Live Aid Concert
The most important concert of Rock
Date and Time:
Saturday, July 13, 1985 - Start 12: 00md
Organizers:
Bob Geldof and Midge Ure
Locations:
Wembley Stadium, London, England.
John F. Kennedy Stadium, Philadelphia, USA.
Collection and Reason:
100 Million Dollars - Famine Relief in Africa
The complete history
In 1985 he created the "Band Aid Trust" foundation, which would be financed through two concerts held in the United States and England, called Live Aid. In 2005, twenty years after Live Aid, Geldof promoted a series of concerts to ask the G8 to reduce the debt of African countries, and to pledge to help fight poverty; Live 8. He was appointed Honorary Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire on June 11, 1986 by Queen Elizabeth II.
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Live Aid (in Spanish, Direct Help) were two concerts held on July 13, 1985 simultaneously at Wembley Stadium in London (England) and at John F. Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia (United States), with the motive to raise funds for the benefit of East African countries, specifically Ethiopia and Somalia. Few months before, mainly British artists, released the song "Do They Know It's Christmas?" For the same purposes, American musicians also collaborated with the song "We Are The World" to raise funds.
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After a great drought between 1983 and 1985 in the arid region of northern Ethiopia, in which what was called then "hell on earth" took place, the lack of food and little water that there was, caused a massive death of the population because of the hunger that reigned.
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The BBC television network showed the world what was happening, this prompted the musician and actor Bob Geldof to travel to know what was happening in Africa on the ground and later to create the Band Aid Trust foundation, in charge of managing and distributing all the It helps that it was raised thanks to the two concerts.
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To get the world's attention, Geldof and his friend Midge Ure, co-founder of the foundation and singer of Ultravox, managed to communicate with most of the great and recognized European artists of the time who, without problem in participating, were present in such a way. Volunteer, forming Band Aid, which recorded in 1984 Do They Know It's Christmas ?, a song of great worldwide success and together with We Are the World, recorded in 1985 by the great artists of the United States, were the great anthems of Live Aid .
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The large participation of artists made the event a great success and marked part of musical history, showing the world that music could raise awareness and help the people of Africa.
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The collection exceeded 100 million dollars, the concert was broadcast live via satellite in more than 72 countries and was one of the most watched music events in the world.
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On the occasion of this memorable concert, July 13 was declared World Rock Day.
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Event at Wembley
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At 12 noon on July 13, 1985, the show called Live Aid (in Spanish, Live Help) began at Wembley Stadium, London. At the beginning of the ceremony, the princes of Wales Charles and Diana were welcomed, and later the Coldstream Guards band opened with the "Royal Salute".
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The first group to go on stage was Status Quo, which enjoyed great popularity in those years, and which caused the public to begin to get excited and enjoy each group present.
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Then The Style Council, Adam Ant, Nik Kershaw, Sade, Spandau Ballet, Ultravox and then Elvis Costello would take the stage, who only armed with an electric guitar played the Beatles classic All You Need Is Love, achieving a great response from the audience before this song. Then came Howard Jones, who only performed on piano a very emotional version of his hit Hide and Seek. Phil Collins would then take the stage with Sting and Branford Marsalis together, playing several of their hits with piano, saxophone and guitar.
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A highlight was the performance of U2, who played a harsh version of Sunday Bloody Sunday, but their second song was the one that defined their performance as mythical: since during the interpretation of Bad, their vocalist Bono from the stage chose a woman from the audience to dance with her; In view of the fact that the number of people prevented the girl from approaching the stage, Bono himself went down to where he was and helped her out. This breaking of barriers was unanimously highlighted as a mythical moment of the concert by the press, critics and the public. Originally they were also going to play the song Pride (In The Name Of Love) but all the bands had only 15 minutes left for their performance, and because Bad's performance was so long they must have omitted the third song from their list.
Shortly after, the band Dire Straits, led by one of the best guitarists of all time, Mark Knopfler, came on stage. They began by playing Money for Nothing, their great success of that time, together with Sting, to later perform Sultans of Swing and cause great enthusiasm among the audience for their remarkable musical performance.
