Ultravox (formerly Ultravox!) are a British New Wave band that rose to prominence in the late 1970s/early 1980s. They were one of the primary exponents of the British electronic pop music movement of the early 1980s. The band was particularly associated with the New Romanticmovement, although it both pre- and post-dated New Romanticism by several years. They are arguably best known for the song Reap the Wild Wind in the United States and Vienna elsewhere.
This band had two major periods (1973 to 1979, and 1980 to 1986) in which it was, literally, "managed" by two different band leaders, who were never in the band together. In the first period the frontman was John Foxx, now a successful electronic musician, who oriented the band to experimental sounds and changes of styles (glam, punk, industrial, synthpop, art) until 1979, when he decided to quit to become a soloist and dedicate to electronic and synthpop music; in the second period, Midge Ure was the frontman, and who oriented, along with Billy Currie, the band to a more pop and electronic sound and a commercial success, until 1988, when the group decided to disband. A third major period existed, from around 1992 to 1996, being Billy Currie, the only member who remained in Ultravox since the beginnings, who oriented the band, but with new members but without any success.
The band was formed in 1973 on the initiative of vocalist and songwriter Dennis Leigh, a then Royal College of Art student, and was originally known as Tiger Lily. An initial but incomplete lineup comprised Leigh plus Chris Cross (bass guitar) and Stevie Shears (guitar), with Warren Cann(drums) and Billy Currie (keyboards/violins) joining later in 1974. The group released one single in 1975, Ain't Misbehavin', which contained an eponymous cover of the Fats Waller song, as A-side. Later, the band went through a series of name changes including The Zips, Fire of London, London Soundtrack, and The Damned.
Experimental years: 1976–79
Ultravox!
In 1976, the singer changed his name to John Foxx and the band became "Ultravox!", ending the search for a name for a group. (The exclamation mark was a reference to krautrock band Neu!, produced by Conny Plank, who later produced some Ultravox albums.) On the strength of their live act, they signed to Island Records in 1976, releasing their eponymous debut album in February 1977.
Like many other bands which would go on to form Britain's punk and New Wave movements, Ultravox! drew inspiration from the art-school side of glam rock. Musically, Ultravox were heavily influenced by Roxy Music, The New York Dolls,David Bowie and Kraftwerk. Their début was co-produced by Steve Lillywhite, and Brian Eno (who next co-wrote and performed with Bowie onLow). Ultravox! sales were disappointing, and neither the album nor the associated single "Dangerous Rhythm" managed to enter the UK charts. Relations within the band were on an occasionally tenuous footing during this time as Foxx declared that he intended to live without emotions, a sentiment he wrote into the début album track "I Want to Be a Machine".
Ultravox returned later in 1977 with the punkier Ha!-Ha!-Ha!. Sales of both the album and its lead single, "ROckWrok", were poor, both failing to register on the UK charts. "ROckwrok" had a punk-lyric chorus, with the words "Come on, let's tangle in the dark / fuck like a dog, bite like a shark". Despite this, it got airplay on BBC Radio 1). Although Ha!-Ha!-Ha! was dominated by guitars and electric violin, the final track, "Hiroshima Mon Amour", was a prototypical synthpop song. One of the first singles by a British band to feature a drum machine (a Roland TR-77 with preset patterns), the song signalled a new direction for Ultravox. The energy, anger, and popular appeal of punk was fading in 1978,and the more creative UK punk-genre talent sought new directions -- calling themselves British New Wave instead of punk rock artists. "Hiroshima Mon Amour" remains a critic's and fan's favourite from the group's initial period. Ultravox! also performed it on the Old Grey Whistle Test later in 1978.
Becoming Ultravox
In early March 1978, Stevie Shears was sacked from the band after they toured England, for being considered a limiting factor, joiningCowboys International, in 1980; and was replaced by Robert Simon (ex-member of Ian North's Neo), who during his first days with the band he changed his performance-name to Robin Simon. Sometime in 1978, the group also quietly dropped the exclamation mark, becoming simply "Ultravox". The new line-up performed live at the Reading Festival along with Radio Stars, Penetration, Sham 69, The Pirates and The Jam, playing fledgling versions of Slow Motion and Quiet Men on August 25th 1978.
Ultravox in 1978. This was the second incarnation of the band from 1978 until 1979. From left to right: singer John Foxx, drummer Warren Cann, keyboardist Billy Currie, bassist Chris Cross and guitarist Robin Simon (who replaced Shears)Their third album, 1978's Systems of Romance, was recorded with producer Conny Plank and engineer Dave Hutchins at Conny's Studio in rural Germany. Musically, the album was markedly different from Ultravox's earlier work, bringing synthesisers to the forefront of the group's sound. Despite praise from some critics, the album was a commercial failure. Since none of the albums to date had generated much income, tensions within the band — particularly between Currie and Foxx — threatened the band's viability.Island dropped the band after an attempt to market the album in the United States failed to generate sales. That was the final nail in their coffin, but Ultravox undertook a self-financed US tour at the beginning of 1979. Splitting after their final gig, near San Francisco, Foxx declared his intention to go solo. Simon remained in the US and briefly joined The Futants, an American punk band from New York. He later returned to England and teamed up with Howard Devoto to replace guitarist John McGeoch in the band Magazine. The remaining members made their way back to a Britain in the midst of a "winter of discontent". Island dropped the three Ultravox albums from its catalogue, and released a compilation of highlights from the group's first three albums in 1980, called Three into One.
