New Wave Outpost Forum

My first exposure to the Live Aid phenomenon was while watching a video of Ultravox playing Dancing With Tears In My Eyes there. That was over a year ago.
In the past few months I've become increasingly interested in sales figures of singles/albums of the 80s, so, a few weeks ago I came across a list of the biggest selling singles of that decade and I saw that Do They Know It's Christmas? was at number one. I had never heard the song before so I decided to give it a try. I saw the video and liked it, but that was it.
But few weeks ago I became a bit obsessed with Ultravox (again) so I started searching for videos of them playing other songs at Live Aid. I soon downloaded 3 of the 4 songs they played there. Then, I started searching for some info about the event and I became obsessed. In the past few days I saw videos of and downloaed songs by Spandau Ballet, U2 and Paul Young and the discovery of new songs and artists continues.
I'm also currently seeing on YouTube a fantastic documentary about the organization of the event made by the BBC.
I think that what interested me about the event is that it showed that a bunch of rock stars could put their egos and rivalries aside in order to help other people.
Sadly, I wasn't even born when all this happened (I'm only 23). And I love 80s music so I'd have loved to be there (there were good bands playing in Philadelphia but if I had to choose it would have been Wembley because I like British music better). Besides the artists I mentioned before I also liked George Michael with Elton John. But I still have a lot to see.

I'D LOVE YOU SHARE YOUR MEMORIES ABOUT THIS EVENT

[quote]Originally posted by Silvina Hernandez
[br]My first exposure to the Live Aid phenomenon was while watching a video of Ultravox playing Dancing With Tears In My Eyes there. That was over a year ago.
In the past few months I've become increasingly interested in sales figures of singles/albums of the 80s, so, a few weeks ago I came across a list of the biggest selling singles of that decade and I saw that Do They Know It's Christmas? was at number one. I had never heard the song before so I decided to give it a try. I saw the video and liked it, but that was it.
But few weeks ago I became a bit obsessed with Ultravox (again) so I started searching for videos of them playing other songs at Live Aid. I soon downloaded 3 of the 4 songs they played there. Then, I started searching for some info about the event and I became obsessed. In the past few days I saw videos of and downloaed songs by Spandau Ballet, U2 and Paul Young and the discovery of new songs and artists continues.
I'm also currently seeing on YouTube a fantastic documentary about the organization of the event made by the BBC.
I think that what interested me about the event is that it showed that a bunch of rock stars could put their egos and rivalries aside in order to help other people.
Sadly, I wasn't even born when all this happened (I'm only 23). And I love 80s music so I'd have loved to be there (there were good bands playing in Philadelphia but if I had to choose it would have been Wembley because I like British music better). Besides the artists I mentioned before I also liked George Michael with Elton John. But I still have a lot to see.
I'D LOVE YOU SHARE YOUR MEMORIES ABOUT THIS EVENT
[/quote]
I remember watching this as a kid. I was at my grandparents' house, and a neighbor boy was over hanging out watching with me. At some point though, he had to leave, and he said 'I gotta motor', which I thought was extremely cool (what can I say? I was ten and he was a bit older, and I guess I was easily impressed).
But here's an assignment for you, young Silvina. Live Aid was definitely a major '80s cultural event-- for better or worse. Has it stood the test of time? Does it measure up to, say, Woodstock? Your task is to discern if Live Aid, artistically, was any good. And is it relevant to the NWO? Most of the bands that performed were all over top-40 radio at the time-- and there were plenty that weren't even really '80s' artists at all.

I remember watching a bit of it, but I wasn't that hyped about it. It was the first time I had heard Bowie's Rebel Rebel and Police's Message in a Bottle.

let's see...Style Council, David Bowie, Bryan Ferry, Spandau Ballet,Nik Kershaw, Alison Moyet, Ultravox,Adam Ant, The Cars, Boomtown Rats,Duran Duran,Thompson Twins, The Pretenders,Sting,Simple Minds,to name a few that played Live Aid
even INXS played for Australia that day for Live Aid

Watched it on TV as a kid, it was a huge event.. it seemed like EVERYONE was watching it and talking about it (in my world).

The Queen performance is _AWESOME_

I think I would pick up the DVDs if they were on special for $20-25.

There was mass interest at the time topped off with Bob Geldof exorting on TV "Give us your fucking money!".

The event did a lot of good as it saved a lot of people..'s careers. Before this the likes of Geldof and Status Quo were washed up and the event revitalised their careers.

How much effect the proceeds actually had is debatable as there are reports that state a lot of the aid went to local warlords rather than where it was needed.

