Live Aid

Live Aid
The 2004 Live Aid DVD cover
Genre	Pop music Rock music
Dates	13 July 1985
Location(s)	Wembley Stadium in London, England, United Kingdom John F. Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States
Years active	1985
Founded by	Bob Geldof Midge Ure
Website
www.live8live.com

Live Aid was a dual-venue concert held on 13 July 1985, and an ongoing music-based fundraising initiative. The original event was organised by Bob Geldof and Midge Ure to raise funds for relief of the ongoing Ethiopian famine. Billed as the "global jukebox", the event was held simultaneously at Wembley Stadium in London, England, United Kingdom (attended by 72,000 people) and John F. Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States (attended by about 100,000 people).^[1] On the same day, concerts inspired by the initiative happened in other countries, such as Australia and Germany. It was one of the largest-scale satellite link-ups and television broadcasts of all time: an estimated global audience of 1.9 billion, across 150 nations, watched the live broadcast.^[2]

Background

The 1985 Live Aid concert was conceived as a follow-on to the successful charity single "Do They Know It's Christmas?" which was also the brainchild of Geldof and Ure. In October 1984, images of millions of people starving to death in Ethiopia were shown in the UK in Michael Buerk's BBC News reports on the 1984 famine.^[3] Bob Geldof saw the report, and called Midge Ure from Ultravox, and together they quickly co-wrote the song, "Do They Know It's Christmas?" in the hope of raising money for famine relief.^[3] Geldof then contacted colleagues in the music industry and persuaded them to record the single under the title 'Band Aid' for free.^[3] On 25 November 1984, the song was recorded at Sarm West Studios in Notting Hill, London, and was released four days later.^[4][5] It stayed at number-one for five weeks in the UK, was Christmas number one, and became the fastest-selling single ever in Britain and raised £8 million, rather than the £70,000 Geldof and Ure had initially expected.^[3] Geldof then set his sights on staging a huge concert to raise further funds.^[3]

The idea to stage a charity concert to raise more funds for Ethiopia originally came from Boy George, the lead singer of Culture Club. George and Culture Club drummer Jon Moss had taken part in the recording of "Do They Know It's Christmas?" and in December 1984 Culture Club were undertaking a tour of the UK, which culminated in six nights at Wembley Arena. On the final night at Wembley, Saturday 22 December 1984, an impromptu gathering of some of the other artists from Band Aid joined Culture Club on stage at the end of the concert for an encore of "Do They Know It's Christmas?". George was so overcome by the occasion he told Geldof that they should consider organising a benefit concert. Speaking to the UK music magazine Melody Maker at the beginning of January 1985, Geldof revealed his enthusiasm for George's idea, saying, "If George is organising it, you can tell him he can call me at any time and I'll do it. It's a logical progression from the record, but the point is you don't just talk about it, you go ahead and do it!"^[6]

It was clear from the interview that Geldof had already had the idea to hold a dual venue concert and how the concerts should be structured:

"The show should be as big as is humanly possible. There's no point just 5,000 fans turning up at Wembley; we need to have Wembley linked with Madison Square Gardens and the whole show to be televised worldwide. It would be great for Duran to play three or four numbers at Wembley and then flick to Madison Square where Springsteen would be playing. While he's on, the Wembley stage could be made ready for the next British act like the Thompsons or whoever. In that way lots of acts could be featured and the television rights, tickets and so on could raise a phenomenal amount of money. It's not an impossible idea, and certainly one worth exploiting."^[6]

Organization

Among those involved in organising Live Aid were Harvey Goldsmith, who was responsible for the Wembley Stadium concert, and Bill Graham, who put together the American leg.^[7]

The concert grew in scope, as more acts were added on both sides of the Atlantic. Tony Verna, inventor of instant replay, was able to secure John F. Kennedy Stadium through his friendship with Philadelphia Mayor Goode and was able to procure, through his connections with ABC's prime time chief, John Hamlin, a three hour prime time slot on the ABC Network and, in addition, was able to supplement the lengthy program through meetings that resulted in the addition of an ad-hoc network within the USA, which covered 85 percent of TVs in the United States.^[7] Verna designed the needed satellite schematic and became the Executive Director as well as the Co-Executive Producer along with Hal Uplinger. Uplinger came up with the idea to produce a four-hour video edit of Live Aid to distribute to those countries without the necessary satellite equipment to rebroadcast the live feed.^[7]

Hal Uplinger and Neil Mallard worked together to assist in the expansion of the General Association of Sports Federations (GAISF), which was seeking to bring together the common ambitions of the Sports Federations, who were members – and non members – of the International Olympic Committee (IOC).

Following the highly successful expansion of GAISF, Hal Uplinger made contact with the Live Aid organisers and discovered that there appeared to be no plans for any TV News projection from the event. Hal immediately contacted Neil Mallard – who had been appointed the first-ever International Television News Agency Sports Editor at Visnews/Thomson-Reuters TV Corporation, in 1974 – and who therefore understood not just world-wide TV news but also the global satellite and PTT – a pre-fibre-optic system, which combined multiple copper telephone lines together to carry a TV signal – system backwards. Together, Neil and Hal joined forces with the Live Aid organising committee – which included Harvey Goldsmith and Bob Geldof. Neil Mallard also convinced Visnews – the world's largest TV News Agency – to contribute invaluable support from their satellite guru, Simon Patch.

After numerous meetings to address and sort out a raft of different and highly challenging technical requirements, so as to achieve Geldof’s vision of a global Live Aid viewing audience, Neil and Tim Mallard took charge of global co-ordination as a part of the BBC Live Aid outside-broadcast operation, based at Wembley Stadium, and held the operation together from the start of the event, and through to its conclusion.

As a charity fundraiser, the concert far exceeded its goals: on a television programme in 2001, a Live Aid organiser stated that while initially it had been hoped that Live Aid would raise £1 million with the help of Wembley tickets costing £25.00 each, the final figure was £150 million (approx. $283.6 million). Partly in recognition of the Live Aid effort, Geldof received an honorary knighthood from Queen Elizabeth II. For his contribution to Live Aid in the US, Uplinger won a 1989 Computerworld Smithsonian Award in the Media, Arts & Entertainment Category.

Collaborative effort

The concert began at 12:00 British Summer Time (BST) (7:00 Eastern Daylight Time (EDT)) at Wembley Stadium in the United Kingdom. It continued at John F. Kennedy Stadium (JFK) in the United States, starting at 13:51 BST (8:51 EDT). The UK's Wembley performances ended at 22:00 BST (17:00 EDT). The JFK performances and whole concert in the US ended at 04:05 BST 14 July (23:05 EDT). Thus, the concert continued for just over 16 hours, but since many artists' performances were conducted simultaneously in Wembley and JFK, the total concert's length was much longer.

Mick Jagger and David Bowie intended to perform an intercontinental duet, with Bowie in London and Jagger in Philadelphia. Problems of synchronization meant the only remotely practical solution was to have one artist, likely Bowie at Wembley, mime along to prerecorded vocals broadcast as part of the live sound mix for Jagger's performance from Philadelphia. Veteran music engineer David Richards (Pink Floyd and Queen) was brought in to create footage and sound mixes Jagger and Bowie could perform to in their respective venues. The BBC would then have had to ensure those footage and sound mixes were in synch while also performing a live vision mix of the footage from both venues. The combined footage would then have had to be bounced back by satellite to the various broadcasters around the world. Due to the time lag (the signal would take several seconds to be broadcast twice across the Atlantic Ocean) Richards concluded there was no way for Jagger to hear or see Bowie's performance, meaning there could be no interaction between the artists; essentially defeating the whole point of the exercise. On top of this, both artists objected to the idea of miming at what was perceived as a historic event. Instead, Jagger and Bowie worked with Richards to create a video clip of the song they would have performed, a cover of "Dancing in the Street", which was shown on the screens of both stadiums and broadcast as part of many TV networks coverage.

