Live Aid 1985

[Tomnorthi]

Just watched the documentary: BBC iPlayer - Live Aid: Against All Odds
Well worth a watch if you are interested, but what has amazed me as a 16 year old is the scale of the whole event. They faced massive technical problems but still managed to broadcast it successfully to 2 billion people, minus a few slip ups. The music was also brilliant compared to today, just wish I could of been there, it will surely go down as one of the best concerts in history. Anyone on here got the chance to go?

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[clapham_gull]

I was thinking about this today. I was only 13, sadly wasn't there - but watched the whole thing start to finish.

Retrospectively the music was mostly ropey in parts, although love or hate them Queen put in one of the greatest (if not the greatest) live performance of all time.

But worth remembering that many of the major artists at the time didn't actually appear.

However, it was a huge event, quite hard to explain to people who have grown up on the internet and have more than 4 channels of television to watch.

It felt like the whole world had stopped to a 13 year old.

I find it a bit depressing that something like that (in that manner) will probably never happen again. That feed to Russian TV (that was shown on the BBC Four Documentary tonight) summed it up.

 

[gruntage]

i saw part 2 on bbc4 earlier. very interesting

 

[Lush]

I was helping answer the phones taking donations in a BT office near Victoria. They asked for volunteers at the ad agency where I worked. It was fairly quiet until about 5 o'clock and we were having some nice chats with the people who phoned in - then it went MENTAL and all we had time to say was "Hello, this is Live Aid. Can I take your credit card donation? (which we wrote down by hand on a form) and say thank you at the end. I don't think anyone quite appreciated the magnitude of it until afterwards.

 

[Mendoza]

I watched that last night, never really knew about it apart from a few clips here and there.

Queen doing Radio Gaga was amazing, felt sorry for Paul McCartnety. Thought Geldolf came off as bit of a nob, but he got the job done. £50 million says that

 

[Gazwag]

. Anyone on here got the chance to go?

I queued outside Brighton Centre for about eight hours to get my tickets, £25 which was quite expensive then, but worth every penny.

Queen were amazing, U2 were brilliant, the Rats doing I don't like Mondays was awesome, but you may needed to have been there to appreciate the buzz of that one.

 

[Tricky Dicky]

I remember the day pretty well really, was something quite special. I did pop out to the pub at one time early evening (the Crown and Anchor in Shoireham, since you asked), but there was hardly anyone in there. Went home and watched the remainder.

Saw the second half of the documentary last night, and it brought a tear to my eye, it did (although I'm not quite sure why)

 

[DIFFBROOK]

I managed to go with my then girlfriend. Tickets were sold at the Brighton Centre weeks before and I slept on the pavement to ensure our tickets.

It was so exciting, perhaps partially due to being only 19 and so having that idealism of youth, but I certainly felt that I was part of something. Remember this was the time of Thatcherism, greed, very high unemployment on one side and YUPPIES making fortunes on the other. At the time of Live Aid, I thought there would be a change, perhaps a more compassionate Britain.

The concert itself was a who’s who of famous pop and rock stars of the day. One of my favourite bands at the time just happened to be The Boomtown Rats. A fading band who had their day. It of course was led by Bob Geldof who masterminded both Band Aid single and of course the Live Aid event itself. To me as a Rats fan, it was even better. A day of seeing them in the sun for one last day.

The concert itself didn’t let me down. My girlfriend and I got the gates of the old Wembley and when they were opened, we ran as fast as we could to near the front. It was a very hot day and despite drinking a fair amount of pop and juice that day, I never peed once. Those that did, didn’t waste time in finding toilets, they peed in pop bottles, which were thrown in the air later that night……….nice.

Status Quo, never a band I enjoyed, yet it seemed fitting that they kicked it off with a brilliant version of “Rocking all over the World”.

