Ahem - as I have already pointed out in two previous posts to this thread. There are times when I feel like the lone voice in the wilderness contributing to threads.
Folks giving to charity should make anyone feel better. My point (which I guess I wasn't explaining very well) is whilst I think it's okay to bitch about the shoddy nature of this release on its own grounds, at the end of the day the whole exercise is for charity and I think we can take the grumbling a bit far. My principal complaint is that anything other than a complete release is likely to attract pirates, which defeats the reason why Bob Geldof allowed the release of the Live Aid tapes in the first place.
I liken this to Star Wars. At the end of the day, George STILL didn't stop pirating of the movies. They're still being worked on and I'm told a dual-layer version of the original version will be out soon. We'll get a release but it's not what the hardcore people want and they're going to lose a lot of money on it. I suspect they'll lose even MORE money because they'll have consumers (like me) who want their favorite band(s) and the complete set from that band(s). Since I don't get all of Madonna's songs, they don't get a sale from me.
I had a friend who attended at Wembley, and I kind of remember him saying there were sound problems on site for Who as well. I have both the MTV feed (on NTSC), and most of the BBC feed (on PAL) - I'll have to check the act list a friend of mine compiled when she borrowed my tapes to see what I've got and what I'm missing.
Live Aid was an incredible experience, even if you weren't in the live audience. It was a technological marvel (that has since been far surpassed, but for its time ...) and it was a creative gem. There were crap moments, there was the impatient hope that the surviving Beatles would show up on stage and perform with McCartney, there was amazing music and the sense of belonging to something bigger than yourself.