Live Aid, Wembley Stadium, 1985 | Time may change me

Live Aid, Wembley Stadium, 13 July 1985

The Global Jukebox

Thursday 11 July 1985 – my final accountancy exam. I was studying in Leeds and had a bedsit near to Headingley Railway Station. I had been doing important exams every year for a decade or more, and this was my last set, ever.

During the course leading up to my finals Bob Geldof had announced the follow-up to the Band Aid single which had brought home the awful tragedy of the Ethiopian famine the previous Christmas – Live Aid – to take part simultaneously on both sides of the Atlantic, with Wembley Stadium hosting the UK event. I was more than familiar with Wembley having been there in May for the FA Cup final and also having attended other major football finals and international matches.

There was a Keith Prowse outlet in Leeds and on the morning they put tickets on sale I made sure I was somewhere near the front of the queue, prepared to miss the start of my day’s studies if necessary. When they opened the door I was very surprised at how few of us were there. I was used to standing for hours at Old Trafford or Manchester Apollo for highly prized tickets to be released for sale. But there was only a handful of us there that morning prepared to part with our 25 quid. The ticket was a fiver with a “donation” of £20 making up the balance. Of course the donation was never optional, and eventually Geldof managed to persuade Nigel Lawson and Maggie Thatcher to waive the VAT on the whole ticket price. That was not the way VAT was supposed to work (certainly not how we were taught ahead of those exams), but no-one was ever going to complain. Anyway that meant I was back to my studies elsewhere in central Leeds ahead of the first lecture at 10am.

25 pounds was a lot of money to me in those days. I also had to pay for the return train ticket to London, and a crappy B&B in the Kings Cross area for the night before the concert. So there I was on the train down to London on the Friday evening, with my trusty Olympus OM10 camera in my bag, together with a 200mm Tamron Adaptall lens stashed in the thermos flask (I remained paranoid I could have my camera equipment confiscated at the gate) and a 2x teleconverter that would turn the 200mm lens into one with twice the magnification. I also had 15 films. A combination of B&W and colour together with a couple of colour positives/slides.

When I arrived in London I quickly found the B&B and settled down for the night. I’m always wound up the night before a big event and this was certainly no different, with the slightest sound in the street outside grabbing my attention. Eventually I managed to get to sleep and the following morning I headed back into Kings Cross to catch the tube to Wembley. I also picked up something to eat and drink on the way as I knew it was going to be a long day.

They were due to open the gates at 10am and I was in place at least an hour before that. On the way in I had already paid a visit to the merchandise stall to pick up a programme and an event T-shirt with “I was there” in red print on the back. I don’t think there was any other merchandise, certainly on this side of the Atlantic – they simply had insufficient time to produce anything else. The gates opened on time and after a cursory glance through my bag by security I found myself running across the hallowed turf (albeit protected by matting), to get as near to the stage as I could.

I would guess it was near the corner of the penalty area when I came to a halt. Everyone was making space for themselves and sitting down in the knowledge there was still a couple of hours before the concert would begin. The paying crowd numbered 72,000 that day. Not particularly big given the stadium capacity within the stands of 100,000, but that was the capacity for this event given the requirement to close off one end of the stadium for the stage. Some chose to occupy seats high up in the stands, where they could enjoy the event in relative comfort. Most of us were more than happy to run across the covered pitch to be as close to the action as we could get.

I was to stay there for the next 12 hours or so. Luckily I had nipped to the toilet on the way in, as that was my last “comfort” break until the concert ended.

It was a glorious day, hardly a cloud in the sky, and they were soon spraying water at those near to the stage, as things warmed up both temperature-wise and metaphorically. Harvey Goldsmith appeared to plead with the crowd to calm down and avoid crushing or getting overcome with heat, particularly in light of the intensity and length of this event. Throughout the day they still continued to lift spectators who had been overcome by the heat, crush and/or dehydration into the pit in front of the stage. This was a regular occurrence at big concerts in those days, but I suspect any perceived risk of that would result in safety certificates not being issued nowadays.

A few minutes before 12 and Charles and Di are in the Royal Box alongside Geldof, Paula Yates, their child Fifi Trixi-Belle and a number of musicians together with other celebrities who were to help make it such a memorable day. The Coldstream Guards played the Royal Fanfare and the National Anthem, then Radio 1 DJ Richard Skinner’s voice comes through the speakers and utters the following words:

“It's twelve noon in London, seven am in Philadelphia, and around the world it's time for Live Aid”

Status Quo were going to be the first act and everyone expected the first song to be "Rocking All Over The World".

There was a “revolutionary” stage with one section at the front with the “active” performer(s), and two more at the back, one where the previous set would be removed while the next act would be setting up on the third. The stage would then revolve through 120 degrees between acts.

There was supposed to be 20 minutes or less between sets, and this system had not been properly tested. As it turned out, whatever panic there was backstage, it did seem to go like clockwork from a spectator’s perspective.

