It's almost 30 years since Live Aid happened and to celebrate this I
thought I would take a look at the commemorative DVD that was released a
while back that my mother bought for me one Christmas a few years back
that still remains unopened to this day.
My memories of the day itself are a little sketchy but surprisingly
accurate when I looked at the playing times of the bands performing that
day.
I remember watching the beginning with Status Quo and I remember staying
around to watch Adam Ant just after 1pm (Being a huge Adam Ant fan at
the time). After that I took off and spent the afternoon in the local
video game arcade before returning home around 5.30 for my dinner just
in time to see U2 finish their set and watch Queen & Bowie play
before taking off again to go outside to play football.
I remember coming back in sometime around 9pm when it started getting
dark & watching Paul McCartney and the finale at Wembley.
After that I remember being left alone to stay up late after my parents
went to bed so that I could watch Duran Duran play in Philadelphia but I
decided I was too tired to sit through a bunch of American bands I'd
never heard of beforehand and decided to just go to bed after all. Just
as well because they didn't come onstage until 1.45am, almost 4 hours
later.
I also remember around this time my Dad was trying his hardest to stop
me playing video games all day and had got me into stamp collecting to
achieve this and I remember in the morning being driven into town to the
philatelist shop and picking up a first day cover of the Live Aid
commemorative stamps with the postmark of 13th July 1985 stamped over
them.
I still have it, I wonder how much that's worth now?
So those are my recollections of the day, let's see what's on this DVD.
DISC 1 : PART 1
Intro
"It's 12 noon in London, 7am in Philadelphia and around the world it's time for Live Aid....."
Fanfares go off as Charles & Di take their seats. Nice to see Geldof
made an effort, and oh look there's Brian May and his perm. Chilling to
think that just 15 years later the two women in this picture would be
dead.
A short blast of God Save The Queen (Not the Sex Pistols version sadly) and then we're off and rockin'......
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Status Quo
Rockin' All Over The World
Caroline
Don't Waste My Time (n/a)
It's easy to knock the Quo and I have several thousand times but you
really can't fault them when you put them in front of a live audience.
Right from the opening bars of
'Rockin' All Over The World' the crowd are totally into it and singing along loudly. They then hurtle straight into another old favourite with
'Caroline' keeping the fast paced momentum going.
They played another song
'Don't Waste My Time' but it wasn't
included on the DVD. Rather than go through every song not played on the
DVD I'll just list them as red under the title. That song isn't really
needed though. You pretty much get the message from the first two songs.
Quo nailed it on the day and played brilliantly and you struggle to
think who could have made such an instant reaction opening with that
crowd at such a huge gig. Fair play to Quo for having the balls to do
it. This was also original bassist Alan 'Bomber' Lancaster's last gig
with the band. He would leave the band shortly after this and emigrate
to Australia. They would still have hits and be hugely popular in Europe
in the following years but they were never really the same after his
departure.
*-*
The Style Council
You're the Best Thing (n/a)
Big Boss Groove (n/a)
Internationalists
Walls Come Tumbling Down
'Internationalists' seems like an odd choice to include here seeing as
'You're the Best Thing'
was a massive hit for them around this time and is still one of their
most remembered songs. It maybe be a timing issue with
'Internationalists' being half the length of
'You're the Best Thing'
but as Paul Weller says in the intro to the song it is kind of
appropriate given the nature of the gig, and it's still an enjoyable
energetic jazz funk work out. Their set is rounded off with an frantic
run through of
'Walls Come Tumbling Down' which is one of my
favourite pop songs of the era. A good set overall but let's be honest
we'd have all rather have seen The Jam instead. If only they could have
kept it together another couple of years.
*-*
The Boomtown Rats
I Don't Like Mondays
Drag Me Down
Rat Trap (n/a)
Of course Geldof was going to play this gig but a lot of people felt he
shouldn't seeing The Boomtown Rats hadn't had a hit in about 5 years at
that point, which is kind of hypocritical given his treatment of Adam
Ant (More in the next entry). The Boomtown Rats would break up
completely the following year. Having said that
'I Don't Like Mondays' goes down a storm with the crowd singing along with every word. Next up is
'Drag Me Down' which seems an odd choice given that they also played
'Rat Trap' that was a huge hit and
'Drag Me Down' only got to No. 50 in the chart when it was released as a single the year before. In fact I don't think I'd even heard
'Drag Me Down' before I watched this. Global Jukebox eh Bob?