I remember the day clearly. I was still a teenager living in a suburb of Cleveland (Euclid) and I had a job at the cookie store in the mall. In the morning before work, I watched some of it on TV (I remember The Style Council in particular). I brought my radio with me to work because there was a simulcast on the local FM station. At one point, the power went out in the mall and it was out for quite a bit. Luckily I had new batteries in my radio and was able to keep listening. I had made friends with some of the guys at the record store across the hall, and I remember them coming over and talking to me about the broadcast. (I ended up working at that store later that year and stayed until 1992, becoming manager in the process). The power eventually came back on. I finished my shift, walked over to the record store to buy an album (I believe it was Scritti Politti) and rode my bike home.

I turned the TV on and watched everything else, all through the night. It was incredible. I think I came in somewhere around when The Thompson Twins started their set. I was happy about that because they were my first concert ever, one year prior (Berlin was the opening act). I put a tape in the VCR and recorded a lot of it. I was sad I had missed my favorite band, though (Simple Minds) as their set was on while I was at work.

They didn't "officially" film it because Geldof meant for the event to be a "Global Jukebox," as in "You put in your money, get your songs, and that's it." In the '90s, VH-1 aired some of the footage, which was great to see. I bought a book later in 1985 that was a photo record of the event. I still have it.

I was very happy in the '00s when Warner Home Video finally released a DVD set of the show. They used "b-roll footage" and pieced together the audio from radio broadcast archives, but it turned out pretty good. Some stuff is missing, because of artist requests (Led Zeppelin did not give permission because their performance was terrible).

"Do They Know It's Christmas" inspired "We Are The World." When the latter song premiered on radio in 1985, the organizers set up an event where almost every pop radio station in the country would debut the song on the same day at the same time. I remember sitting at home in front of the stereo, turning the knob to tune in different stations to all hear them playing the same song.

"Words like conviction can turn into a sentence"

Check out this phenomenal BBC documentary about Live Aid:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WQWs23NtRas

July 13, 1985. I was 22 then, watched pretty much the entire Live Aid broadcast on MTV. Some great performances. I loved the 80's, not everything, but a lot of it was awesome, good time to be alive.

<HR width="185" align="left">
"Photography with a Vision"
http://www.cooganphoto.com

I stress again how awesome the Queen performance was.

For mine, this performance stands out from all others from all Live Aid venues for the entire event (not that the others were bad of course, just I found Queen to be exceptional.. and I'm not even a massive Queen fan, though after seeing this on the DVD some years later I gained a new respect for them).

TM

[quote][i]Originally posted by rewind[/i]
<br>Check out this phenomenal BBC documentary about Live Aid:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WQWs23NtRas


[/quote]
This is the first part of the documentary (Against All Odds) that shows how the event was organized. There's another one, called Rockin' All Over The World, which is about the event itself.
I've seen both of them several times in the past few weeks (as I've been a bit obsessed about the whole thing) and I can say that they're very entertaining (they're the best documntaries I've ever seen), specially the second one, where you can see what was happening backstage. It's worth watching again and again and again.
Here are the links for the Rockin' All Over The World documentary:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wttLk5mXXSI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RTUGxLlDfxc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4m7ZkXaPnYs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Y3AJiY2d_Y
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nE7xq_6QsQ8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IgplAyC2t0E

Some quick memories:

- it was huge! HUGE! Benefit concerts are a dime a dozen now, but Live Aid was massive - two continents, and an insane number of tremendously big acts.

- out on Long Island in New York we watched the morning/afternoon sets at a night club called Reds. Yup, the event was so big that nightclubs opened their doors in the morning so you could go watch it there and dance, drink, hang out.

- Queen were beyond phenomenal. No band has ever worked a crowd the way they did that day. I'm not a Queen fanatic, but that day Queen became everyone's favorite band for a half hour or so. They were fantastic.

- Sade did a great set. Her soft music is the opposite of Queen's big bombastic music, yet she had the huge crowd in the palm of her hand. She was very smooth and very cool.

- Madonna actually performed with The Thompson Twins! The Twins were at that point bigger than Madonna (she was just breaking then), but still it really is a bizarre thing to see The Thompson Twins center stage with Madonna singing backup vocals for them.

- and this one still pisses people off: Paul McCartney was the big act at Philadelphia. At that point Paul rarely did a Beatle tune (today all Paul sings is Beatle tunes), so when he performed an old classic back then it was very special. Well, in Philadelphia Paul broke out "Let It Be." Fantastic moment...but completely ruined by MTV who was broadcasting the event. While Paul was singing, for some f***ed up reason the director decided to show MTV VJ Martha Quinn looking all teary eyed and singing along to "Let It Be." There's Paul singing a song he rarely did AND WE ARE LOOKING AT F***ING MARTHA QUINN! Martha Quinn to this day says she still gets people complaining about that to her. She says (and rightly so) it wasn't her fault. She had no idea the director decided Martha Quinn singing along to "Let It Be" was more important to show than Paul McCartney singing "Let It Be." Nearly thirty years later I and many others still want to bash that director in the face.

"Nearly thirty years later I and many others still want to bash that director in the face."

^ *like*

TM

Crocodiles, dude, you need to let it be.