It was July 13, 1985 – The first LIVE AID Rock Concert

35 years ago today, the greatest concert of all time took place: July 13, 1985, when the world made an extraordinary success at the first ‘Live Aid’ rock concert for charity.

Live Aid

The ambitious project signed by Bob Geldof, singer of the Boomtown Rats and Midge Ure leader of the Ultravox, manages to catalyze the worldwide attention on the famine in Ethiopia, and the fundraising exceeded the objectives widely, reaching a figure between 40 and 50 million pounds of the time.

In October 1984 Bob Geldof saw a news report detailing the horrific drought and famine in Ethiopia that was threatening to indiscriminately take the lives of 30 million men, women, and children.

Determined to help these defenceless people with no voice of their own, Bob and Midge Ure quickly teamed up and set a process in motion that led to one of the biggest fundraising initiatives ever.

The concert developed on two main locations, one at the Wembley Stadium in London, which counted about 72 thousand people and one at the JFK Stadium in Philadelphia, which counted around 90 thousand.

Band-Aid

Each of the two lives ended with its own symbolic song played by a stellar cast.
In Britain, it was Band-Aid to close with “Do they know It’s Christmas.”

We are the World

In the United States, however, the hymn that arose in the air was the unforgettable “We are the World” by the maxi group of all-stars USA for Africa.

Other places were Sydney and Moscow.
That LIVE AID proved to be the biggest satellite link and the biggest TV show ever.

Almost 2 billion viewers watched the television broadcast from 150 countries for an unprecedented event.

In Europe, the BBC thought about spreading the concert while an overseas contribution came from ABC. Furthermore, a simultaneous and completely separate live broadcast was provided to the American public via MTV cable.

The live officially opened at 12.01 with the performance of the Status Quo. The concerts lasted a total of 16 hours.

We make you see some of the most beautiful songs from the concert:

An unsuccessful connection between the United States and London was foreseen for Mick Jagger and David Bowie, therefore a duet not performed. Jagger regained the stake from Philadelphia along with Tina Turner.

The most curious case involved Phil Collins, who performed in two different locations on two different continents.

Transfer in record time thanks to the use of the then in super jet Concorde activities. The former Genesis performed first in London than in Philadelphia.

This rare footage shows absolutely fascinating, never-seen-before insights into the backstage preparations and activities before, during, and after the show. It features many of the world’s most renowned music artists rubbing shoulders and uniquely captures the excitement of the day:

It was July 13, 1985 – The first LIVE AID Rock Concert.

By Sergio Curadi Naumann