As the band leave the stage the crowd breaks out into a well deserved spontaneous rendition of
'For He's a Jolly Good Fellow' in honour of Geldof.
*-*
Adam Ant
Vive Le Rock
The story goes that Adam Ant had kept bothering Geldof for a spot on the
bill despite Geldof telling him there wasn't any room. In reality
Geldof felt that Adam wasn't a big enough name not having a hit single
for 3 years (Kind of ironic Geldof hadn't had one in 5 years). Adam was
desperate to play as he had released his first single while taking a 3
year hiatus to attempt to become an actor in Hollywood. Eventually
Geldof offered him one song and Adam accepted. He then went on to piss a
lot of people off on the day by ignoring the whole Global Jukebox
concept and playing his new single
'Vive Le Rock' which virtually
none of the crowd had even heard at that point. Watching it you can see
half the crowd into it and the other half looking around lost and
bewildered. I mean it was his best single in years but that was kind of
besides the point. I remember being really disappointed with this as a
kid not getting to hear stuff like
'Antmusic' and
'Stand & Deliver'
on the big stage, but looking at this now knowing the back story behind
it all he did a decent job of putting in an energetic performance for
what he did.
*-*
Ultravox
Reap The Wild Wind (n/a)
Dancing With Tears In My Eyes
One Small Day (n/a)
Vienna
Now It's the turn of Geldof's right hand man Midge Ure to take the stage
with Ultravox. Ultravox at this point were probably the biggest they
had ever been with a string of successful album going back to 1979 when
Ure had first joined them. However this was also pretty much the end of
that run, just 3 months later Ure would release his first solo album and
eventually leave the band completely 2 years later.
There's a really interesting dynamic here, this seems to be the Midge
Ure show with him pushed right to the front of the stage with the rest
of the band right at the back of the stage barely in shot a lot of the
time.
The sound during this is really odd too, Ultravox during this time
consisted of two synth players and a drummer with Ure on guitar and
vocals and the lack of a bass makes the whole thing seem rather tinny
and lightweight. Ure's guitar has the sound of some grimy garage band
and is a total contrast to the clean synths which really makes an
otherwise nice pop song like
'Dancing With Tears In Your Eyes' sound like it rocks pretty hard... I approve of this.
Of course
'Vienna' is next, it's not as lush as it's studio
counterpart but it's performed well enough, but the lack of any bass
really makes it suffer.
Other than a couple of complaints this is a good decent set.
*-*
Spandau Ballet
Only When You Leave
Virgin (n/a)
True
Another band who were at their peak when this was recorded and dear God
look at those costumes, it can only be the mid 80s. There's Tony Hadley
(Who I have a lot of time for as a vocalist) in a full length leather
coat and pants in the middle of July,would hate to be his girlfriend at
the end of the night. Then there's Martin Kemp (Who I have a lot of time
for as a actor) in that ridiculous turquoise get up and Gary Kemp (Who I
have a lot of time for as a ...... OK i'll get back to you on this) who
looks like he turned up in his pyjama bottoms and a hi-vis jacket from
someone directing the traffic.
As for Spandau Ballet themselves, they're probably one of the most
unfashionable bands to like, both back then and now. I have some time
for them, I loved their first couple of albums which were more kind of
Synth pop/new romantic orientated but lost interest when they
essentially became a white soul band singing sappy ballads. Sadly in
1985 were right at the heart of white sappy ballad territory. Having
said that 'Only When You Leave' is one of their better later songs and
they play this note perfect. The second track 'Virgin' which isn't
included here I'd never heard of. I looked it up and it appears to be
just an album track of the album they released the following
year...naughty.
Their set is finished off as you would expect with 'True' I don't know
if they were being told to hurry up but they sing this song at rather a
speedy pace, which for a slow ballad sounds kind of strange, almost
comical in fact. All the girls singalong to it, the band take their bows
and everybody leaves happy.
Would have been nice to hear maybe one of their earlier singles but this set wasn't as bad as I was expecting.
*-*
It's 9am in Philadelphia and Joan Baez kicks off the
festivities at the J.F.K. Stadium with a rendition of Amazing Grace
(Later on the DVD)
*-*
Elvis Costello
All You Need Is Love
Back in London Elvis Costello takes the stage along with just a guitar
and tells the crowd he wants them "To help him sing a old northern
English folk song" before going into
'All You Need Is Love'
It's simple, yet effective. The crowd sing a long to every word,
Costello sings it in his own unique way and it's just an all round
enjoyable almost kind of spontaneous performance.
