Live
Aid (July 13, 1985)
Up until G8 Live (July
2005), this was the biggest benefit concert ever. The event took
place simutaneously in
the United States and the United Kingdom to raise money for famine
relief in Ethiopia. The concert
featured major stars such as The Rolling Stones, Queen, Tina Turner,
Madonna, and Bette happened
to be one of the emcees! This was a very eventful day and for
such a great cause.
Stars: Bette Midler, Jack
Nichcolson, David Bowie, The Rolling Stones, Queen, Tina Turner,
Madonna, and a roster of hundreds...
Director: Vincent Scarza
Live
Aid
Onion AVClub
(WSM)
The two major benefit-song projects that preceded 1985's massive,
multi-continent Live Aid concert pretty well set the tone for the
show. Twenty years later, Band Aid's "Do They Know It's Christmas?"
remains an uplifting holiday song that overcomes its "have
a small scoop of shame with your fruitcake" message with brisk,
bright performances by scarf-festooned, mostly flash-in-the-pan
U.K. pop stars. USA For Africa's "We Are The World" seems
comparatively pushy today—it's twice as long as Band Aid's record,
and its bigger names strangle the life out of the one or two lines
Michael Jackson and Quincy Jones gave them to sing. As for Live
Aid itself, among the performance sites, London's Wembley Stadium
looked like the fun place to be, with future Bands Reunited fodder
like Status Quo and Ultravox dressed all spiffy and singing their
hearts out to a crowd that knew every word. Meanwhile, at Philadelphia's
JFK Stadium, rock legends like Eric Clapton and Bob Dylan took themselves
and the occasion dreadfully seriously.
In
spite of the performances' varying quality, it's good to be able
to see and hear them again, rather than relying on memories and
legends. Live Aid organizer Bob Geldof never intended for the show
to be rebroadcast or repackaged, so it's been available exclusively
via the bootleg circuit since 1985. Even the budget-priced four-disc
Live Aid DVD set is incomplete, missing Led Zeppelin's "reunion"
(reportedly because Robert Plant and Jimmy Page were dissatisfied
with Phil Collins' fill-in drumming), about six hours worth of music
from other acts (because the original tapes no longer exist), and
any new recollections from the people who participated (for no discernible
reason). And though it's a little hard to believe that an event
seen by millions of people—many with operational VCRs—couldn't be
reconstituted in full, it's probably petty to complain about missing
songs when people are still starving.
So
better to enjoy what's here, starting with all the corny ephemera:
Jack Nicholson and Bette Midler introducing acts in Philly, Joan
Baez prefacing her a cappella "Amazing Grace" by exclaiming,
"This is your Woodstock, and it's long overdue," and Geldof
temporarily stopping his song "I Don't Like Mondays" after
the line "the lesson today is how to die," so that he
can glare knowingly at the crowd. On the legitimately historic side,
the Live Aid set offers Queen at the top of its arena-rock game—"Radio
Ga Ga" and all—and a career-defining U2 performance, with a
fully mulleted Bono telling the cameramen where to aim as he jumps
into the pit. On a day where the political side of the occasion
was largely ignored, U2 had one of the few socially relevant sets,
culminating in Bono captivating a global audience during a 12-minute,
dazzlingly digressive version of "Bad." By nightfall,
millions of rock fans had a new hero. —Noel Murray
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