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Live Aid
1985-07-13
Part 1
Wembley Stadium, London, UK
JFK Stadium, Philadelphia, PA
FM Broadcast
320 kbps
Artwork Included
Performers (See Artwork for Set Lists)
- Status Quo
- The Style Council
- The Boomtown Rats
- Adam Ant
- INXS
- Dragon Baby
- Men At Work
- Little River Band
- Gowana
- Ultra Vox
- Japan For Africa
- Spandau Ballet
- Joan Baez
- Elvis Costello
- Austria For Africa
- The Hooters
- Nik Kershaw
- The Four Tops
- BB King
- Billy Ocean
- Sade
- Black Sabbath
- Yugoslavia For Africa
- Run DMC
- Sting
- Phil Collins
- Branford Marsalis
- Rick Springfield
- REO Speedwagon
- Howard Jones
- Autograph
- Bryan Ferry
- Crosby, Stills & Nash
When Bob Geldorf organized an effort in late 1984 to recruit an all star cast of rock stars to record a charity single to raise money to address the famine in Ethiopia, he had little idea what idea would eventually transpire. Band Aid's recording of Do They Know Its Christmas would eventually evolve into one of the largest charity initiatives in history, the world wide concert held on July 13, 1985, 4 decades ago today, known as Live Aid. Billed as the "global jukebox", the Live Aid festival was held simultaneously in Wembley Stadium in London, with 72,000 in attendance, and JFK Stadium in Philadelphia,, with a crowd of about 100,000 people. On the same day, concerts inspired by the initiative were also held in other countries, such as Australia and Germany . It was one of the largest satellite link-ups and television broadcasts of all time, as estimated global audience of 1.9 billion, across 150 nations, watched Live Aid. Over 50 different rock artists performed for over 16 hours between the 2 concerts at Wembley and Philadelphia, making it one of the largest and longest single day rock festivals in history. Most importantly, the effort raised over $283 million for famine relief. Go here for even more details on Live Aid!
After years of searching, I finally found a complete FM recording of the entire show, from July 13, 1985, 40 years ago today, which had originally been broadcast on the BBC and ABC radio networks, as well as televised on MTV and ABC. We're presenting it today in 3 posts, which encompass over 15 cds worth of music. The posts run in chronological order, from the opening notes at Wembley to the closing song at JFK. Normally, I post the entire set list, but the song list is so long for this show, that it won't fit in the post. So I just listed all the artists and you can find the set lists on the artwork. This post features the early portion of the show, including such artists as Status Quo, Joan Baez, Elvis Costello, The Four Tops, Black Sabbath (with Ozzy!), Sting and Phil Collins, who would be the only artist to play on both sides of the Atlantic at Live Aid. Also featured are musicians from Australia, Japan, Austria, and Yugoslavia. Live Aid may have been the first true multi-national rock festival, with performers from all across the globe, and from countless musical genres, uniting for one common cause. Download this part now, then come back later today for the rest of this historic show.