Each of the two main parts of the concert ended with their particular continental all-star anti-hunger anthems, with Band Aid's "Do They Know It's Christmas?" closing the UK concert, and USA for Africa's "We Are the World" closing the US concert (and thus the entire event itself).^[8]

Concert organizers have subsequently said they were particularly keen to ensure at least one surviving member of the Beatles, ideally Paul McCartney, took part in the concert as they felt that having an 'elder statesman' from British music would give it greater legitimacy in the eyes of the political leaders whose opinions the performers were trying to shape. McCartney agreed to perform and has said it was "the management" – his children – who persuaded him to take part. In the event, he was the last performer (aside from the Band Aid finale) to take to the stage and one of the few to be beset by technical difficulties; his microphone failed for the first two minutes of his piano performance of "Let It Be", making it difficult for television viewers and impossible for those in the stadium to hear him. He later joked by saying he had thought about changing the lyrics to "There will be some feedback, let it be".

Phil Collins performed at both Wembley Stadium and JFK, utilising the Concorde to get him from London to Philadelphia. UK TV personality Noel Edmonds piloted the helicopter that took Collins to Heathrow Airport to catch his flight to NYC. (Collins later was flown by chopper to Philadelphia). Aside from his own set at both venues, he also played the drums for Eric Clapton, and played with the reuniting surviving members of Led Zeppelin at JFK. On the Concorde flight, Collins encountered actress and singer Cher, who was unaware of the concerts. Upon reaching the US, she attended the Philadelphia concert and can be seen performing as part of the concert's "We Are the World" finale.

An official book was produced by Bob Geldof in collaboration with photographer Denis O'Regan.

The broadcasts

"It's twelve noon in London, seven AM in Philadelphia, and around the world it's time for: Live Aid ....", said Richard Skinner when opening the show.

The concert is the most ambitious international satellite television venture that had ever been attempted at the time. In Europe, the feed was supplied by the BBC, whose broadcast was presented by Richard Skinner, Tommy Vance, Andy Kershaw, Mark Ellen, David Hepworth, Andy Batten-Foster, Steve Blacknell, Paul Gambaccini, Janice Long and Mike Smith and included numerous interviews and chats in between the various acts. The BBC's television sound feed was mono, as was all UK TV audio before NICAM was introduced, but the BBC Radio 1 feed was stereo and was simulcast in sync with the TV pictures. Unfortunately, in the rush to set up the transatlantic feeds, the sound feed from Philadelphia was sent to London via transatlantic cable, while the video feed was via satellite, which meant a lack of synchronisation on British television receivers. Due to the constant activities in both London and Philadelphia, the BBC producers omitted the reunion of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young from their broadcast. The BBC, however, did supply a 'clean feed' to various television channels in Europe.

ABC was largely responsible for the US broadcast (although ABC themselves only telecast the final three hours of the concert from Philadelphia, hosted by Dick Clark, with the rest shown in syndication through Orbis Communications, acting on behalf of ABC). An entirely separate and simultaneous US feed was provided for cable viewers by MTV, whose broadcast was presented in stereo, and accessible as such for those with stereo televisions. At the time, before Multichannel television sound was enacted nationwide, very few televisions reproduced stereo signals and few television stations were able to broadcast in stereo. While the telecast was run commercial-free by the BBC, both the MTV and syndicated/ABC broadcasts included advertisements and interviews. As a result, many songs were omitted due to the commercial breaks, as these songs were played during these slots.

The biggest caveat of the syndicated/ABC coverage is that the network had wanted to reserve some of the biggest acts that had played earlier in the day for certain points in the entire broadcast, particularly in the final three hours in prime time; thus, Orbis Communications had some sequences replaced by others, especially those portions of the concert that had acts from London and Philadelphia playing simultaneously. For example, while the London/Wembley finale was taking place at 22:00 (10:00 pm) London time, syndicated viewers saw segments that had been recorded earlier, so that ABC could show the UK finale during its prime-time portion. In 1995, VH1 and MuchMusic aired a re-edited ten-hour re-broadcast of the concert for its 10th Anniversary.

At one point midway through the concert, Billy Connolly announced he had just been informed that 95% of the television sets around the world were tuned to the event, though this can of course not be verified.

The Live Aid concert in London was also the first time that the BBC outside broadcast sound equipment had been used for an event of such a scale. In stark contrast to the mirrored sound systems commonly used by the rock band touring engineers, with two 40–48 channel mixing consoles at the Front of house, and another pair for monitors, the BBC sound engineers had to use multiple 12 channel desks. Some credit this as the point where the mainstream entertainment industry realised that the rock concert industry had overtaken them in technical expertise.^[9]

Wembley Stadium

The Coldstream Guards band opened with the "Royal Salute", "God Save the Queen". Status Quo started their set with "Rockin' All Over the World", also playing "Caroline" and fan favourite "Don't Waste My Time".^[10] This was to be the last appearance by the band to feature bassist and founder member Alan Lancaster, and drummer Pete Kircher who had joined the band three years earlier.

Queen galvanised the stadium with some of their greatest hits, in which lead singer Freddie Mercury at times led the entire crowd of 72,000 in unison refrains.^[11] The band's 20-minute set opened with "Bohemian Rhapsody" and closed with "We Are the Champions".^[2][12][13] They extensively rehearsed their performance at London's Shaw Theatre.^[14] Prior to their taking the stage, Queen's sound engineer covertly switched out the limiters installed on the venue's sound system so the performance would be louder than the others.^[14] Queen's performance on that day has since been voted by more than 60 artists, journalists and music industry executives as the greatest live performance in the history of rock music,^[15] while Mercury's powerful, sustained note during the a cappella section came to be known as "The Note Heard Round the World".^[16] Mercury and fellow band member Brian May later sang the first song of the three-part Wembley event finale, "Is This The World We Created...?".^[13]

Bob Geldof performed with the rest of the Boomtown Rats, singing "I Don't Like Mondays". He stopped just after the line "The lesson today is how to die" to loud applause.^[2][17] He finished the song and left the crowd to sing the final words.

Elvis Costello sang a version of the Beatles' "All You Need Is Love", which he introduced by asking the audience to "help [him] sing this old northern English folk song".^[18]

U2's performance further established them as a pre-eminent live group^[19] – something for which they would eventually become superstars. The band played a 14-minute rendition of "Bad", during which lead vocalist Bono jumped off the stage to join the crowd and dance with a girl. The length of their performance of "Bad" limited them to playing just two songs; the third, "Pride (In the Name of Love)", had to be ditched. In July 2005, the girl with whom he danced said that he actually saved her life at the time. She was being crushed by the throngs of people pushing forwards; Bono saw this, and gestured frantically at the ushers to help her. They did not understand what he was saying, and so he jumped down to help her himself.^[20]

Another moment that garnered a huge crowd response was when David Bowie performed "Heroes" and dedicated it to his son, as well as "All our children, and the children of the world".^[21]

The UK reception of the US feed failed several times and was dogged throughout the US concert by an intermittent regular buzzing on the audio from the US (see the John F. Kennedy Stadium section for more detail) and also failed during their relay of Japan's concert, which blacked out most of Off Course's song "Endless Nights".

