The second part of our look into one of the biggest benefit concerts ever - Live Aid!
Queen: Royalty that rocked!
When the band chose to call themselves Queen, they must have caught a glimpse into the future and knew that one day they would be ruling Britain. They may only have reigned for around twenty minutes but it was enough to consolidate their position as rock royalty forever. All hail the new Queen!
Queen was a very late addition to the set, so late in fact they barely had time to rehearse. Many thought their performance would be a flop. But it was the complete opposite. By far! If Wembley Stadium had had a roof, forget raising the roof; Queen's electrifying performance would've blitzed it to pieces. Not only was it the highlight of the night, but Queen's performance at Live Aid has gone down as one of the best musical performances in history. Hardly anyone talks about Live Aid without mentioning that iconic performance, which included their hits Bohemian Rhapsody, Hammer to Fall, ending with We Are The Champions. There are people born long after 1985 who know all about the day Queen rocked Live Aid, and of course this performance features heavily in the film Bohemian Rhapsody.
What's the betting that come 2085, people will still be hailing Queen's Live aid set as the best musical performance ever?
It'll be all right on the night!
Live Aid was in the days before the mighty internet and technology as we know it - and have it - today. To have a live dual-venue, transatlantic concert with a large-scale satellite link-up that was widely televised around the world with the then-existing technology and resources was wildly ambitious. And credit where credit is due - the organizers managed to pull it off successfully for the most part. But technical limitations combined with the fact that it was broadcast live meant that things weren't alway all right on the night...
Mick Jagger and David Bowie were due to perform a transatlantic duet, with each artist in on either side of the pond. But due to problems with synchronisation which couldn't be fixed, that idea was scrapped and instead Jagger and Bowie filmed a video clip of Dancing in the Street which was shown on screens at both stadiums.
Paul McCartney had technical difficulties when his mic failed to work for the first two minutes of his performance of Let It Be.
Technical issues and a lack of synchronisation meant that the BBC had to omit the Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young performance from their broadcast.
MTV provided a separate US feed for cable viewers, broadcast in stereo, and accessible 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.
The BBC ran the telecast free of commercials but American broadcasts included commercials. This meant that the American viewing public missed out on performances that were going on during the commercial breaks.
Duran Duran, who were playing at Philadelphia, gave a very energetic performance that got the crowd jumping... but it was one little off-key note towards the end of View To A Kill, as singer Simon Le Bon attempted a falsetto, that their set is remembered for all these years later.
Whole Lotta bother!
It wasn't just Queen's performance that was the most memorable that night. Rock giants Led Zeppelin also put on a show in Philadelphia that no one will ever forget. Sadly it was all for the wrong reasons...
Zeppelin fans were thrilled when it was revealed that the band would be reuniting after the sad passing of their drummer John Bonham to play Live Aid. Along with session drummer Tony Thompson, Led Zeppelin were also going to be joined by Genesis drummer, Phil Collins who would be flying in from London after his Wembley performance. Two lots of musical heavyweights sharing the stage... what could possible go wrong?
Well a lot actually. Fans were mortified that the performance they'd longed to see was everything that the Queen performance was not. The band appeared under-rehearsed; Robert Plant's vocals sounded rough; Jimmy Page's guitar was out of tune, and he even appeared to be having a fight with a mic stand! It also led to a spat between Page and Collins as each party blamed the other for the abysmal performance.
Page felt that Collins didn't really know the numbers and that his drumming threw everybody off-course. Collins believed that the performance was a train wreck from the start, and that he wanted to walk off but didn't want to be the talk of the tabloids so just grinned and bore it. Furthermore he implied that Page had an issue with him being there because he felt that while Plant was happy for Collins to be there, Page was not.
No worries, Phil - we were glad you were there. And you can take pride in being the only musician to perform live at both venues!
What Live Aid Achieved
Live Aid raised a total of $127 million either directly or indirectly for famine relief. Furthermore it created awareness around the world of the plight of certain African nations, and the publicity encouraged western nations to produce enough surplus grain to end the hunger crisis in Africa.
