13th July 1985

Saturday 13th July 1985 was the first, and to date the only, time that I have spent the best part of sixteen hours sat in front of the television screen. I suppose there's a horrible irony in the fact that I sat there and ate and drank as a concert (or several concerts) unfolded before my eyes with the sole intention of raising public awareness about the horrific human suffering that was taking place in Ethiopia. A situation that had been brought to the public's attention the previous December by Michael Buerk in one of the classic television broadcasts of our time.

I can't tell you why I sat there and watched the concerts from Melbourne, London and Philadelphia other than the fact that I wanted to see some of the bands and artists who for me as a twenty five year old meant something musically. It's often been said of Martin Scorsese's film The Last Waltz, his documentary about The Band's final appearance, that what makes it so good is the fact that even the artists who are really naff usually, Neil Diamond for example, are good in it. That's the one thing you couldn't say about Live Aid, the bands who were naff during that period of musical history stank the place out on the stage at Wembley in front of 80,000 people and millions watching. Yes I know the concert wasn't supposed to be about the music but that doesn't excuse anything in my book.

The stage used at Wembley belonged to Bruce Springsteen who was in Europe at the time on his Born In The USA tour, I'd seen him on 4th July at Wembley. Springsteen didn't appear at Live Aid, in fact he was one of the three biggest artists in the world at the time and all three didn't appear at any of the concerts - the other two leading artists at the time being Michael Jackson and Prince. Apparently Geldof couldn't offer the Boss and the East Street Band a slot and Springsteen turned down the chance of 'fitting in' between acts to play one acoustic number. Given that Springsteen would have been the only non British artists to play at Wembley that day, and looking at some of the bands that Geldof did put on instead, it only makes you want to further indict Geldof for crimes against music. Deep Purple were also due to play but Richie Blackmore had a strop and they didn't - no change there then!

After the Coldstream Guards had piped aboard Prince Charles and his wife, who wasn't the people's princess at the time just another blonde with an eating disorder, we had Status Quo who did rock but for a while after that things were a bit on the poor side. The Style Council, Ultravox, Spandau Ballet, Adam Ant and Boomtown Rats followed the Quo before Elvis Costello walked out into the afternoon sunshine and announced he was going to play an English folk song - he sang All You Need Is Love. After EC we had Nik Kershaw, Sade, Sting, Phil Collins and then, just in case we hadn't slipped into a catatonic state, Sting and Phil Collins, oh how our musical cup runneth over! It wasn't going to get better either, not in the short term anyway, Howard Jones, Bryan Ferry and Paul Young.

Now I know this wasn't about the music but the line-up so far had been like a bad buffet, too many poor quality pork pies and too little exciting fayre. The moment cried out for a band to come on and make a statement of intent, if Springsteen couldn't be there then the second biggest live band of that era could be - U2. U2 had been building a reputation as a fine live band since late 1981 and the release of Live - Under A Blood Red Sky in December 1983, and the accompanying video of the concert, had shifted by the lorry load in the U.K. In September 1984 they had released Pride (In The Name of Love), which had reached Number 3 in the U.K singles charts, in October 1984 the bands fourth studio album, The Unforgettable Fire, reached Number 1 and Bono's place at the top table of rock singers was established. Of course Bono would later reach the same annoying level of omnipotence as fellow Irishmen Geldof did in the late eighties, there's nothing as annoying as a millionaire jet setter preaching about global warmth and poverty, except of course for a twenty three year old who earns £100,000 a week comparing himself to a slave.

Anyway U2 were good, beginning with Sunday Bloody Sunday, not a song as Alan Partridge famously said about having to wash your Ford Mondeo, they ran through a medley of Rolling Stones and Lou Reed songs and exited stage right having sung Walk on The Wild Side. U2 were followed by Dire Straits and Sting!

Mel Smith and Griff Rhys Jones then took to the stage dressed as policeman. Now context is everything and Smith and Jones were very funny in the eighties, before money and complacency turned them into the Tarby and Brucey of their generation. Anyway they introduced Queen.

As I said context is everything. Queen stole the show. Freddie Mercury took the crowd into the palm of his hand for just under twenty minutes and a band who had been labouring in mid-table musically for a while suddenly rose. All the sing-a-long favourites were there: Bohemian Rhapsody, Radio Ga Ga, Crazy Little Thing Called Love, We Will Rock You and of course, We Are The Champions. Following on from Queen was David Bowie. Bowie's set was only four songs but it was the longest of the day/night so far and it had actually been cut short by Bowie himself for a very good reason.

The Canadian Broadcast Corporation had made a twenty minute film which had been edited down by Colin Dean. Bob Geldof had originally turned down the chance to show the film but was persuaded by David Bowie who said that he would cut short his own set so that the film could be shown. Of course the film, which included the song Drive by The Cars, has become has much a part of the Live Aid story as anything else.

After Bowie came The Who and then moving upwards in British rock's family tree we arrived at the Queen - Elton John. What strikes me looking back at the concert even more so now than it did at the time was how much better the acts later in the day/evening coped with the vastness of the arena than those earlier. Whether or not it was because they were intimidated by the size of the crowd or simply because the likes of Dire Straits and Bowie were more experienced at this sort of thing I don't know but the early bands - with the exception of Quo and Elvis Costello seemed positively weedy.

After Elton John, Elton John and Kiki Dee and then Elton John, Kiki Dee and George Michael, then Freddie Mercury and Brian May -it was Macca's turn. Of course in true BBC style you wait years for a live performance of a Beatle and the sound fails! Still a half heard Let It Be was better than nothing. The good old beeb also managed to miss the performance of Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young.

Over at Philadelphia were, among others: Madonna, Bob Dylan, The Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, Bryan Adams, Tina Turner, The Beach Boys, Neil Young, Duran Duran, Thompson Twins, Tom Petty - and it has to be said a lack of black artists apart from The Four Tops, Ashford and Simpson and a video performance by Kool and The Gang.

The important thing though was the money and during the concert itself something like £50 million was raised - Ireland was the highest contributor per capita, presumably in the hope that the more money that could be raised the less chance there was of seeing Geldof on our screens again.

Of course good intentions and a lorry load of money don't always go together. A lot of the money raised by Live Aid reportedly ended up in the hands of the Ethiopian military junta who used it to assist in their so-called "villagification" programmes. These were similar to the ethnic cleansing policies witnessed in Europe during the break-up of the former Yugoslavia, it's been rumoured - although not confirmed definitely - that more than three million people were forceably moved from their villages and around 100,000 Ethiopians killed. Another horrible irony.

It's easy to be cynical about the whole event with hindsight but it was for a good cause, whatever the shortcomings ever musically or in humanitarian terms. If it made you stop and think about somebody else then it was a good thing, if it made you do something for Live Aid other than buy the t-shirt or the records then it was a good thing, if it made you go out and buy Sade's album it was a bad thing. My own personal favourite musical moment wasn't from London or Philly, it was seeing Inxs performing two songs in Melbourne.