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According to the audience present, the best of all was the participation of Queen, who showed off playing cut versions -to fit the fifteen minutes per artist, however it was the only group that played for 21 minutes- of six of their best classics, which were Bohemian Rhapsody, Radio Ga Ga, Crazy Little Thing Called Love, Hammer to Fall, a fragment of We Will Rock You and We Are The Champions; as was customary, the latter was interpreted as a hymn by all present. Freddie Mercury also gave an impressive vocal duel with the public, very characteristic in his concerts. Later the guitarist Brian May and the singer would come out to interpret the song Is This the World We Created ...?, With which they closed their participation in the concert.
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Queen's performance on Live Aid was voted the greatest rock concert of all time through a music poll, garnering 79% of the vote.
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Without a doubt, one of the most remembered presentations is that of former Roxy Music vocalist Bryan Ferry, accompanied on guitar by David Gilmour, vocalist and one of the leaders of Pink Floyd, performing the classic Slave to Love. Gilmour was invited by Ferry to participate with his group, since at that time his band was dissolved, due to the fact that the trial for the rights and the name of Pink Floyd against Roger Waters was being carried out.
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Continuing with the hours of the concert, David Bowie performed in a great way his great success Heroes, considered an all-time classic, among other themes. At the end of his presentation, Bowie invited all those present in the stadium and the spectators around the world, to remember the reason for the event, giving a moment of awareness and presenting images that showed the harshness of the situation in Africa to through the screens installed in the stadium. That was the time when the most donations were made at all hours of the event.
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Around 8 pm, when night was falling on London, a little more than eight hours of concert had already been held, and the expectation and enthusiasm of the public present did not wane. So far, one of the most watched events in world music history was taking place. At that time, George Michael appeared with Elton John, interpreting Don't Let The Sun Go Down On Me, an all-time classic, which, a couple of years later, they would record as a duo as a single of great commercial success at the level. world.
Around 9 p.m., already nearing the end of the event in London, The Who comes on stage, who interpret Love, Reign o'er Me and Won't Get Fooled Again, their world-famous classic, causing a stir among those present thanks to the great interpretation of its musicians.
After almost nine hours of concert, the last artist on stage was Paul McCartney, performing Let It Be on the piano, accompanied in chorus by Pete Townshend, Bob Geldof, David Bowie and Alison Moyet, achieving one of the most exciting musical moments of the concert. .
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Finally, Bob Geldof invited all the bands and artists who were present at the event to the stage, to all perform the song that was written in 1984 to raise awareness of the African situation in the world, Do They Know It's Christmas ?, which it was performed with great fervor by all the musicians, who also made up Band Aid, and by the 85,000 people present at Wembley Stadium.
The emotion conquered the world and the objective of the concert in London had been fulfilled, Bob Geldof thanked everyone for the support and for the great collection that was achieved for the help of the hungry peoples of Africa, giving way direct via satellite, to the Philadelphia concert, which was already taking place at that time.
Event in Philadelphia
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On the afternoon of July 13, 1985, 99,000 people packed JFK Stadium in Philadelphia to help and support the cause led by Geldof and enjoy Live Aid. 4 hours after the start of the England concert, the Philadelphia concert began, with the famous actor Jack Nicholson being the presenter of said event and the established Canadian artist Bryan Adams opening the show and achieving a great reception from the people. Later, a large number of artists and bands were present, with uneven performance in their performances.
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Among the most notable moments we can mention the performance of the heavy metal group Black Sabbath with Ozzy Osbourne as singer (remembering that he had retired from the group for more than 6 years) and the drummer Bill Ward (who retired from the band). band 2 years ago). Another great moment was the interpretation of the song Don't You (Forget About Me) by the group Simple Minds, a song that was one of the most popular songs of the time around the world.
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Madonna performed two of her hits, Into the Groove and Holiday, and a hitherto unreleased song, Love Makes the World Go Round, provoking the excitement of the 78,000 attendees. A sarcastic statement he made is remembered: "Today I'm not taking anything off." This is how she responded to gossip that claimed (falsely) that she undressed at her concerts until she was wearing her underwear.
