Live Aid at 40 - a personal reflection
There we three of us , I don’t remember much about the trip down to London other than we parked at White City not far from the BBC and got the Tube into Wembley. I remember the excitement of seeing the twin towers for the first time.
We. Initially stood in the stands just to the right of the stage about 1/5th of the way back it was a fantastic view but towards the end we made our way onto the pitch ending up about 5 rows back for the last third of the concert.
Even on the day we had a feeling of just how big this was, it was all people had talked about for weeks and it felt so privileged Tobe part of making History.
We had heard that Status Quo were going to be opening, it seemed a strange choice especially as they were already seen as better my a bit old hat at the time. It turned out to be an inspired choice and one that well and truly got the party started.
I remember the gaps as the stage was rotated to bring the next acts on. There was in fairness a lot of waiting around.
The first big moment for me was the boomtown Rats, there was so much good will in the crowd that even the appearance of Geldof caused the stadium to erupt. The moment he held the pause after the line “ the lesson today is how to die” was absolutely electrifying, it somehow elevated it from being a concert to an important event of our times.
I was already a big fan U2. I genuinely believe at their prime there was no one their equal especially live. Bly aband like U2 could take one of their lesser known songs ‘bad’ and make it such an iconic performance.
Other highlights included Dire Straits, Bowie of course and the incredible George Michael however no surprise that the standout moment was Queen possibly the most memorable iconic live performance of all time. We all knew in the stadium we were experiencing something historic. I had quite low expectations; I never disliked Queen but theywere not a band I particularly liked. They were mesmerising, in Freddie Mercury they had easily the world’s greatest showman.
The day whizzed by so fast, the other memorable moment for me was the playing of the cars video ‘Drive’ even thinking about it now brings me to tears the juxtaposition of the lyrics with the powerful and frightful images. The stadium fell silent bar for people openingly crying all around. I am told this was the moment the realisation dropped for those watching from home and the donations started rolling in.
The other thing I remember is how quickly they got us out of tn3 stadium when it had finished. I think we all expected we could stay in the stadium and watch the live link from Philadelphia, looking back now that was quite Naive I guess. The tube out of Wembley was packed. I don’t think I took my T Shirt off for 3 weeks after.
It doesn’t seem like 40 years to be fair. The monies raised undoubtedly made a huge difference but perhaps the one regret looking back is that the optimism we all had that we could change the world to be a better place has all bled away. I wish you could have bottled that optimism.
Still I look back with a fondness of the global jukebox , a day when the world came together and all eyes were on Wembley and Philadelphia. Of course the best part has I have repeatedly bored people with over the years is that “I was there!
