Live Aid

Rating:
Summary: BOB DID IT!!
Review: What an amazing concept. Imagine you're Bob Geldof. You've just made a kickass movie as the alter ego of Roger Waters in Pink Floyd's "The Wall." Your band, The Boomtown Rats, is doing pretty damn well. So now what? Go to Africa, get millions of dollars for starving people, and make your concert the most memorable in history. Not too shabby, eh?
I am 16 and wasn't alive during Live Aid. I love this DVD. There is over 12 HOURS of stuff! Some of the great bands at this concert were: U2, Queen, David Bowie, The Who, Elton John, Paul McCartney, The Boomtown Rats, and George Michael. The list goes on and on, but those were my favorites.
Some of the true HIGHLIGHTS on this DVD:
DVD 1: The Boomtown Rats do "I Don't Like Mondays." Bob Geldof has the audience eating out of the palm of his charitable hand. He is absolutely spellbinding. LOVE HIM!! SIDE NOTE: PEOPLE, WATCH THE MOVIE SPICE WORLD! YES, YOU MAY WANT TO DIE WATCHING IT, BUT BOB'S IN IT, AND SO IS ELTON JOHN! GO FIGURE!
*Elvis Costello: "All You Need is Love" was awesome!
*U2 were absolutely amazing! In the song, "Bad," Bono goes out into the crowd pit and picks 3 girls to dance with! I shiver and smile at that! Imagine being one of those girls!! Kudos, U2!
DVD 2: CAN'T STRESS THIS ENOUGH: QUEEN!!!! They stole the show for me! You can just see the excitement in the audience when Freddie and Company parade onstage! I bought the DVD because of them! Breathtaking!
*David Bowie: Is there anything this man CAN'T do?! His faster rendition of "TVC15" is 10X better than his version on his album. His haunting performance of "Heroes" is great too.
*The Who: All I can say about them that hasn't been said is: GOOD GOD, how old was Roger Daltrey here? He is more ripped than most people in their 20's!! Brava, Roger. You caught my attention.
*Elton John/George Michael: Elton is always amazing, but I have to give it up to George! His voice is just awesome! His version of "Don't Let the Sun..." is superb. Not a fault there.
DVD 3: *Freddie Mercury and Brian May, "Is This the World We Created?" I cried a little. Haunting, simply, heartbreaking.
*Paul McCartney, "Let it Be." It seems the audience doesn't know it's him until the lights come up. Their reaction is the best next to Queen in the whole concert. He plays, with the help of backing vocals from Bowie, Geldof, and Pete Townshend. This gives way to the Band Aid, "Do They Know It's Christmas?" which is awesome!!! Every performer comes out and sings. Notably, Sting (who i didn't mention earlier, but did an awesome job!), Bono, Bowie, Geldof, George Michael, and... EVERYONE ELSE!!!
I have to be honest, every band I liked played in London, so I skipped the rest. Well, I watched Madonna, Black Sabbath, Duran Duran, and Phil Collins who flew his ass from London to Phili to perform AGAIN!!! Best Spirit Award to Phil!!
DVD 4: WATCH THE DOCUMENTARY!!!! It's about 1 hour long, and goes through the whole process of Live Aid. Simply elaborate, which makes no sense, but for this it does. I found Bob's short conversation with the, excuse me England, bitch Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher particularily interesting. She had no care about Africa at ALL!!! Hey, neither did Regan! No one did but the pop stars! YAY! GO POP STARS!! Funny side note for anyone who cares: There are two "Aids" that raise more money before the real Live Aid. One is a comedy show in London. What I loved was Monty Python's Michael Palin is in it. I love him and all Monty Python! Hey, any Python fans in NYC need to go see the Play "Spamalot" coming direct from Chi-Town in a month! HILARIOUS! Ahem, anyway, the other great thing was the Fashion show the rock stars did. What I found so damn funny was Freddie Mercury was walking down the aisle in a weird tux with his BRIDE!! He must have been laughing at the world inside!! Too great!
BUY THIS DVD, I CANNOT SAY THAT ENOUGH!!!! FOR 30 DOLLARS OR 17 POUNDS, ALL THE MONEY STILL GOES TO AFRICA! AND THAT MAKES YA FEEL GOOD INSIDE! SUPPORT A GOOD CAUSE! MAKE BOB PROUD!