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Particularly disastrous was the presentation of Led Zeppelin, far below their standards as the interpreters themselves later recognized.
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Phil Collins, after traveling directly from England in the Concorde, came on stage and was the only artist who managed to be in the 2 concerts and achieve the proposed great feat. He played Against All Odds (Take a Look at Me Now) on piano, and later played drums alongside Led Zeppelin and Eric Clapton.
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One of the most emotional moments of the concert was the appearance of Teddy Pendergrass on stage, for the first time in public since his car accident that left him paraplegic in 1982, performing the song Reach Out And Touch (Somebody's Hand), being applauded by the audience. crowd present.
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Patti Labelle's rendition of the Bob Dylan classic, Forever Young, attracted great audience concentration, bringing to life one of the most emotional moments during the concert.
Mick Jagger and Tina Turner playing the duo State Of Shock achieved some of the most eventful moments of the concert and generated a party atmosphere for all those present.
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After a performance of Blowin 'in the Wind by Bob Dylan, accompanied by Wood and Richards, Lionel Richie appears on stage inviting all the artists present, as Geldof did at the previous concert, to perform the song that was the great anthem. from Live Aid - America: We Are the World, composed the year before by Ritchie and Michael Jackson, who could not be present at the event due to work reasons. The interpretation of We Are the World by all the artists and by a choir of children on stage, was the moment of greatest emotion of the entire concert, achieving the general applause of all the attendees and the entire world, leading to the final closing of the event. Live Aid, which lasted more than 16 hours in total, was watched by more than 3 billion people around the world.
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Bob Geldof achieved his goal and all the help raised went to the people of Africa.
Criticisms, Lawsuits and Live 8 (2005)
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Some NGOs have criticized that the aid sent to Ethiopia actually (albeit unintentionally) contributed to the Ethiopian government at that time being able to transfer thousands of people to the south-west of the country for ethnic cleansing.
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Spin magazine claimed that part of the donation went to Ethiopian Mangistu Haile Mariam, who was the president of the Provisional Military Council. Supported by Cuba and the USSR, what they gave him was spent on buying arms from the Russians to crush those seeking independence in Eritrea. Spin also discovered that several NGOs had warned Geldof that Mengistu carried out terrible killings on innocents. But the scandal would be even greater when the British channel BBC revealed in a radio program that a large part of the income from those macro-concerts organized by Geldof went to the funds of the Ethiopian guerrillas, due to the disastrous management that was made with the money. as soon as the show was over.
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Two commanders of the Tigrayan People's Liberation Front (known as Woyane), a Maoist and secessionist organization that was at war with the Ethiopian government, admitted what had happened to the BBC. Aregawi Berhe, Woyane's military chief in those years, confessed that it didn't cost them too much to steal all the money. According to their testimony, the guerrillas disguised themselves as Arab merchants and sold sacks full of sand to Western NGOs to whom the money was given, who believed they were buying grain. Doctors Without Borders asked Geldof himself not to hand over the collection until the infrastructures were in place to guarantee a safe and equitable distribution, but apparently he did not want to wait.
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At the beginning of the 90s the BBC of London among other organizations sued Bob Geldof for these reasons, however the latter won the lawsuit, proving that his foundation had given every penny of the proceeds from the concert to the Ethiopian authorities for the humanitarian aid, for the year 2005 he would continue with his altruism by performing another concert for the same reason called Live 8, but this time he would ensure that all the money raised would be delivered directly to those in need in Africa and involved large organizations such as the UN and UNICEF To distribute all the proceeds from the 2005 concert, in his words he said:
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Would that happen today? No, "says Geldof. You just have to see the clowns who rule the planet.
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Sources: Wikipedia, ABC Cultura, Rolling Stone Magazine, Reuters Photographs.
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List of Participating Artists
July 13, 1985
References
crusades of
artists on Wikipedia.
Live aid
1985
