It’s 19 years since what turned out (to me) to be a very disappointing and incredibly long day. Although it was to be Pink Floyd’s last gig I came away exhausted and a bit cross that it was all such a major faff. The food & drink were super expensive and the music on the day was meh, at best! The only thing I can’t moan about though was that the tickets were free as I won them in the national raffle – the only way to get them at the time (unless you were friends with any of the bands) which I’m not. I can’t think of a single band who were worth watching and it was a varied and popular mix of old and new artists. No alcohol was allowed in so the only drink was over-priced soft drinks and I hardly smelt any dope wafting around, it was like an over cultured Glastonbury minus the fun. A huge cordon around the main stage kept the hoi-polloi at bay – but I noticed THEY had booze in their special circle, bastards! Did anyone here go? Was it really as awful as I remember? At least it didn’t rain and I took some pics.
OR ELSE!
The queue has a massive argument and splits up.
The queue begins, hmmm… no touts?
Thankfully the Stereophonics set is obscured by a tree.
My view of Elton’s set is obscured by a massive troll.
The queue for the loo.
Everyone claps the wrong way by mistake.
The litter gathers as the day groans on.
the day in full
Sir Paul McCartney and U2: Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band
U2: One, Vertigo, Beautiful Day
Coldplay: In My Place, Fix You
Coldplay and Richard Ashcroft: Bitter Sweet Symphony
Sir Elton John (Introduced by Matt Lucas and David Walliams): Saturday Night’s Alright for Fighting, The Bitch is Back
Sir Elton John and Pete Doherty: Children of the Revolution
Dido (Introduced by Bill Gates): White Flag, Thank You, Seven Seconds (duet with Youssou N’Dour)
Stereophonics: Dakota, Local Boy In The Photograph, Bartender And The Thief
REM (Introduced by Ricky Gervais) : The One I Love, Losing My Religion, Imitation of Life, Everybody Hurts
Ms Dynamite: Dy-na-mi-tee, Redemption Song
Keane: Bed Shaped, Somewhere Only We Know
Travis: Sing, Turn, Why Does It Always Rain On Me?
Annie Lennox: Walking on Broken Glass, Sisters are Doin’ It for Themselves, Sweet Dreams
Bob Geldof: I Don’t Like Mondays
Annie Lennox (Introduced by Brad Pitt) : Why, Little Bird, Sweet Dreams
UB40: Medley – Food For Thought / Who You Fighting For / Reasons / Red Red Wine / Can’t Help Falling In Love
Snoop Dogg: Medley – Ups And Downs / It’s A G Thang / Drop It / Signs / What’s My Name
Razorlight: Somewhere Else, Golden Touch, Vice
Madonna: Like a Prayer, Music, Ray of Light
Snow Patrol: Chocolate, Run
The Killers: All These Things That I’ve Done
Joss Stone: Super Duper Love, I Had A Dream, Some Kind of Wonderful
Scissor Sisters: Laura, Take Your Mama, Everybody Wants The Same Thing
Velvet Revolver: Do It For The Kids, Fall To Pieces and Slither
Sting (Introduced by Lenny Henry): Every Breath You Take, Message in a Bottle, Desert Rose
Mariah Carey (Introduced by Dawn French): Make It Happen, Vision of Love, We Belong Together
Robbie Williams (Introduced by David Beckham): Let Me Entertain You, Feel, We Will Rock You, Angels
The Who (Introduced by Peter Kay) : Who Are You?, Won’t Get Fooled Again, Baba O’Riley, Behind Blue Eyes
Pink Floyd: Breathe, Money, Wish You Were Here, Comfortably Numb
Sir Paul McCartney: Get Back, Drive My Car (with George Michael), Helter Skelter, Long And Winding Road
I was there and, to be honest, I can’t remember seeing a lot of those.
I do remember Robbie Williams, which the Mrs. enjoyed. She wanted to go home after that, but I made her stay for the Who and Floyd, which I enjoyed.
