Bob Geldof single-handedly changed the entire decade of the ’80s. He transformed us from the 'Me' Decade to the 'We Care' Decade. Farm Aid, Sun City, Amnesty International... these all happened in the ’80s. | | | | 35 years ago today: George Michael, Bob Geldof, Bono, Freddie Mercury, Andrew Ridgeley, Howard Jones and sundry others at Live Aid, London, July 13, 1985.
(Gavin Kent/Mirrorpix/Getty Images) | | | | | | “Bob Geldof single-handedly changed the entire decade of the ’80s. He transformed us from the 'Me' Decade to the 'We Care' Decade. Farm Aid, Sun City, Amnesty International... these all happened in the ’80s.”
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| | rantnrave:// Today is the 35th anniversary of LIVE AID, which means tomorrow is the 35th anniversary of me kicking myself for the first time for not figuring out a way to get there. Like most 1985 pop and rock fans, I experienced the daylong, bicontinental, famously flawed yet never matched festival partly on TV and partly on the radio, which wasn't anything like being there but was thrilling in its own way. (Note to self and others: Stop saying livestreams are an unacceptable way of experiencing live music; they, too, aren't the same as being there, but they're part of a long tradition of being a decent substitute for everyone else.) My memories are secondhand, filtered through that media. In today's mix are several firsthand accounts that say more than I ever could, so I'd like to let them do the talking. The one image, also secondhand, that's stayed with me through the decades has nothing to with QUEEN owning the WEMBLEY stage or LED ZEPPELIN reuniting awkwardly at JFK, or rock-stars-in-the-making U2's unforgettable fire in London or pop-star-in-the-making MADONNA justifying our love in Philly, or PHIL COLLINS Concorde-ing his way from one to the other, but, rather, involves another British pop star who took the Concorde in the opposite direction eight months earlier. That's how BOY GEORGE got to the London recording session for "DO THEY KNOW IT'S CHRISTMAS?," the charity single from which Live Aid sprung, in November 1984. In his autobiography, "Is That It?," BOB GELDOF describes George, who was in the throes of a heroin addiction, arriving almost criminally late to the session and appearing all but unable to function, let alone sing. In Geldof's account, George slinks up to the microphone as if he's on his last breath, pulls himself up to his feet, sings a couple of the most angelic, note-perfect lines Geldof has ever heard—in one take—then slinks away and disappears into the void. My memory may be exaggerating slightly—my copy of the book is in a storage closet 3,000 miles away—but that's the gist of it. It's always been, for me, a story of the transcendent power of music, the ability of music not only to speak to our better angels but to be our better angels. To be the world's better angel. To reach places in each of us that we otherwise might not know are there. To lead us to our own microphones or our own radios. To tell a broken, divided world that it doesn't have to be this way, at least not for the duration of a song, or a concert, or a festival, or the longest sustained note each of us can imagine. A month later, after a CULTURE CLUB show at WEMBLEY ARENA, Boy George suggested a charity concert to Geldof, planting the seed that would grow into Live Aid, which that in turn planted the seed of charitable activism in a generation of musicians and fans... An amazing collection of official LIVE AID video here. Call in sick today if you must... A programming note: MusicREDEF will be taking the rest of the week off. We'll be back in your inbox next Monday, July 20... RIP LIL MARLO, JUDY DYBLE and FIONA ADAMS. | | | - Matty Karas (@troubledoll), curator |
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| An expression of musicians’ concern for the starving of Ethiopia, this was the biggest concert ever. (Originally published Aug. 16, 1985.) | | |
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| Live Aid alumni reflect on the surreal star sightings, the nerves, the backstage shenanigans, the onstage mishaps, the misplaced money, and more. | | |
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| I am not certain when the Live Aid idea was first planted and I could not know that it would turn out to be the biggest fund-raising event, the biggest TV event and the biggest concert in history. | | |
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| When we autotune reality to digital perfection, what matters about human beings gets lost. | | |
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| “If they’re saying that they’re an ally, they are lying to the American public,” singer says after group formerly known as Lady Antebellum files lawsuit against her. | | |
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| Is an “A” that stands for “Antebellum” worth it? | | |
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| 22 years ago, members of the Black Promoters Association of America filed a $750 million lawsuit alleging antitrust and civil rights violations against eight talent agencies and 27 concert promotion companies, including nine affiliated with Cellar Door Companies. All but a handful would eventually be rolled up by co-defendant SFX Entertainment. | | |
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| At the onset of a long goodbye to the psychedelic Sixties, the great American rock band released two rootsy studio masterpieces while unspooling marathon lysergic improv onstage. | | |
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| Freddie Mercury’s set in July 1985 is often called one of the greatest live performances of all time. What made those 21 minutes so memorable? | | |
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| 35 years ago Live Aid ushered in a generation of mega music benefits. It also unwittingly kick started some big changes at MTV. I was there. | | |
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| | | we can spread a smile of joy |
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| The Nashville singer-songwriter talks John Prine, the pot business, creating amid difficult times, and her excellent new album, ‘That’s How Rumors Get Started.’ | | |
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| In a series of emails and conversations with Billboard over the past week, Wildstreet frontman Eric Jayk bounced from excitement to trepidation and, at points, outright fear, about whether the tour was even still a good idea. | | |
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| The veteran hard-rock band performed an outdoor show Thursday night for a general admission audience in North Dakota, many of whom posted videos giving no indication of even a single mask in the crowd, with fans jammed together, and even shirtless in some instances. | | |
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| A tempest over the band Blackpink’s use of a Hindu god in a video was the latest example of K-pop fans holding artists to account - while staying fiercely loyal. | | |
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| In their own words, superstars Tina Turner, Robert Plant and Jimmy Page and locals like Patti LaBelle, Pierre Robert, Stephen Starr and Robert Drake explain what it was like. | | |
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| The legendary Live Aid concerts 35 years ago did a lot of good — helping reduce African famine and putting a spotlight on the world’s poorest nations. But it wasn’t always good for one of its key organizers. | | |
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| Underground in the world’s largest city, a fever for all things country lives on through line dancing, big hats, and even bigger personalities. | | |
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| "The time was right for that song," says Keni Burke. "'Things are going to get easier. Right now.' The tunes that make it are the tunes that have a message." | | |
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| A crowdfunding campaign hopes to stave off the financial collapse of a downtown New York institution created by La Monte Young and Marian Zazeela. | | |
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| The truth is shocking in its clarity. “People are dying because of their government,” says Jason Clay, an anthropologist studying famine in Ethiopia. “And what groups like Live Aid are doing is helping the government set up a system that is going to cause people to die for decades to come.” | | |
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