Foxx subsequently signed to Virgin Records and released his most successful (and influential) album Metamatic in 1980. Billy Currie, all but broke, was then recruited by the rising star Gary Numan to do a presentation at the Old Grey Whistle Test show with his band Tubeway Armyand to play on his début solo album, The Pleasure Principle, and its subsequent Touring Principle tour; he was a hero to Numan who had inwardly digested Ultravox's albums and had seen them play live several times. Warren Cann went to work for Zaine Griff, while Chris Cross did some shows with James Honeyman-Scott (of The Pretenders) and Barrie Masters, (from Eddie and the Hot Rods).
The Midge Ure years: 1979–88
With the band seemingly over, Ultravox was then revitalized by Midge Ure, who joined the band as vocalist, guitarist and keyboardist. An accomplished musician, he had already achieved minor success with semi-glam outfit Slik and Glen Matlock's more punk-inspired The Rich Kids, although in 1979 he was temporarily playing with hard rock band Thin Lizzy. Ure and Billy Currie had met whilst collaborating on theVisage project, a studio-based band fronted by New Romantic and nightclub impresario Steve Strange. Ure replaced John Foxx and Robin Simon for Ultravox's next album, Vienna, which would become their most successful to date, far surpassing any of the previous Ultravox (or Foxx's) albums. As with Systems of Romance, it was produced in Germany by Conny Plank. Ure knew of Ultravox's past, being a fan ofSystems to the point where the new four-piece outfit (Ultravox mark three, often called "the classic line-up") played songs from that album on tours with Ure singing Foxx's lyrics. Released on Chrysalis Records in mid 1980, the Vienna album produced the band's first UK Top 40 hit with "Sleepwalk", whilst the album itself peaked at #14. Some months later, however, the band achieved a substantial hit with the title track (inspired by Carol Reed's The Third Man). Accompanied by a highly distinctive video, the single peaked at #2 in early 1981 (famously kept off the top spot by Joe Dolce's novelty hit "Shaddap You Face"). On the strength of the single, the album then re-entered the chart and reached #3 in early 1981.
This was soon followed by Rage in Eden (1981), with the band returning to Conny Plank's studio for what turned out to be a difficult recording session. The band had the difficult task of following the huge success of Vienna with something of equal stature. Whereas Vienna had been gigged a great deal prior to a three-week recording process, Rage in Eden took over three months and confounded people once more. Along with its singles "The Thin Wall" and "The Voice", the album featured a long track in three parts on the second side, leading some critics to decry the band as "the new Genesis".
Ultravox teamed up with producer George Martin for 1982's Quartet, which became their most successful album in the U.S. and undertook a major world tour known as the Monument Tour. The tour was recorded and released as a live LP in 1983 and once again hit the UK top ten. Ure had quit Visage by this time in order to concentrate solely on Ultravox (Currie remained with Visage for a while longer, but he too had left them by 1984).
Ultravox vocalist Midge Ure in concert, April 1984
1984's successful Lament continued the band's run of top ten albums and produced three top 40 hit singles,including the international hit "Dancing with Tears in My Eyes". However, this album was the last to feature the "classic" line-up of the band. Towards the end of 1984, a "greatest hits" compilation spanning the band's 1980s output was released entitled The Collection. It was preceded by a new single, "Love's Great Adventure", which was accompanied by a popular Indiana Jones-style spoof video. The Collection went triple Platinum and reached #2 in the UK album chart, the band's highest ever peak.
At this time, Ure also co-wrote and helped produce the 1984 Band Aid single "Do They Know It's Christmas?". The group also appeared at Live Aid the following year and played four of their hit singles ("Vienna", "Reap the Wild Wind", "Dancing with Tears in My Eyes" and "One Small Day"). Later in 1985, Ure scored a #1 solo hit with "If I Was" and his solo album The Giftreached #2 in the UK.
Ultravox reconvened in 1986, but Warren Cann was fired from the band at the beginning of sessions for their U-Vox album. Cann emigrated to the US and retired from music to become an actor. Big Country's Mark Brzezicki took his place. The U-Vox album is widely regarded as the band's creative low point with even Currie (and later Ure) describing it as "unfocused". Although it continued their string of top ten albums in the UK, the relatively mediocre and declining performance of its singles prompted both Ure and Cross to leave the band. In 1987 Ultravox decided to not continue, after the U-Vox tour early that year, but officially split up in 1988. Ure subsequently concentrated on his solo career with varying levels of success, and Cross retired from music altogether and returned to his former career as a psychotherapist. Billy Currie and Robin Simon reunited in 1989 as the short-livedHumania, performing live shows but never making a release until 2006, when Currie released a Humania-recorded album, Sinews of the Soul.
First re-formation: 1992–96
Without any other original members, Currie reformed Ultravox again in 1992 with vocalist Tony Fenelle to record Revelation, and later Sam Bluereplaced Fenelle in a new five-piece Ultravox line-up, lending his voice to their final release, Ingenuity (1996).
Current re-formation: 2008–09
Warren Cann, Chris Cross, Billy Currie and Midge Ure reformed Ultravox again for a UK tour in April 2009, entitled "Return to Eden". This would be the first time the classic line up of the band have performed together since Live Aid in 1985. The tour played at venues across the UK. Since success from touring the UK they have extended the tour to Germany and Belgium.
In September 2008, both Vienna and Rage In Eden were released in digitally remastered 2-disc format with the second disc containing previously unreleased material. Quartet and Monument were released in February 2009, also in two-disc editions. The second disc in theMonument package is a DVD containing the concert video that was previously only available on VHS tape. The other Chrysalis-era releases are planned for similar future releases. A live CD and DVD of Ultravox sell-out Roundhouse show is rumored to be released later this year.
