I'm regularily asked (It would be wrong to claim it is "often" ...) to contact Bob Geldof regarding projects more or less connected to the Live Aid (for TV rights or appearance on charity projects ...)
I must then precise that I am not connected in any way to Sir Bob Geldof, and the only ways I know to contact him are explained at the following address : http://www.jukesproductions.co.uk/geldof.html
Also, I clear the point that this site is not official, it is only the research result of a music fan

As the main title of our sites says it : we are not an official web site. We have no contact with the copyrights owners. As far as we know, television rights for Europe are managed by "Bray & Krais".
The fee is as £2,000 per minute (or part thereof) for France (TV and VOD) and £3,000 per minute (or part thereof) for Europe. It will be an additional £1,000 per minute (or part thereof) for the optional DVD rights.
We have no informations about the contact and the fees for other regions of the world.

In addition, please note the rights granted are those held by the Trust only, so in the event that the clip you are intending to use contains any specific artist performance, you will need to obtain separate management approval in respect of each artist before permission on behalf of the Trust can be granted.

Yes !

On November 8th 2004 in Europe and November 16th in the USA, a 4 disks DVD set was released. Even if it is not the complete concert, it should fullfill anybody's expectations. The set was done with the best remastered tapes, with an excellent stereo sound and some bits that are unavailable on any previous sources.

We officially knwo of two reasons :

We have no definitive information on how much goes to charity on each DVD set sold. We can only guess that when Warner Vision auctionned on the Live Aid rights, the contract was set on a fixed amount per set sold, on the producer's price, not on the reseller's price.

This way, rule of need/offer applying, bigger orders get cheaper price from Warner, and are then sold to the public at a better price.

On-line shops also have lower charges (no employees, no building in town) and are usually wholesalers.

The main aim of this site is to try to answer at this question. As strange as it can be, this list has never been published in any book or newpaper (to the best of our knowledge). Some months after the concert, the "Live Aid World Wide Concert Book" was published. Even if it includes lots of pictures and infos about most of the bands, it doesn't include a complete and definitive track list. It also contains some inaccuracies about timings and names.

What is the problem ? The problem is that, even if someone did record the complete broadcast none of the three sources available (BBC in England and Europe, and MTV and ABC in the USA) did broadcast the complete and the same performances.

As some performers did play at the same time in Philadelphia and in London, US medias gave preference to the US performers when the BBC gave preference to the UK performers. Then the BBC did cut some performances (Santana for exemple) to give place to fund calls (which was the main reason for this concert to take place) and sometime, the american medias took breaks (It seems that MTV which was a very young TV, with small advert coverage offered the most complete broadcast of all three). Then a really complete recording is very rare as many recordists decided not to record some odd performers, or were just too lazy and forget to flip tapes sides ;-))

There are three main broadcast sources : the BBC (TV and radio) that was used in most European countries and ABC (terrestrial TV) and MTV (cable/satellite TV) in the states. When the BBC interviewed some artist or did a fund call this was not broadcast by the american medias as on the BBC they only gave phone numbers in UK. On the other side, ABC and MTV decided to take publicity breaks and had a lot of silly DJ chatter ("we have a reunion taking place" when McCartney was playing ... Wasn't Lennon shot nearly five years before ?).
The only way to find a really complete recording would be to check all these three broadcasts ;-))

Then, with all the available sources we have found, we have made two tables.

The cast list : This one answers the question "Who played were ?" Concentrates on the band composition as there were many guest stars in various bands.

The concert list: This one wansers the question "Who played what ?". With all the songs played and timings and possible tracks (the ones we are no sure yet).

Of course, this work is not definitive, and we will be updating the site anytime we receive new informations. If you want to correct some infos (mainely regarding songs titles), feel free to contact us.

The organizers wanted to do a Transatlantic affair with this concert. Only east coast cities could apply.

New York was originally considered for the US leg of Live Aid, and it would make sense on the fact that both London and New York are two of the most powerful and influential cities in the world. Plus three airports would be serviced (JFK, La Guardia, and Newark International in Newark, New Jersey). In Bob Geldof's autobiography Is That It? he had talks with then-Mayor Ed Koch to look into free policing and free labor while pursuing Shea Stadium, home of the Mets and the site of the Beatles' 1964 US debut concert (and it served as host to the Police and the Clash). But it was "a mess" with unflattering views and intangibles. Plus, the organizers couldn't get free policing and free labor due to the strength of the unions there. Giants Stadium across the river in the New Jersey Meadowlands at East Rutherford was also considered. But the NFL demanded that the New York Giants players be allowed to introduce the music acts on stage in exchange for the use of it. Geldof believed it was a form of "blackmail". So New York had to go.

