Live Aid Philly— 39 Years

Cafe Society
1

Thirty-nine years ago (July 13)…

I was 14, with my 14-year-old friend Joe, plus my two older sisters, 22 and 24.

As I’m drafting this, around 9:00 pm, EST, we were probably watching Mick and Tina. Just after Patti LaBelle and Led Zeppelin.

I had already heard Status Quo, Spandau Ballet on the live Wembley Stadium video simulcast on the big screens while setting up camp in JFK. Joan Barz opens, later Madonna, basically on her, what, second album? She sang Holiday as we baked to death in the sun. Was awesome. “Holida-ay!”
Black Sabbath, Judas Priest…

I’ll never forget Chevy Chase quieting a crowd over a medical issue. Announcing Stephon Something from MA has a kidney for donation, and should leave right away. (He was police escorted to the airport and had transplant next morning in MA. )

Jack Nicholson appeared to tell us at Philly in the late afternoon sun that we should put our cameras away because the fire department has come to “hose you down now.” :grin:

Then Jack introduced U2, and by that point in my life, I had heard only part of one of their songs. Unbelievable You know, “If I could, you know I Would…”

There was Queen, Duran Duran, Pretenders, even Howard Jones, Hall & Oates with David Ruffin and Eddie Kendrick, Tom Petty, Bob Dylan, Black Sabbath, PhilCollins, both Wembley and JFK stadiums, etc…

I HAD to go as it was essentially a Zeppelin reunion. I worshipped Jimmy Page through my teen years. And they open up their set to… a monitor malfunction. I Love Philly. :grin:

Are there any other Dopers out there that were at Philly or London Live Aid on July 13th, 1985?

2

If I could visit any one concert in history Live Aid London would be in my top three. Outstanding performances by so many great artists and then Queen managed to top them all with a once-in-a-lifetime, outstanding performance.

3

Oh, hell yes. You had to hear the cheers and backups provided by Philly crowd for QUEEN! Of course, the Brits sing better in key, IMO. :grin:

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5

I wasn’t at either venue but I’ll never forget the day. Two friends of mine got married that afternoon. A lot of other friends were in town. We started the day watching the concert. Then went to the lovely wedding and reception at a Victorian mansion. Then back to the house where we continued to drink champagne and watch more of the concert. Until we headed downtown for an after-wedding dinner at The Rendezvous - best ribs in Memphis. They had the concert on their TVs. It was a super fun day with an awesome soundtrack.

6

That’s the other side of the world to where I was. Both places. I was 14yrs too, and I didn’t even know anything about it until that morning; it likely would have passed me by entirely if it wasn’t for my sister getting excited about it.

7

I was a 15-year-old American Led Zeppelin fan, staying with family friends who were spending the summer in southern France. They had a black-and-white TV with a fuzzy picture, but I was still thrilled to see the reunited Zeppelin perform. As I recall, Robert Plant messed up part of the lyric to “Stairway to Heaven” (not a deliberate live-version insertion or variation - just a clear forgetting of the verse order), and I thought, “c’mon, Robert – my grandmother knows the lyrics to Stairway…and you wrote the friggin’ thing!”

8

I was in Philly. A family friend who was about 14 got a pair of tix thinking he and his buddy would somehow go by themselves (we lived in Northern NJ) - his mom quashed that. When his older brother couldn’t make it, I got asked to take him.

I was 21 and barely knew the kid, and TBH didn’t have a ton of interest - going myself never occurred to me. But it was a chance to see a lot of acts I probably wouldn’t have made an effort to otherwise, for free, and help this kid out.

We got there early enough to see the first acts - I remember Joan Baez at like 9am, but it was a really hot and long day. I remember realizing how good so many acts were - Hall & Oates stood out to me as a group I hadn’t appreciated their chops much (I was and remain a deadhead and reggae fan and the 80s styles didn’t appeal) but seeing LZ and Mick with Tina was pretty cool and I am glad I went.

When I got to the car to drive home I realized that the coating from those ancient benches is JFK stadium had worn away and I had a lot of fiberglass in the backs of my legs, which was a drag.

9

Oh, yeah. Bench seats at JFK were awful. Hurt my ass. :smiley: Sort of glad we were on the field for that one.

10

I was there with my younger brother - we were 16 & 17. Got there late morning I think, the first act we saw were the Four Tops and the Hooters. Unbelievably great, but unbelievably hot day. We were on the right side facing the stage, about 5 rows up from the field, just where the curve started at the far end of the stadium. One thing I vividly remember, there was a van or truck on the field (I have no idea why), and people started standing on it which blocked our view of the stage, leading to a chant of “Get the fuck off the truck!” until the police finally chased them off.

I still have in my possession my ticket stub, the program, the pictures we took, and the concert T-shirt (which has shrunk quite a bit in the past 39 years for unexplained reasons).

My high points were probably George Thorogood with Bo Diddley, Eric Clapton, Led Zeppelin, Mick with Tina, and Keith Richards, Bob Dylan, and Ronnie Wood jamming together (badly).

11

Awesome on having the tix stub! Lost mine years ago.

I’m seeing Judas Priest on Oct 15 in LA. Saw them on Painkillertour and actually forgot about Live Aid.

Duran Duran— the freaking girl screams.

Of course, there was Queen on the screens, live from Wembley.

I’ll never forget Chevy Chase announcing a medical announcement. We all chuckled, but Steve or Steph Fallon, from MA, had a kidney donor at UMass general. He was escorted out, flew to Logan, got transplant next day.

We thought it was a joke until security ran up the steps to escort this kid out.

I’d be like, “Can we wait until after Zeppelin?”

12

This thread is making me feel old. I watched on TV. I graduated high school a few weeks before.

13

I graduated grade school (8th grade) that year!

14

I’ll be the first to mention Phil Collins doing a set at Wembley with Sting (and amongst some Police song played Agaainst all Odds and In the air tonight) then flying the Concorde and helicoptering into Philly where he played Agaainst all Odds and In the air tonight again.

I was a big fan of Genesis and much of Phil’s own stuff yet thought he was showing off.

Then of course he played drums in the atrocious Led Zep reunion where the notion of a good drummer in a bad band being better than a bad drummer in a good band was disproved as they were all bad. Page blames Collins, Collins blames Page and even Tony Thompson (the other drummer)

Overall I’d say Philly had a slightly better lineup though less enthusiastic seeming crowd (Jim Kerr of Simple Minds had better rapport with the Philly audience than Madonna) yet of course Wembley had a splendid performance by U2 and Queen’s set almost defies description in how good they were.

ETA: sorry if we were just talking Philly. Either way you get Phil.

15

He came in one verse too early on Stairway. Was probably think of the Air Tonight song. :grin::sunglasses:

16

I went to the Philly show. I almost wasn’t going to post because I remember almost nothing of the concert. I remember the drive up to Philly from Alexandria Virginia the night before, better than I remember the concert. I was 23 years old and I’m sure alcohol was why I don’t recall much.