An anthology of unreleased Ultravox material was planned in mid 2008, but has not been scheduled for release. The track-listing is currently being compiled.
Speaking to The Sunday Mail, Midge Ure revealed that the reunion is only a one-off, and there will be no new material from the group. He said: ""We're not trying to recapture our youth and won't be writing new songs or recording another album. This is about celebrating our music and our anniversary"
On Jonathan Ross's show on BBC's Radio 2 on February 21, 2009, Ure discussed the tour, with all four members of the most successful incarnation of the band on board. He mentioned that this reunion was not planned in light of the previously mentioned events, but rather was spontaneous and happened very quickly with the band members talking and communicating online (using email and skype). The interview did not reveal whether or not new material would be recorded as a result of the reunion tour.
Live Aid was a multi-venue rock music concert held on July 13, 1985. The event was organized by Bob Geldof and Midge Ure to raise funds for famine relief in Ethiopia. Billed as the 'global jukebox', the event was held simultaneously in Wembley Stadium, London (attended by 82,000 people) and JFK Stadium, Philadelphia (attended by about 99,000 people). On the same day, concerts inspired by the initiative happened in other countries, such as Australia and Germany. It was one of the largest-scale satellite link-ups and television broadcasts of all time: an estimated 400 million viewers, across 60 countries, watched the live broadcast.
Origins
The concert was conceived as a follow-on to another Geldof/Ure project, the successful charity single "Do They Know It's Christmas?", performed by a collection of British and Irish music acts billed as 'Band Aid' and released the previous winter.
The concert grew in scope, as more acts were added on both sides of the Atlantic. As a charity fundraiser, the concert far exceeded its goals: on a television programme in 2001, one of the organisers stated that while initially it had been hoped that Live Aid would raise £1 million with the help of Wembley tickets costing £25.00 each, the final figure was £150 million (approx. $283.6 million). Partly in recognition of the Live Aid effort, Geldof received an honorary knighthood. Music promoter Harvey Goldsmith was also instrumental in bringing the plans of Geldof and Ure to fruition.
Collaborative effort
The concert began at 12:00 BST (7:00, EST) at Wembley Stadium, England. It continued at JFK Stadium, U.S., starting at 13:51 BST (8:51, EST). The UK's Wembley performances ended at 22:00 BST (17:00 or 5:00 PM, EST). The JFK performances and whole concert in the US ended at 04:05 BST July 14 (23:05 or 11:05 PM, EST). (See the full schedule of the concert here). Thus, the concert continued for 16 hours, but since many artists' performances were conducted simultaneously in Wembley and JFK, the total concert's length was much longer.
It was the original intention for Mick Jagger and David Bowie to perform an intercontinental duet, with Bowie in London and Jagger in Philadelphia. Problems of synchronization meant that the only remotely practical solution was to have one artist, likely Bowie at Wembley, mime along to prerecorded vocals broadcast as part of the live sound mix for Jagger's performance from Philadelphia. Veteran music engineer David Richards (Pink Floyd and Queen) was brought in to create footage and sound mixes that Jagger and Bowie could perform to in their respective venues. The BBC would then have had to ensure that those footage and sound mixes were in synch while also performing a live vision mix of the footage from both venues. The combined footage would then have had to be bounced back by satellite to the various broadcasters around the world. Due to the time lag (the signal would take several seconds to be broadcast twice across the Atlantic Ocean) Richards concluded there would be no practical way for Jagger to be able to hear or see Bowie's performance, meaning there could be no interaction between the artists, which would defeat the whole point of the exercise. On top of this both artists objected to the idea of miming at what was perceived as an historic event. Instead, Jagger and Bowie worked with Richards to create a video clip for the song they would have performed, a cover of "Dancing in the Street". The video was shown on the screens of both stadiums and also broadcast as part of many TV networks coverage.
Each of the two main portions of the concert ended with their particular continental all-star anti-hunger anthems, with Band Aid's "Do They Know It's Christmas?" closing the UK concert, and USA for Africa's "We Are the World" closing the US concert (and thus the day's proceedings).
Concert organizers have subsequently said that they were particularly keen to ensure that at least one surviving member of The Beatles, ideally Paul McCartney, took part in the concert as they felt that having an 'elder statesman' from British music would give it greater legitimacy in the eyes of the political leaders whose opinions the performers were trying to shape. McCartney agreed to perform and has said that it was "the management" — his children — that persuaded him to take part. In the event, he was the last performer (aside from the Band Aid finale) to take to the stage and one of the few to be beset by technical difficulties; his microphone was turned off for the first two minutes of his piano performance of "Let It Be", making it difficult for television viewers and impossible for those in the stadium to hear him. He later jokingly thought about changing the lyrics to "There will be some feedback, let it be".
Phil Collins performed at both Wembley Stadium and JFK, utilising Concorde to get him from London to Philadelphia. UK TV personality Noel Edmonds piloted the helicopter that took Collins to Heathrow Airport to catch his flight. Aside from his own set at both venues, he also provided drums for Eric Clapton and the reunion of the surviving members of Led Zeppelin at JFK. On the Concorde flight, Collins encountered actress and singer Cher, who later claimed not to know anything about the Live Aid concerts. Upon reaching the USA however she did attend the Philadelphia concert and can be seen performing as part of that concert's We Are the World finale.
An official book was produced by Bob Geldof in collaboration with photographer Denis O'Regan.
The broadcasts
The concert was the most ambitious international satellite television venture that had ever been attempted at the time.
