Live Aid 40 years on

I own the DVD, though was only 3 at the time. It was obviously a great event, apart from a Christmas song in July. Live 8 was also good, and Live Earth (07/07/07) which I was at.

Probably well intentioned to a point, but Live Aid was also the start, on a widespread scale anyway, of celebrities using catastrophe to boost their profile for their own means.

Queen's performance was lauded much more than the show they did IN Africa the year before. Anyone might think they did it mainly just to clean up their image.....
 
One of my greatest memories and like one or two others was there to see it.

Tickets were announced fairly suddenly about two weeks before the event and we got into a sizeable queue to buy snaking around Wembley Arena at 2 am. Remember it was a cool evening but good atmosphere. Been in the Wimbledon queue also that week. They started selling them about 9 or 10 am next morning can’t remember. Ticket cost £5 with an added £20 donation to band aid so £25.

On the day it was roasting hot but didn’t have to get their early for position as we managed to find a seat in the shade in the second tier to the right. We could walk on the pitch at any time but didn’t bother. Whilst it famously started up at noon it didn’t really ramp up until about 5 pm when U2 came on followed by Beach Boys in Philly then Dire Straits then Tears for Fears in Philly then Queen’s famous set. Simple minds then followed Queen in US and then Bowie!

Memories fading but won’t ever disappear. It was an amazing day never to be repeated given its historical significance and talent altogether.
 
15 year old, we arrived back from Wallis's Cayton Bay, that day, laid in front of the TV, laughed when Bob used the F bomb, much to the disgust of my father...what a summer that was, week previous watching a 17 year old Boris Becker win Wimbledon....what a time to be alive.
 
Norman_Conquest said:
That’s a good point, but it did address the much needed famine relief at the time and changed how the world viewed famine in Africa.
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That's the point though. After Live Aid everyone viewed Africa as a continent with extreme poverty and nobody wanted to visit, do business their or emigrate. Not only that the amount of corruption was astronomical, the money donated never filtered down to the needy. Instead it got given to wealthy corrupt individuals who made them even more wealthy and corrupt.
 
Mysonpat. said:
15 year old, we arrived back from Wallis's Cayton Bay, that day, laid in front of the TV, laughed when Bob used the F bomb, much to the disgust of my father...what a summer that was, week previous watching a 17 year old Boris Becker win Wimbledon....what a time to be alive.
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We had high hopes for better times at the Boro too as Alf Duffield had let Willie splash the cash on Brian Laws and Archie at the end of the previous season….added to that Don O’Riordan and Gary Rowell the good times were just around the corner?!
 
GibbosEmpire said:
That's the point though. After Live Aid everyone viewed Africa as a continent with extreme poverty and nobody wanted to visit, do business their or emigrate. Not only that the amount of corruption was astronomical, the money donated never filtered down to the needy. Instead it got given to wealthy corrupt individuals who made them even more wealthy and corrupt.
Click to expand...
Africa was already widely viewed in the West as poor and crisis prone before Live Aid. Colonial propaganda, news coverage of wars and famines in the 1960s–80s, and previous aid appeals had already cemented that image. Live Aid didn’t invent it.
 
Otto42 said:
We had high hopes for better times at the Boro too as Alf Duffield had let Willie splash the cash on Brian Laws and Archie at the end of the previous season….added to that Don O’Riordan and Gary Rowell the good times were just around the corner?!
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Now, that’s a boy band I’d like to see….
Not sure whether Archie would be the front man or the mad drummer.
 
Otto42 said:
We had high hopes for better times at the Boro too as Alf Duffield had let Willie splash the cash on Brian Laws and Archie at the end of the previous season….added to that Don O’Riordan and Gary Rowell the good times were just around the corner?!
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Brian Laws was a good player, the 85-86 team was horrific, they were the dark ages.
Best thing that ever happened was going down and having to throw the kids in.
Bruce Rioch was perfect for the young players.
 
atomicloonybin aka ALB said:
Daft game I occasionally play. Lennon is not dead. Beatles reform for Live Aid. They're given half an hour. What's their set? Sadly I think it would be rock'n'roll covers, Let it Be, Imagine and Yesterday.
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So you invent a hypothetical situation and disappoint yourself with the hypothetical outcome that you yourself decide?
Why not just pick three songs that would make you less sad?
 
My lasting memory of it was having an event at Clairville Stadium, so set up video to record everything I wanted to see, only to run into 2 problems.

Lots of acts overran, so only saw clips of most of bands I wanted to see and the band I most wanted to see - Tears For Fears, split up back stage so I got Santana instead. I can appreciate them now but as a fourteen year old I was mightily annoyed!
 
Norman_Conquest said:
Africa was already widely viewed in the West as poor and crisis prone before Live Aid. Colonial propaganda, news coverage of wars and famines in the 1960s–80s, and previous aid appeals had already cemented that image. Live Aid didn’t invent it.
Click to expand...
Never said it did. But when we saw the images and the stories on TV, it made everyone generalise all of Africa as poor and no prospects for the foreseeable future.
 
Norman_Conquest said:
1974 will always be my favourite season, but followed closely by the Rioch years.
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Too young for 73/74, my favourite is 86/87….unbelievable what we achieved with 14 players some of whom (Parky & Turnbull) made their debuts that season. I remember when we were finally allowed to sign a player and we splurged £25k on Paul Kerr!
 
Boro_Madrid said:
Did the country kind of come to a stand still with everyone to watch it? Were the pubs full of people watching it on the tv's and stuff?
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We were out in Eston & Normanby and basically drank the day away whilst dipping in and out of all the pubs on "the mad mile" and watching Live Aid in each. Was quite a good natured day too with very little in the way of bother. I enjoyed it but for the life of me I could and still can not recall much after 21:00 that night.
 
I missed it all!
I was on the way to Great Yarmouth for a fortnight with the girl who became my first wife. She was driving down the A19, lost control and we spun a couple of times before hitting a van that was parked in a lay-by. No injuries, came back home on a tow truck, dropped her dads wrecked Ford Cortina outside his house and went to Yarmouth in a hire car; got there about 8pm
 
I was living in Leeds. I remember getting ready to go out and had it on the background (on my tiny B&W TV). Queen came on, not a band I knew a lot about being a total goth but they blew me away
I've loved them ever since, they won Live Aid for me.
And Bowie was there!
He was ace too tho!
 
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