atomicpunk40 It was 30 years ago today - 7-13-85 - when Live Aid was unleashed upon the world. Of course it was expected, Bob Geldof had announced the event to the public a few weeks before. But nobody could have predicted the (still) staggering effect that this monster had on the public.Live Aid started at 12:00 P.M. in London (7:00 A.M. in Philadelphia, and 6:00 A.M. where I lived at which was the Gulf Coast area of the U.S., which meant I woke up and this thing was already going on full blast). For the next 16 hours the entire world was given a concert like no other. Star after star played. Geldof tried to get as many reunions as he could and succeeded getting a number of them (The Who, Crosby Stills Nash and Young, Black Sabbath, but unsuccessfully failed to get the Beatles). He also threw in the spectacle of Phil Collins playing in London and then flying the Concord over to Philly to play a couple of songs before joining Led Zeppelin for what would be the fun, but notoriously sloppy Led Zeppelin reunion. But some mistakes aside Live Aid was something not to be missed. Nobody in my neighborhood was watching anything else that day but Live Aid until the very end. The concert was simply that mesmerizing.The show in the thirty years since it has been telecast has lost none of its power to dazzle. Of course the Live Aid DVD it is not without flaws. Missing whole acts, songs cut from some of the performers, and the performance list for the Philly show is scrambled up for whatever reason (example: Judas Priest played BEFORE Madonna, the DVD setup has the reverse). It all kinda taints things a tad. But these are small potatoes. Live Aid is a wall to wall rock and roll amusement park for the eyes and ears that will leave you exhausted and exhilarated when it is through. When you do watch it you better make sure you have a whole day to do so because at 10 hours plus you will be there in your living room for quite a while. I should know... that is what happened to me today when I made my 30th anniversary viewing!

Cinema_Fan I was there at the Wembley Live Aid show.Being that I was one of the last few to buy my ticket at the company that takes you on their coaches to concerts. The last four or six I think, you could only come to their office and buy them in person.As I was and still very much so a big fan of The Who, I wasn't a Mod, and knowing that they had "retired" this would be or could be the only chance to get to see them. I had a friend who was watching it at home recording their section on VHS for me. Then it happened, the satellite feed broke just as they started My Generation, I sometimes wonder if it was because the rest of the World were using to much power at that time that the system couldn't handle it all at once. Shame, and yes I did Pete Townshend fall over.The weather was stunning, just as Elton John came on it started to drizzle lightly, but not for long, it was needed, the drizzle not Elton. Queen was amazing; three friends & I saw their very last show as a group a year later at Knebworth House, 120,000 people were also there too!RIP Freddie, what a Showman.When we were leaving through our side of the Wembley tunnels the atmosphere was electric, we were singing "Feed the World". During the coach ride home we could make out sets from Sabbath and others on the radio.Its a shame that in twenty years nothing much has changed for the African people, such as Politics and war.I have three used T Shirts, a little small for me now, that came in sealed bags and two mint Programmes and a mint Live Aid: The Concert book that came out very shortly after the gig. The Wembley Live Aid concert ticket stub is still in good condition in the photo album.What a fantastic piece of History, 1 out of 72000 people seeing the real deal out of 1.5 to 2 billion watching on their telly's. When people talk about it and you mention that you were there they tend to look at you like you are lying, at first they just don't believe it, you really do, sometime's, have to prove it. It does fill me with pride to know that I was at a very Historical Musical event.

Theo Robertson ... Give or take a few hours of course but I still have vivid memories of this ultimate concert . As soon as it was announced I wished I could have attended it but as you can imagine tickets for the Wembly gig were somewhat difficult to get your hands on . I did hear via a friend of mine Rab Kincaid that his sister Vicki got a ticket and would be going to London on the 13th of July , I did feel some self sorrow because the previous Summer my sister acting as courier wanted to know if I wanted to go out with Vicki but I turned her down . She was a very nice girl with a highly developed body for a teenager but from the neck upwards she looked disturbingly like Celtic footballer star Maurice Johnstone with a mullet hairstyle . i wasn't and never will be the sort of guy who'd ever go out with a girl for ulterior motives but it did flash through my mind in the early Summer of 1985 that if I'd been going out with Vicki I might have been able to get a Live Aid concert ticketStill not to worry it was going to be broadcast live on television and I was really looking forward to seeing my musical heroes U2 perform . I kept rubbing my hands wondering what their set list was going to be while I played their live LP Under A Blood Red Sky to death , I was really hoping they were going to perform I Will Follow . So on the day of the concert I was wishing the dross supporting acts like Status Quo , Howard Jones , Paul Young and Adam Ant ( Who played the title track of his new album ! ) would just go away and let Bono and the boys show the audience how it's done . At 5 O'clock the transmission alternatively switched from Wembley to JFK Staduim Philidelphia where we saw the Bryan Adams set . Jack Nicholson said we're going back to London to hear a band who aren'1t afraid to speak their mind and U2 came on to perform the appropriate Sunday Bloody Sunday . Unfortunately their second track was Bad a song I've never taken to and Bono spent so much time jumping into the audience to get a girl to dance with him that they had to scrap their third track Pride . In fact I thought their whole set was a major disappointment that I couldn't believe the positive feed back they got in the press later and there was no one more surprised than the band themselves ! Major disappointment aside I still stayed in to watch the rest of the concert most of which I watched on my sister's portable black and white TV and it wasn't until a few days later that I started digesting what a monumental event it was where Queen stole the show with their medley , where Bob Geldof swore live on air ( In those days bad language on television was still very rare ) , the dominance of British music that saw every act at Wembly hail from the British Isles and where a third of the acts at the American concert were also British , and the strange fact within a couple of years many of the acts at Wembly had disappeared from the charts altogether . But without doubt the abiding memory for me was the entire lack of cynicism . Artists went out of their way to give a concert while people went out of their way to put their hands in their pockets . Even if you want to be cynical then you can't deny that money was raised and it went to humanitarian Non Governmental Organisations ( NGOs ) that saved countless human lives . That was the difference between Live Aid in 1985 and Live 8 in 2005

kwiggins I watched this on TV and, like many others, was moved by many of the performances, especially U2. Now, looking back, most of the performances are not that great. As others have noted, Queen and U2 steal the show. Bono and Freddie Mercury define the term, "stage presence." Other notable performances are INXS and the Cars, among others. I have Woodstock on DVD and the music's better, many performances are better (or worse in a more entertaining way than Live Aid) and the overall feel of the occasion is more alive. But the DVD is definitely worth the money. It's a time capsule of music stuck between the hippies and the grunge bands that would put many of these bands out of work. If you were there or saw it on TV, it will take you back to a place "we've been cast out of" as Chrissie Hynde put it. It was the greatest musical event of the 80s but, when I bought the DVD, I asked an attendant where it was located. The woman typed "Live age" into the computer. I corrected her and asked her if she had heard of Live Aid. Of course she hadn't, she was about 20.