In Europe, the feed was supplied by the BBC, whose broadcast was opened by Richard Skinner, co-hosted by Andy Kershaw, and included numerous interviews and chats in between the various acts. The BBC's television sound feed was mono, but the BBC Radio 1 feed was stereo and was simulcast in sync with the TV pictures. Due to the constant activities in both London and Philadelphia, the BBC producers omitted the reunion of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young from their broadcast. The BBC, however, did supply a 'clean' feed to various television channels in Europe.
ABC was largely responsible for the US broadcast (although ABC themselves only telecast the final three hours of the concert from Philadelphia, hosted by Dick Clark, with the rest shown in syndication through Orbis Communications, acting on behalf of ABC). An entirely separate and simultaneous US feed was provided for cable viewers by MTV, whose broadcast was presented in stereo, and accessible as such for those with special receivers of the time, as there were very few stereo sets in the summer of 1985, and few television stations were able to broadcast in stereo. While the BBC telecast was run commercial-free (as it is a public broadcaster), both the MTV and syndicated/ABC broadcasts included advertisements and interviews. As a result, many songs were omitted due to the commercial breaks, as these songs were played during such times.
The biggest caveat of the syndicated/ABC coverage is that the network had wanted to reserve some of the biggest acts that had played earlier in the day for certain points in the entire broadcast, particularly in the final three hours in prime time; thus, Orbis Communications had some sequences replaced by others, especially those portions of the concert that had acts from London and Philadelphia playing simultaneously. For example, while the London/Wembley finale was taking place at 22:00 (10:00 pm) London time, syndicated viewers saw segments that had been recorded earlier, so that ABC could show the UK finale during its prime-time portion.
The ABC Radio Network broadcast the American domestic feed of the concert, and later broadcast many of the acts that were missing from the original live radio broadcast.
At one point midway through the concert, Billy Connolly announced he had just been informed that 95% of the television sets in the world were tuned to the event.
In 1995, VH1 and MuchMusic aired a re-edited ten-hour re-broadcast of the concert for its 10th Anniversary.
Inspiration
The success of Live Aid inspired Roger Waters' song "The Tide Is Turning."
Similarly, the band Queen recorded the song "One Vision" in response to the Live Aid concerts. Both lead singer Freddie Mercury and guitarist Brian May wore Live Aid shirts during the recording.
The following year after Live Aid, Bob Geldof gave encouragement and a good will message to the Birmingham Heart Beat Charity Concert 1986 which included George Harrison from The Beatles.
Memorable moments at Wembley Stadium
The Coldstream Guards band opened with the "Royal Salute", "God Save the Queen". Status Quo started their set with "Rockin' All Over the World", also playing "Caroline" and fan favourite "Don't Waste My Time". This was to be the last appearance by the band to feature bassist and founder member Alan Lancaster, and drummer Pete Kircher who had joined the band three years earlier.
Queen opening to massive cheers with "Bohemian Rhapsody", and the antics of lead singer Freddie Mercury who got the entire Wembley crowd clapping in unison to "Radio Ga Ga" and "Crazy Little Thing Called Love" before singing along, word-for-word, to "We Will Rock You" and "We Are the Champions". The band's performance, also including "Hammer to Fall", led to Queen's slot being voted in a recent poll (by fans and musicians alike) as the 'Greatest Live Gig Ever'.
Elvis Costello singing a simple but touching version of the Beatles "All You Need is Love" which he introduced by asking the audience to "help (him) sing this old northern English folk song".
Another moment that garnered a huge crowd response was when David Bowie performed "Heroes" and dedicated it to his young son, as well as "all our children, and the children of the world".
U2's performance established them as a pre-eminent live group for the first time — something for which they would eventually become superstars. Bono jumped off the stage to join the crowd and danced with a girl. Because of this, the band only played two songs; the third, "Pride (In the Name of Love)", had to be ditched. In July 2005, the girl with whom he danced revealed that he actually saved her life at the time. She was being crushed by the throngs of people pushing forwards; Bono saw this, and gestured frantically at the ushers to help her. They didn't understand what he was saying, and so he jumped down to help her himself. This can be seen on the Live Aid DVD during "Bad".
The transatlantic broadcast from Wembley Stadium suffered technical problems and failed during The Who's performance of their song "My Generation", immediately after Roger Daltrey sang "Why don't you all fade..." (the last word was cut off when a blown fuse caused the Wembley stage TV feed to temporarily fail). The Who were playing with Kenney Jones on drums, who was still an official member of The Who at this time, although this was their first performance since they'd officially disbanded after their 1982 'farewell' tour. The Who's performance included an at times shambolic, but still blistering version of "Won't Get Fooled Again", which was extremely popular with the audience in Wembley Stadium. The band's performance was described as "rough but right" by Rolling Stone magazine, but they would not perform together again until the 1988 BPI Awards.
At the conclusion of the Wembley performances, Bob Geldof was raised heroically onto the shoulders of The Who's guitarist Pete Townshend and McCartney — symbolising his great achievement in unifying the world for one day, in the spirit of music and charity.
Memorable moments at JFK Stadium
Stage view of Live Aid at JFK Stadium in Philly
At the very beginning of the televised portion of the Philadelphia concert, Joan Baez announced to the assembled crowd (and the viewing audience) that "this is your Woodstock, and it's long overdue", before leading the crowd in "Amazing Grace" (paired with a couple of verses of "We Are the World").
When Madonna got on stage, despite the 95°F ambient temperature, she proclaimed "I'm not taking shit off today!" referring to the recent release of early nude photos of her in Playboy and Penthouse magazines.
During his opening number, American Girl, Tom Petty flipped the middle finger to somebody off stage about one minute into song. Petty stated the song was a last minute addition when the band realised that they would be the first act to play the American side of the concert after the London finale and "since this is, after all, JFK Stadium".
