OZ FOR AFRICA


Sydney Sports & Entertainement Center ; July 13th 1985.
[ Note : due to time zone difference, it actually started 12 hours before the London / Philadelphia concerts. ]

Details of the "Oz for Africa" benefit concert broadcast by MTV during the 12/13 July 1985 night :

MTV aired an edited four hours version of the "Oz for Africa" benefit concert. It is unsure if any music has been edited or if only the intermissions between acts have been removed.

The day after, two INXS tracks were played by the BBC (when ABC played Men At Work & Little River Band).

Ian "Molly" Meldrum compered "Oz for Africa". (check out http://www.laurenbergman.com.au/molly/molly.htm for more details about "Molly").

Here is a word by Bill Gordon (organisor) :

The original concert for ethiopia was held in Melbourne, Australia in January 1985. Midge Ure was bought to Oz to head the day-long gig, which was televised. $1 million was raised and presented to the Red Cross. Geldof and many performers of the Band Aid recording were interviewed during the concert via satellite. The organisor of that concert, floated the idea of a concert in the UK with all of the performers of Feed the World heading the concert. Subsequently as Bob began organising Live Aid in UK and the USA I travelled to the UK for meetings with Bob and the Band Aid committee. The Australian concert,'Oz for Africa' and Sport Aid Oz, which I organised, raised $10 million which went to the International Disaster Emergency Committee in Australia. It's a great petty Oz has not been included in the 20th anniversary. It would have been very successful here. Regards....Bill Gordon Cairns. Australia..

Technically, MTV aired the "Oz for Africa" part in stereo, but the stereo separation isn't very present. We think it was in fact "dual mono" (which is the same mono signal on the two stereo chanels) with a slight "wide effect". Sources from radios in the US are of the same quality (mono with a stereo enhencement). Only the BBC source (for the INXS tracks) sounds in real stereo.

Thanks to Jeff Johannes & Michael Taylor on this one. (references of albums on which each track can be found between brackets)