I do remember Elton, and I am glad I got to see him, even if only for a few songs, and I remember Mariah Carey (enjoyed 2/3 of her which surprised me) and Snoop Dogg.
I also remember seeing UB40 with the bangra drummers and I remember not being impressed by Velvet Revolver.
I remember wishing that the Killers would do more than one song.
Other that that… if anybody told me I had seen Razorlight, Madonna, Joss Stone or Keane I would have called them a liar, but maybe I did.
We got in after it started so I know we missed Macca/U2. Maybe we saw Coldplay but if so it didn’t register with me.
We did have a good day though, despite everything. I think it all got overshadowed in my memory by the events 5 days later.
Depressing that 19 years later many of those acts would be on the bill again
The whole thing looks absolutely ghastly, like some cocaine-induced nightmare.
Thankfully, I didn’t go.
I think I’ve probably told this story before, but around the time Live 8 was announced my then girlfriend (now wife) came out for dinner with my whole family.
The subject of Live 8 arose and all of us sneered at the concept and the line up. At the self promoting celebs play-acting at decency. My girlfriend sat and listened to us all and then, when my Dad eventually asked her what she thought, she laughed and said “I think it sounds like a great day out, I’m going to apply for tickets”.
And then she did apply for tickets, and got them. And off she went with her mates – without me, because I was far too cool for such things – and came back having had an absolutely brilliant time (whatever the rules on alcohol were, she’d certainly managed to skirt them).
She didn’t argue with any of us, she didn’t get defensive. She just went “ah well, your loss” and went and had a load of fun listening to music in the sunshine without thinking too much about it all. And I looked at her and thought maybe you’re onto something here.
I recall watching the whole thing on TV, but the only act I can now remember seeing is the Floyd (OK, but lacking something, although it was nice to see Rog and Dave on stage together), and I would have sworn they topped the bill. I’d completely forgotten that Macca followed them.
I hope it achieved its goals re poverty, but as an event I don’t think it has gone down as especially historic.
Live Aid, on the other hand, is a day that I can remember in full like it took place yesterday, from rushing home from my Saturday morning job to sit down just as Quo came on, and staying in front of the TV until the mass singalong at the end. Crying at the video for the Cars’ Drive, wondering why Adam Ant didn’t just do his big hits, Midge’s grey trenchcoat, Bono’s walkabout, Bob swearing, Queen stealing the whole show… What a day.
Live 8? Oh, yes, the Floyd.
I didn’t watch most of it – we were out somewhere – but did put it on and caught the end of The Who then the Floyd. I just remember crossing every digit that they wouldn’t be crap, and as the eased into Breathe I felt a tremendous sense of relief and emotion – they were wonderful.
I have a vague memory of somebody muttering about the Floyd being further up the bill than The Who, and I hoped PF would be good in order to prove them wrong. Luckily, they were. Wish You Were Here was terrific, but I would have liked to have seen all the Floyd light’n’sound trimmings rather than the (understandably) scaled-down festival set.
Gilmour is obviously a great guitar player, but his singing really shines in the Live 8 performance. Especially his “scatting” along with his guitar during WYWH – absolutely gorgeous.
Absolutely the same for me.
Can remember nearly of Live Aid (certainly the Wembley stuff) like it was yesterday, but the only thing from Live 8 would be Pink Floyd. Who I do think were great actually especially Comfortably Numb.
Remember even at the end Rog being a bit of a bell end in how he encouraged them all to take a bow.
I video taped it. Never watched the tape though. It was exciting to see some of these big names live on TV. Not quite the same today when you can see hundreds of clips online at the click of a remote. Back then it was more of a rare treat. I found the Floyd performance moving because of the reunion. We knew Waters was a twat but not quite how much of a twat. They did great but there was no sense there would be more.
Scissor Sisters, and Killers, very good, plus others.