When Bob Dylan broke a guitar string, Ronnie Wood took off his own guitar and gave it to Dylan. Wood was left standing on stage guitarless. After shrugging to the audience, he played air guitar, even mimicking The Who's Pete Townshend by swinging his arm in wide circles, until a stagehand brought him a replacement. Although this moment was left off the DVD, the performance itself was included, featuring footage focusing solely on Keith Richards.
During their duet on "It's Only Rock 'n' Roll", Mick Jagger ripped away part of Tina Turner's dress, leaving her to finish the song in what was, effectively, a leotard.
The JFK portion included reunions of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, the original Black Sabbath with Ozzy Osbourne, and surviving members of Led Zeppelin, with Phil Collins and Chic member Tony Thompson sharing duties on drums (although they were not officially announced by their group name from the stage, but were announced as Led Zeppelin on the VH1 10th Anniversary re-broadcast in 1995).
Teddy Pendergrass made his first public appearance since his near-fatal car accident in 1982 which paralysed him. Pendergrass, along with Ashford & Simpson, performed "Reach Out and Touch".
Also, Duran Duran performed a four-song set. The five original band members would not perform together publicly again until 2003. Their set is also memorable for an inadvertent falsetto note hit by frontman Simon Le Bon during "A View to a Kill", an error trumpeted by some media outlets as "The Bum Note Heard Round The World". Simon later recalled that it was the most embarrassing moment of his career.
Phil Collins, who had just arrived via Concorde from Wembley, hit an incorrect note while playing piano during the performance of "Against All Odds." His face contorts visibly when this occurs.
Live Aid under the lights at JFK Stadium Raising money
Throughout the concerts, viewers were urged to donate money to the Live Aid cause. Three hundred phone lines were manned by the BBC, so that members of the public could make donations using their credit cards. The phone number and an address that viewers could send cheques to were repeated every twenty minutes.
Nearly seven hours into the concert in London, Bob Geldof enquired how much money had been raised; he was told £1.2 million. He is said to have been sorely disappointed by the amount and marched to the BBC commentary position. Pumped up further by a performance by Queen that he later called 'absolutely amazing', Geldof gave an infamous interview in which he used the f-word. The BBC presenter David Hepworth, conducting the interview, had attempted to provide a list of addresses to which potential donations should be sent; Geldof interrupted him in mid-flow and shouted: "Fuck the address, let's get the numbers!" (not as is widely remembered[by whom?] "Give us your fucking money"). Private Eye made great capital out of these outbursts, emphasising Geldof's accent which meant the profanities were heard as "fock" and "focking". After the outburst, giving increased to £300 per second.
Later in the evening, following David Bowie's set, a video (Edited by Colin Dean) shot by CBC, was shown to the audiences in London and Philadelphia, as well as on televisions around the world (though notably neither USA feed, ABC or MTV chose to show the film), showing starving and diseased Ethiopian children set to the song "Drive" by The Cars. (This would also be shown at the London Live 8 concert in 2005.) The rate of giving became faster in the immediate aftermath of the moving video. Ironically, Geldof had previously refused to allow the video to be shown, due to time constraints, and had only relented when Bowie offered to drop the song Five Years from his set as a trade-off.
As Geldof mentioned during the concert, the Republic of Ireland gave the most donations per capita, despite being in the throes of a serious economic depression at the time. The single largest donation came from the ruling family of Dubai. They donated £1m in a phone conversation with Geldof.
The next day, news reports stated that between £40 and £50 million had been raised. Now, it is estimated that around £150m has been raised for famine relief as a direct result of the concerts.
Notable absences
Bruce Springsteen declined an invitation to play at Live Aid despite his huge popularity in 1985, later stating that he "simply did not realize how big the whole thing was going to be". Bruce had however allowed his stage to be used for the London concert. He has since expressed regret at turning down Geldof's invitation to appear at Live Aid stating that he could have played a couple of acoustic songs had there been no slot available for a full band performance. If he had appeared he would have been the only American artist on an otherwise UK-centric bill.
Michael Jackson and Prince also did not play (although Prince did send a pre-taped video of an acoustic version of "4 the Tears in Your Eyes", which was played during the concert. The original version appears on the We Are the World album, while the video version was released in 1993 on Prince's compilation The Hits/The B-Sides.)
Among other artists, Tears for Fears did not appear at the Philadelphia leg of the concert, though listed on the bill. According to band member Roland Orzabal, Bob Geldof "gave us so much gip for not turning up at Live Aid. All those millions of people dying, it was our fault. I felt terrible. I tell you, I know how Hitler must have felt." The group made up for the absence by contributing a re-recording of "Everybody Wants to Rule the World" (entitled "Everybody Wants to Run the World") for Geldof's Sport Aid charity event in 1986.
Cat Stevens wrote a song for the Live Aid concert, which he never got to perform — had he done so, he would have made his first public concert appearance since converting to Islam and changing his name to Yusuf Islam. Though he had written a song especially for the occasion, his appearance was skipped when Elton John's set ran too long.
A reunited Deep Purple were also due to appear from Switzerland via satellite, but pulled out after guitarist Ritchie Blackmore refused to take part in the event. Eurythmics were slated to play Wembley but cancelled after Annie Lennox suffered serious throat problems. Huey Lewis and the News and Paul Simon both accepted requests to play the Philadelphia concert but later issued press statements stating they have chosen not to appear after all, citing disagreements with promoter Bill Graham. Deep Purple appeared at Geldof's Live 8 sequel 20 years later, performing at the Toronto leg of the event.
