THE concert event of the 80s is at last coming to DVD! (1 Viewer)

[Alex Shk]

I also doubt you would get the whole show - Page and Plant and Bob Dylan would surely nix their sets. Getting such unanimous publishing approval would also probably be a nightmare....

P.S. - The story behind Bob's set was that they wanted him to play with a band he didn't know and never worked with (this is funny - it was Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers). Instead he did a rambling acoustic set with Keith richards and Ron Wood. In retrospect, they probably should have rehearsed.

 

[DanHaya]

I want the whole show as well...unedited! I could be a 4-disc set, with Geldof introducing each disc. The first 3 discs could be the concert itself, with a 4th disc of supplements.

I won't buy the Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert DVD for that reason. I want the whole concert, not highlights. How hard is that to do?

 

[Todd Stout]

Damn... I thought you were going to say the US Festival too.

 

[David Lambert]

Damn... I thought you were going to say the US Festival too.

Steve Wozniak thanks you, I'm sure!
Whatever happened to him, anyway?

 

[MickeS]

What was the Us Festival? Looks on the site like it was a party for washed-up hippies.

/Mike

 

[Greg_C_T]

I thought you were going to say the US Festival too.

Count another one in for thinking it would be the '83 US Festival. Oh well, perhaps someday we'll get that infamous Van Halen concert on DVD.

 

[Danny Tse]

Image of a happier time....

 

[Todd Stout]

What was the Us Festival?

The US Festival was two different concert events taking place in Devore, California (about 20 minutes from where I live). The first one taking place in 1982 over the Labor Day weekend.
The second took place in 1983 over the Memorial Day weekend. I REALLY wanted to go to the show on Sunday but I had no way of going (I was only 13 and had no ride).
Here's a list of who played that day:
Sunday May 29th:
Quiet Riot [12:10 - 12:50 pm]
Motley Crue [1:20 - 2:20]
Ozzy Osbourne [2:50 - 4:00]
Judas Priest [4:30 - 5:40]
Triumph [6:10 - 7:20]
Scorpions [7:55 - 9:10]
Van Halen [10:00 - midnight]
The rest of the bands that played at both events are listed at:
http://www.woz.org/US/

 

[MickeS]

As much as I love those bands, I find it odd that someone would call it "THE concert event of the 80's" , at least in comparison to Live Aid.
And the hippie thing was a wrong assumption on my part, for sure.
Sounds like a cool thing to have on DVD though.
About the permissions to release Live Aid on DVD, don't you think they signed that kind of stuff BEFORE the concert? or maybe they didn't have that foresight (even though music videos were sold on VHS).
/Mike

 

[Todd Stout]

Well... it was probably THE event of the 80's for me because I live so close to where they took place and considering I was quite the little headbanger at the time.
Showtime actually broadcast a truncated version of the US '83 show. They broadcast each day as a separate 90 minute episode and showed about two songs from each band. I sure wish I had taped those. Anyway, I know the video footage exists anyway.

 

[LarryDavenport]

I doubt they will do more than release a 2-hour version of Live Aid. Even MTV didn't show it all because I remember having to switch back and forth between MTV and Fox to get as much as possible (I know I had to switch during the Black Sabbath set).

I also doubt they will release any of the "OZ for Africa" show that preceded Live Aid on MTV (I have it on tape somewhere. I remember Inxs, LRB, Dragon, and Men At Work were among the bands that played).

I'd also like to see the Amnesty International show released as well. My VHS tapes are rotting away in the back of my closet.

 

[John Kilduff]

FTR...
I read it on an 80s message board I frequent. I shall provide a link in a few minutes.
Just let me post this message, and I'll come back to edit it.
Sincerely,
John "I'm not lying" Kilduff
EDIT: I'm not lying...it turns out I was lied to. The website www.bobgeldof.com says that they have a petition to get it released, but they don't know if it's coming out.
DAMMIT...I feel hosed. Honestly, guys, I didn't know this. Don't kill me...I'm serious as a f---ing heart attack that I didn't know.

 

[John Kilduff]

STOP IT! STOP IT! I HAD A BAD DAY...I'M BEING SERIOUS! I DON'T CARE ABOUT THE SMILEY...PLEASE DON'T JOKE AROUND WITH ME...I DIDN'T MEAN...I SWEAR ON MY FATHER'S GRAVE I DIDN'T MEAN IT!

 

[KevinJ]

it'd be nice to have the whole live aid show on dvd and with a nice 5.1 remix to boot[DTS perhaps?]

 

[Doug M]

Count me in for Live Aid and Farm Aid...I've still got taped versions of both in my library. They're not complete, but ...
In the case of Farm Aid, I was at the show. In fact, it was my 20th birthday party . I was at the University of Illinois at the time and couldn't have asked for a better commemorative event. The early part of the show was somewhat "lean" (heavy on country, I recall), but I think it was BB King that turned the tide. Farm Aid was also the premier of Van Hagar, and Sammy's antics/language forced TNN into commercial for much of their set. Here's a list of the performers: http://www.farmaid.org/org/historical/1985/
As for Live Aid, my roommates then thought I was crazy to be spending such a beautiful day indoors taping much of the show. I still disagree.
I just might have to pop in the tapes to see how they've aged...
Here's to hoping good versions of both shows appear on DVD, although I'm skeptical given the rights hurdles that would have to be cleared.
Doug

 

[John P Grosskopf]

I'm very excited if we're getting the entire 12(?) hours.

Wouldn't the length be twice the broadcast length as both the US & UK concerts were going on simultaneously?

The broadcast cut back and forth between them, but I'm sure the entirety of each was recorded for posterity.

 

[Colin Jacobson]

Wouldn't the length be twice the broadcast length as both the US & UK concerts were going on simultaneously?

But the UK show started and ended earlier (for US audiences). I think it began at about 6 or 7 AM Eastern time and finished around 5 or 6 PM (EDT), whereas the US part didn't launch until noonish, I believe. The overlapping only occurred for that five or six hour period.

IIRC - and I probably don't - I think that sometimes the events from one venue were broadcast to the other. If that's correct, then even during the overlapping hours, it still wouldn't account for the 12 or so hours of material that would exist if the shows ran continuously on both shores.

Frankly, I'll be surprised if this ever hits DVD. It never came out on video, and the rights would have been easier to obtain back then. I'd imagine it's now a legal nightmare...

 

[andrew markworthy]

If my memory's correct, then there wasn't all that much overlap between the USA and UK. The Wembley concert started at either 12.00 or 13.00 hrs GMT, and the first section of the show consisted of the Wembley performance and in the gaps between acts (the music wasn't continuous, which a lot of people seem to have a false memory of) there were appeals for money (obviously enough!) and excerpts from sets by bands playing in other European countries in their own smaller versions of Live Aid. When the USA came on line, my recollection is that the US and UK acts more or less alternated. Although the whole event lasted 12 hours or so, when you take out the gaps between acts, I'd guess that there's about 8 hours of music.

Piece of trivia - I watched Live Aid on TV, and during the afternoon had to get some shopping. I waited until Sade was on (sorry Sade fans, but ever there was an artist to induce narcolepsy ...) and then dashed into town. The place was literally deserted, barring shop assistants.

 

[ChristopherM]

The place was literally deserted, barring shop assistants.

I remember on the day before the concert, my local shops had all sold out of blank VHS tapes.

...and during the 1980s, UK shops generally stocked a lot of blank VHS tapes!

 

[Rob Gillespie]

I thought for a second the thread was going to be about Roger Waters The Wall Live in Berlin.

Unlikely, since that concert was in 1990