Very soon the 30th anniversary of Live Aid will be upon us. We all remember where we were when Freddie, Dame David and Nik Kershaw rocked the airwaves, but who really stunk the place out that day?. There are several, under-rehearsed and over-refreshed contenders but I think this one has to surely be the low point. The Thompson Twins, with Madge on tambourine and Nile Rodgers doing something unspeakable to The Beatles Revolution “WE’RE ALL DOIN’ WHAT WE CAN…AIN’T THAT RIGHT?”
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mikethep says
Amazing, he sings just like Frank Sinatra.
Sewer Robot says
U2: Bono, having seen the young Courtney Cox in the Springsteen video, decides to go walkabout during the the song “Bad” ( which would be even more aptly named if it was called “Execrable”). His search for a young lady to dance with is interminable, necessitating Edgeward Evans to extend the band’s weakest song (“infinite guitar” indeed) beyond the limits of human endurance.
Naturally, off the back of this embarrassing f*ck up, a legend is born..
Twang says
That was when the scales fell from my eyes with The Two. Until then I thoughtthey were really good.
Moose the Mooche says
O’Nob is on record as saying that that performance is responsible for the global tonsorial dominance of The Mullet.
He may well be right.
“Every time I click my fingers, a footballer says, ‘Can you leave it long at the back please?'”
Jackthebiscuit says
Two words – Led Zeppelin.
Ahh_Bisto says
My memories of that day are of my parents going round to some friends for the day which left me and the rather attractive French exchange student all alone in the house.
davebigpicture says
Did you manage a, er, cultural exchange?
Ahh_Bisto says
Yes, we both spoke animatedly about how shit Bowie was on the day.
Moose the Mooche says
“Quelle horreur! La Dame est merrrrde aujourd’hui!”
Or alternatively you may have spoken in French.
Ahh_Bisto says
Her contribution to the day’s entente cordiale included cooking Coq au Vin and introducing me to French ‘Coldwave’. Steady. Nothing kinky, although one of the bands was called Marquis de Sade.
DougieJ says
Was it Sebastien?
Podicle says
What, are we ignoring Dylan and Ronnie and Keef?
Moose the Mooche says
Oh you can’t say anything bad about Bob Dylan.
Oh no.
minibreakfast says
I was 10, so I don’t remember much, except having to sit through Whitney Houston, zzzzzzz……
minibreakfast says
Hmm, can’t find Whitters on the list of performers, I might be thinking of the Mandela concert. So basically I remember chuff all about Live Aid, and my ‘memories’ of it have been planted by clips shows.
Hawkfall says
It was the Mandela concert. If i remember correctly, when she performed, they changed the stage backdrop to just black, in order to remove the references to Nelson Mandela, as the show was broadcast in the US as just a “FreedomFest”.
Rob C says
All of it. Dreadful. A collective corporate rock masto wank fest.
retropath2 says
Sat thru’ it start to finish, as it was an on-call weekend, and the then Mrs P and kids were away. The US part was certainly pretty dire, but, to this day, re the UK bit, I still don’t understand why everyone cites it as the day Queen became mega. They, U2 and many more were just dull. What I do remember actually quite enjoying was the Genesis bit, surprisingly as they were pop bandits by then to me, but I suspect a lot may have been to do with Leland Sklars beard and overall prophetic appearance.
Worst bit? Duncan Goodhew droning on about the brilliance of Footloose hitmaker Kenny Loggins, in a gap where he was the only “celebrity” about.
Rob C says
All these fests. Urgh.
What was Bowie thinking of when he did that vomit inducing Lord’s Prayer to Freddie Mercury ? The dirty scut snorted coke off the heads of dwarves, for fuck’s sake.
chiz says
Well, taller people’s heads would be too high up. You’d need a stepladder, and no one should be up a ladder when they’re blasted on charlie.
Rob C says
Oh yeah ? Snort my window frames. (Well webs, the spiders are just mad for it ).
Pessoa says
“Ladies and Gentlemen, Phil Collins… And first of all, Sting!”
Noel Edmonds botches the intro and disappoints the world.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D099AgMgtY0
duco01 says
Well, Sting had Branford Marsalis with him on the soprano sax, and Branford once played with the Grateful Dead (on the set released as “Wake Up to Find Out”) … so that means that I can’t bring myself to loathe it entirely.
Has anyone mentioned Adam Ant yet?
Pessoa says
Fair enough. I should have made clearer that it was the fluffed Edmonds into that was among the worst of the day; Sting himself made more sense back in 1985.
The Good Doctor says
watched that back recently. The huge pause after he takes to the stage seems to last an eternity…and then “the world is watching….let’s feed it!”
