Live Aid: The Greatest Show on Earth 13 July 1985

On Saturday, 13 July 1985, a blazing, cloudless summer day, millions of people settled in front of the television. It was just before noon in London, 7 AM in Philadelphia, and around the world, it was time for Live Aid. This pair of huge concerts had been arranged in fewer than four months by singer and activist Bob Geldof of The Boomtown Rats: from a standing start to sixteen hours of music, seventy-plus artists and close to two hundred songs. These concerts mesmerised a huge global audience and raised millions for the starving in Ethiopia. This revisits every band and every song that made up the two Live Aid concerts. Some made their name at Live Aid -- U2 in particular. Some bands reunited -- Status Quo, The Who, Black Sabbath -- and some were performing their last show together. Certain performances last long in the memory -- Queen, of course, but also David Bowie, Elton John, Santana and others. And some, indeed, are best forgotten ... And, behind it all, the drive of Bob Geldof: ’the best day of my life’ he admitted. For a generation of music fans, 13 July 1985 was a landmark day. It was The Greatest Show On Earth. How much of it do you remember?

Andrew Wild is an experienced writer, music collector and film buff with many books to his name, including recent publications about Queen, Pink Floyd, Dire Straits and Crosby, Stills and Nash. His comprehensive study of every song recorded and performed by the Beatles between 1957 and 1970 was published by Sonicbond in 2019. He lives in Rainow, Cheshire, UK.