In addition, the transatlantic broadcast from Wembley Stadium suffered technical problems and failed during the Who's performance of their song "My Generation", immediately after Roger Daltrey sang "Why don't you all fade..." (the last word was cut off when a blown fuse caused the Wembley stage TV feed to temporarily fail).^[2] The Who played with Kenney Jones on drums and it was their first performance since they'd officially disbanded after their 1982 'farewell' tour. The Who's performance included an at times chaotic but still blistering version of "Won't Get Fooled Again". The band's performance was described as "rough but right" by Rolling Stone magazine, but they would not perform together again until the 1988 BPI Awards.^[22]

While performing "Let it Be" near the end of the show, the microphone mounted to Paul McCartney's piano failed for the first two minutes of the song, making it difficult for television viewers and the stadium audience to hear him.^[2] During this performance, the TV audience were better off, audio-wise, than the stadium audience, as the TV sound was picked up from other microphones near McCartney. The stadium audience, who could obviously not hear the electronic sound feed from these mikes, unless they had portable TV sets and radios, drowned out what little sound from Paul could be heard during this part of his performance. As a result, organiser and performer Bob Geldof, accompanied by earlier performers David Bowie, Alison Moyet, and Pete Townshend, returned to the stage to sing with him and back him up (as did the stadium audience despite not being able to hear much), by which time, Paul's microphone had been repaired.^[23]

At the conclusion of the Wembley performances, Bob Geldof was raised onto the shoulders of the Who's guitarist Pete Townshend and Paul McCartney.^[24]

John F. Kennedy Stadium

Stage view of Live Aid at John F. Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia

Live Aid under the lights at John F. Kennedy Stadium

The host of the televised portion of the concert in Philadelphia was actor Jack Nicholson. The artist Joan Baez announced to the crowd, "this is your Woodstock, and it's long overdue," before leading the crowd in singing "Amazing Grace" and "We Are the World".^[25]

When Madonna got on stage, despite the 95 °F (35 °C) ambient temperature, she proclaimed "I'm not taking shit off today!" referring to the recent release of early nude photos of her in Playboy and Penthouse magazines.

During his opening number, "American Girl", Tom Petty flipped the middle finger to somebody off stage about one minute into song. Petty stated the song was a last-minute addition when the band realised that they would be the first act to play the American side of the concert after the London finale and "since this is, after all, JFK Stadium".^[26]

When Bob Dylan broke a guitar string, while playing with the Rolling Stones' Keith Richards and Ronnie Wood, Wood took off his own guitar and gave it to Dylan. Wood was left standing on stage guitarless. After shrugging to the audience, he played air guitar, even mimicking the Who's Pete Townshend by swinging his arm in wide circles, until a stagehand brought him a replacement. The performance itself was included in the DVD, including the guitar switch and Wood talking to stage hands, but much of the footage used were close-ups of either Dylan or Richards.

During their duet on "It's Only Rock 'n' Roll", Mick Jagger ripped away part of Tina Turner's dress, leaving her to finish the song in what was, effectively, a leotard.

The JFK portion included reunions of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, the original Black Sabbath with Ozzy Osbourne, and surviving members of Led Zeppelin, with Phil Collins and the Power Station (and former Chic) member Tony Thompson sharing duties on drums in place of the band's late drummer John Bonham (although they were not officially announced by their group name from the stage, but were announced as Led Zeppelin on the VH1 10th Anniversary re-broadcast in 1995).^[27]

Teddy Pendergrass made his first public appearance since his near-fatal car accident in 1982 which paralysed him. Pendergrass, along with Ashford & Simpson, performed "Reach Out and Touch".

Duran Duran performed a four-song set which was the final time the five original band members would publicly perform together until 2003. Their set saw a weak, off-key falsetto note hit by frontman Simon Le Bon during "A View to a Kill". The error was trumpeted by numerous media outlets as "The Bum Note Heard Round the World",^[16][28] in contrast to Mercury's "Note Heard Round the World" at Wembley.^[16] Le Bon later recalled that it was the most embarrassing moment of his career.^[28]

The UK TV feed from Philadelphia was dogged by an intermittent regular buzzing on the sound during Bryan Adams' turn on stage and continued less frequently throughout the rest of the UK reception of the American concert and both the audio and video feed failed entirely during that performance and during Simple Minds's performance.

Phil Collins, who had performed in England earlier in the day, began his set with the quip, "I was in England this afternoon. Funny old world, innit?", to cheers from the Philadelphia crowd.

Fundraising

Throughout the concerts, viewers were urged to donate money to the Live Aid cause. Three hundred phone lines were manned by the BBC, so that members of the public could make donations using their credit cards. The phone number and an address that viewers could send cheques to were repeated every twenty minutes.

Nearly seven hours into the concert in London, Bob Geldof enquired how much money had been raised; he was told £1.2 million. He is said to have been sorely disappointed by the amount and marched to the BBC commentary position. Pumped up further by a performance by Queen which he later called "absolutely amazing", Geldof gave an interview in which he used the word "fuck". The BBC presenter David Hepworth, conducting the interview, had attempted to provide a list of addresses to which potential donations should be sent; Geldof interrupted him in mid-flow and shouted: "Fuck the address, let's get the numbers!" It has passed into folklore^[29] that he yelled at the audience, "Give us your fucking money!" although Geldof has stated that this phrase was never uttered.^[30] Private Eye magazine made great capital out of these outbursts, emphasising Geldof's accent which meant the profanities were heard as "fock" and "focking". After the outburst, giving increased to £300 per second.

Later in the evening, following David Bowie's set, a video shot by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation was shown to the audiences in London and Philadelphia, as well as on televisions around the world (though neither US feed, ABC nor MTV chose to show the film), showing starving and diseased Ethiopian children set to the song "Drive" by the Cars. (This would also be shown at the London Live 8 concert in 2005.) The rate of giving became faster in the immediate aftermath of the moving video. Geldof had previously refused to allow the video to be shown, due to time constraints, and had only relented when Bowie offered to drop the song "Five Years" from his set as a trade-off.

Geldof mentioned during the concert that the Republic of Ireland gave the most donations per capita, despite being in the threat of a serious economic recession at the time. The single largest donation came from the Al Maktoum, who was part of the ruling family of Dubai, who donated £1M in a phone conversation with Geldof. The next day, news reports stated that between £40 and £50 million had been raised. It is now estimated that around £150m has been raised for famine relief as a direct result of the concerts.

Notable absences

Bruce Springsteen failed to appear at the Wembley Live Aid concert despite his huge popularity in 1985, later stating that he "simply did not realise how big the whole thing was going to be". He has since expressed regret at turning down Geldof's invitation stating that he could have played a couple of acoustic songs had there been no slot available for a full band performance.