Moose the Mooche says
AA did Vive Le Rock. This was only because Prince Charming would have been a Health & safety nightmare – all those people doing the dance.
deramdaze says
Thanks for reminding me.
An information lock-down (see Michael Jackson’s death/funeral) for me next week it is.
deramdaze says
retropath 2,
Interesting that you, rightly, mention the awfulness of the U.S. bit.
However, the following day on Radio London (remember this was at the height of the….erm…..soul boy era……triffic!) it was fashionable to belittle the British part and praise the dire Madonna, Cars, Tina Turner part of the equation.
Robbie Vincent, who I couldn’t stand, was in raptures over U.S. acts like Hall & Oates.
yorkio says
Hall and Oates with the Temptations was the only thing I really remember getting excited about.
chilli ray virus says
Hall and Oates were the best thing on the day. I completely changed my mind about them having previously loathed most of their “hits”.
The Good Doctor says
Unlike most of you, On the whole I look on the whole thing with great affection, I thought it was genuinely exciting at the time although I was 12. I also rather enjoyed U2’s set, I thought the extended Bad was entirely planned and was disappointed when it wasn’t that long on record. I think it sparked an interest in repetitive riffs and motorik beats in later life…so U2 were my accidentally my entry to Krautrock.
Beany says
Gee thanks for making me feel old. I was married with 2 kids and 2 dogs by then. Somewhere in my “archives” I have the whole shebang on VHS tapes for posterity i.e. never watched again and gathering dust somewhere. I also recorded some of the acts on cassettes from wunnerful Radio 1.
I love these various notes on Wikipedia. The bits missing from Live Aid…
Cliff Richard was unable to perform as he was committed to a gospel charity concert in Birmingham.
A reunited Deep Purple were also due to appear from Switzerland via satellite, but pulled out after guitarist Ritchie Blackmore refused to take part in the event.
Peter, Paul and Mary were to have joined Bob Dylan for a rendition of “Blowing In The Wind” since they had a tremendously successful version in the 1960s – but Dylan called the organizers a few days before the show saying that he would play with Ron Wood and Keith Richards.
Bill Graham is said to have turned down Foreigner and Yes because there was no free space on the bill for them. For the same reason Marillion didn’t play at the Wembley Stadium, although their lead singer, Fish, was able to participate in the “Do They Know It’s Christmas” finale as were Justin Hayward and John Lodge from The Moody Blues, Stewart Copeland from The Police and the members of Big Country.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Live_Aid
Carl says
I’ve never heard Sir Richard de Clifford was approached to play. If Phil Collins could manage to do both the UK & USA surely he could have managed London and Birmingham.
Is that perhaps one of those untruths that litter Wikipedia?
JQW says
I recall setting the VHS recorder to tape the last few hours from Philadelphia, but never got to see it as my sister used the tape to record Coronation Street and whatever followed over the top the following night.
Moose the Mooche says
Jack Nicholson: Some artists’ work speaks for itself; some artist’s work speaks for his generation. It’s my deep personal pleasure to present to you one of America’s great voices of freedom. It can only be one man! The transcendent –
*CLUNK*
Jack Duckworth!
policybloke says
‘Just send the focking monny!’ ‘Yes, thank you, Bob’ Or perhaps that wasn’t the actual verbal exchange between His Bobness and Heppo. Anyway, saw little of it, as I was living in Germany at the time, and Forces TV didn’t have broadcast rights, though German telly may have; I think it was live on one of their channels. And I was at work while the daytime events were on. And I didn’t have very good TV reception anyway, when I got home. Did I miss much?
Hawkfall says
Bob Geldof, David Hepworth, Billy Connolly, Pamela Stephenson and Ian Astbury were in the studio. Hepworth was advising the viewers on how they could pledge and wanted to read out the postal addresses. Geldof, impatiently, interrupted with “F*** the addresses, give them the numbers”. He wanted people to pledge immediately via credit card.
I always thought the “Give me/us your f***ing money” misquote reflected unfairly on Geldof as it made him sound both rude and vulgar. What he said wasn’t that bad. He swore, but it was directed at Hepworth rather than the viewers. Plus, he was probably right to prioritise the telephone numbers over the postal addresses. He did want us to send our f***ing money, and they were the most efficient channel to do so.
bobness says
I can categorically tell you it wasn’t me…
aging hippy says
I remember my surprise at seeing George Thorogood sneak onto the bill. “George who?” the world asked. Some of us knew and were a little bit chuffed – even if he wasn’t that good (plenty of company there, that day).
simongmusic says
My favourite worst bit is when Nik Kershaw (lost in a forest of mic stands) invites the whole of Wembley Stadium to join in the ‘whistle’ solo in The Riddle… “I wanna see you whistle!”. If they did, we can’t hear them.