There was also a vibe that went back to an earlier time - the sixties: a more carefree time intermingled with a sense of having a social conscience, which was perfectly summed by singer Joan Baez's "This is your Woodstock" statement as she opened up the show in Philadelphia. Live Aid proved to be a surreal yet tender moment of idealism, realism and altruism. Everyone became more aware of what was going on in the world around them, and it made people less selfish and more giving: businesses held collections; schools began fundraising, and people generally developed a sense of compassion and a desire to make the world a better place.
And although it had never been the aim, many of the artists - all of whom had performed for free - found that their Live Aid appearance had been great for them on a professional level. That thrilling Live Aid performance had given Queen something of a boost, U2's own performance had also propelled them to the next level; and the event also proved to be a big deal for the hip-hop genre. There were many mainstream radio stations in the mid-eighties that were not keen on playing rap and hip-hop. But that day in July, amidst a sea of rock bands, Run DMC took to the stage in Philadelphia with no band or instruments - just DJ Jam Master Jay with his two turntables! And the Queens' rappers did a great job of representing for the hip-hop community.
Controversies
For all of the great things that Live Aid achieved, there were also sadly some flaws. One of the complaints that dogged the event was the distinct lack of diversity, and as the date for the event drew nearer there was a mad rush to add more black performers. Concert promoter Bill Graham said that big name black artists had been approached to appear at Live Aid, many of them, including Diana Ross, Prince, and Michael Jackson declined the request to perform live, although Prince, as well as Kool and the Gang did contribute videos. But other artists, including Dionne Warwick, said they’d never been asked at all. Black British and American artists including Sade; The Four Tops; Tina Turner; Run DMC; Teddy Pendergrass; Ashford and Simpson, and Patti LaBelle appeared among others but it was considered a poor effort. In an interview with the Independent, Midge Ure said:
“After the concert, we were lambasted for not having enough Black artists on the bill. It became this anti-colonial diatribe: ‘You whites, telling us poor Black guys what to do.' It was unfair but it happened.”
Andy Kershaw, one of the Live Aid hosts also criticized the organisers for failing to understand that for an event that was dedicated to highlighting Africa and African nations, they totally overlooked the idea of including at least one African artist as part of Live Aid's line-up. And Kershaw wasn't the only one who noticed the absence of African performers, and it has been argued over the years that failing to invite any African artists to perform demonstrated something of a Western superiority complex.
And there was more to come even after the concert was over. A negative long-lasting impact of Live Aid remains a far greater source of controversy - the question of how the money was used; a debate that has been raging on for years. In 1986, SPIN magazine ran a story claiming that not all the aid money raised had gone to the famine victims as intended. Some of it had been distributed to various aid agencies but a lot of it, the article claimed, had been intercepted by corrupt government officials, and that the country's dictator Mengistu had used the money to buy arms from Russia and to build up the army - a claim Geldof vehemently denies and has always defended Live Aid's use of funds. There was even a widespread belief that a lot of the food hadn't reached the starving. A great deal had either been left to rot along the docks or Mengistu had used the food to lure people into camps, allowing his regime to use brute force to relocate thousands of Ethiopians.
Live Aid Legacy
The legacy of Live Aid has been debated since the initiative began all those years ago. On the one hand it highlighted problems in other parts of the world, and called upon the more fortunate in society to lend a helping hand. Live Aid was also the blueprint for the ensuing high-profile musical benefits for various causes throughout the years. Twenty years later in 2005, Geldof staged Live 8, aimed at persuading G8 leaders to cancel the debts of African nations and create fairer trade laws.
Live Aid also further developed the notion of 'celeb culture' in getting celebrities to promote and raise funds for worthy causes, and also the 'aid culture' - the concept of developed nations raising and donating funds to more impoverished countries. Both concepts are not without its accomplishments and drawbacks.
Whether or not Live Aid was a complete success depends on the individual and how much the initiative achieved for combating famine in Ethiopia and other African regions. But if we view Live Aid as a concert and not just as a fundraiser, then it's success rate is beyond phenomenal. A very ambitious event that was the first of its kind - and in many ways was ahead of its time - that was managed to be pulled off with great success (with a few minor hitches!) People of all walks of life coming together with the common goal of helping those in need combined with legendary acts; awesome music, and great times that will leave a lasting and poignant memory in people's minds for at least another thirty five years...
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