Michael Jackson also refused to take part in the whole event. According to Joan Baez, Jackson and Stevie Wonder attempted to organize a boycott of the event.^[31]

Prince did not play, but did send a pre-taped video of an acoustic version of "4 the Tears in Your Eyes", which was played during the concert. The original version appears on the We Are the World album, while the video version was released in 1993 on Prince's compilation The Hits/The B-Sides. He wrote the song "Hello" about the criticism he got for turning it down.^[32]

Billy Joel, Boy George, Waylon Jennings, Kris Kristofferson, Tears for Fears, Huey Lewis and the News and Paul Simon, were all included in the initial promotional material for the Philadelphia concert, but failed to appear at the show itself. Paul Simon and Huey Lewis both accepted requests to play the Philadelphia concert but later issued press statements stating they had chosen not to appear after all, citing disagreements with promoter Bill Graham. The final poster for the Philadelphia show features the acts Peter, Paul and Mary and Rod Stewart (who also featured in the Philadelphia concert programme). Peter, Paul and Mary were to have joined Bob Dylan for a rendition of "Blowing In The Wind" since they had recorded a cover version in the 1960s – but Dylan called the organizers a few days before the show saying that he would play with Ronnie Wood and Keith Richards instead (ironically, Bill Wyman apparently told Geldof before not to approach the Stones because ‘Keith doesn’t give a fuck’).^[33] Stewart was not touring at the time and was ultimately unable to put together a band in time for the concert as was Billy Joel who actually did not like the idea of performing solo in front of such a big stadium audience. Geldof claimed "Stevie Wonder eventually agreed to appear, but then he phoned me up and said, 'I am not going to be the token black on the show'".^[33]

Cliff Richard was unable to perform as he was committed to a gospel charity concert in Birmingham.^[34]

Regarding Tears for Fears's absence, band member Roland Orzabal remarked that Bob Geldof "gave us so much gip for not turning up at Live Aid. All those millions of people dying, it was our fault. I felt terrible. I tell you, I know how Hitler must have felt." The group made up for their absence by donating the proceeds from several shows of their world tour that year, and also contributed a re-recording of "Everybody Wants to Rule the World" (entitled "Everybody Wants to Run the World") for Geldof's Sport Aid charity event in 1986. The single reached the Top 5 in the UK, even though the band's original version had been a hit only a year earlier.

Cat Stevens wrote a song for the Live Aid concert, which he never got to perform. According to the official book that was released after the event, he arrived at Wembley Stadium on the day without prior warning, and Geldof was unable to fit him into the schedule.

Liza Minnelli, Yoko Ono, and Cyndi Lauper were tapped to present at JFK Stadium, but backed out. Lauper did appear in a commercial for the "Live Aid Book" that aired during the concert.

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.^[35] Eurythmics were scheduled to play Wembley but cancelled after Annie Lennox suffered serious throat problems. Deep Purple (minus Blackmore, who left the band in 1993) appeared at Geldof's Live 8 sequel 20 years later, performing at the Toronto leg of the event while Annie Lennox appeared at the London and Edinburgh^[36] Live 8 concerts.

Frank Zappa was invited to perform, but refused because he believed that the money raised by Live Aid did not address the core problems facing the developing world and instead aided the developed world by providing ways to get drugs, calling the concert "the biggest cocaine money laundering scheme of all time".^[37]

A sighting of George Harrison arriving Wednesday night at Heathrow Airport led to widespread speculation that a reunion of the three living Beatles was in the works. He was approached by Geldof to join Paul McCartney at "Let it Be", answering "Paul didn’t ask me to sing on it (Let It Be) ten years ago, why does he want me now?"^[33] Frustrated by a bombardment of Beatles reunion questions, Geldof said: "It's just something you have to answer. I find it silly that with all these acts and the real purpose of the concert that the one thing people suddenly get caught up over is, 'Are the Beatles going to reform?' Who cares? Besides, they can't reform--or haven't people read the papers the last five years?" (a reference to the death of John Lennon).

Bill Graham is said to have turned down Foreigner and Yes because there was no free space on the bill for them.^[35]

The British rock band Marillion, riding high in the UK charts that summer with their Misplaced Childhood album and "Kayleigh" single, missed out on an invitation to perform at Wembley because their manager had deemed it not worthwhile for their lead singer Fish to participate in the "Do They Know It's Christmas?" single. Fish was quoted: "When it came to the bill for the concert we were passed over."^[38]

Participating in the "Do They Know It's Christmas?" finale at Wembley were Justin Hayward and John Lodge from the Moody Blues, Stewart Copeland from the Police and the members of Big Country. On the other hand, Lionel Richie, Harry Belafonte, Dionne Warwick, Melissa Manchester, Sheena Easton and Cher all showed up at the JFK finale performing "We Are The World".

Diana Ross, Van Halen, Frankie Goes to Hollywood, the Smiths, Talking Heads and Donna Summer also turned down requests to appear. Depeche Mode, one of the most successful English bands of the 1980s, was not invited. Alan Wilder, one of the DM members at the time said: "I doubt very much that we would have accepted the invitation, had we been asked. My personal view is that giving to 'chariddy' should be a totally private gesture, out of which no personal gain should be made. Inevitably, nearly all the artists who took part in Live Aid achieved a considerable rise in record sales and being the cynic I am, I wonder just how much of the profit gained from those sales actually ended up going to Ethiopia."^[35]

Thin Lizzy keyboard player Darren Wharton expressed his regrets about the band not being asked to perform at the event: "I think that was a tragic, tragic decision. It could've been and it should've been the turning point for Phil (Lynott). And I think that really did Phil in quite a lot, that we were never asked to play. I mean Phil, had a few problems at the time, but at the end of the day, if he would've been asked to play Live Aid, that would've been a goal for him to clean himself up to do that gig. We were all very upset of the fact that we weren't asked to do it. Because as you say, it was Geldof and Midge who Phil knew very well. I was surprised that we weren't asked to do that. That would've been the turning point, you know, definitely. I don't think Phil ever forgave Bob and Midge for that really."^[39]

Neil Peart, drummer of the Canadian rock band Rush said this about Live Aid: "Geddy was involved with the Northern Lights charity record here in Canada, although Rush weren't invited to participate in the 'Live Aid' event – mainly because if you look at the guest list, it was very much an 'in-crowd' situation. We didn't refuse to take part because of any principles. Mind you, I wouldn't have been happy being part of this scenario. Those stars should have shut up and just given over their money if they were genuine. I recall that 'Tears For Fears', who made a musical and artistic decision to pull out of the concert, were subsequently accused of killing children in Africa – what a shockingly irresponsible and stupid attitude to take towards the band. But I have nothing bad whatsoever to say about Bob Geldof; he sacrificed his health, his career, everything for something he believed in. But others around him got involved for their own reasons. Some of those involved in Northern Lights were actually quoted as saying that their managers told them to get down to the recording sessions because it would be a good career move! What a farce!"^[40]

Criticisms and controversies

Bob Dylan's performance generated controversy after he said "I hope that some of the money…maybe they can just take a little bit of it, maybe…one or two million, maybe…and use it, say, to pay the mortgages on some of the farms and, the farmers here, owe to the banks…"^[2] He is often misquoted, as on the Farm Aid website,^[41] as saying: "Wouldn't it be great if we did something for our own farmers right here in America?" In his autobiography, Is That It? (published in 1986), Geldof was extremely critical of the remark, saying "He displayed a complete lack of understanding of the issues raised by Live Aid…. Live Aid was about people losing their lives. There is a radical difference between losing your livelihood and losing your life. It did instigate Farm Aid, which was a good thing in itself, but it was a crass, stupid, and nationalistic thing to say."^[42]

