Cliff Richard later stated he had been unable to perform as he was already committed to a gospel charity concert in Birmingham the same day. [95] During his opening number, " American Girl", Tom Petty flipped the middle finger to somebody off stage about one minute into the song. Petty stated the song was a last-minute addition when the band realised that they would be the first act to play the American side of the concert after the London finale and "since this is, after all, JFK Stadium". [55] Phil Collins, who had performed in London earlier in the day, began his solo set with the quip, "I was in England this afternoon. Funny old world, innit?" to cheers from the Philadelphia crowd. [25] Collins played drums during Eric Clapton's 17 minute set, which included well received performances of " Layla" and " White Room". [60] Fundraising [ edit ] The concert began at 12:00 British Summer Time (BST) (7:00 Eastern Daylight Time (EDT)) at Wembley Stadium in the United Kingdom. [21] It continued at John F. Kennedy Stadium (JFK) in the United States, starting at 13:51 BST (8:51 EDT). The UK's Wembley performances ended at 22:00 BST (17:00 EDT). The JFK performances and whole concert in the US ended at 04:05 BST 14 July (23:05 EDT). Thus, the concert continued for just over 16 hours, but since many artists' performances were conducted simultaneously in Wembley and JFK, the total concert's length was much longer. [21]

Thin Lizzy keyboard player Darren Wharton expressed regrets about the band not being asked to perform: "That was a tragic, tragic decision. It could've been and it should've been the turning point for Phil ( Lynott). And I think that really did Phil in quite a lot, that we were never asked to play. I mean Phil, he had a few problems at the time, but at the end of the day, if he would've been asked to play Live Aid, that would've been a goal for him to clean himself up to do that gig. We were all very upset of the fact that we weren't asked to do it because Phil knew Geldof and Midge Ure very well indeed. I was surprised that we weren't asked to do that. I don't think Phil ever forgave Bob." [99] Lynott died less than five months after the concert, from complications associated with his drug and alcohol addictions. Each of the two main parts of the concert ended with their particular continental all-star anti-hunger anthems, with Band Aid's " Do They Know It's Christmas?" closing the UK concert, and USA for Africa's " We Are the World" closing the US concert (and thus the entire event itself). [23] a b Jones, Dylan (26 July 2010). The Eighties: One Day, One Decade. Random House. p.357. ISBN 978-1-4090-5225-8. The [Duran] Duran set was memorable for Simon Le Bon's off-key falsetto note that he hit during 'A View to a Kill', a blunder that echoed throughout the media as 'The Bum Note Heard Round the World'. The singer later said it was the most embarrassing moment of his career. Fred Krüger (2015). "Cultures and Disasters: Understanding Cultural Framings in Disaster Risk Reduction". p. 190. RoutledgePaphides, Pete (12 June 2011). "U2 become stars after Live Aid". The Guardian . Retrieved 7 November 2016. Roger Waters (right) rejoined his former bandmates Pink Floyd at Live 8 in Hyde Park, London on 2 July 2005 Since the official DVD release of Live Aid includes only partial footage of this event, unofficial distribution sources continue to be the only source of the most complete recordings of this event. The official DVD is the only authorised video release in which proceeds go directly to famine relief, the cause that the concert was originally intended to help.

Hepworth, David (25 May 2011). "God Save The Queen by David Hepworth (Radio Times)". Queen Online. Archived from the original on 8 December 2015 . Retrieved 8 October 2015. The Wembley speaker system was provided by Hill Pro Audio. It consisted primarily of the Hill J-Series Mixing Consoles, Hill M3 Speaker System powered by the Hill 3000 amplifiers. [51] In an interview with Studio Sound in December 1985, Malcolm Hill described the concept for the system in detail. [52] John F. Kennedy Stadium [ edit ] Stage view of Live Aid at John F. Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia Live Aid under the lights at John F. Kennedy Stadium a b "Ethiopia famine relief aid: misinterpreted allegations out of control". Barder.com . Retrieved 18 July 2020.Youngs, Ian (27 August 2004). "How Live Aid was saved for history". BBC News . Retrieved 6 March 2011. Mark Beaumont (11 July 2020). "Aaaaaay-o! Aaaaaay-o! Why Live Aid was the greatest show of all". The Independent . Retrieved 10 August 2020.

a b Harris, Will (25 February 2008). "Eric Bazilian interview". Popdose.com . Retrieved 6 March 2011.

One afternoon before the concert, Bowie was up in the office and we started looking through some videos of news footage, and we watched the CBC piece [footage from the Ethiopian famine, cut to the Cars' song " Drive"]. Everyone just stopped. Bowie said, 'You've got to put that in the show, it's the most dramatic thing I've ever seen.' That was probably one of the most evocative things in the whole show and really got the money rolling in." The idea to stage a charity concert to raise more funds for Ethiopia originally came from Boy George, the lead singer of Culture Club. George and Culture Club drummer Jon Moss had taken part in the recording of "Do They Know It's Christmas?" and in the same month, the band were undertaking a tour of the UK, which culminated in six nights at Wembley Arena. On the final night at Wembley, 22 December 1984, an impromptu gathering of some of the other artists from Band Aid joined Culture Club on stage at the end of the concert for an encore of "Do They Know It's Christmas?". George was so overcome by the occasion he told Geldof that they should consider organising a benefit concert. Speaking to the UK music magazine Melody Maker at the beginning of January 1985, Geldof revealed his enthusiasm for George's idea, saying, "If George is organising it, you can tell him he can call me at any time and I'll do it. It's a logical progression from the record, but the point is you don't just talk about it, you go ahead and do it!" [18] Bad" (w/snippets of " Satellite of Love", " Ruby Tuesday", " Sympathy for the Devil" and " Walk on the Wild Side") Lessons learned since Live Aid: the challenge of bringing high quality audio to live television audiences continues to change. Kevin Hilton considers how technology has moved on in the 20 years since Live Aid". AllBusiness.com. 1 March 2005. Archived from the original on 6 January 2007 . Retrieved 6 March 2011.

Richard Skinner—opened the show and introduced Charles, Prince of Wales and Diana, Princess of Wales Youngs, Ian (3 March 2004). "Geldof thwarts 'Live Aid pirate' ". BBC News . Retrieved 6 March 2011. Self Aid, a 1986 Live Aid-inspired concert highlighting severe unemployment in Ireland, promoted by Jim Aiken Marillion, riding high in the UK charts that summer with their Misplaced Childhood album and " Kayleigh" single, missed out on an invitation to perform at Wembley because their manager had deemed it not worthwhile for singer Fish to participate in the "Do They Know It's Christmas?" single. Fish was quoted: "When it came to the bill for the concert we were passed over." [97] Rieff, David (24 June 2005). "Did Live Aid do more harm than good?". The Guardian. London . Retrieved 6 March 2011.Sherwood, Harriet; Arts, Harriet Sherwood; correspondent, culture (2 October 2023). "Bob Geldof gives nod of approval to the Old Vic's Live Aid musical". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077 . Retrieved 2 October 2023. Prince also declined to appear in person, but sent a pre-taped video of an acoustic version of "4 the Tears in Your Eyes", which was played during the concert in Philadelphia. The original version appears on the We Are the World album, [90] while the video version was released in 1993 on Prince's compilation The Hits/The B-Sides. [91] a b c "Watch David Bowie's iconic performance of 'Heroes' at 'Live Aid' in 1985". Far Out Magazine . Retrieved 14 July 2021.