Washington DC was looked into with the capital city connection with London and RKF Stadium (then-home of the NFL's Washington Redskins) with the hopes of the concert scheduled for a 4th of July weekend, but co-organizer Harvey Goldsmith talked Bob Geldof out of it because RFK Stadium was not well-convienced with its airports, potential traffic congestions with its nearby highways, and "have no concert promoter [in the area] that I feel happy about", to use Harry's words in the Bob's book.

Boston wasn't even considered. Though a big city, it lacked a worldwide cache that Washington DC and New York has. Besides Foxboro Stadium (then Sullivan Stadium and former home of the Evil Empire New England in the NFL) would've been looked upon as worse than Shea Stadium.

With the date of the press conference drawing near, Harvey confronted Bob about choosing among New York, Washington, and Philadelphia. Harvey suggested he should go with Philly (service from three airports, offers of free labor and policing, and Larry Magid--a concert promoter Harvey speaks highly of). Bob chose Philadelphia and JFK Stadium.

[ thanks to Terrien for writing this down ]

We are unable to sell any kind of memorabilia. What is listed on our memorabilia pages is only posted for your information. We don't even have most of these items ourselves. Descriptions and pictures are taken from Ebay auctions. where we advise you to search.

Are the t-shirts sold on Ebay genuine or copies ?

Nobody knows ... So many t-shirts are still offered on such a regular basis that they can't possibly be originals. That would mean that hundreds/thousands were made in excess and not sold ... We can just suggest that they are made from the original films, so they are genuine copies ...

All in all, as nobody will ever be able to make the difference, who cares ?

Bob Geldof explains in his autobiography "Is That It ?" that at some time in the project he was asked if he had a designed logo ? He then illustrated in a simple drawing the idea of the "Global Jukebox". This image was then redrawn by Steve Maher for t-shirts, posters ...

You'll find an interesting interview of Steve Maher at [ http://www.toonhound.com/wizoz.htm ] with some scans of his work.

At 17:00 (UK time) Bob Geldof enters the Wembley stage and says "Hello America" to says that the satellite link is opened. But in fact if the USA receives the feed from Wembley, the reverse is not true. It was only opened at 17:00 for Bryan Adams. I guess this was also a way to wake up the USA donnations that were too slow.

At the end of "Don't You (Forget About Me)" Jim Kerr says "Thank You, bye bye" and we can see him leave the stage leaving his mic on the stage floor. Then seconds after, we can hear him on the MTV broadcast saying "This is called "Promised You A Miracle" ".

But the BBC didn't cut the track and we can see the band starts playing and Jim Kerr comes back runnning on the stage for the song. Unfortunately, the satellite link is lost during the song at 02:04.

Some poeple seems to recognize a track after "Sultans of Swing" which is often refered as "Theme from Local Heroe". In fact the passage is a bridge that Dire Straits played in concert and is the regular - extended - concert version which can be compared to the one recorded on their live album "Alchemy".

An MP3 file can be found on various peer-to-peer networks that pretends beeing Chuck Berry "Johnny Be Goode" at Live Aid.
We are affirmative that Chuck Berry didn't perform at Live Aid, neither in London, nor in Phildelphia, not even as a guest.

And while some fact may let us think this is a genuine info (we can clearly hear at the end of the track a voice, similar to the one of Bill Graham (JFK Concert Organizer) saying "Please, Please, He's overrun his fifteen minutes") the original source for this recording has been identified :

It is available on a Chuck Berry Cd "The London Sessions" (ref : Chess CD RED 20) recorded at the Lancaster Arts Festival, Coventry, February 3, 1972. The speaker says "please Please, he's overrun 15 minutes ..." and continues later with: "we don't get a Pink Floyd concert when you don't leave the aisles". Although, only at the beginning, it sounds like Bill Graham, he surely wouldn't announce a UK Festival.

[ with many thanks to Carsten Baumann for all these details and research ]

Tracy Chapman didn't play Live Aid. She played the Nelson Mandela tribute. More details can be found here :
[ http://www.about-tracy-chapman.net/faq.htm ]