Quo followed up with Caroline and Don’t Waste my Time, before being rotated off with the “Modfather”, Paul Weller and the Style Council to replace them centre stage.

4 songs and 25 minutes later and according to the programme Ultravox were next up. However there had been a late change with the Boomtown Rats appearing. Apparently this change had been at the request of the Prince and Princess of Wales who wanted to see Geldof perform before leaving the stadium (well I’m guessing at least one of them did!). It was the turn of the guy who made all this happen. Bob Geldof and the Boomtown Rats would start with "Rat Trap" with their third and final number being "I Don't Like Mondays", with Geldof giving everyone a 20 second or so pause for thought after he sang "and the lesson today is how to die"

Not even the soon to be “Sir” Bob is allowed to overstay his welcome, so a minute or so before 1pm it’s bye-bye Bob…

A spontaneous “for He’s a Jolly Good Fellow” from the crowd saw him and his Rats off the stage.

One hour in, nine to go. This was already a spectacular event and we were not even warmed up yet. It was turning into a baking hot summer day, and the show was equally “hot” with everyone striving to deliver to the highest level throughout their short stints on stage.

Adam Ant was next up. Only a single song, Vive Le Rock, and he was rotated off.

After that brief selection of Ant’s Music, it was over to the other half of the Deadly Duo. Geldof was without doubt the “mouthpiece” of the Band Aid and Live Aid phenomena, but Midge Ure was there alongside him throughout, helping pull it all together, while keeping a much lower profile. Anyway, one thing he does get out of this is the opportunity to get on stage with Ultravox and treat us to “Dancing with Tears in My Eyes” and “Vienna”.

Then another short pause as the stage rotates, and I glance upwards to see a Goodyear Blimp floating over the stadium.

Spandau Ballet – the New Romantics – made their stage entry. I really could not get into that sort of music, and decided, after taking a couple of snaps as they entered the stage, to keep my scarce negative resource in reserve for the bigger acts (certainly bigger in my mind) to come. The way the whole thing had been set up was to invite the (current) biggest selling acts. The ones with the largest recent sales being held back for later in the event.

Next up was Elvis Costello with a single song that he described as “that old northern English folk song” originally written and recorded by another Merseyside outfit, “All You Need is Love”. Elvis and his guitar, but lacking in Attractions.

Elvis made way for Nik Kershaw—another one that I didn’t really get myself, but he was certainly very popular at the time. He had made significant sales in the early 1980’s and they justified his presence on this global stage.

Nearly 3 hours in, the 9th act on the Wembley stage and the first female was about to enter the stage, Sade. That maybe says quite a lot about the music scene in the 1980s. Although a British citizen she was born in Nigeria and was also the sole African representative on the Wembley stage that day.

18 minutes past 3 and it's time for Sting who would be joined by Phil Collins in what was a 30 minute or so set, with Sting doing 2 songs, Phil Collins 3, and the pair of them joining together for a couple of numbers.

Howard Jones was another artist with a single song, in this case "Hide and Seek", and indeed another one who's 1980s hairstyle has since suffered the ravages of time.

Things had gone quite smoothly so far and they were keeping pretty much to schedule. The next act was Bryan Ferry, and there were sound issues resulting in him singing into 2 microphones. I was completely oblivious to the fact that Dave Gilmour was also on stage as guitarist for Ferry.

Paul Young was next up starting with the intro to “Do they know it’s Christmas” before performing “Come Back and Stay”.

We were directed to look upwards as Concord flew over the stadium heading for Philadelphia with Phil Collins onboard.

Paul Young was joined on stage by Alison Moyet for That's The Way Love Is" before she departed to Young singing "Every Time You Go Away"

It was now 5pm, and Geldof re-appeared briefly to welcome Philadelphia – 90,000 fans had crammed into the JFK stadium. A number of acts had already performed, but we did not get to see them at Wembley as the acts on this side of the Atlantic had been back-to-back on the revolving stage. We would now be getting breaks of 20 minute or so between acts at Wembley giving some of us a chance to have a sit down and a bite to eat. First up on the big screen was Bryan Adams.

Over to my right an Irish tricolour had been waved, with a little vigour, but it was about to burst to life as Jack Nicholson via satellite in Philadelphia introduced the next Wembley act – U2 were about to produce the best performance of the day so far. In fact flags were waving all over the place, quite a few having “U2” emblazoned on them. U2 were not a band I was particularly familiar with at the time, but the next few minutes were going to elevate them to a global stage.

We were then treated to the Beach Boys via satellite from JFK, before one of the acts I had really been looking forward to took to the Wembley stage. Dire Straits were a Geordie band who were riding high in the charts and played their 2 most popular singles, Money for Nothing and the Sultans of Swing, joined on stage by fellow Geordie, Sting.