We didn’t have a video recorder, so I taped pretty much the whole lot onto a succession of C90s on the hi-fi in my bedroom and watched it on a tiny portable black & white TV. At some point during Duran Duran’s set (1.30am-ish) I fell asleep, someone came in and switched everything off. I was well annoyed the next day!
For the rest of the summer, I played those tapes endlessly. I could still probably recite whole chunks of the ‘continuity’ by Hepworth, Kershaw et al.
(hopefully the below link will work)
minibreakfast says
Wow! Did you have a printer in those days, or were you just handy with a felt-tip pen?
simongmusic says
Tracing paper and a combination of black Berol felt tips and a marker pen. The last tape with the smaller logo was my first attempt (traced from Smash Hits), but then I got a bigger version of the logo and set to work all over again!
minibreakfast says
Most impressive! I always went over the lines when colouring in 🙁
simongmusic says
The headstock on the guitar was the most fiddly part, variable results, but I was very serious about my tape cover making! When my dad’s office got a photocopier it opened up the possibilities no end. I’d give him magazines to copy photos from so I could use them, sometimes even make a montage! I was quite handy with a scalpel and a Pritt Stick.
Moose the Mooche says
You need to stick your tongue out of the corner of your mouth.
Van da Vinci, Leonardo Dali, Pablo Bacon de Skegness – they all do it.
simongmusic says
Is dribbling optional?
Moose the Mooche says
Not so much optional as inevitable
simongmusic says
Then call me an artistic genius. Of the homemade tape cover variety.
duco01 says
Favourite bit:
Costello: “I want you to help me sing this old Northern English folk song”
Zanti Misfit says
“All we neeEEEEeeeEEEEeeeed…”
fentonsteve says
I went over the handlebars of my bike the evening before, broke an arm, and watched the whole day through a fog of hospital-prescribed painkillers. Which was probably for the best.
Gary says
Moose the Mooche says
That’s taking the tribute to Bob Dylan a bit too far. You didn’t watch in the basement of a pink house perchance?
Vincent says
i watched the whole thing, more or less, US included. GF cried during the documentary on the famine; a mate came round with £25 he owed me, and the appeal came on. MY £25 on the table. Mate and my GF look at me, and we all look at the dosh, and …. yeah, gave it to the warlords and bob’s bureaucracy to keep the business of charity exploitation going. Musically, I thought the British leg was just rock cabaret There were a few things I enjoyed from America: Santana with pat Metheny; Madonna – fabulous; Zeppelin for the ‘Tappery (or the Sabs, who were on earlier). The rest was again rock or soul cabaret. Or shite, as in the case of the Dylan, Keef, Ronnie section.
Timbar says
During Kool & the Gang performing Cherish, the trumpet player gave an unexpected & unintended “Parp”, prompting him to check his instrument for blockage, while the rest of the band swayed slowly on.
Twang says
I had had a massive row with the girlfriend of the time and legged it to a mate’s when she wasn’t looking and spent the weekend wasted on strong beer and jazz cigs. I generally enjoyed it all, caught up with the excitement of the moment. I remember being surprised by people like Howard Jones who I had completely ignored but who did well I thought.
Zanti Misfit says
Caught an hour of it with some mates but there was hardly anyone on the bill we liked (bar Costello) so we all pissed off down the beach.
Deviant808 says
It was David Bowie I was most looking forward to.
But because he had Thomas Dolby on keyboards, along with some of his usual backing band (Matthew Seligman, Kevin Armstrong et al) too.
yorkio says
A bunch of us used to play five a side football at Finsbury Leisure Centre every Sunday evening. It started off being just a few old mates who had all known each other for ages but after a while, we ended up being joined by a few stragglers who had just turned up looking for a match. One of the most regular of these was a chap called Neil, who was, apparently, a drummer. One weekend he didn’t show up. We did however see him on the Saturday – sat behind David Bowie at Live Aid…
DogFacedBoy says
My favourite bit of Bowie’s set is when he forgets the name of one of his backing singers and just makes a a “phfwah wuzza wuzza” noise and she laughs at him
Moose the Mooche says
We had a barbecue at our house… a fine way to fight starvation
dai says
I loved it:
The Who were a bit ropy otherwise the UK acts were fine. Queen were indeed awesome.
US much more hit or miss, but I loved the Beach Boys, Madonna, S Minds and NEil
Young amongst others. Dylan was an embarassment, I think he had some “issues” at the time.
Moose the Mooche says
Yes – neither of the people he was with had a clue what they were supposed to be playing. And all of that obsessive hero worshipping probably gets to him…
ruff-diamond says
“Why don’t you all just f-f-f-f….”
at 2mins 20…
Carl says
Was Adam Adamant not the worst by public consent, as evidenced by him being the only artist not to enjoy a rise in album sales in the wake of his performance?