Geldof was not happy about the Hooters being tacked onto the bill as the opening band in Philadelphia. He felt pressured into it by Graham and local promoter Larry Magid. Magid, promoting the concert through Electric Factory Concerts, correctly argued that the band was hugely popular in Philadelphia, their first major label album Nervous Night being released less than three months beforehand was a genuine hit record. Geldof let his feelings be known during an interview for Rolling Stone by asking: "Who the fuck are the Hooters?"^[43] The Hooters did get their revenge in December 2004, when Geldof appeared on the bill with the Hooters in Germany as their opening act.^[43]

Adam Ant subsequently criticised the event and expressed regrets about playing it, saying, "I was asked by Sir (sic) Bob to promote this concert. They had no idea they could sell it out. Then in Bob's book he said, 'Adam was over the hill so I let him have one number.' ... Doing that show was the biggest fucking mistake in the world. Knighthoods were made, Bono got it made, and it was a waste of fucking time. It was the end of rock 'n' roll."^[44] Geldof stated in his autobiography that Miles Copeland, manager of Adam Ant and Sting, asked Geldof if he'd thought of asking Ant after Geldof contacted him to get Sting to appear: "I hadn't. I thought he was a bit passe. But then so were the Boomtown Rats, and each represented a certain piece of pop history, so I agreed. I also thought that might entice him to encourage Sting, or perhaps all three of the Police".^[45]

Andy Kershaw, one of the presenters of the BBC's coverage, criticised the event in his autobiography No Off Switch, stating, "Musically, Live Aid was to be entirely predictable and boring. As they were wheeled out – or rather bullied by Geldof into playing – it became clear that this was another parade of the same old rock aristocracy in a concert for Africa, organised by someone who, while advertising his concern for, and sympathy with, the continent didn’t see fit to celebrate or dignify the place by including on the Live Aid bill a single African performer." Kershaw also described the attitude of Geldof and his showbusiness associates as "irritating, shallow, sanctimonious and self-satisfied".^[46]

Led Zeppelin reunion

Led Zeppelin's reunion for the first time since the death of their drummer John Bonham in 1980 was poorly received due to Robert Plant's hoarse voice, Jimmy Page's struggling with an out-of-tune guitar, lack of rehearsal with the two drummers (Phil Collins and Tony Thompson) taking Bonham's place and poorly functioning monitors. Plant described the performance as "a fucking atrocity for us. … It made us look like loonies".^[47]

Page later criticised Phil Collins, who had played on Plant's first two solo albums, for his performance on drums. Page said: "Robert told me Phil Collins wanted to play with us. I told him that was all right if he knows the numbers. But at the end of the day, he didn't know anything. We played 'Whole Lotta Love', and he was just there bashing away cluelessly and grinning. I thought that was really a joke."^[48] However, Collins said "It was a disaster, really. Robert wasn't match-fit with his voice and Jimmy was out of it, dribbling. It wasn't my fault it was crap. … If I could have walked off, I would have. But then we'd all be talking about why Phil Collins walked off Live Aid – so I just stuck it out. … I thought it was just going to be low-key and we'd all get together and have a play. … But something happened between that conversation and the day – it became a Led Zeppelin reunion. I turned up and I was a square peg in a round hole. Robert was happy to see me, but Jimmy wasn't."^[49]

Due to their "sub-standard" performance, the band members have blocked all possible broadcasts of it since and they withheld permission for it to be included on the official DVD release of the concerts,^[50] although footage of the band's performance does exist in its entirety on YouTube. It has since been selected by Philadelphia as "one of the worst rock-and-roll reunions of all time". Victor Fiorillo wrote: "I'd like to be able to blame all of the awfulness on anaemic Phil Collins, who sat in on drums, and Page himself later fingered the Genesis drummer for screwing up the set. But Collins was just the beginning of the bad. Go ahead. Watch and remember. It really was that terrible."^[51]

Fund use in Ethiopia

In 1986 Spin published an exposé on the realities of Live Aid's actions in Ethiopia. Geldof responded by deriding both the articles and the medical relief organisation Médecins Sans Frontières who had been expelled from the country.^[52][53] There have been claims including by the BBC World Service ^[54] that much of the funds were siphoned off by Mengistu Haile Mariam and his army (which included the Tigrayan People's Liberation Front). This coalition battled at the time against Derg. (The Band Aid Trust complained to the BBC Editorial Complaints Unit regarding the specific allegations in the BBC World Service documentary, and their complaint was upheld ^[55]) Although a professed admirer of Geldof's generosity and concern, American television commentator Bill O'Reilly has been critical of the Live Aid's oversight of the money raised for starving Ethiopian people, O'Reilly believes that charity organizations, operating in aid-receiving countries, should control donations, rather than possibly corrupt governments.^[56]

Arguing that Live Aid accomplished good ends while inadvertently causing harm at the same time, David Rieff gave a presentation of similar concerns in The Guardian at the time of Live 8.^[57] Tim Russert, in an interview on Meet the Press shortly after O'Reilly's comments, addressed these concerns to Bono. Bono responded that corruption, not disease or famine, was the greatest threat to Africa, agreeing with the belief that foreign relief organizations should decide how the money is spent. On the other hand, Bono said that it was better to spill some funds into nefarious quarters for the sake of those who needed it, than to stifle aid because of possible theft.^[58]

Performers and setlists

London, Wembley Stadium

Presenters:

• Richard Skinner introduced the Coldstream Guards
• Tommy Vance introduced every act except the Coldstream Guards, Sting, Phil Collins, Branford Marsalis, U2, Queen and Elton John
• Noel Edmonds introduced Sting, Phil Collins and Branford Marsalis
• Jack Nicholson introduced U2
• Mel Smith & Griff Rhys Jones introduced Queen
• Billy Connolly introduced Elton John

Performer(s)	Performed song(s)	Time (UTC+01:00 (BST))
Coldstream Guards	"God Save the Queen"	12:00
Status Quo	"Rockin' All Over the World" "Caroline" "Don't Waste My Time"	12:02
The Style Council	"You're the Best Thing" "Big Boss Groove" "Internationalists" "Walls Come Tumbling Down!"	12:19
The Boomtown Rats	"I Don't Like Mondays" "Drag Me Down" "Rat Trap" "For He's a Jolly Good Fellow"	12:44
Adam Ant	"Vive Le Rock"	13:00
Ultravox	"Reap the Wild Wind" "Dancing with Tears in My Eyes" "One Small Day" "Vienna"	13:16
Spandau Ballet	"Only When You Leave" "Virgin" "True"	13:47
Elvis Costello	"All You Need Is Love"	14:07
Nik Kershaw	"Wide Boy" "Don Quixote" "The Riddle" "Wouldn't It Be Good"	14:22
Sade	"Why Can't We Live Together" "Your Love Is King" "Is It a Crime"	14:55
Sting Phil Collins Branford Marsalis	"Roxanne" "Driven to Tears" "Against All Odds (Take a Look at Me Now)" "Message in a Bottle" "In the Air Tonight" "Long Long Way to Go" "Every Breath You Take"	15:18
Howard Jones	"Hide and Seek"	15:50
Bryan Ferry	"Sensation" "Boys And Girls" "Slave to Love" "Jealous Guy"	16:07
Paul Young	"Do They Know It's Christmas?" (intro) "Come Back and Stay" "That's the Way Love Is" (with Alison Moyet) "Every Time You Go Away"	16:38
U2	"Sunday Bloody Sunday" "Bad" (with snippets of "Satellite of Love", "Ruby Tuesday", "Sympathy for the Devil" and "Walk on the Wild Side")	17:20
Dire Straits	"Money for Nothing" (with Sting) "Sultans of Swing"	18:00
Queen	"Bohemian Rhapsody"/"Radio Ga Ga" "Hammer to Fall" "Crazy Little Thing Called Love" "We Will Rock You"/"We Are the Champions"	18:41
David Bowie	"TVC 15" "Rebel Rebel" "Modern Love" "Heroes"	19:22
The Who	"My Generation"/"Pinball Wizard" "Love, Reign o'er Me" "Won't Get Fooled Again"	20:00
Elton John	"I'm Still Standing" "Bennie and the Jets" "Rocket Man" "Don't Go Breaking My Heart" (with Kiki Dee) "Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me" (with George Michael and Andrew Ridgeley)[59] "Can I Get a Witness"	20:50
Freddie Mercury Brian May	"Is This the World We Created...?"	21:48
Paul McCartney	"Let It Be" (with backing vocals for the ending by Bob Geldof, David Bowie, Pete Townshend & Alison Moyet)	21:51
Band Aid	"Do They Know It's Christmas?"	21:54

