This is Queen The Greatest,
our weekly journey
through the Queen story so far.
After the record breaking nights
at Rock In Rio in January 1985,
the band felt it would take something
unbelievably special to top that.
Six months later, came….Live Aid.
On the 13th July, 1985,
a host of music stars came together
in London and Philadelphia, to stage
a concert to raise awareness and money
for a devastating famine in Ethiopia.
But as Brian explains,
when organiser Bob Geldof first approached
the band, they weren’t sure he'd be able
to pull it off.
[Brian May] “It was actually at
the BPI Awards that we went to collect
an award, and Geldof was at a few tables
away and came over and said how about
doing this thing, and he said we are going
to have this, and this, and this,
and this, and we said ‘oh yeah, I’m sure’,
thinking that it was an almost impossible
thing to get together, but we said ‘yeah’,
we’d be interested.”
[Brian May] “And then a bit later he rang
up and said ‘look Brian, I have to have
a commitment’, and so we talked about it
a bit more and seemed like we were
all very keen to do it.”
With just twenty minutes allotted to
each act, Queen locked themselves away to
work out the best way to make
the most of their time.
Not an easy task.
[Brian May] “It’s pretty hard to
make the choice.”
[Roger Taylor] “Yes, we don’t really know
quite what to do,
whether to play the hits or
to try and do something new.
But I think in 20 minutes really,
we’ve got to play things that people know,
and will recognise in Turkey or wherever
they’re watching. Maybe.
Hopefully.”
[Freddie Mercury] “So we’re still
squabbling over that fact
that’s what he’s trying to say.”
Despite everyone being committed to
the cause, the band felt a bit of healthy
rivalry between the various acts
was also inevitable…
[Freddie Mercury] “I think it’s going to
be chaotic, yes, it has to be.
I mean we’re not all wonderfully
well behaved kids are we?
But that’s going to sort of actually
be the nice part of it actually,
there’ll be lots of friction and we’re all
going to try and outdo each other
I guess.”
But on the day, egos or thoughts of
rivalry vanished as the enormity of the
cause and occasion became apparent.
And Queen’s meticulous planning ensured an
ecstatic reaction from everyone watching.
[Paul Gambaccini] “And it was as if
all the artists back stage had heard
a dog whistle, and their heads turned
and the frisson you felt was
‘they’re stealing the show’.
[Midge Ure] “I defy anybody who saw it,
not to have goose-pimples on the back of
their neck when you saw
that sea of people.”
[Roger Taylor] “I remember looking up
and seeing the whole place going
completely bonkers in unison
and thinking ‘oh, this is going well.’”
[Brian May] “We did have an unfair
advantage, we had done football stadiums.
Freddie, particularly, learned this
magical way of involving everybody
in a huge football stadium,
he could make everybody feel
that they were in contact.”
What turned out to be one of Queen’s
shortest live performances, was probably
one of their most important and iconic –
paving the way for what was to follow.
[Roger Taylor] “People will say was it
a career move?
Well, no it wasn’t a career move,
but of course that’s in the back
of everybody’s mind”.
[John Deacon] “We got a great reception
from the crowd, even at Wembley,
and also from the TV audience as well,
so in fact it was a great boost of
confidence in a way, for the group.”
[Jim Beach] “To have conquered Live Aid
in that way, undoubtedly breathed fresh
energy into the band.”
[Freddie Mercury] “So long, goodbye.
We love you.”