One of the highlights of the day this one.
*-*
Nik Kershaw
Wide Boy (n/a)
Don Quixote (n/a)
The Riddle (n/a)
Wouldn't It Be Good
If you ever want to study the fickleness of popular music you only have
to look at Nik Kershaw at Live Aid. Just a year earlier he'd released 2
albums and was having hit single after hit single, putting him on this
bill seemed a no brainer. Yet just a month later Kershaw would release
'Don Quixote' the final single from his album of the previous year which
would be his last ever top 10 hit. After playing guitar on a couple of
Elton John songs his slide back into obscurity would begin. And it seems
the BBC felt he was only deserving of one song being broadcast too.
Kershaw said later on that he was nervous as hell onstage and it shows in the one song we do get
'Wouldn't It Be Good',
probably his most well known song. He seems to be rooted behind the mic
stand showing no personality whatsoever in fact I think at the end of
the song when he punches the air and runs up to the drum riser is the
most personality he shows throughout the whole song. The crowd seem to
be kind of into it but to me now this seems to be the first misfire of
the day.
*-*
Sade
Why Can't We Live Together (n/a)
Your Love Is King
Is It A Crime (n/a)
My God this woman is simply stunning. Although this is another one song
set it's one I really enjoyed. It's almost like a change of pace with a
really nice smooth laid back groove and Sade is the epitome of cool. The
crowd are really really into this for such a laid back song. Sade takes
off her jacket, massive cheer erupts, sax player begins his solo,
another massive cheer erupts. I'm not really familiar with Sade's
material
'Your Love Is King' is the only song of hers I know but
having seen this I would love to have seen the other two songs that she
performs here. In an interesting curio as Sade leaves the stage in
London, in Philadelphia a re-united Black Sabbath with Ozzy Osbourne are
about to take the stage. It's kind of funny to think of Sade warming up
a crowd for Black Sabbath. (and them playing at 10am)
But that's not to demean Sade, her performance is another highlight of the day.
*-*
Sting & Phil Collins
STING
Roxanne
Driven To Tears (n/a)
PHIL COLLINS
Against All Odds
STING
Message In A Bottle (n/a)
PHIL COLLINS
In The Air Tonight (n/a)
STING & PHIL COLLINS
Long Long Way To Go (n/a)
Every Breath You Take
Oh God, this is the moment I have been really dreading.
Sting had just broken up The Police and was transitioning from being
known as 'The Singer In The Police' to being known as 'That Pretentious
Twat' and Phil Collins is a twat anyway and they both get a whopping 7
songs between them to show us this. Thankfully the BBC cut this down to
3. After performing here Collins would get on Concorde and arrive in
Philadelphia just in time to ruin a reformed Led Zeppelin. In fact he
ruined it so much Robert Plant, Jimmy Page & John Paul Jones would
go on to criticise his performance and refused the footage to be shown
on this DVD and made a donation to the charity instead
Sting comes out first with just himself and a saxaphone player and plays a long drawn out slow version of
'Roxanne', like you didn't hate the guy already.
Then he's joined by Collins who plays a solo version of
'Against All Odds'
hitting a very obvious duff note near the beginning, the crowd seem to
like it though. Finally they join together to do another drawn out
version of another Police song 'Every Breath You Take' which again goes
down well even if I'm totally bored by it. Then after what seems like
it's an eternity it's over and they leave the stage and I'm forever
grateful I didn't have to watch this entire set of over pretentious
drivel.
*-*
Howard Jones
Hide And Seek
I can't help but wonder if the only reason Howard Jones is playing is
because they just happened to have Phil Collins piano still on stage and
had 5 minutes to fill. That's not to say his spot isn't deserved but it
feels like this is here out of convenience rather than any great
attempt to have Howard play the gig.
It's all very nice and a well played piano ballad with the crowd singing
along to it, although not as enthusiastically as past songs. But at
this point in the show it's been almost nothing but ballads &
singalongs for the past 2 and a half hours and you can see during this
song the crowd are beginning to lose focus and are starting to get a
little bored of them. I'm sure like me they'd much rather be dancing or
rocking out with Howard and his synth while he throws off his mental
chains instead.
*-*