Billy Joel, Boy George, Waylon Jennings, Kris Kristofferson, Tears for Fears, and Stevie Wonder, along with Huey Lewis and the News and Paul Simon, were all included in the initial promotional material for the Philadelphia concert, but failed to appear at the show itself. The final poster for the Philadelphia show features the acts Peter, Paul and Mary and Rod Stewart, neither of whom actually appeared (though Peter, Paul and Mary can be spotted in taking part in the concert's finale).
It was also rumoured at the time that George Harrison, Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr would reunite as The Beatles; making it the first time the trio had performed together in over 15 years. The rumours at the time also were based around the possibility that Julian Lennon would join the Liverpudlian trio, taking over his late father John Lennon's role. In the end only McCartney appeared at the event.
Bob Geldof also invited Def Leppard to perform at the event, but due to Rick Allen's car accident and uncertain future of the next album, they turned it down.
Criticisms and controversies
Bob Dylan's performance generated controversy for his comment:
"I hope that some of the money…maybe they can just take a little bit of it, maybe…one or two million, maybe…and use it, say, to pay the mortgages on some of the farms and, the farmers here, owe to the banks…"
He is often misquoted, as on the Farm Aid website, as saying:
"Wouldn't it be great if we did something for our own farmers right here in America?"
In his best-selling autobiography, Is That It? (published in 1986), Geldof was extremely critical of the remark; he states:
"He displayed a complete lack of understanding of the issues raised by Live Aid…. Live Aid was about people losing their lives. There is a radical difference between losing your livelihood and losing your life. It did instigate Farm Aid, which was a good thing in itself, but it was a crass, stupid, and nationalistic thing to say."
Although a professed admirer of Geldof's generosity and concern, Fox News television host Bill O'Reilly has been critical of the Live Aid producer's oversight of the money raised for starving Ethiopian people, claiming (in June 2005) that much of the funds were siphoned off by Mengistu Haile Mariam and his army. O'Reilly believes that charity organizations, operating in aid-receiving countries, should control donations, rather than possibly corrupt governments. Tim Russert, when interviewing Bono on Meet the Press shortly after O'Reilly's comments, addressed this concern of O'Reilly and others to the singer. Bono responded that corruption, not disease or famine, was the greatest threat to Africa, agreeing with the belief that foreign relief organizations should decide how the money is spent. On the other hand, the singer said that it was better to spill some funds into nefarious quarters for the sake of those who needed it, than to stifle aid because of possible theft. Other critics have argued that donations to charity organisations often end up being used by corrupt governments as well. Much of the money raised by Live Aid went to NGOs in Ethiopia, some of which were under the influence or control of the Derg military junta. Some journalists have suggested that the Derg was able to use Live Aid and Oxfam money to fund its enforced resettlement and "villagification" programmes, under which at least 3 million people are said to have been displaced and between 50,000 and 100,000 killed.
The Live Aid concert in London was also the first time that the BBC outdoor broadcast sound equipment had been for an event of such a scale. In stark contrast to the mirrored sounds systems commonly used by the rock band touring engineers, with two 40 channel mixing consoles at the front of the house, and another pair for monitors, the BBC sound engineers had to use multiple 12 channel desks. Some credit this as the point where the mainstream entertainment industry realised that the rock concert industry had overtaken them in technical expertise.
Geldof was apparently not happy about The Hooters being tacked onto the bill as the opening band in Philadelphia. He felt pressured into it by Graham and local promoter Larry Magid. Magid, promoting the concert through Electric Factory Concerts, argued that the band was hugely popular in Philadelphia, despite their first major label album Nervous Night being released less than three months beforehand. Geldof let his feelings be known during an interview for Rolling Stone saying: "Who the fuck are The Hooters?" The Hooters did get their revenge in December, 2004, when Geldof appeared on the bill with the Hooters in Germany as their opening act.
Live Aid performers and setlists
(In order of appearance, times given are British Summer Time and indicate the start time of the performance. Key: W - London Wembley Stadium, JFK - Philadelphia JFK Stadium)
[edit]London Wembley Stadium
Coldstream Guards - "Royal Salute", "God Save the Queen" (W 12:00);
Status Quo - "Rockin' All Over the World", "Caroline", "Don't Waste My Time" (W 12:02);
The Style Council - "You're The Best Thing", "Big Boss Groove", "Internationalists", "Walls Come Tumbling Down" (W 12:19);
The Boomtown Rats - "I Don't Like Mondays", "Drag Me Down", "Rat Trap", "For He's A Jolly Good Fellow" (sung by the audience) (W 12:44);
Adam Ant - "Vive Le Rock" (W 13:00);
Ultravox - "Reap the Wild Wind", "Dancing with Tears in My Eyes", "One Small Day", "Vienna" (W 13:16);
Spandau Ballet - "Only When You Leave", "Virgin", "True" (W 13:47);
Elvis Costello - "All You Need Is Love" (W 14:07);
Nik Kershaw - "Wide Boy", "Don Quixote", "The Riddle", "Wouldn't It Be Good" (W 14:22);
