VARIOUS ARTISTS : LIVE AID

VARIOUS ARTISTS : LIVE AID

DVD 1

Prequel : BBC Television News Report
Do They know It's Christmas? (Band Aid)
We Are The World (USA for Africa)
Coldstream Guards - Royal Salute
Rockin' All Over The World (Status Quo)
Caroline (Status Quo)
Internationalists (The Style Council)
Walls Come Tumbling Down (The Style Council)
I Don't Like Mondays (The Boomtown Rats)
Drag Me Down (The Boomtown Rats)
Vive Le Rock (Adam Ant)
Dancing With Tears In My Eyes (Ultravox)
Vienna (Ultravox)
Only When You Leave (Spandau Ballet)
True (Spandau Ballet)
All You Need Is Love (Elvis Costello)
Wouldn't It Be Good (Nik Kershaw)
Your Love Is King (Sade)
Roxanne (Sting)
Against All Odds (Phil Collins)
Every Breath You Take (Sting & Phil Collins)
Hide And Seek (Howard Jones)
Slave To Love (Bryan Ferry)
Jealous Guy (Bryan Ferry)
Do They know It's Christmas? (Paul Young)
Come Back And Stay (Paul Young)
That's The Way Love Is (Paul Young & Alison Moyet)
Every Time You Go Away (Paul Young)
Kids Wanna Rock (Bryan Adams)
Summer of '69 (Bryan Adams)
Sunday Bloody Sunday (U2)
Bad (U2)

DVD 2
Wouldn't It Be Nice (Beach Boys)
Good Vibrations (Beach Boys)
Surfin' USA (Beach Boys)
Money For Nothing (Dire Straits & Sting)
Sultans Of Swing (Dire Straits)
Madison Blues (George Thorogood & The Destroyers)
Bohemian Rhapsody (Queen)
Radio Gaga (Queen)
Hammer To Fall (Queen)
Crazy Little Thing Called Love (Queen)
We Will Rock You (Queen)
We Are The Champions (Queen)
Ghost Dancing (Simple Minds)
(Don't You) Forget About Me (Simple Minds)
TVC15 (David Bowie)
Rebel Rebel (David Bowie)
Modern Love (David Bowie)
Heroes (David Bowie)
Ethiopian Famine Film
Amazing Grace (Joan Baez)
Stop Your Sobbing (Pretenders)
Chain Gang (Pretenders)
Middle Of The Road (Pretenders)
Love Reign O'er Me (The Who)
Won't Get Fooled Again (The Who)
Footloose (Kenny Loggins)
Bennie And The Jets (Elton John)
Rocket Man (Elton John)
Don't Go Breaking My Heart (Elton John & Kiki Dee)
Don't Let The Sun Go Down on Me (Elton John & George Michael)

DVD 3
Holiday (Madonna)
Get Into The Groove (Madonna)
Is This The World We Created? (Freddie Mercury & Brian May)
Let It Be (Paul McCartney)
Do They know It's Christmas ? (Band Aid Finale)
American Girl (Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers)
Refugee (Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers)
Paranoid (Black Sabbath featuring Ozzy Osbourne)
Can't Fight This Feeling (REO Speedwagon)
Roll With The Changes (REO Speedwagon)
Teach Your Children (Crosby, Stills & Nash)
Living After Midnight (Judas Priest)
Green Manalishi (Judas Priest)
Just What I Needed (The Cars)
Heartbreak City (The Cars)
The Needle And The Damage Done (Neil Young)
Nothing Is Perfect (In God's Perfect Plan) (Neil Young)
Revolution (Thompson Twins, Steve Stevens, Nile Rodgers & Madonna)
White Room (Eric Clapton)
She's Waiting (Eric Clapton)
Layla (Eric Clapton)
In The Air Tonight (Phil Collins)
Union Of The Snake (Duran Duran)
Save A Prayer (Duran Duran)
The Reflex (Duran Duran)
Imagine (Patti Labelle)
Forever Young (Patti Labelle)