Philadelphia, John F. Kennedy Stadium

Presenters:

• Jack Nicholson introduced Joan Baez, Bryan Adams and Bob Dylan
• Chevy Chase introduced Black Sabbath, Kenny Loggins, Duran Duran and REO Speedwagon
• Marilyn McCoo introduced the Beach Boys
• Bette Midler introduced Madonna and Mick Jagger
• Don Johnson introduced the Power Station & Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers
• Jack Nicholson & Bette Midler introduced Phil Collins

Performer(s)	Performed song(s)	Time (UTC-04:00 (EDT))
Bernard Watson	"All I Really Want to Do" "Interview"	8:51
Joan Baez	"Amazing Grace"/"We Are the World"	9:02
The Hooters	"And We Danced" "All You Zombies"	9:12
Four Tops	"Shake Me, Wake Me (When It's Over)" "Bernadette" "It's the Same Old Song" "Reach Out I'll Be There" "I Can't Help Myself (Sugar Pie, Honey Bunch)"	9:33
Billy Ocean	"Caribbean Queen" "Loverboy"	9:45
Black Sabbath	"Children of the Grave" "Iron Man" "Paranoid"	9:52
Run–D.M.C.	"Jam Master Jay" "King Of Rock"	10:12
Rick Springfield	"Love Somebody" "State of the Heart" "Human Touch"	10:30
REO Speedwagon	"Can't Fight This Feeling" "Roll With the Changes"	10:47
Crosby, Stills and Nash	"Southern Cross" "Teach Your Children" "Suite: Judy Blue Eyes"	11:15
Judas Priest	"Living After Midnight" "The Green Manalishi (With The Two-Pronged Crown)" "You've Got Another Thing Comin'"	11:26
Bryan Adams	"Kids Wanna Rock" "Summer of '69" "Tears Are Not Enough" "Cuts Like a Knife"	12:02
The Beach Boys	"California Girls" "Help Me, Rhonda" "Wouldn't It Be Nice" "Good Vibrations" "Surfin' U.S.A."	12:40
George Thorogood and the Destroyers	"Who Do You Love?" (with Bo Diddley) "The Sky Is Crying" "Madison Blues" (with Albert Collins)	13:26
Simple Minds	"Ghost Dancing" "Don't You (Forget About Me)" "Promised You a Miracle"	14:07
Pretenders	"Time the Avenger" "Message of Love" "Stop Your Sobbing" "Back on the Chain Gang" "Middle of the Road"	14:41
Santana Pat Metheny	"Brotherhood" "Primera Invasion" "Open Invitation" "By the Pool"/"Right Now"	15:21
Ashford & Simpson	"Solid" "Reach Out and Touch (Somebody's Hand)" (with Teddy Pendergrass)	15:57
Madonna	"Holiday" "Into the Groove" "Love Makes The World Go Round"	16:27
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers	"American Girl" "The Waiting" "Rebels" "Refugee"	17:14
Kenny Loggins	"Footloose"	17:30
The Cars	"You Might Think" "Drive" "Just What I Needed" "Heartbeat City"	17:49
Neil Young	"Sugar Mountain" "The Needle and the Damage Done" "Helpless" "Nothing Is Perfect (In God's Perfect Plan)" "Powderfinger"	18:07
The Power Station	"Murderess" "Get It On"	18:43
Thompson Twins	"Hold Me Now" "Revolution" (with Madonna, Steve Stevens & Nile Rodgers)	19:21
Eric Clapton	"White Room" "She's Waiting" "Layla"	19:39
Phil Collins	"Against All Odds (Take a Look at Me Now)" "In the Air Tonight"	20:04
Led Zeppelin	"Rock and Roll" "Whole Lotta Love" "Stairway to Heaven"	20:10
Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young	"Only Love Can Break Your Heart" "Daylight Again/Find The Cost of Freedom"	20:40
Duran Duran	"A View to a Kill" "Union of the Snake" "Save a Prayer" "The Reflex"	20:45
Patti LaBelle	"New Attitude" "Imagine" "Forever Young" "Stir It Up" "Over the Rainbow" "Why Can't I Get It Over"	21:20
Hall & Oates	"Out of Touch" "Maneater" "Get Ready" (with Eddie Kendricks) "Ain't Too Proud to Beg" (with David Ruffin) "The Way You Do the Things You Do" "My Girl" (with Eddie Kendricks & David Ruffin)	21:50
Mick Jagger Hall & Oates Eddie Kendricks David Ruffin Tina Turner	"Lonely At the Top" "Just Another Night" "Miss You" "State Of Shock"/"It's Only Rock 'n Roll (But I Like It)" (reprise) (with Tina Turner)	22:15
Bob Dylan Keith Richards Ronnie Wood	"Ballad of Hollis Brown" "When the Ship Comes In" "Blowin' in the Wind"	22:39
USA for Africa	"We Are the World"	22:55

Live Aid recordings

When organiser Bob Geldof was persuading artists to take part in the concert, he promised them that it would be a one-off event, never to be seen again. That was the reason why the concert was never recorded in its complete original form, and only secondary television broadcasts were recorded. Following Geldof's request, ABC even erased its own broadcast tapes. However, before the syndicated/ABC footage was erased, copies of it were donated to the Smithsonian Institution and have now been presumed lost. It should be noted here that the ABC feed of the USA for Africa/"We Are The World" finale does exist in its entirety, complete with the network end credits, and can be found as a supplemental feature on the We Are The World: The Story Behind The Song DVD.

Meanwhile, MTV decided to keep recordings of its broadcast and eventually located more than 100 tapes of Live Aid in its archives, but many songs in these tapes were cut short by MTV's ad breaks and presenters (according to the BBC).^[60] The BBC also decided to erase fragments of the performance due to storage limitations, to pave the way for newer programmes. Many performances from the US were not shown on the BBC, and recordings of these performances are missing.

Official Live Aid DVD

An official four-disc DVD set of the Live Aid concerts was released on 8 November 2004. It contains 10-hour partial footage of the 16-hour length concert. The DVD was produced by Geldof's company, Woodcharm Ltd., and distributed by Warner Music Vision.

The decision to finally release it was taken by Bob Geldof nearly 20 years after the original concerts, after he found a number of pirate copies of the concert on the Internet.^[61] There has been controversy over the DVD release because a decision had been taken for a substantial number of tracks not to be included in this edited version.

