Live Aid 30th anniversary: 30 things you never knew about the 1985 concert - Mirror Online
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Live Aid 30th anniversary: 30 things you never knew about the 1985 concert
Did you know Paula Yates stopped at a petrol station on the way to the gig to buy some flowers for Princess Diana?
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Memorable: Live Aid was watched by one billion TV viewers
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It was 30 years ago today that Status Quo kick-started the Live Aid concert with their hit Rockin All Over The World.
The event was organised by Sir Bob Geldof and Midge Ure to raise funds for relief of the Ethiopian famine.
Two concerts were held simultaneously and attended by 172,000 at Wembley Stadium and John F. Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
To mark three decades since the momentous gig here are 30 little known Live Aid moments.
Live Aid: The stage at Wembley Stadium (Photo: Rex)
1) ABC destroyed it's recordings of the US concert in line with the wishes of Sir Bob while the BBC kept theirs- it meant when Geldof changed his mind over a DVD of the concert there was superior footage of the UK concert.
2) Acts were shuttled in by a helicopter owned by Noel Edmonds to London Transport's cricket ground, about 400 yards from Wembley Stadium.
Phil Collins: Perform at the JFK stadium in Philadelphia as well as London (Photo: Getty)
3) Phil Collins appeared at both concerts thanks to being able to fly Concorde . When he arrived on the stage at Philadelphia he told them: "I was in England this afternoon. Funny old world init".
4) According to Francis Rossi he and Rick Parfitt where nicknamed Dr Rossi and Dr Parfitt because of the amount of drugs they had.
5) Paula Yates stopped at a petrol station on the way to the gig to buy some flowers for Princess Diana.
Princess Diana: Attended Live Aid Concert at Wembley, London (Photo: Rex)
6) Live Aid eventually raised £40m. Half of the money was spent on food and half on long-term development.
7) Madonna was described at the time as an “up-and-coming singer” when she appeared in Philadelphia.
8) The two concerts lasted for a combined 16 hours.
9) Chevy Chase and Jack Nicholson were among those to introduce acts in America
10) The British concert ended with Do They Know It’s Christmas? and six hours later, the US concert concluded with We Are the World.
Thousands: Crowd at the Philadelphia Live Aid concert (Photo: Rex)
11) A duet of Dancing in the Street by Mick Jagger and David Bowie was originally intended to happen via a live transatlantic link up but the time difference made it impossible so they recorded a video.
12) Around 22,000 pledges were received within five minutes of the Beach Boys taking to the stage in the States.
13) The ruling family in Dubai made the biggest single donation of £1m.
Queen: Freddie Mercury performed at Live Aid in London (Photo: Rex)
14) Stevie Wonder and Michael Jackson supposedly tried to organize a boycott of the event because they were upset at the low number of African-American artists taking part.
15) One billion viewers in 110 countries watched the live broadcast thanks to thirteen satellites.
16) The Philadelphia concert featured first performance of Led Zeppelin since the death of their drummer John Bonham in 1980.
Pals: George Michael and Elton John backstage at Live Aid Concert, 1985 (Photo: Rex)
17) Midge Ure was appearing on The Tube television show hosted by Sir Bob's then wife Paula Yates when he was called and asked to help.
18) Bob Geldof had to hitch-hike home as their were no taxis left.
19) Hall and Oates were Mick Jagger's backing band during his performance with Tina Turner.
Mark Knopfler: Dire Striats were one of the bans at Live Aid in 1985 (Photo: Rex)
20) In the US despite not gigging for a year The Pretenders had to practice in a bar as everyone had booked the professional rehearsal spaces.
21) Rick Parfait was out of it on drugs according to Francis Rossi that he couldn't sing anymore and was so annoyed on his way home that he was almost arrested for kicking road cones.
Robert Plant: Led Zeppelin at the Live Aid concert in Philadelphia (Photo: Rex)
22) David Crosby appeared with Stills, Nash and Young at Live Aid despite being on bail for charges of drug and weapon possession.
23) The surviving members of the Beatles turned down the chance to perform together, with Paul McCartney appearing alone.
24) Bob Dylan annoyed Bob Geldof by asking on stage that some of the money raised be used to pay mortgages of US farmers.
25) Before taking to the stage at Wembley, the Queen's sound engineer apparently switched the limiters on the public address system, meaning they would be louder than the other acts.
Bob Geldof: The architect of the concerts with a book of pictures of the day (Photo: Rex)
26) Yussef Islam, better known as Cat Stevens had written a song for the show, but due to time constraints didn't perform it, instead he was only on stage for the finale.
27) The BBC's Richard Skinner was opening announcer and TV host in the UK – the only presenter to have fronted all three of the 'flagship' BBC music programmes, TV's The Old Grey Whistle Test and Top of the Pops and the Radio One Top 40 show.
Stars: Bono and U2 performed at Live Aid (Photo: Rex)
28) To ensure continuity in the broadcast, artists were given no more than 20 minutes of stage time and as it was in aid of famine had to pay for their own food.
29) During The Who's set, a red warning light at the front of the stage flashed to alert the band that their time was up so Pete Townshend smashed the light and the band played for five extra minutes.
30) Freddie Mercury flirted with Bono, who apparently was unaware that the Queen singer was gay.
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