Rating:
Summary: Witness this monumental piece of history
Review: Being an Australian (we didn't get to see Live Aid!) this DVD package gives us, albeit 20 years later, the chance to be a part of perhaps the greatest music event and line-up of acts in history. In the past I've read of the famous performances of Queen and U2 at Live Aid, and now this DVD enables me to see what I missed. After seeing them perform, I wish I was there.

Even though the sound is inferior to current production quality and there is some horizontal 'banding' (the DVD booklet that comes with the four discs explains why this is so), this product is still very watchable.

While each act contributes a few songs to the DVD (their whole set list is not included for obvious reasons), there are no songs which are incomplete.

With over 10 hours of footage this DVD is definately worth every cent. It is an incredible experience to witness this monumental piece of history.

Rating:
Summary: Great Britain Show
Review: I don't want to talk about the performance itself, which is already much discussed about in others' reviews. One thing I noticed was, why on earth were all the American audiences at JFK so dull?? It's painful to watch them standing around doing nothing. On the other hand, Britains were so great that day at Wembley, with the aid of perfect music. Sorry Americans, but it seems the capital of Rock music is located at the other side of the Atlantic.

Rating:
Summary: Oh! Some songs are missing...Tragic, really tragic
Review: I think some people miss the point...

Some people give 1 star 'cos there's ONLY 10 hours of magnificent music on this dvd, but it doesn't include all the original hours, so that's terrible, really.....10 hours for 28/29 bucks, we can't have enough!!!......Well, perhaps the children who miss some portions of food should add a star to some comment here, if they could.

I know that we, as lucky music collectors, want to have it all, but sometimes, we should be more grateful of what we get. And that we can enjoy some wonderful dvds like this one. We didn't miss those songs because they want to take more money from us, you know.?

Anyway, if it just deserves 1 star (it does not, believe me ) you STILL will be helping, so that's not bad.


Rating:
Summary: Nice concert - shame about the sound quality
Review: I was disappointed like many others with the missing footage. I can live without the missing tracks.

My main problem with this DVD is the sound quality, which is not good even for a live recording. They studio could have done better, but I get the feeling that no effort was done to ensure a quality transfer and some decent sound.

Rating:
Summary: well worth it
Review: Live Aid occured over two decades ago. It older then I am. TThe music it contians is timeless. There is some thing for everybody, no matter what your taste in music. The musicians had amazing preformances, because they were playing for something they truly believed in. They were helping raise money to help feed Africans.
The DVD set is a great value. The four DVDs in the set contains over ten hours of footage. Best of all roylaties from the concert go to helping hunger relief operations in Africa.

Rating:
Summary: an essential musical document
Review: The packaging, video and sound quality are far from perfect, but there was never any question that I needed to own Live Aid on DVD, particularly at this price. ($24 and change at Sam's Club) It's not as though I was moved to tears (the post-mortem concert for Freddie Mercury does that), but it's worth it to see the best of the 80s unfurled at two stadium shows. It is also instructive to see the dramatic difference in American and British audiences. Elvis Costello once dissed the US fans, claiming that pop music is the only culture that they have; obviously he had never seen the way Brits react to *their* pop heroes. Witness Queen taking a throwaway song like "Radio Gaga" and turning it into an anthem that seemed to unify every pair of hands in Wembley Stadium into a single living organism. That, by the way, is the dramatic highlight of the four-disc set. Here are some others:

- Bryan Ferry (of Roxy Music) never gained more than a cult following in the U.S. but across the pond, he drew as much applause as Sting. Here he plays "Slave to Love" which probably was his most famous hit in the U.S. because it was featured in the steamy Kim Basinger movie "9-1/2 Weeks"

- Beach Boys -- if only because I don't recall Brian Wilson ever performing with the rest of the band, ever.