The Boomtown Rats. On "I don’t like Mondays”, Geldof stopped after the words “ …and the lesson today is how to die”. Those words, sung a thousand times about a very sad shooting in America by a schoolgirl at her classmates……..yet had never seemed so powerful.

Funny, that every band that played that day saw a big increase in their record sales…….except the Boomtown Rats. It was the end of Geldof the musician.

The music of Cars “Who’s gonna drive you home” set against a video of children dying of starvation. I balled my eyes out and so did everyone else.

U2……………stole the show

Queen, a very very close 2nd.

Yep. My generations Woodstock. Did it change anything. Sadly not.

 

[jharris]

Queen were awesome the performance put goosebumps on your goosebumps !!

 

[Tim Over Whelmed]

I managed to go with my then girlfriend. Tickets were sold at the Brighton Centre weeks before and I slept on the pavement to ensure our tickets.

It was so exciting, perhaps partially due to being only 19 and so having that idealism of youth, but I certainly felt that I was part of something. Remember this was the time of Thatcherism, greed, very high unemployment on one side and YUPPIES making fortunes on the other. At the time of Live Aid, I thought there would be a change, perhaps a more compassionate Britain.

The concert itself was a who’s who of famous pop and rock stars of the day. One of my favourite bands at the time just happened to be The Boomtown Rats. A fading band who had their day. It of course was led by Bob Geldof who masterminded both Band Aid single and of course the Live Aid event itself. To me as a Rats fan, it was even better. A day of seeing them in the sun for one last day.

The concert itself didn’t let me down. My girlfriend and I got the gates of the old Wembley and when they were opened, we ran as fast as we could to near the front. It was a very hot day and despite drinking a fair amount of pop and juice that day, I never peed once. Those that did, didn’t waste time in finding toilets, they peed in pop bottles, which were thrown in the air later that night……….nice.

Status Quo, never a band I enjoyed, yet it seemed fitting that they kicked it off with a brilliant version of “Rocking all over the World”.

The Boomtown Rats. On "I don’t like Mondays”, Geldof stopped after the words “ …and the lesson today is how to die”. Those words, sung a thousand times about a very sad shooting in America by a schoolgirl at her classmates……..yet had never seemed so powerful.

Funny, that every band that played that day saw a big increase in their record sales…….except the Boomtown Rats. It was the end of Geldof the musician.

The music of Cars “Who’s gonna drive you home” set against a video of children dying of starvation. I balled my eyes out and so did everyone else.

U2……………stole the show

Queen, a very very close 2nd.

Yep. My generations Woodstock. Did it change anything. Sadly not.

and the guys spraying the hoses all over everyone in the midday sun ..

 

[jaylondon22]

Was the day i was born!

 

[BensGrandad]

Talking to a chap who lived in Ethiopia at the time who maintained the only drawback was the fact that the money raised did absolutely nothing for the cause it was intended for. The government officals etc got rich but the people got nothing. Even the food didnt get dropped off in the right places for them to benefit from it.

 

[Gazwag]

, I never peed once.
U2……………stole the show
Queen, a very very close 2nd.

I remember realising the same thing on the train home afterwards.

To me Queen just beat U2, purely due to Freddies showmanship, he controlled everybody in the audience from the moment he came on to the moment they finished. Seeing the Radio Ga Ga crowd shots on TV never ceases to send shivers down the spine.

Twenty minutes an act just flew by and never seemed long enough.

I still have a smile on my face for the whole time its on when I watch the DVD.

 

[The Orange Seagull]

I was there too but don't remember too much about it now apart from how boiling hot it was in the stadium and how brilliant Queen and Freddie Mercury were,they really got the crowd going and no one wanted them to leave the stage!!
Thought The Who,David Bowie and U2 were pretty good too,was a bit of an anti climax tho when Paul McCartneys microphone didnt work at the end.
Was really exciting being there knowing the whole world was watching and that history was being made.
I've still got my programme and ticket somewhere.....wonder if they're worth anything...........

 

[Paskman]

I went to Live8............................................