“It was kind of excruciating. In his field of vision on stage right is the clock: it’s now 5:34 in London. '” A bit of a forced transition, but hey, the clock is ticking. The lyrics of “Bad” don’t translate well to line-by-line analysis – they’re about the scourge of heroin, but you probably wouldn’t know that if the band hadn’t told you. The band begrudgingly had to admit that Bono’s instinct as a performer trumped their sensible show-biz plans. (Philly begins at this point!) Searching for it, he jumps down onto the stage’s apron: a narrow platform in front of the main stage and its monitors, about two feet lower. Live Aid. ... Self (at JFK Stadium) Stuart Adamson. Backstage at Wembley, U2 met some of their heroes, including Pete Townshend, David Bowie, Paul McCartney and Muhammad Ali. Adam Ant. On his way out, Bono grabs a white towel and waves to the crowd, who are now ecstatic. We were struggling so hard to find that song.” While the studio version of “Bad” was inert, on tour U2 played it obsessively in soundcheck, until the song came to life. He’s now pointing at the girl who was standing next to Melanie: her sister, Elaine Hills. The third girl is 15-year-old Kal Khalique. Apparently, he’s hoping that security will hoist her up onto the apron with him, but they’re not doing it. I’m wide awake!” Bono belts, sweat on his brow. First, a confession: I wasn’t even alive when Queen played Live Aid. The time in London is 5:30 p.m. A roadie with curly hair untangles Bono’s microphone cord with intense focus. So when he launches back into “Bad,” he gives it everything he has: “Let it go! Le Live Aid est un double concert donné conjointement à Londres et à Philadelphie le 13 juillet 1985, par des artistes majoritairement américains et britanniques, organisé par Bob Geldof et Midge Ure dans le but de lever des fonds pour soulager la famine éthiopienne en cours lors de cette année-là, et plus discrètement la recherche et la lutte contre le sida. Organized by Boomtown Rats front man Bob Geldof and Ultravox vocalist Midge Ure, it drew an estimated 1.5 billion television viewers … “I told her about Live Aid and she asked whether I could get her on. 0:56 Bono starts singing: “Bum-bum-ba-bum-bum/Satellite of love,” he croons, quoting Lou Reed’s 1972 song “Satellite of Love.” In 1985, it felt like a big deal that a concert could be happening simultaneously in two locations: separated by an ocean, linked by a satellite in the sky. Bono sings “I’m not sleeping,” and starts quoting other rock songs: first the Rolling Stones’ “Ruby Tuesday,” which he turns into a singalong. He embraces Melanie and twirls her around, and then pulls Elaine in to join the hug, giving her a kiss on the forehead. After this video: U2 had a huge argument backstage. Live Aid was seen by over one billion people (Picture: Getty Images) Today is the 35th anniversary of Live Aid – the star-studded fundraising concert which saw Sir … The complete story behind the historic performance, 29 years ago this week. “It was a great day, but I thought I had fucked it up,” Bono said. Queen followed one of Live Aid's signature moments and, more crucially, took the stage on July 13, 1985 at London's Wembley Stadium, without much expectation.After a run of … The Edge said, “It really took us by surprise when people started talking about U2 as one of the noteworthy performances of the day. By 1985, Hall & Oates were bigger than Daryl Hall's hair (eg absolutely massive), and 15 years into their career at the time, returning to Philadelphia for the US Live Aid show was a homecoming. Bono and Adam Clayton of U2 perform during Live Aid at Wembley Stadium in London. The charity concert for the benefit of Bob Geldof's Band-Aid organization to feed the starving millions in Africa was played on two stages in London and Philadelphia. Incorrect? I thought they were joking, I really thought we were crap. I was totally thrown, and I’m looking at Adam and Larry to see if they know what’s going on and they’re looking back at me with complete panic across their faces.” He concluded, “I’m just glad the cameras didn’t show the rest of the band during the whole drama, because we must have looked like the Three Stooges up there.”. (George Michael and Andrew Ridgeley made a guest appearance during Elton John’s set three and a half hours later.) 4:00 “Wide awake! 20 Insanely Great U2 Songs Only Hardcore Fans Know, U2 hit the stage in London at 5:20 p.m. Greenwich Mean Time (12:20 p.m. on the East Coast of the States); they had a 20-minute slot between Bryan Adams and the Beach Boys (both performing in Philly). “My sister and I were desperate to see Wham!, so we had made it down to the front of the stage,” she explained. Send us a tip using our anonymous form. They took me around. “If I could free myself/I’d set your spirit free,” Bono sings with his eyes closed, blocking out the 72,000 people in front of him, and the billion or so people watching around the world. Note : * warns about the track being incomplete on our recordings. Live Aid Setlists. They stagger back a few steps, and then start slow-dancing, her head buried in Bono’s shoulder. See Alice Cooper Break Down His 10 Favorite Albums of All Time, Musicians on Musicians: Taylor Swift & Paul McCartney, Delusional Trump Staffers Threw Victory Party: ‘Enjoyed Drinks, Clinked Glasses to a Second Term,’ Report Says, Big John Fetterman Can Save the Democratic Party — if the Democrats Let Him, Trump Lost, So Phoebe Bridgers and Maggie Rogers Covered the Goo Goo Dolls’ ‘Iris’, Alex Trebek, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, and Me, ‘We Are the World’: A Minute-by-Minute Breakdown, The First Commandment of Tom Hanks: ‘Excel at Your Life’s Work’. On a day with many spectacular hairstyles, Bono’s is far from the best, but it may be the most memorable. “And he had all this stubble and sweat and I thought, whoo.”