Over the Fourth of July weekend, the music world was set alight by two notable concerts held in the U.K. in front of tens of thousands of fans.
The first was the Oasis reunion in Cardiff, Wales, with brothers Liam and Noel Gallagher reviving the Britpop heavyweights for the first time since a bitter split 16 years ago.
The next night in Birmingham, England, saw Ozzy Osbourne take the stage for the final time both as a solo artist and as a member of Black Sabbath during the multi-band affair Back to the Beginning, which also featured appearances by Guns N’ Roses, Metallica, Pantera, Slayer, and more than a dozen other heavy metal titans.
Proceeds from the all-day affair were split equally between the charities Cure Parkinson’s, Birmingham Children’s Hospital and Acom Children’s Hospice.
But big as those shows were, and charitable as The Prince of Darkness was, they both pale in comparison to Live Aid, which took place 40 years ago this weekend.
The landmark charity event was held at London’s Wembley Stadium, while simultaneously taking place in Philadelphia at thelong-since-demolished John F. Kennedy Stadium.
To those who weren’t alive at the time, it’s hard to explain the magnitude of the concert, which enraptured the planet.
Conceived by Boomtown Rats frontman Bob Geldof and guitarist Midge Ure, who played in bands like Thin Lizzy and Ultravox, the daylong transatlantic concert was labeled “a global jukebox,” and with the marquee talent attached to it, there’s no denying why.
A 16-hour spectacular, it was devised to provide famine relief for Ethiopia, and featured some of the biggest names in music, as well as reunions by a number of top-tier acts.
It was simulcast on radio and television, cutting back and forth between Philly and London, with nearly 2 billion people around the world tuning in to watch it live.
For some artists, they had career-defining sets.
Queen and U2, for instance, delivered performances at Wembley that are still talked about. Phil Collins thrilled audiences on both sides of the Atlantic, taking the supersonic Concorde airliner from London to the States so he could play at both venues.
Others, like the heavily rumored and hyped Led Zeppelin reunion — which Collins played drums along with Chic’s Tony Thompson — turned into an unmitigated disaster.
It was so bad that when the Live Aid DVD box set was released in 2004, Robert Plant and Jimmy Page declined to sign off on the rights, and it wasn’t included.
Coincidentally, Live Aid also marked a reunion of Black Sabbath, with Osbourne fronting the band for the first time since being fired in 1979.
Like Zep, it was an absolute mess, mainly because all the parties involved were still drunk from partying the night prior and having to take the stage at an ungodly hour for rock ‘n’ rollers, just before 10 a.m.
To this day, there’s a controversy surrounding just how much of the approximately $125 to $150 million raised went to famine relief.
But with an estimated 40 percent of the world’s population watching from 150 countries, it remains one of the most significant moments in pop culture and music history.
Relive Live Aid
There are a few noteworthy events taking place to mark the anniversary of Live Aid. The online all-’80s radio station 80’s Central will broadcast the event in its real-time entirety Sunday, commercial-free, exactly as it happened in 1985, beginning at 8 a.m.
There will also be brand-new interviews with artists, insiders, and voices who were there.
Among them will be Queen guitarist Brian May, Philly promoter Larry Magid and MTV VJ Mark Goodman.
The 80’s Central broadcast will also feature key international performances happening concurrently with Live Aid, including satellite-linked events like “Oz for Africa” in Sydney, which included the likes of INXS and Men at Work, as well as segments from Moscow, Tokyo, and Toronto, underscoring the unprecedented global scale of the effort.
Head to 80sCentral.com to stream or listen via Alexa, Roku, Audacy or Live365.
There’s also an 80’s Central mobile app.
Locally, from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m., WXPN hosts Robert Drake and Bruce Warren, who were both at Live Aid, will replay sets of music from the shows at Wembley and JFK, sharing stories and interviewing others who were in attendance, including Rob Hyman from The Hooters and WMMR’s Pierre Robert.
Finally, on Sunday night at Union Transfer, Martha Graham Cracker & Friends will be staging a Live Aid Tribute Concert, gathering some of the region’s best musicians to perform songs that were played at Live Aid.
The lineup includes Mr. Johnny Showcase, Shannon Turner, The Finn Vora Band, WALLIS, Jess Conda, Reef the Lost Cauze, Brittany Lynn, and many more.
One hundred percent of ticket proceeds will go directly to the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society.
Vinyl of the Week
Keep an eye on this spot as each week we’ll be looking at new or soon-to-be-released vinyl from a variety of artists. It might be a repressing of a landmark recording, special edition, or new collection from a legendary act.
This week, it’s the final chapter in a series of releases celebrating The Kinks’ 60th anniversary.
The Kinks: ‘The Journey, Part 3’
In 2023, The Kinks launched a series of career-defining anthologies titled “The Journey” to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the group formed in Muswell Hill, North London, by brothers Ray and Dave Davies with their friend Pete Quaife.
Originally slated to be just two parts, it proved so popular that a third was added to the slate.
Songs on “The Journey, Part 1” were handpicked by the Davies brothers and Mick Avory, who joined the band in 1964, curated according to themes inspired by the trials and tribulations of their journey through life together as a band since 1963.
“The Journey, Part 2” included hits, B-sides, album tracks, and six new Ray Davies mixes, three of which were previously unreleased live performances from 1975.
The final part of The Kinks’ 60th anniversary anthology series, “The Journey, Part 3,” lands on shelves on Friday.
The two-LP set — also available on CD, streaming and download — covers the group’s transformative RCA/Arista period spanning 1977 to 1984, a period seeing them finally break America, leaving behind their iconic pop and experimental phases by returning to a fresh and concise style of classic songwriting that drew on their distinct British sense of self.
The first LP features classic tracks and hits from the era, once again personally chosen by the band and remastered from the original production tapes. Included are “(Wish I Could Fly Like) Superman,” “Come Dancing” and “Destroyer.”
The second LP features never-before-heard recordings from the band’s Royal Albert Hall show from July 1993, with renditions of the hits “Sunny Afternoon,” “You Really Got Me” and “Celluloid Heroes” among many others.
Also included is track-by-track commentary by the band, plus new liner notes from music writer Phil Alexander.
“The Journey, Part 3” can be found online and from all respectable retailer who carries vinyl.
To contact music columnist Michael Christopher, send an email to rockmusicmenu@gmail.com. Also, check out his website at thechroniclesofmc.com.
Source: Berkshire mont
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