bit too run of the mill for me... Favourite bits from London are probably Style Council and Bowie (neither of whom I'm a massive fan of) and from Philly, Sabs, CSN/CSNY, Neil and Led Zep.

[mickf]

I'd not long moved house and was living in temporary rented accommodation in Oxford, with my wife and two young kids (5 and 1 year old) My first memory was The Who going silent, but for the life of me, I can't remember which song they were playing. Also, Adam Ant singing his latest single 'Viva La Rock' - I also can't recall if that song ever charted. It went down like a lead balloon at Wembley. I've never been a huge fan of Queen, but I think they were so well received because they stuck to the brief...'Play the hits and get people interested'. David Bowie introducing the CBC documentary, with the Cars' soundtrack was a memory that still haunts.