. 0:20 Bono is wearing a puffy white shirt and a black, vaguely military, jacket, accessorized with a bolo tie and a crucifix dangling in front of his throat. He knows that his venture into the crowd has taken all the time allotted for the band to play their third song, “Pride (In the Name of Love)” – this will be U2’s final song of the day. He was gone for so long I started to think maybe he had decided to end the set early and was on his way to the dressing room. I think there was something about the effort he had to put in to do it that somehow made it even more powerful.”, Considering Live Aid years later, Bono summed up U2’s set: “Crap sound, crap haircuts, and we didn’t end up playing the hit ‘Pride (In the Name of Love)’ because the singer fucked off into the crowd – band wanted to fire me as a result – and it turned out to be one of the best days of our life. Bono wheels around, his right arm outstretched, looking for a microphone, knowing that Greg Carroll will bring one to him. “We’re an Irish band,” Bono says by way of introduction. And they were saying, yeah, you, you, get up there. Live Aid happened on July 13th,1985. “Bono looked at the audience and suddenly looked towards me,” she remembered. L'événement a permis d'amasser la somme de $ … The Live Aid took place 4 times and there are setlists of 76 different artists so far. Find and share Live Aid Philadelphia setlists. Live Aid took the stage 30 years ago Monday — July 13, 1985 — and while the massive charity concert proved a boon for some artists (notably U2), it’s best forgotten by others. Let it go!”, 9:43 After an electrifying chorus, the band returns to the same lick they’ve been vamping on. Live Aid, benefit concert held simultaneously at Wembley Stadium in London and JFK Stadium in Philadelphia on July 13, 1985. “We felt like we’d blown an opportunity to be great,” Mullen said. Mullen, Clayton, and the Edge were unhappy with Bono’s venture into the crowd, which hung them out to dry and denied the band a chance to play their biggest hit, “Pride (In the Name of Love).” The consensus among the four band members was that their performance had been clumsy and earthbound. Over the following week, however, the band discovered that their performance was considered by most observers to be the day’s high point (alongside Queen’s triumphant set). (Hey, England has the Goodyear blimp too!) On July 13th, 1985, seemingly every major rock act on Earth played the Live Aid concert for African famine relief, hosted primarily in Philadelphia’s JFK Stadium and London’s Wembley Stadium and broadcast to over a billion people worldwide. Drummer Larry Mullen Jr. consults with a roadie and audibly bangs his sticks together. Almost exactly one year after this performance, Carroll would die in a motorcycle accident in Dublin; a shattered Bono wrote the song “One Tree Hill” about him. Two minutes can be an eternity in front of a live crowd, let alone a global TV audience. This is Greg Carroll, a Maori man from New Zealand; in the year leading up to Live Aid, he had become the band’s assistant and one of Bono’s best friends. Mullen Jr. settles into a martial groove. The sign will be placed before or after the title in order to show what part of the track is missing. Bono then enters the valley of the “tion” rhymes: “desperation/separation/condemnation/revelation/in temptation/isolation/desolation/isolation.” This is, frankly, a lousy rhyme scheme, but somehow he pulls it off. (In fairness, they were in the middle of their sixth hour of music: “pace yourself” is the number two rule at any rock festival, behind only “drink lots of water.”) Visible at the front of the stage: a small cordoned area of about twenty photographers, taking still pictures. 3:15 Rear view. U2 managed to book a Live Aid slot that would maximize their American exposure – they supported the cause of ending African famine, but they also knew the broadcast had the potential to break them to a much larger audience. It’s taken a lot of effort, but Bono has found the dramatic moment he’s been striving for, breaking down the barrier between the bands and the fans. However, before the syndicated/ABC footage was erased, copies of it were donated to the Smithsonian Institutionand have now been presum… Far from being a blown opportunity, it was a career-making moment that returned all their albums to the U.K. charts, established them in the U.S.A., and transformed them into worldwide stars. “Here we go!” Bono yells. Bono continues to cling to the microphone, lest his newfound case of happy feet lead him to do something unwise, like jump off the stage. U2 formed in Dublin as teenagers in 1976. “How long can we do this for?” Mullen said he thought to himself. Go! The Edge wanders out of frame. “I didn’t know that when I was holding on to her I’d be holding on to the rest of the world,” Bono said later. “This is a song called ‘Bad. 0:00 Bono introduces U2’s second song, while we see aerial footage of tens of thousands of fans at Wembley. Sign up for our newsletter. Their whole encounter lasts about 20 seconds – she walks away with her hand on her forehead, apparently in a state of shock, while Bono sprints off through the mud and the crushed soda bottles. We lost sight of him completely. Want more Rolling Stone? “She asked what was going on,” Collins said. At this point, U2 was scratching on the door of the U.S.A. – their sole Top 40 single, “Pride (In the Name of Love),” topped out at Number 33 – but in the U.K. they had scored three Top 10 singles and two chart-topping albums. “I was whisked off,” she said, “and I didn’t know where I was being whisked to.”. And so the security men grabbed me, but they wouldn’t pull me directly onstage.