I wasn’t there. A bunch of my classmates did go, more for the sheer spectacle than in the hopes of a killer concert, something not possible at JFK stadium, no matter how many amps. The venue had also fallen into disuse and decay at this point, notoriously the restrooms, but the organizers had to have their “100,000+” attendance, something The Vet could not accommodate..
It was unbearably hot and humid. The kind of disgusting weather that you just want relief from. I would not have lasted five hours out in that, not even at 18. My group spent the day at a friend’s backyard pool (not a common amenity in my hood). 93.3 WMMR simulcast the concert in stereo; we didn’t even watch it on TV.
The best performance, hands down, was the 21 minute set by Queen in London. Surely you’ve seen it. The most anticipated performance, hands down, was the Led Zeppelin reunion in Philadelphia. The group had not performed together since disbanding after the death of John Bonham in 1980. It was a total disaster, so much so that I cannot bring myself to link to it. Other performers in Philly were Madonna, Tom Petty, Eric Clapton, George Thorogood, Neil Young, Bob Dylan, Duran Duran, and Phil Collins, who famously appeared at both venues, having jumped on Concorde after performing in London. Spectacle: Check.
To mark the occasion, the Live Aid youtube channel is streaming the whole shebang… all ten hours of it. I do hope they have employed AI to clean up the video, which somehow was done with awful quality, even for the tech available at the time. The links below won’t go live until 4am tomorrow.
What about you? Where were you that day? Were you born yet? lol
I just cannot get my head around the appeal of Queen. I thought Mercury’s voice was obnoxious and was just loud, no refinement. But then I also think Whitney Houston was just loud and not refined.
Oh well. I was 10 when the concert happened and saw it on TV and thought most of the acts were terrible.
I do wish I lived in 1985 though. Cold War and all, it was still a better time.
Perhaps I can be first to say: OK, boomer 😉
I loved Bad by U2. That was high point for me. 19. Peak Bono voice.
I was buying tapes and setting up my VCR to record it all, I thought, “If I don’t record this, I will never get to see it again.”
The tapes are long gone. Replaced by somebody else’s computers. TYVM Youtube.
I was in Wildwood for the summer. We spent the first part of the day begging my buddy’s sister to drive us into the city so we could scalp tickets or sneak into JFK (we were only 14). When it became clear that it wasn’t happening, we settled in and watched it on MTV.
Most of acts were pretty disappointing. Queen’s “Radio Gaga” was cool (mostly because of the crowd), U2 did a pretty great long version of “Bad”, Bowie’s “Heroes” and Dire Straits’ “Sultans” were really good, and Phil Collins and Sting did a nice set together… all at Wembley. The JFK lineup just didn’t live up to the best moments from London. Springsteen would have torn down JFK if he’d shown up, he owned Philly in those days, but the rumor was he bailed at the last minute due to his (perfectly valid, it turned out) concerns about where the money was actually going (Spin magazine blew the lid off of that later, in one of the great random acts of journalism of the decade).
Speaking of Phil Collins, yeah, the Concorde thing seems a little overbearing and obnoxious in retrospect… but at the time, it was just Phil being the hardest working man in show business. Which he absolutely was in the 80s.
Phil also got a bad rap for the Zeppelin set, which was in no way his fault. Jimmy Page has been blaming him for decades now… even though Page was too hammered to tune his own guitar, Plant’s voice was shot from touring, and Tommy Thompson was trying to drum Phil off the stage because he thought he was auditioning for Bonham’s seat in a reformed Led Zeppelin. Collins got on the plane thinking he was doing a set with Plant (whose first two albums had Phil on drums and producing), only to find out in mid-flight that he was drummer #2 on a Zeppelin reunion, playing material he’d never played before, with a drummer he’d never played with before… all without any rehearsal time (besides listening to a Walkman on the Concorde and playing along on a pillow). It was a pretty bad set — Zeppelin did more bad sets than good in their day, they were never a great live band — but Phil Collins was not the reason for it. All things considered, he handled the situation like a champ.
The best set at JFK was probably Eric Clapton (also with Phil on drums).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f9myqi7VL9s&list=RDf9myqi7VL9s&start_radio=1
I was 25, didn’t quite get the whole thing, thought it a little self promoting. Apparently they raised 150 million pounds for Africa, but I wonder how much of the money got there. I guess I have become jaded in my old age.
Not jaded. Clear-eyed.
https://www.spin.com/2015/07/live-aid-the-terrible-truth-ethiopia-bob-geldof-feature/
We should have been asking serious questions about the cause of the famine long before we started doing benefit concerts and sending donations.