Live Aid: 20th anniversary

It was 20 years ago today (July 13th) that the Live Aid concerts took place in Philadelphia and London. The mammoth fundraising shows were organized by then-Boomtown Rats frontman Bob Geldof, who began the music industry's efforts to fight famine in Africa with Band Aid's "Do They Know It's Christmas" all-star single in 1984. Live Aid featured performances by Queen, Paul McCartney, Mick Jagger and Tina Turner with Hall & Oates, U2, Eric Clapton, Sting, Bob Dylan with Rolling Stones guitarists Keith Richards and Ron Wood, Dire Straits, David Bowie, Tom Petty, and scores of others. Led Zeppelin, the Who, and Black Sabbath staged reunions especially for that day. The 16-hour Live Aid marathon was watched by an estimated global audience of 1.5 billion and raised more than $140 million for famine relief.

Phil Collins was among Live Aid's stars, playing in London on his own and with Sting, then taking the Concorde to America, where he was rushed to Philadelphia to perform on his own and with Eric Clapton and Robert Plant and Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin. He told us that he was surprised Live Aid came off in the first place:
[ click here to listen if you have a Backstage Pass] "Sting called me and said 'Have you heard about this concert Bob's trying to put on? I said, 'I've heard about it, yeah. It won't happen, will it?' And he said, 'Well, I think it's gonna happen.' And he said, 'Do you want to do something together.' And I actually did not dream that it would still be talked about 20 years on."

Live Aid, which was the inspiration for the July 2nd Live 8 concerts, is commemorated in two DVD packages. Live Aid: Boxed Set came out last autumn, while the new single-disc documentary, Live Aid - 20 Years Ago Today, came out on Tuesday (July 12th).
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