Live Aid interested me less. I remember being impressed with U2, I only really rated New Year’s Day but I thought Bono created this compelling tension with his sortie into the crowd. Now everybody does this, then it was somewhat daring. Far more interesting than the simple Simon says/fascist Freddie Mercury business. Then I went to the pub and never saw the whole thing until a holiday in Santorini where the barman put it on, on a big screen. That was fun, years later. At the time it seemed to be acts I mostly didn’t care about. The uncool and the has-beens.
I had similar feelings about Live Aid. I’d had a massive row with my girlfriend the night before and had fled to a mate’s so we spent the day happily blurred. I loved the opening with the Quo and most of the Brit part was good but by the time Philadelphia came on with Dylan, Phil Collins on Concorde etc we’d lost interest slightly. In anything really.
“We knew Waters was a twat but not quite how much of a twat.”
How is it possible to make Piers Morgan seem reasonable, mature, polite, and informed? I wouldn’t have thought it was, but Waters has proved me wrong! Incredible performance by Waters in this new interview. He seems (yet again) completely deranged. He deals with being challenged with truly bizarre immaturity.
He’s let himself down, he’s let the Floyd down, he’s let prog rock down.
The start was genuinely interesting – it felt like the start of something important, and U2 were the choice opening act.
Pete Doherty thoroughly let himself down. He had Elton’s advocacy, and then p*ssed it up a wall.
I recall it dragged mostly after that – The Killers a highlight, Velvet Revolver didn’t need to be there (could they not get Guns n Roses, so settled for something close?).
The Who and Pink Floyd were the best of the day, and worth the wait.
I actually forgot Macca played after those two … now you’ve said it, I do recall it. But was a bit of a damp ending (at least it wasn’t a 22 minute rendition of Hey Jude, ending with Ob-La-Di Ob-La-Da)
You’ve reminded me of why I turned Macca off!
I was at the Eden Project, definitely a good day at the office. An amazing bill, thrown together at the last minute when someone noticed that there was definite shortage of actual Africans at Hyde Park. Thomas Mapfumo, Geoffrey Oreyema, Yussou N’Dour, Mariza, Tinarewen, Angelique Kidjo…We definitely got the best of the deal.
And (the often unfairly maligned) Dido sang “7 Seconds” with Youssou N’Dour!
You’ve prompted me to take the two DVD set off my shelf for the first time in many a year @mikethep which I will watch tomorrow – will I be seeing you in the documentary?
Probably not – we were chillin’ at the back, on the grass slope.
Yussou and Dido were the Phil Collins of Live 8, doing 7 Seconds in two places two hours apart.
Or 7 seconds by Concorde.
Why Dido, why wasn’t it Neneh doing that song? Did they not ask her?
https://vimeo.com/187042091
I think Hepworth (of course) pointed out that the weather plays a big part of collective memory.. Live Aid was baking heat, Live 8 was overcast and gloomy. Having landfill indie making up a big part of the lineup didn’t help either. The Who, after their Live Aid problems, were clearly determined to knock it out of the park. They played all their CSI theme tunes one after the other and I remember Zak Starkey’s ‘mod roundel’ cymbals and being properly ferocious behind the kit. It was good to see Floyd for the final time. I wonder if a big part of this unlikely reunion was because Rick Wright didn’t have long to go.
Ultimately, it spelled the beginning of the end for the idea of the multi-continent charity gig. Live Aid was portacabins and all mucking in together, Live 8, Live Earth etc were more talk-to-my agent, career advancement vehicles. I remember the media being fascinated by Kate Moss and Pete the Waster hoovering drugs backstage. Celebrity had replaced pop star and this was the Heat magazine version of a charity gig, whether the organisers liked it or not.
He lived 3 more years and was busy in that period. Was he even sick at Live 8?
As for the day, I was visiting Canada just before I moved here, they had one here too, billed as being in Toronto but was actually more than 100km away in Barrie as they couldn’t find a suitable venue to host it in the bigger city
I was there and I enjoyed it a lot. I managed to go without weeing for the whole thing, which is apparently possible when you are 22.
Like many above, I remember Floyd being really good….er, that’s about it. I have the DVD set, but I think I only ever watched the aforementioned Pink Floyd bit!