Today is the 35th Anniversary of Live Aid


On this date in history was a benefit concert for the ages: Live Aid. Billed as the "global jukebox", the event was held simultaneously at Wembley Stadium in London, UK, attended by about 72,000 people, and John F. Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, US, attended by exactly 89,484 people.

The 1985 Live Aid concert was conceived as a follow-up to the successful charity single "Do They Know It's Christmas?" which, in addition to the benefit concert, was the brainchild of Bob Geldof and Midge Ure. The single and subsequent benefit concert were conceived to bolster famine relief to Ethiopia - bring the atrocity of starvation in Africa into the public consciousness. Whether it succeeded or not has long since been debated. 

On the same day, concerts inspired by the initiative were held in other countries, such as the Soviet Union, Canada, Japan, Yugoslavia, Austria, Australia and West Germany. It was one of the largest-scale satellite link-ups and television broadcasts of all time; an estimated audience of 1.9 billion, across 150 nations, watched the live broadcast, nearly 40% of the world population.

Did you tune in? Were you there? Were you born yet?


Being a huge U2 fan I had to tune in. I wasn't disappointed. (Take note of that mullet.)

Queen gave a legendary performance as many know by now. Bowie was great as well. Led Zeppelin was reunited with Phil Collins on drums. (Jimmy Page's guitar was out of tune.) The Who reunited (for the 16th time by then) as well. 

Mick Jagger had a duet with Tina Turner. Elvis Costello walked up with a guitar and sang one song iirc, "All You Need is Love." Sting joined Dire Straits for his vocals on "Money For Nothing." Paul McCartney closed out the Wembley proceedings before the all-star version of "Do They Know It's Christmas?"

Give us any thoughts with your walk down Amnesia Lane if you have any. -Greg

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