Sade - "Why Can't We Live Together", "Your Love Is King", "Is It A Crime" (W 14:55);
Sting and Phil Collins (with Branford Marsalis) - "Roxanne", "Driven To Tears", "Against All Odds (Take a Look at Me Now)", "Message in a Bottle", "In the Air Tonight", "Long Long Way To Go", "Every Breath You Take" (W 15:18);
Howard Jones - "Hide and Seek" (W 15:50)
Bryan Ferry (with Pink Floyd's David Gilmour on guitar) - "Sensation", "Boys And Girls", "Slave To Love", "Jealous Guy" (W 16:07);
Paul Young - "Do They Know It's Christmas?" (intro), "Come Back And Stay", "That's the Way Love Is" (with Alison Moyet), "Every Time You Go Away" (W 16:38);
U2 - "Sunday Bloody Sunday", "Bad" (with snippets of "Satellite Of Love", "Ruby Tuesday", "Sympathy for the Devil" and "Walk On The Wild Side") (W 17:20);
Dire Straits - "Money for Nothing" (with Sting), "Sultans of Swing" (W 18:00);
Queen (introduced by comedians Mel Smith and Griff Rhys Jones) - "Bohemian Rhapsody"/"Radio Ga Ga", "Hammer to Fall", "Crazy Little Thing Called Love", "We Will Rock You"/"We Are the Champions" (W 18:44);
David Bowie (with Thomas Dolby on keyboards) - "TVC 15", "Rebel Rebel", "Modern Love", "Heroes" (W 19:22);
The Who - "My Generation"/"Pinball Wizard", "Love, Reign o'er Me", "Won't Get Fooled Again" (W 20:00);
Elton John (introduced by Billy Connolly) - "I'm Still Standing", "Bennie and the Jets", "Rocket Man", "Don't Go Breaking My Heart" (with Kiki Dee), "Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me" (with George Michael and backing vocals by Andrew Ridgeley), "Can I Get a Witness" (W 20:50);
Finale at Wembley Stadium:
a) Freddie Mercury and Brian May (Queen) - "Is This The World We Created?" (W 21:48),
b) Paul McCartney - "Let It Be" (W 21:51),
c) Band Aid (led by Bob Geldof) - "Do They Know It's Christmas?" (W 21:54);
[edit]Philadelphia JFK Stadium
Bernard Watson - "All I Really Want to Do", "Interview" (JFK 13:51);
Joan Baez (introduced by Jack Nicholson) - "Amazing Grace"/"We Are the World" (JFK 14:02);
The Hooters - "And We Danced", "All You Zombies" (JFK 14:12);
The Four Tops - "Shake Me, Wake Me (When It's Over)", "Bernadette", "It's The Same Old Song", "Reach Out I'll Be There", "I Can't Help Myself (Sugar Pie, Honey Bunch)" (JFK 14:33);
Billy Ocean - "Caribbean Queen", "Loverboy" (JFK 14:45);
Black Sabbath (introduced by Chevy Chase) - "Children of the Grave", "Iron Man", "Paranoid" (JFK 14:52);
Run-D.M.C. - "Jam Master Jay", "King Of Rock" (JFK 15:12);
Rick Springfield - "Love Somebody", "State Of The Heart", "Human Touch" (JFK 15:30);
REO Speedwagon - "Can't Fight This Feeling", "Roll With The Changes" (JFK 15:47);
Crosby, Stills and Nash - "Southern Cross", "Teach Your Children", "Suite: Judy Blue Eyes" (JFK 16:15);
Judas Priest - "Living After Midnight", "The Green Manalishi (With The Two-Pronged Crown)", "You've Got Another Thing Comin'" (JFK 16:26);
Bryan Adams (introduced by Jack Nicholson) - "Kids Wanna Rock", "Summer of '69", "Tears Are Not Enough", "Cuts Like a Knife" (JFK 17:02);
The Beach Boys (introduced by Marilyn McCoo) - "California Girls", "Help Me, Rhonda", "Wouldn't It Be Nice", "Good Vibrations", "Surfin' USA" (JFK 17:40);
George Thorogood and the Destroyers - "Who Do You Love" (with Bo Diddley), "The Sky Is Crying", "Madison Blues" (with Albert Collins) (JFK 18:26);
Simple Minds - "Ghost Dancing", "Don't You (Forget About Me)", "Promised You a Miracle" (JFK 19:07);
The Pretenders - "Time The Avenger", "Message of Love", "Stop Your Sobbing", "Back on the Chain Gang", "Middle of the Road" (JFK 19:41);
Santana and Pat Metheny - "Brotherhood", "Primera Invasion", "Open Invitation", "By The Pool"/"Right Now" (JFK 20:21);
Ashford & Simpson - "Solid", "Reach Out and Touch (Somebody's Hand)" (with Teddy Pendergrass) (JFK 20:57);
Madonna (introduced by Bette Midler) - "Holiday", "Into the Groove", "Love Makes The World Go Round" (JFK 21:27);
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers - "American Girl", "The Waiting", "Rebels", "Refugee" (JFK 22:14);
Kenny Loggins - "Footloose" (JFK 22:30);
The Cars - "You Might Think", "Drive", "Just What I Needed", "Heartbeat City" (JFK 22:49);
Neil Young - "Sugar Mountain", "The Needle and the Damage Done", "Helpless", "Nothing Is Perfect", "Powderfinger" (JFK 23:07);
Power Station - "Murderess", "Get It On" (JFK 23:43);
Thompson Twins - "Hold Me Now", "Revolution" (with Madonna, Steve Stevens and Nile Rodgers) (JFK 00:21);
Eric Clapton (with Phil Collins) - "White Room", "She's Waiting", "Layla" (JFK 00:39);
Phil Collins (having taken Concorde from UK to USA) - "Against All Odds (Take a Look at Me Now)", "In the Air Tonight" (JFK 01:04);
Led Zeppelin (with Tony Thompson, Paul Martinez, and Phil Collins) - "Rock and Roll", "Whole Lotta Love", "Stairway to Heaven" (JFK 01:10);
Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young - "Only Love Can Break Your Heart", "Daylight Again"/"Find the Cost of Freedom" (JFK 01:40);
Duran Duran - "A View to a Kill", "Union of the Snake", "Save a Prayer", "The Reflex" (JFK 01:45);
Patti LaBelle - "New Attitude", "Imagine", "Forever Young", "Stir It Up", "Over The Rainbow", "Why Can't I Get It Over" (JFK 02:20);
Hall & Oates (with G. E. Smith of Saturday Night Live fame on guitar) - "Out of Touch", "Maneater", "Get Ready" (with Eddie Kendricks), "Ain't Too Proud to Beg" (with David Ruffin), "The Way You Do the Things You Do", "My Girl" (with Eddie Kendricks and David Ruffin) (JFK 02:50);
Mick Jagger (with Hall & Oates / Eddie Kendricks / David Ruffin) - "Lonely At The Top", "Just Another Night", "Miss You", "State of Shock"/"It's Only Rock 'n Roll (But I Like It)" (with Tina Turner) (JFK 03:15);
