Ruislip & Eastcote & Northwood Gazette
ALL TOGETHER NOW
Live Aid was described as the day rock and roll changed the world. MARION McMULLEN counts down 35 facts about the famous event as it reaches its 35th anniversary
1 LIVE Aid concerts were held at both Wembley Stadium in London and in America, at JFK Stadium in Philadelphia, 35 years ago on July 3, 1985.
2 PHIL COLLINS was the only performer to play at both concerts. He appeared with Sting at Wembley and then Noel Edmonds took him by helicopter to the airport so he could catch a flight to America aboard Concorde. He told the US crowd: “I was in England this afternoon. Funny old world, innit?”
3 THE fundraising event in aid of famine relief in Ethiopia was organised by Boomtown Rats singer Bob Geldof and Ultravox’s Midge Ure. They described it as a “global jukebox” and the concerts followed the success of the Band Aid charity single Do They Know It’s Christmas?”.
Quincy Jones and USA For Africa brought out their own single, We Are The World.
4 THE Wembley concert was organised in a matter of week and 70,000 tickets were sold.
5 PRINCE CHARLES and Princess Diana were the guests of honour and were welcomed by Bob Geldof.
6 BOB GELDOF’S wife Paula Yates, right, stopped at a petrol station on the way to the event to buy some flowers for Diana.
7 THIRTEEN satellites beamed the live broadcast to more than a billion viewers in more than 110 countries.
8
MANY other countries also held fundraising concerts including Russia, Australia and Japan.
9 PRESENTER Richard Skinner launched the UK broadcast saying “It’s twelve noon in London, seven am in Philadelphia and around the world it’s time for Live Aid.
10 ROCK band Status Quo opened the concert with Rockin’ All Over The World.
11 QUEEN singer Freddie Mercury had a throat infection and went on stage against his doctor’s advice.
12 U2 performed a 14-minute version of their song Bad which saw singer Bono jump off the stage to dance with a girl in the crowd.
13 DAVID BOWIE and Mick Jagger wanted to perform Dancing In The Street live across the two concerts, but technical difficulties meant they had to record a video instead.
14 DONATIONS shot up after a video of suffering children in Ethiopia – set against Drive by The Cars – was screened.
15 ELTON JOHN had the longest set of the day at 32 minutes. It included a performance of Don’t Let The Sun Go Down On Me, with George Michael.
16 PAUL McCARTNEY’S microphone failed for the first two minutes of his performance.
17 HOLLYWOOD film star Jack Nicholson, right, took to the stage in America to introduce U2’s performance back at Wembley.
18 MADONNA was described at the time as an “up-and-coming singer” when she appeared in Philadelphia.
20 YUSSEF ISLAM, better known as Cat Stevens, had written a song for the concert, but did not perform it because of time constraints. He only appeared on stage for the finale.
19 AMERICAN duo Hall and Oates were Mick Jagger’s backing band during his performance with Tina Turner.
21 ELTON JOHN cooked burgers backstage for David Bowie, Freddie Mercury and many of the other performers at Wembley.
22 BOB GELDOF and The Boomtown Rats opened their set with I Don’t Like Mondays.
23 MIDGE URE and Ultravox closed their set with Vienna.
24 ACTS at Wembley included Sade, inset right, Elvis Costello, Adam Ant, Bryan Ferry, Spandau Ballet, Style Council, Wham!, The Who and Alison Moyet.
25 PERFORMERS who took to the stage in America included Boy George, Duran Duran, Billy Joel, Eric Clapton, Simple Minds and Tina Turner. Tina said she stood on Mick Jagger’s foot with one of her high heels when they were performing It’s Only Rock ‘n’ Roll.
26 A GENERATOR exploded during The Who’s performance causing the satellite link to be lost as Roger Daltrey sang the line “..fade away”.
27 ERIC CLAPTON got a static shock from his microphone as he began singing White Room.
28 THE BBC received four complaints after an impassioned Bob Geldof used the ‘F word’ during the live broadcast as he appealed to the public to make donations.
29 A RED warning light at the side of the Wembley stage would start to flash to warn acts when their time was up. The Who’s Pete Townshend simply smashed it and the band continued playing for another five minutes.
30 THE ruling family in Dubai made the biggest single donation of £1 million.
31 THE two concerts in the UK and America lasted for a combined 16 hours.
32 LIVE AID became the largest live broadcast in the world.
33 PAUL McCARTNEY and The Who’s Pete Townsend carried Bob Geldof on their shoulders during the finale of the Wembley concert.
34 BOB GELDOF famously told viewers: “You’ve got to get on the phone and take the money out of your pockets. Don’t go to the pub tonight, please. Stay in and give us the money.”
35 BOB had to hitch-hike home after the concert because there were no taxis left. His parting words were “I’m going to go home and sleep.”