- David Bowie -- I somehow missed his set during the original broadcast, and here the band was pieced together quickly from musicians such as Thomas Dolby and his friends, including the drummer from Prefab Sprout. In any case, Bowie played a high-caffeine set that rocked.

- Elton John and George Michael -- if nothing else, this is an essential snapshot of Michael on the way up and Elton before he was deeply affected by the deaths of Princess Diana and Versace.

- Eric Clapton -- because most British artists kept their popularity only in the U.K., but Clapton is transcendent; to see the Philly crowd erupt at the opening notes of "Layla" is a slice of rock heaven.

- Crosby Stills and Nash -- Look at the way they amble onstage, obviously unrehearsed, still apparently bickering over the vocal arrangement, but still, the crowd ends up in a massive sing-along on "Teach Your Children"

- Hall and Oates - for those wondering why they went on near the end, do try to recall that at the time, they were the top-selling recording artists in the U.S., and also, Philadelphia was a hometown venue for them, and their band became the house band backing up the real headliners, Mick Jagger and Tina Turner, at the end.

One last note: I've never been surprised at anything in the Extras section, but if you are any kind of INXS fan, and what fan of 80s music isn't, the Extras features two songs live from INXS, "What You Need" and "Don't Change" which were their traditional finale/encore numbers from the pre-Kick days.

Rating:
Summary: One of the best DVD's Out today.
Review: This is one of the best music DVD's I have ever seen (the best being Led Zeppelin Live). There are plenty of good acts on here. It is much like going back to the origonal Airing, with the exception of the MTV Hosting. It isin't cheap in most places where you will find it, but it is worth the cost. The four Disks are worth every penny. This was never released on video for some reason to remain unknown. This DVD set is great and well worth it.

Rating:
Summary: A Historic Day
Review: Throughout the history of the 20th century not many musical events have resonated throughout the world as much as this one. I mean you can count them on one hand ...The Beatles at Shea Stadium, Woodstock, Elvis' Aloha from Hawaii via Satellite..and then Live Aid. You can say what you want about this DVD but the facts are this.... Live Aid along with the other live musical events mentioned above were probably the only moments during the musical history of the 20th century WHERE THE ENTIRE PLANET WAS LISTENING.

Get the DVD and share in the event. Some musical acts werent very good others were excellent and incredible. If you were old enough to remember ( I was 21 at the time) you will get a warm feeling watching this DVD. Its almost like getting in a time capsule and jetting back to 1985. What a wonderfull decade of such diverse music.

For those of you that werent old enough to remember, get the DVD anyway and watch and listen to a decade when music was still creative and energetic, unlike the horse crap we are forced to listen to today. Its a shame knowing what MTV was back then and what is has regressed to today.

Rating:
Summary: If all the Performances were here - would be near perfect
Review: Today Charity Concerts are very common in the music industry. But when looking at a Charity Concert - the Worldwide July 13, 1985 Live Aid Concert has to be the Granddaddy of them all. It boasted the greatest lineup of musicians ever assembled for one effort. Prior to Live Aid, Woodstock was considered the greatest lineup ever assembled for a concert. Live Aid would far surpass Woodstock. Live Aid would primarily take place from two locations - Wembley Stadium in London and JFK Stadium in Philadelphia. There would be other feeds from several other countries. The feeds for all of these shows would be synchronized to create one big concert to both the TV audience as well as to the fans in attendance at the venues. I remember the Saturday in July when this show took place. In the United States, the coverage would be split between Cable and Network TV. I think many of us took this for granted - because that would basically be the only day this would ever be broadcasted - and we didn't see eveything. Unless you had your VCR running, this would be it.- until 19 1/2 years later when the "Live Aid" 4 DVD Set would be released.