Finale at JFK Stadium:
a) Bob Dylan, Keith Richards and Ronnie Wood - "Ballad of Hollis Brown", "When the Ship Comes In", Blowin' in the Wind" (JFK 03:39),
b) USA for Africa (led by Lionel Richie) - "We Are the World" (JFK 3:55)
When organiser Bob Geldof was persuading artists to take part in the concert, he promised them that it would be a one-off event, never to be seen again. That was the reason why the concert was never recorded in its complete original form, and only secondary television broadcasts were recorded. Following Geldof's request, ABC even erased its own broadcast tapes. However, before the syndicated/ABC footage was erased, copies of it were donated to the Smithsonian Institution and have now been presumed lost. MTV decided to keep recordings of its broadcast and recently located more than 100 tapes of Live Aid in its archives, but many songs in these tapes were cut short by MTV's ad breaks and presenters (according to the BBC). The BBC also decided to keep its broadcast recordings, but many performances from the US were not shown on the BBC, and recordings of these performances are missing.
Official Live Aid DVD
An official four-disc DVD set of the Live Aid concerts was released on November 8, 2004. It contains 10-hour partial footage of the 16-hour length concert. The DVD was produced by Geldof's company, Woodcharm Ltd., and distributed by Warner Music Group.
The decision to finally release it was taken by Bob Geldof nearly 20 years after the original concerts, after he found a number of pirate copies of the concert on the Internet (see full story here). There has been controversy over the DVD release because a decision had been taken for a substantial number of tracks not to be included in this edited version.
The most complete footage that exists is from the BBC, and it was the main source of the DVD. During production on the official DVD, MTV lent Woodcharm Ltd. their B-roll and alternate camera footage; this was an additional source of the US footage that appears on the official DVD.
Working from the BBC and MTV footage, several degrees of dramatic license were taken, in order to release the concert on DVD. For example, many songs on the official DVD had their soundtracks altered, mainly in sequences where there were originally microphone problems. In one of those instances, Paul McCartney had re-recorded his failed vocals for "Let It Be" in a studio the day after the concert (14 July 1985) but it was never used until the release of the DVD. Also, in the USA finale, the original 'USA for Africa' studio track for "We Are the World" was overlaid in places where the microphone was absent (in fact, if you listen closely, you can hear the vocals of Kenny Rogers and James Ingram, two artists who did not even take part in Live Aid).
Judicious decisions were also made on which acts would be included and which ones would not, due to either technical difficulties in the original performances, the absence of original footage, or for music rights reasons. For example, Rick Springfield, The Four Tops, The Hooters, Power Station, and Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young were among those acts that were left off the DVD. Many of the artists' songs that were performed were also omitted. For example, Madonna performed three solo songs in the concert, but only two were included on the DVD ("Love Makes the World Go Round" was omitted).
There were also issues with the artists themselves. Two such performers were left off at their own request: Led Zeppelin and Santana. The former defended their decision not to be included on the grounds that their performance was 'sub-standard', but to lend their support, Jimmy Page and Robert Plant have pledged to donate proceeds from an upcoming DVD release of Led Zeppelin to the campaign, and John Paul Jones has pledged proceeds from his current American tour with Mutual Admiration Society.
In 2007, Queen released a special two-disc DVD set Queen Rock Montreal. Disc one is their 1981 concert from The Forum in Montreal, Canada, and disc two is their complete Live Aid performance, along with Freddie Mercury and Brian May performing Is This The World We Created...? from the UK finale, all of which is mixed into DTS 5.1 by Justin Shirley-Smith. Also on the disc is their Live Aid rehearsal, and an interview with the band, from earlier in the week.
On its release, the then British Chancellor of the Exchequer, Gordon Brown, decided the VAT collected on the DVD would be given back to the charity, which would raise an extra £5 for every DVD sold.
Unofficial recordings
Because the Live Aid broadcast was watched by billions of people, most of the footage was recorded on home consumer video recorders all around the world, in various qualities. Many of these recordings were in mono, because in the mid 1980s most home video machines could only record mono sound, and also because the European BBC TV broadcast was in mono. (As mentioned previously, the US MTV broadcast, the ABC Radio Network and BBC Radio One simulcasts were stereo). These recordings started to circulate among collectors 20 years ago, and in recent years have also appeared on the Internet in file sharing networks. Since the official DVD release of Live Aid includes only partial footage of this event, unofficial distribution sources continue to stay the one and only source of the most complete recordings of this important historical music event.
The official DVD is the only authorized video release in which proceeds go directly to famine relief, the cause that the concert was originally intended to help.
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