56 - Live Aid: When Music Fought Famine

Prisoners of Rock and Roll

Live Aid was one of the biggest rock and roll concerts ever thrown. On July 13, 1985 dozens of some of the biggest acts in music performed at Wembley Stadium in London and JFK Stadium in Philadelphia to raise money to fight the devastating famine in Ethiopia. Organized in just 10 weeks, the show was attended by 72,000 people in London and 100,000 in Philly, while another 1.9 billion people in 150 countries watched the television broadcast. 95% of the televisions on earth at the time watched that concert.

The show raised $127 million dollars. More than 75 acts performed, including Queen, U2, David Bowie, Paul McCartney, Madonna, Tom Petty, the Beach Boys, Eric Clapton, Duran Duran, Judas Priest, Run DMC, Crosby Stills Nash and Young, and Santana. The Stones backed up Bob Dylan. Ozzy Osbourne reunited with Black Sabbath for the first time in 5 years. And Led Zeppelin played for the first time since Bonzo’s death in a terrible performance with Phil Collins on drums.

We’re going to cover it all in this episode of Prisoners of Rock and Roll.

Our show is sponsored by Boldfoot Socks and McCusker's Tavern at 17th and Shunk Streets in Philadelphia. We're also proud members of the Pantheon Podcast Network.

Hear More

If you want to hear the music from Live Aid, check out the compilation on Spotify or watch it on YouTube.

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