Moose the Mooche says
It really was the worst possible time for that sort of event. If it had happened just five years earlier instead of Duran, U2 and the Thompson Twins they could have had Blondie, the Police, the whole Two-Tone mob, the Rolling Stones when they were still properly brilliant, Pink Floyd ditto, and – let’s face it – the reunited Beatles.
Bloody Africans.
Rigid Digit says
Simon Le Bon’s bum note in View To A Kill.
Probably been seen/shown several times, but you can’t help watch again (a bit like a car crash)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2AuUjum7bhY
2:53 – the fatal time is all you n-ee-EE-d
Rigid Digit says
oops – just noticed it above.
Still it does go to show how bad it was
Moose the Mooche says
Who titled that video? It’s not a “false” note. It’s a real note. Just the wrong one.
Tiggerlion says
My memory is a bit vague. I paid attention with one eye at the start but soon lost interest. However, when Denis Taylor started his comeback, it began to grip. By the time Steve Davis double-kissed the final black, I was riveted.
For me, the worst thing was Taylor’s specs. Oh dear. However, props to the man, they did the business for him in the end.
rocker49 says
easily the crappest performance of the whole shenanigans.
The Good Doctor says
Sorry Rocker49 but you’re wrong. In that context, at that time..on 13/7/1985 they smashed it.
On that day The Boomtown Rats were better than Led Zep, who were a dead-eyed bloated shambles.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hGEcxQDcF_4
duco01 says
Amazingly, I’d never actually seen that Zeppelin Live Aid footage before.
They were, indeed, really poor.
No wonder they wanted to do that London 02 gig a few years ago, as a more fitting … erm … swan song.
Locust says
I watched every minute of it. But for some odd reason the only performance I remember is Paul Young’s.
Because I absolutely loathed his music, and seeing his set I remember thinking that he was so much better live than on record (no; not that difficult). And that is genuinely all I remember from all of those hours staring at the TV…
The Good Doctor says
Probably better on record these days. Oh dear…
DougieJ says
Part of Peter Kay’s genius is in his use of nuggets like ‘No Parlez’ or ‘Thorn Birds’ to evoke a time and place; the former being, of course, Mr. Young’s mega-selling platter. Feel slightly (not too much, mind) sorry for PY in that he’s neither one thing nor t’other when it comes to 80s nostalgia – too much soul boy, not enough appealingly dated electro.
All about opinions Brian…
Zanti Misfit says
Peter Kay’s “genius”??? What, for remembering things?
James Taylor says
“Tuning issues” Paul
ianess says
Trigger Warning – NSFGR
In ’85, I was living and working in an East African country where there was a civil war going on, the Marxist-Leninist (their description) government were utterly inept, the Russians were stealing all their natural resources for a pittance, the Stasi were training the secret police, one third of the population were starving to death and the rest suffering dire poverty. However, Mocambique did not garner the same attention as Ethiopia.
The food bought from the money raised from the well-meaning souls who contributed so much went to, in order of preference, the government and its supporters, the army who were fighting the rebels, the civil servants, the customs officials, the dockers. The little that was left went to the general population. Those who received nothing at all were the rural population who were starving to death plus all those who lived in rebel-controlled areas.
About a year or so later, exactly the same conditions prevailed as before. The psychopathic thug who ruled the country so abominably – Mengistu Mariam – decided to throw an enormously costly celebration of his Communist Party’s glorious reign. One small item that has always stuck in my memory is that £20m worth of Johnny Walker Black Label was imported to ensure the Party members enjoyed their beano.
Put simply, the major, overriding problem in Africa is one of governance. Far too often, these governments have proved themselves to be corrupt and incompetent and their only aim is to remain in power to exploit their nation and its citizens.
The vast amounts of money and food aid that were donated, in good will, to Ethiopia only served, in the end, to prolong Mariam’s disastrous rule, thus ensuring many millions more lost their lives through starvation.
Moose the Mooche says
History seems to have recorded the East African famines of 1984-5 as a natural disaster. It wasn’t.
I remember my Dad saying that it was like when all of the iron railings were taken down during the war. They all ended up being dumped in the sea, because the iron wasn’t needed. The point was to make us feel as if we were doing something.
Junior Wells says
I’m confused Mengistu was head of the Derg in Etihiopia which is not Mozambique and is not in East Africa.
ianess says
At the time of Live Aid, I was living in Mozambique which had a number of similarities with the situation in Ethiopia. Confused? You soon will be…
len hyatt says
I always loved the REO Speedwagon guy. “We got a show in Milwaukee tonight!” Yeah. Thank’s man. We’ll head down.
len hyatt says
“Thanks”. Good God.