DVD 4
Maneater (Hall & Oates)
Get Ready (Cos Here I Come) (Hall & Oates with Eddie Kendricks)
Ain't Too Proud To Beg (Hall & Oates with Eddie Kendricks & David Ruffin)
My Girl (Hall & Oates with Eddie Kendricks & David Ruffin)
Just Another Night (Mick Jagger)
Miss You (Mick Jagger)
State Of Shock (Mick Jagger & Tina Turner)
It's Only Rock 'n' Roll (Mick Jagger & Tina Turner)
Blowin' In The Wind (Bob Dylan with Keith Richards & Ron Wood)
We Are The World (USA for Africa Finale)
Extras :
What You Need (INXS)
Don't Change (INXS)
Why I Sing The Blues (B.B. King)
Don't Answer The Door (B.B. King)
Rock Me Baby (B.B. King)
Reach Out And Touch (Ashford & Simpson with Teddy Pendergrass)
King Of Rock (Run DMC)
A World Of Difference (Cliff Richard)
Overseas contributors - Various
Dancing In The Streets (David Bowie & Mick Jagger)
Documentary: Food & Trucks & Rock 'n' Roll

Label : Warner Music

Release Year : 2004

Running Time : 10 hours

Venue : Wembley Stadium, London, UK + JFK Stadium, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA

Recording Date : July 13, 1985

NTSC : 4:3

Review (BlogCritics) : Bob Geldof and Midge Ure reacted to the famine in Africa and the world's lack of response to it by organizing Band Aid, an all-star group of mainly British performers who recorded the charity song, "Do They Know It's Christmas?" They then created Live Aid, an intercontinental concert that took place on July 13, 1985 at Wembley Arena in London and JFK Stadium in Philadelphia, PA. It was one of the biggest events in the world of both music and television. Intended to be a one-time affair, Geldof had asked that the concert not be recorded or shown again. He has since changed his mind because pirated copies now appear on the Internet and the people of Africa still suffer. Luckily, even though ABC honored his request, the BBC and MTV didn't and it's from their old tapes that the DVD set has been complied. Since an official release was never planned, there is about six hours out of 16 missing and the quality isn't always great for a number of reasons. The video image suffers from issues like being recorded via satellite and being converted from NTSC to PAL. The biggest problem is that some of the Wembley footage shows signs of horizontal banding that is a result of great volumes affecting the camera lens. It's slightly disappointing, but certainly an expected occurrence at a concert and can't be helped at this point. Disc 1 begins with a prologue comprised of a BBC news broadcast about the African famine and videos for Band Aid's "Do They Know It's Christmas?" and USA for Africa's "We Are the World." Then, the Wembley show begins with small bands like Status Quo and The Style Council. Geldof's The Boomtown Rats and Ure's Ultravox make early appearances before giving way to bigger acts. Live Aid saw musicians play together in different combinations although I was surprised there weren't more. Sting had recently left The Police to become a jazz musician. He was accompanied by saxophonist Branford Marsalis, who was part of his new touring band, and then he sang a duet with Phil Collins on "Every Breath You Take." They both appear again later in the concert. Sting joined Dire Straits to sing his part on "Money for Nothing," and for the strangest event within the event, Phil Collins flew the Concorde to Philly to play drums with Eric Clapton and perform a piano solo of "In The Air Tonight." Alison Moyet joined Paul Young on "That's The Way Love Is." Elton John closed his set with Kiki Dee on their classic "Don't Go Breaking My Heart" and George Michael on "Don't Let The Sun Go Down On Me." Hall & Oates brought out Eddie Kendricks and David Ruffin from The Temptations for three Motown classics. The Hall & Oates band stayed out and backed Mick Jagger who sang a couple of songs with Tina Turner, one of which included a minor wardrobe malfunction when Mick ripped off Tina's skirt. Mick was originally supposed to perform an intercontinental duet with David Bowie in London, but it couldn't be accomplished, so they created a video for "Dancing In The Streets," which appears in the Extras. It is quite possibly the lamest video ever made. Aside from looking like a family on vacation with their first camcorder shot it, the two are seen prancing around an empty building with ridiculous choreography and obviously no desire to dispel the rumor that they were lovers. Paul McCartney closed the Wembley show with "Let It Be," which was enhanced by the vocals of Bowie, Geldof, Moyet and Pete Townsend before the Band Aid finale. Although Paul is the only Beatle who performed, it was the spirit and songwriting of John Lennon that permeated the day. Elvis Costello played one song, forgoing his own material for a solo performance of "All You Need Is Love," Patti LaBelle sung "Imagine," and The Thompson Twins closed out their set by bringing out Madonna and Steve Stevens for "Revolution." Bryan Ferry even sings "Jealous Guy," which doesn't have the same thematic connotations as the other choices, but it is still a good song The biggest performances of the day are from U2 and Queen. U2 were on their way to becoming the biggest rock band in the world, which would happen in 1987 with the release of their first masterpiece, The Joshua Tree. They had the most fans in the crowd that waved "U2" flags. It got annoying watching those fans wave them later in the day during other artists' sets. Bono left the stage and almost went into the crowd, trying to get female fans to break through security so he could dance with them and kiss them. It was a brilliant touch to see a soft, tender moment between two people in the middle of such a global event. If there had been more moments like those in the world, Live Aid wouldn't have been needed. Queen showed why they were one of the biggest rock bands of the time from the operatic "Bohemian Rhapsody" to their Elvis Presley nod, "Crazy Little Thing Called Love." Freddie Mercury had total control of the Wembley crowd. He got them all to clap along to the dreadful "Radio Gaga," which is an impressive feat. The band closed with "We Will Rock You / We Are The Champions" that had the entire stadium of 70,000-plus singing along. These people would have left the show and walked food to Africa if Freddie had told them to. It is stunning to watch and you will be hard pressed to ever find a more intense bond between performer and audience of that size. I felt sorry for Simple Minds who had to follow. There are some odd moments that occur but I'm not sure if it's because of the day itself or because of the way the DVD set has been arranged. There is an odd under-representation of black artists. Sade appears on Disc 1 and then it's not until Patti Labelle who closes out Disc 3 until we see another black artist in a leading role. Disc 4 has The Temptations with Hall & Oates and Tina Turner with Mick, but they are joining someone else's set. I know some performances didn't make it through the years, but acts like The Four Tops and Billy Ocean, were cut as the DVD was being edited. Paul Young could have had a song or two cut. The Pretenders didn't need three songs nor did Duran Duran, especially with the audio feedback issues during their set. Even Clapton could have had "She's Waiting" removed and it would have been no great loss. There were some minor items that also stood out. I was surprised there weren't any country artists considering Willie Nelson and Kenny Rogers were part of USA for Africa, but Nashville still had a few years to go before they crossed over into the pop world. The line-up flowed together very well until the odd sequence when REO Speedwagon's "Can't Fight This Feeling" followed the reunited Black Sabbath "Paranoid." No offense, but no one is in the mood for a couple's skate after banging their head to Black Sabbath. Lastly, before the USA for Africa finale closed out the concert, Keith Richards and Ron Wood joined Bob Dylan for a performance of "Blowing In The Wind." I was slightly distracted trying to figure out why they wouldn't have played earlier with Mick since he performed two Stones songs in his set. Queen showed why they were one of the biggest rock bands of the time from the operatic "Bohemian Rhapsody" to their Elvis Presley nod, "Crazy Little Thing Called Love." Freddie Mercury had total control of the Wembley crowd. He got them all to clap along to the dreadful "Radio Gaga," which is an impressive feat. The band closed with "We Will Rock You / We Are The Champions" that had the entire stadium of 70,000-plus singing along. These people would have left the show and walked food to Africa if Freddie had told them to. It is stunning to watch and you will be hard pressed to ever find a more intense bond between performer and audience of that size. I felt sorry for Simple Minds who had to follow. There are some odd moments that occur but I'm not sure if it's because of the day itself or because of the way the DVD set has been arranged. There is an odd under-representation of black artists. Sade appears on Disc 1 and then it's not until Patti Labelle who closes out Disc 3 until we see another black artist in a leading role. Disc 4 has The Temptations with Hall & Oates and Tina Turner with Mick, but they are joining someone else's set. I know some performances didn't make it through the years, but acts like The Four Tops and Billy Ocean, were cut as the DVD was being edited. Paul Young could have had a song or two cut. The Pretenders didn't need three songs nor did Duran Duran, especially with the audio feedback issues during their set. Even Clapton could have had "She's Waiting" removed and it would have been no great loss. There were some minor items that also stood out. I was surprised there weren't any country artists considering Willie Nelson and Kenny Rogers were part of USA for Africa, but Nashville still had a few years to go before they crossed over into the pop world. The line-up flowed together very well until the odd sequence when REO Speedwagon's "Can't Fight This Feeling" followed the reunited Black Sabbath "Paranoid." No offense, but no one is in the mood for a couple's skate after banging their head to Black Sabbath. Lastly, before the USA for Africa finale closed out the concert, Keith Richards and Ron Wood joined Bob Dylan for a performance of "Blowing In The Wind." I was slightly distracted trying to figure out why they wouldn't have played earlier with Mick since he performed two Stones songs in his set.