The most complete footage that exists is used from the BBC source, and this was the main source of the DVD. During production on the official DVD, MTV lent Woodcharm Ltd. their B-roll and alternate camera footage where MTV provided extra footage of the Philadelphia concert (where ABC had erased the tapes from the command of Bob Geldof), and those songs that were not littered with ads were used on the official DVD.

Working from the BBC and MTV footage, several degrees of dramatic license were taken, in order to release the concert on DVD. For example, many songs on the official DVD had their soundtracks altered, mainly in sequences where there were originally microphone problems. In one of those instances, Paul McCartney had re-recorded his failed vocals for "Let It Be" in a studio the day after the concert (14 July 1985) but it was never used until the release of the DVD. Also, in the US finale, the original 'USA for Africa' studio track for "We Are the World" was overlaid in places where the microphone was absent (in fact, if you listen closely, you can hear the vocals of Kenny Rogers and James Ingram, two artists who did not even take part in Live Aid).

Judicious decisions were also made on which acts would be included and which ones would not, due to either technical difficulties in the original performances, the absence of original footage, or for music rights reasons. For example, Rick Springfield, the Four Tops, the Hooters, the Power Station, Billy Ocean, Kool and the Gang and Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young were among those acts that were left off the DVD. Many of the artists' songs that were performed were also omitted. For example, Madonna performed three solo songs in the concert, but only two were included on the DVD ("Love Makes the World Go Round" was omitted). Phil Collins played "Against All Odds" and "In the Air Tonight" at both Wembley and JFK, but only the London performance of the former and the Philadelphia performance of the latter were included on the DVD. The JFK performance of "Against All Odds" was later included on Phil Collins' Finally...The First Farewell Tour DVD. Tom Petty performed four songs, and only two were included on DVD. Patti LaBelle played 6 songs but only 2 songs were included.

There were also issues with the artists themselves. Two such performers were left off at their own request: Led Zeppelin and Santana. The former defended their decision not to be included on the grounds that their performance was 'sub-standard', but to lend their support, Jimmy Page and Robert Plant pledged to donate proceeds from an upcoming DVD release of Led Zeppelin to the campaign, and John Paul Jones pledged proceeds from his American tour with Mutual Admiration Society.^[62]

In 2007, Queen released a special edition of Queen Rock Montreal on Blu-ray and DVD formats containing their 1981 concert from The Forum in Montreal, Canada, and their complete Live Aid performance, along with Freddie Mercury and Brian May performing "Is This The World We Created...?" from the UK Live Aid finale, all re-mixed in DTS 5.1 sound by Justin Shirley-Smith—this marked the first Live Aid material officially released in a high-definition/Blu-ray format. Also included is their Live Aid rehearsal, and an interview with the band, from earlier in the week.

On its release, the then British Chancellor of the Exchequer, Gordon Brown, decided the VAT collected on sales of the Live Aid DVD would be given back to the charity, which would raise an extra £5 for every DVD sold.

Certifications

Region	Certification	Sales/shipments
Austria (IFPI Austria)[63]	Gold	5,000
Canada (Music Canada)[64]	2× Diamond	200,000
France (SNEP)[65]	Platinum	15,000
Switzerland (IFPI Switzerland)[66]	Platinum	6,000
United Kingdom (BPI)[67]	6× Platinum	300,000
United States (RIAA)[68]	10× Platinum	1,000,000
^*sales figures based on certification alone ^^shipments figures based on certification alone ^xunspecified figures based on certification alone

Unofficial recordings

Because the Live Aid broadcast was watched by 1.5 billion people,^[69] most of the footage was recorded on home consumer video recorders all around the world, in various qualities. Many of these recordings were in mono, because in the mid-1980s most home video machines could only record mono sound, and also because the European BBC TV broadcast was in mono. The US MTV broadcast, the ABC Radio Network and BBC Radio 1 simulcasts were stereo. These recordings circulated among collectors, and in recent years, have also appeared on the Internet in file sharing networks.

Since the official DVD release of Live Aid includes only partial footage of this event, unofficial distribution sources continue to be the only source of the most complete recordings of this event. The official DVD is the only authorized video release in which proceeds go directly to famine relief, the cause that the concert was originally intended to help.

See also

• List of historic rock festivals
• List of pop music festivals
• 1984–1985 famine in Ethiopia
• Harry Chapin
• Live 8, Geldof's 2005 series of concerts aimed at increasing poverty awareness
• Live Earth, a 2007 series of concerts aimed at increasing awareness of Global Warming.
• Farm Aid, a Live-Aid inspired relief event for American farms, instigated by Bob Dylan
• Self Aid, a 1986 Live-Aid inspired 14-hour concert highlighting severe unemployment in Ireland, promoted by Jim Aiken (concert promoter)
• Sport Aid, another famine relief event organised by Geldof
• NetAid, concert and anti-poverty initiative using Internet
• YU Rock Misija (YU Rock Mission), Yugoslav contribution to Band Aid campaign
• The 1971 Concert for Bangladesh at Madison Square Garden, organised by George Harrison
• Hear 'n Aid, similar joint effort from the heavy metal scene of the 1980s
• Band Aid
• Chef Aid, a South Park parody of the benefit concert
• Wave Aid Concert held in Australia in 2005 to benefit victims of the Boxing Day Tsunami.
• When Harvey Met Bob a 2010 television film dramatising the events leading up to and including the concert.

