Live Aid ! (1 Viewer)

Live Aid finally gets DVD release

The 1985 Live Aid concert, one of the defining events in modern music, is to be released on DVD for the first time.

Organisers will auction the rights to release the DVD after pirate copies were found for sale on the internet.

They are hoping to raise "a few million pounds" for charity and are aiming for a Christmas release.

The concert, split between London and Philadelphia, brought together stars including U2, Queen and Madonna - but has never come out on CD, video or DVD.

Organisers have decided to allow the DVD release after realising bootleggers were making money from it - but none was going to charity.

Proceeds from the DVD release will go to the Band Aid Trust, which still exists to relieve poverty and hunger in Ethiopia and the surrounding area.
Bob Geldof "sees it as an asset of the people of Ethiopia" that was not being fully utilised, according to fellow founding Band Aid trustee John Kennedy.

"It's a surprise to all of us that we're still here 20 years on spending and receiving money," he told BBC News Online.

"But because of piracy, it's becoming available without earning any money."

The successful bidder will have to get the permission of every artist - but "we don't expect any of them to be anything other than co-operative", he said.

Geldof organised Live Aid and the Band Aid single in response to famine in Ethiopia, in which 1.2 million people starved to death in 1984 and 1985.

Live Aid saw 72,000 pack into Wembley Stadium in London to see artists such as David Bowie, Wham! and Dire Straits.

The 16-hour music marathon was completed at Philadelphia's JFK Stadium with acts including Bob Dylan, Duran Duran and Paul Simon.

Live Aid eventually raised £40m. Half of the money was spent on food and half on long term development.

The DVD plan comes after pirated DVDs were found on sale over the internet for £110 for a 10-disc set.

After a tip-off from Geldof himself, police raided a property in Skelmersdale, Lancashire, and arrested a man.

Story from BBC NEWS


posted 3/8/2004 U.S.A. on the duranduran.com website

Cool! I'd consider buying it if the price were right. At the very least, I'll definitely rent it if it's available to Netflix.

Dana

I was at Wembly. Oh please let there be a region 1 release.

Excellent news. I wonder if any artists will refuse? I also wonder if any artists will want to censor bits of their performance (Bob Dylan, perhaps?).

I think a Christmas release is over-optimistic. But a 2005 release to mark the 20th anniversary would be quite neat.

Definitely add me to the list of getting this DVD! I got most of the live London telecast and the ABC highlights reel, all together totalling about 14 hours. To see it complete and uncut with all of the musical acts will be a great trip down memory lane for me.

I would definitely buy this. I have BBC coverage a friend recorded (in PAL), but it's incomplete as he was actually at the concert and his brother forgot to switch tapes during part of the show. I also have all the US feed from MTV (in NTSC). I still occasionally trot out my old VHS of "Do They Know It's Christmas" to have a listen. It was an amazing effort, quite a technological achievement for its time, and some great music. I'd love a boxed set that actually had selections by artist - that would very cool.

Yep, I'd buy this. I'd assume it would be a little more expensive than sets of comparable size, if they're hoping to raise money for charity, but that's okay.

Neat!

I am all over this, but I am definitely worried about permissions. Let's hope charity is enough to get everyone to sign on.

Supposedly there was a Live Aid album planned following the concerts, for which Paul McCartney re-recorded Let It Be (since the audio is missing from part of the song at Live Aid). The album was never released. Speculation is that McCartney's re-recording could make the DVD, if and when it comes out.

Link Removed

I still have my VHS copies I recorded the first weekend it aired

yeah i hope dylan does object but, lets them use his performance after the organisers offer a public apology for sabotaging his gig. something they have never done and something they should be ashamed of. but dylan being the man he is has never moaned about what they did. imagine any of the other performers having to go thru what he did, they would have thrown a fanny fit and walked off, making sure the media knew exactly what had happened and why their performance was so bad.
bob's choice of songs were a stroke of genius tho.

Could you explain more about what happened to Bob Dylan?

Jimmy Pages guitar was out of tune for Rock & Roll too.

As do I - haven't looked at them in ages, though.

I just hope this isn't going to be a "highlights" disc. I want a multi-disc set with every minute of every performance, all great moments (& bad) intact. This is history, dammit!!

This is a mild comment compared with some in the Brit media immediately after the event.

Dylan's set was IMHO shambolic musically. There was a lot of noise behind him, but the day was chaotic in many ways and other performers managed with far more grace and selflessness than Mr D could muster on this occasion.

Quotes lifted from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Live_Aid#Bob_Dylan's_comments

by playing the ballad of hollis brown and making the comment about the farmers, dylan was reminding everybody that charity begins at home and that loss of livelihood often leads to loss of life. it was a perfect stage to make that point and anybody else who played at that concert who had any sort of humanity or any particular cause they believed in should have said something similar. the ears of the world were listening and you cannot let that opportunity get away by thinking "i'll mention something in my next interview" so at least bob put his neck on the line and tried to do something more.
re his performance, i have spoken to a friend who was sideshow at the gig and he said the noise coming from behind the curtain was unbelievable, you couldn't hear yourself think it was pandemonium, all the other performers were there warming up, technicians were busy making sure everybody's microphones were working, dylan's monitors were switched off so ronnie, keef and bob couldn't even hear themselves. i think all that speaks for itself.
btw i am no dylan apologist, when bob is bad he is terrible and that is more times than i care to remember. but imho he had legitimate excuses for that performance at live aid.
getting back to the live aid dvd, i watched the concert from noon till 3 or 4 in the morning and with very few exceptions it was crap and i believe the dvd will expose the myth that this concert was one of the best gigs ever.

In the same way, presumably, that at a funeral for 9/11 victims it'd be just fine to say 'hey, let's have some tears for New York shopkeepers who've had their trade damaged'. It's a sense of *proportion* that was lacking. Nobody denied that some American farmers were having a bad time, but Dylan's statement was crass *in the context of the occasion*. The Brit music press rounded on him like a pack and used the occasion for another round of 'Americans haven't got a clue what's going on outside their back yard' or 'here's proof that this wasn't about charity but a big ego trip for rich rock stars' comments. For a lot of people, it put a blot on the selfless work of the others involved.

I agree about the backstage noise marring the performance, but others had to put up with serious problems - e.g. Bob Geldof's vocals popping in and out on the Wembley PA (the TV lead was fine, for some reason, so TV viewers didn't realise there was anything wrong).