ON THIS DAY: LIVE AID, THE DAY THAT UNITED THE WORLD THROUGH MUSIC

Live Aid Celebrated With 35th Anniversary Livestream On Social Media. The entire event, including some previously unseen footage, can be watched today on Facebook and Twitter.

On July 13, 1985, Live Aid, the dual concert at Wembley Stadium and JFK Stadium featured some of the greatest musical performances in history .
It still seems like madness that Bob Geldof and Midge Ure announced their audacious scheme for a live concert to aid the Ethiopian famine effort. And not just one concert, but two, one at London’s iconic Wembley Stadium and the other at Philadelphia’s John F Kennedy Stadium on July 13, 1985. There were 72,000 at the London Live Aid concert and 100,000 at the Philadelphia Live Aid show, but these numbers were dwarfed by the estimated 1.9 million people watching on TV from 130 countries around the world.

The Bands: Status Quo, The Style Council, Paul Weller’s band, Bob Geldof’s Boomtown Rats, Adam Ant, Ultravox, Spandau Ballet and Bernard Butler, Elvis Costello singing “All You Need Is Love” was another poignant moment and then it was Nik Kershaw, followed by Sade, after 3 pm Sting took to the stage and had Phil Collins with him on drums. In the next hour there was Howard Jones, Brian Ferry, with Dave Gilmour on guitar, Paul Young and U2. At 6 pm Dire Straits did “Money For Nothing” with Sting on vocals and finished with “Sultans of Swing”.

And then it was Queen. Just before 9 pm Elton John took to the stage and was in brilliant form. His duet with Kiki Dee on “Don’t Go Breaking My Heart” pleased everyone as did “Don’t Let The Sun Go Down On Me” on which he dusted with George Michael.Shortly before 10 pm Freddie Mercury and Brian May did “Is This The World We Created.”  Then it was the finale with Paul McCartney ,Bob Geldof, David Bowie, Alison Moyet and Pete Townshend. The concert was then closed with everyone joining in to sing “Do They Know It’s Christmas.” It couldn’t have ended any other way.