References

1. Live Aid on Bob Geldof's official site Archived 1 July 2015 at the Wayback Machine.
2. Live Aid 1985: A day of magic. CNN. Retrieved 22 May 2011
3. Live Aid: The show that rocked the world BBC. Retrieved 15 September 2011
4. The 20th anniversary of Band Aid BBC. Retrieved 15 December 2011
5. Billboard 8 Dec 1984 Billboard. Retrieved 15 December 2011
6. "Band Aid... On Stage". Melody Maker (London, England: IPC Media): 3. 12 January 1985.
7. Geldof, Bob (1986). Is That It?. London: Penguin Books. pp. 326–358. ISBN 978-0-330-44292-3.
8. "Detailed list of all the artist having performed at the Live Aid concert". Live Aid. Retrieved 4 April 2013.
9. "Lessons learned since Live Aid: the challenge of bringing high quality audio to live television audiences continues to change. Kevin Hilton considers how technology has moved on in the 20 years since Live Aid.". AllBusiness.com. 1 March 2005. Archived from the original on 6 January 2007. Retrieved 6 March 2011.
10. Hillmore, Peter (1985). Live Aid: the greatest show on earth. p.60. Sidgwick & Jackson
11. Minchin, Ryan, dir. (2005) The World's Greatest Gigs Initial Film & Television. Retrieved 21 May 2011
12. "Flashback: Queen Steal the Show at Live Aid". Rolling Stone. Retrieved 4 April 2013.
13. Queen: Live Aid Ultimate Queen. Retrieved 21 May 2011
14. O'Casey, Matt, dir. (2002) Queen - Days of Our Lives. Part 2. Queen Productions Ltd. Retrieved 1 June 2011
15. "Queen win greatest live gig poll" BBC News. 9 November 2005
16. McKee, Briony (13 July 2015). "30 fun facts for the 30th birthday of Live Aid". Digital Spy. Hearst Corporation. Retrieved 15 February 2016.
17. Live aid in their own words The Guardian. Retrieved 22 May 2011
18. LIVE AID 1985: Memories of that famous day BBC. Retrieved 22 May 2011
19. "U2 show still echoes at Red Rocks". Denver Post. 23 May 2008.
20. "How Bono Saved Me". Atu2.com. 1 July 2005. Retrieved 6 March 2011.
21. David Bowie - Heroes - Live Aid 1985 Retrieved 22 May 2011
22. Wilkerson, Mark (2006) Amazing Journey: The Life of Pete Townshend p.408. Retrieved 22 May 2011
23. Live Aid Galleries The Guardian (London). Retrieved 22 May 2011
24. Geldof, Townshend and McCartney The Guardian (London). Retrieved 22 May 2011
25. "Live Aid: Jack Nicholson & Joan Baez [1985]". YouTube.com. pukenshette. Retrieved 22 November 2015.
26. Memorable quotes for Live Aid IMDB. Retrieved 21 May 2011
27. "Collins recalls Led Zep ‘disaster’". Classic Rock.
28. Jones, Dylan (26 July 2010). The Eighties: One Day, One Decade. Random House. p. 357. ISBN 1-4090-5225-7. The [Duran] Duran set was memorable for Simon Le Bon's off-key falsetto note that he hit during 'A View to a Kill', a blunder that echoed throughout the media as 'The Bum Note Heard Round the World'. The singer later said it was the most embarrassing moment of his career.
29. "I Love 1985: Live Aid". BBC. Retrieved 31 August 2013.
30. Geldof, Bob. Live Aid DVD.
31. "Live Aid F.A.Q (July 13th, 1985)". Retrieved 13 October 2014.
32. from The Hits / The B-Sides. "Prince – Hello Lyrics". MetroLyrics. Retrieved 31 March 2014.
33. Jones, Dylan (25 May 2013). "Freddie Mercury trying it on with Bono: The Live Aid story you've never heard before". Daily Mail (London). Retrieved 31 March 2014.
34. Jackson, Laura (2008). Brian May: The Definitive Biography. Piatkus. ISBN 978-0-7499-0976-5.
35. "Live Aid F.A.Q (July 13th, 1985)". Liveaid.free.fr. Retrieved 31 March 2014.
36. "Live 8: 2 July 2005: a day that made history!". Astradyne website. Retrieved 31 August 2013.
37. "Frank Zappa On Howard Stern Show 1985 (pt. 1)". YouTube. Retrieved 20 August 2011.
38. "Early Stages sleeve notes 5". Fish – TheCompany.Com Official Site. September 2008. Retrieved 4 August 2015.
39. Kadzielawa, Mark. "Thin Lizzy". 69 Faces of Rock. Retrieved 16 November 2014.
40. Peart, Neil (April 25, 1988). All Fired Up. Metal Hammer. Interview with Malcolm Dome. Retrieved December 13, 2015.
41. "28 Years of Amazing Concerts". Farm Aid website. Retrieved 31 August 2013.
42. Geldof, Bob (1986) Is That It? p.390. Sidgwick & Jackson.
43. Harris, Will (25 February 2008). "Eric Bazilian interview". Popdose.com. Retrieved 6 March 2011.
44. "Adam Ant brands Live Aid a "mistake" and a "waste of time" and the end of ‘rock n roll’". Louder Than War. 26 August 2011. Retrieved 18 March 2013.
45. Geldof, Bob (1986). Is That It?. London: Penguin Books. p. 333. ISBN 9780330442923.
46. "The strange life and turbulent times of Andy Kershaw". Spiked Online. Retrieved 27 March 2013.
47. Williamson, Nigel (2007). The Rough Guide to Led Zeppelin. Rough Guides. ISBN 978-1-84353-841-7.
48. "He's buying a stairlift to heaven". The Scotsman (Edinburgh). 28 July 2007. Retrieved 28 August 2014.
49. "Phil Collins Considered Walking Out of Led Zeppelin's Live Aid Reunion". Ultimate Classic Rock. 2 November 2014. Retrieved 30 April 2015.
50. "Zeppelin defend Live Aid opt out". BBC News. 4 August 2004. Retrieved 28 August 2014.
51. Fiorillo, Victor (15 June 2012). "The 10 Most Painful Band Reunions". Philadelphia. Philadelphia. Retrieved 4 August 2015.
52. "Live Aid: The Terrible Truth". Spin.
53. "Live Aid: Bob Geldof's Original Response to SPIN's 1986 Exposé". Spin.
54. "Use of funds generated by Live Aid". BBC News. Retrieved 13 October 2014.
55. "Use of funds generated by Live Aid Band Aid Complaint". BBC News. Retrieved 17 November 2015.
56. O'Reilly, Bill (8 June 2005). "Giving Money To Poor Africans". The O'Reilly Factor. Foxnews.com. Retrieved 6 March 2011.
57. Rieff, David (24 June 2005). "Did Live Aid do more harm than good?". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 6 March 2011.
58. "Transcript for June 26 – Meet the Press". MSNBC. 26 June 2005. Retrieved 6 March 2011.
59. http://www.eltonjohn.com/30-years-ago-today-elton-played-live-aid/
60. Youngs, Ian (27 August 2004). "How Live Aid was saved for history". BBC News. Retrieved 6 March 2011.
61. Youngs, Ian (3 March 2004). "Geldof thwarts 'Live Aid pirate'". BBC News. Retrieved 6 March 2011.
62. "Zeppelin defend Live Aid opt out", BBC News, 4 August 2004
63. "Austrian video certifications – Diverse – Live Aid (DVD)" (in German). IFPI Austria. Enter Diverse in the field Interpret. Enter Live Aid (DVD) in the field Titel. Select DVD in the field Format. Click Suchen
64. "Canadian video certifications – Various Artists – Live Aid". Music Canada.
65. "French video certifications – COMPILATION – LIVE 8" (in French). Syndicat National de l'Édition Phonographique.
66. "The Official Swiss Charts and Music Community: Awards (Diverse Interpreten; 'Live Aid')". Hung Medien.
67. "British video certifications – VARIOUS ARTISTS – LIVE AID". British Phonographic Industry. Enter LIVE AID in the field Keywords. Select Title in the field Search by. Select DVD in the field By Format. Select Platinum in the field By Award. Click Search
68. "American video certifications – VARIOUS – LIVE AID". Recording Industry Association of America. If necessary, click Advanced, then click Format, then select Video Longform, then click SEARCH
69. "Stages set for Live 8". Reuters. 2 July 2005. Retrieved 14 January 2013.

• Live Aid: Rockin' All Over the World – BBC2 documentary, recalling the build-up to the day, and the day itself; viewed 18 June 2005.
• Live Aid: World Wide Concert Book – Peter Hillmore with Introduction by Bob Geldof, ISBN 0-88101-024-3, Copyright 1985, The Unicorn Publishing House, New Jersey.

External links

• Live Aid Facebook Page (Fan Page)
• BBC news stories about the Live Aid DVD
• Twenty-Five Years on...memories from Herald UK
• How Live Aid was saved for history: BBC News
• Geldof thwarts 'Live Aid pirate': BBC News
• Philly.com: Live Aid Philadelphia Photo Gallery
• In-depth interview between Hal Uplinger, producer of the "Live Aid Concert", the United States event, and the National Museum of American History (part of the Smithsonian Institution)
• Live Aid Unofficial Behind-the-Scenes (Production) Website