Live Aid 30th Anniversary

By Giancarlo

This past July marked the 30th anniversary of one of the biggest and most televised concerts in all of human history. July 13th 1985 was the date of Live Aid, an enormous duel venue concert which took place at Wembley Stadium in London as well as JFK Stadium in Philadelphia. The event was all thrown together by Bob Geldof and Midge Ure to raise funds for relief of the famine in Ethiopia. Not only were there two concerts going on simultaneously, but other countries participated too. That combined with TV broadcasts brought the grand total of a 1.9 billion people audience over 150 countries!
Some of the notable artists who performed at Wembley Stadium include Elvis Costello, Sting, Phil Collins, U2, Dire Straits, David Bowie, The Who, Elton John, Queen, and Paul McCartney. Back in the US, Black Sabbath, Run DMC, REO Speedwagon, Crosby Stills and Nash, Bryan Adams, The Beach Boys, George Thorogood, Simple Minds, The Pretenders, Santana, Madonna, Tom Petty, The Cars, Eric Clapton, Robert Plant, Duran Duran, Mick Jagger, and Judas Priest all played at JFK Stadium. It was the lineup of the century. The most impressive artists which participated were Queen, the living members of Led Zeppelin and Paul McCartney. It was also said that Queen’s routine during the concert was the best rock performance in history. The Led Zeppelin performance sadly wasn’t as record breaking, as it was reported that the band faced many disruptions, and each blamed the poor showing on the other band members. Another Interesting fact about the concert is the absence of everyone’s favorite Canadian rock trio, Rush. Apparently the band wasn’t invited to play at the show, as they had their own charity concert. Nonetheless, the concert will go down in history as extremely successful, and even today we can’t help but reminisce.

Posted in: Show Review, Vintage 80's, WSOU Exclusive