George Thorogood and the Destroyers came across the satellite link from Philadelphia and next up at Wembley we had Mel Smith and Griff Rhys Jones dressed up as British policemen, with the opportunity to introduce the next act – “Her Majesty, the Queen”, cue Freddie. People had been raving about U2, but Queen and particularly Freddie Mercury took it to another level. People who were not there, just seeing it on TV or via the likes of the Freddie Mercury biopic, Bohemian Rhapsody, continue to rave about it nearly 4 decades later. And I was one of only 72,000 who witnessed it live. This really does represent the pinnacle of my personal music experiences, and without doubt Live Aid is the most wonderful overall music event as well.

Organisers had originally planned to get David Bowie and Mick Jagger singing Dancing in the Streets live with Bowie doing his bit at Wembley and Jagger singing in Philadelphia. Alas that turned into an impracticality because of the signal delay between the two continents. We did have the video played on the big screens.

Simple Minds were then playing from Philadelphia before Bowie appeared on the Wembley stage. His setlist was TVC15, Rebel Rebel, Modern Love and Heroes with the finale being a pinnacle. I had seen him two years previously at Milton Keynes, and I guess nothing was likely to compare with that 2+ hour performance, but here he packed a lot into his short slot, and was never going to disappoint.

"Just for one day"

As Bowie left the stage he introduced a video from CBC of further harrowing scenes from Ethiopia, accompanied by the Cars classic “Drive”.

We then had another break at Wembley as the Pretenders took to the stage in Philadelphia. Time to get a bit of recovery as the Wembley crowd turned to the big screens for another 20 minutes.

We were now seeing the artists I came to see. They may not have been topping record sales recently, but they warrantied their position on the bill through their long term global appeal. Having just seen my favourite solo artist, David Bowie, the next act at Wembley were my favourite band, the Who.

The Wembley event was coming to a climax, while in Philadelphia they still had several hours, and a number of major acts, to come. Santana were on the big screens from JFK before the “Big Yin”, Billy Connolly, appeared on the Wembley stage to introduce Elton John.

Kiki Dee was initially a backing vocalist before moving centre stage to sing Don't Go Breaking My Heart, at the time Elton's only UK number one single.

Elton was then joined by George Michael, with the other part of the Wham! duo Andrew Ridgeley singing in the background "Don't Let The Sun Go Down On Me". Elton and George also managed a little play fight over the microphone stand.

I was into film number 15 - my last one. It’s around 9:30 – half an hour to go. Paul McCartney is due up after the next transmission from Philadelphia. Rumours of a Beatles reunion (of the 3 surviving members, plus possibly Julian Lennon) had been rife all week. I needed to keep something back for whatever was planned for the finale. I was also conscious I had to get back to Kings Cross to catch the last train to Leeds. I knew from prior experience that there was always a long queue and crush at Wembley Park Tube station. I decided I’d better start moving away towards the exit.

Madonna was to be the final performer from Philadelphia that we would witness at Wembley via satellite. Then Freddie Mercury and Brian May reappeared in front of us to sing “Is This the World We Created?”. By then I was in the lower tier of seats (albeit stood on the steps to the exit), but the distance was making judging exposure difficult. I did manage to get a couple of decent snaps though (including Freddie on the big screen).

Immediately after Mercury and May left the stage Paul McCartney appeared – alas no George Harrison or Ringo Starr, but McCartney was a great solo act. I had seen him previously with Wings and knew he could still put on a show. It was only after developing the photos I took from the seated area that I appreciated how fortunate I was as I managed to get some panoramic photos of the whole stage.

The stage had stopped rotating some time ago, and McCartney sat at a “posh” piano. This looked like a pristine light coloured piano and had first appeared for Elton John. The likes of Phil Collins, Howard Jones and Freddie Mercury had sat at a battered dark coloured one.

So that was that. For those watching TV around the World the Philadelphia show continued from the other side of the Atlantic with the likes of Clapton, Collins, the remnants of Led Zeppelin, Tina Turner and Jagger still to perform, with their finale to be led by Lionel Ritchie.

Those of us leaving Wembley, heading back home, were convinced we really had witnessed the Greatest Show on Earth. Yes there was Woodstock before it and a number of high profile charity events would follow, but nothing could ever take this experience away from us.

I got back to Leeds in the early hours of the Sunday morning. After a short sleep I headed out again (with camera!) to catch a bus to Odsal Stadium in Bradford, where the Overseas Final of the World Speedway Championships was taking place that afternoon. Once I got home from the speedway I started developing the black and white Live Aid films and printing off some photos, which I brought into work on the Monday. Some of my colleagues wanted some prints and they also took the photos to some of our clients resulting in more orders. Photos of George Michael were most popular, and I still have some of the original prints with details of the orders on the back. Every penny of proceeds I raised was then sent to the Band Aid Trust.

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