According to the liner notes, Band Aid Organizer Bob Geldof - for legal reasons, did not want the Live Aid Show recorded or shown again. However, the fact remains that recordings did exist and thus this DVD set was assembled. This 4 DVD Set consists of about 10 hours of Concert and associated extras. The important thing to note is that this is NOT the whole Live Aid Show. There are many parts of the Live Aid Show that are not included. The official reason for things not being included is the claim that the footage doesn't exist. Therefore things are missing - most notably, the Led Zeppelin Reunion, But still there is plenty of good stuff on this concert and there is enough to give you a good feel for both the atmosphere and flow of the concert from all the venues.

Here are 10 great moments from Live Aid that are included on the DVD:

1.U2, "Bad": This established U2 as an incredible live act. Watch carefully at the end as two young girls literally climb over the crowd at Bono's invite to join him on stage.

2.Beach Boys, "Would it be nice?": They might be past their prime, but I thought this was an incredible performance.

3.Dire Straits & Sting, "Money For Nothing". Live Aid was the place that put this song on the map. It's probably the only place where you can hear Dire Straits and Sting perform this live - incredible stuff.

4.Queen: All six songs. This was probably one of the last great hurrahs for this band. Freddie Mercury and Co deliver a most passionate performance. Watch how Mercury has complete command of the crowd with "Crazy Little Thing Called Love", "Radio Gaga", and "We are the Champions"

5.Paul McCartney, "Let It Be". Great penultimate song to the London set. McCartney will be joined by Pete Townshend, David Bowie, Bob Geldof, and Alison Moyet. You can see the audience is exhausted at this point. McCartney and Townshend will lift Geldof over their shoulders.

6.Band Aid Finale: The performance may be out of sync, but its true improvising as you see the London performers perform "Do they Know It's Christmas". Why wasn't Freddie Mercury given a solo bit in this song?

7.Thompson Twins/Madonna/Nile Rodgers/Steve Stevens, "Revolution". Live Aid gave many artists a chance to work with others they hadn't worked with before. This was one of the more interesting combinations of artists performing the Thompson Twins remake of the Beatles classic.

8.Teddy Pendergrass/Ashford and Simpson: "Reach Out": One of the most emotional moments of the show was Teddy Pendergrass' performing for the first time after what was near fatal car accident. Very few dry eyes for this song. This is included as an "extra" on the DVD set since the footage was extracted from MTV at the last minute.

9.Mick Jagger: "Just Another Night": The Philadelphia Crowd was exhausted, but Jagger manages to fire everyone up with this solo hit.

10.Bob Dylan/Keith Richards/Ron Wood "Blowing in the Wind": While I don't care for this song - especially for a penultimate song for the U.S. show, I thought it was one of the great moments when Bob Dylan's guitar string breaks and Ron Wood gives him his guitar to keep the performance near seamless.

There are so many other moments and performances in this show to enjoy as well - too many to list. There are a lot of great extras. There are moving BBC Documentaries on the Famine and about the Band Aid Project. Both documentaries were very interesting. There is a section that shows several of the International Feeds. This includes the Pendergrass performance, INXS from Australia, and the feeds from Austria, Germany, Japan, Russia, and Norway. The Austria performance is very passionate. You also get the "Do They Know It's Christmas" video, the "We are the World" video, and Mick Jagger and David Bowie's "Dancing in the Streets" video (that debuted at Live Aid). They also chronicle Phil Collins transcontiential journey from the London Show to the Philadelphia Show - although I thought that footage could have been better.

Another thing that is really good is some of the camera work. You get a good sense for some of the stuff and people who are backstage - this really is seen well at the Philadelphia venue.

For the most part, the quality of the audio and video on this DVD is excellent. . On the negative side, the missing footage is a lot to overcome. I would have preferred the International Feeds and Pendergrass performance to be inserted in the actual order of the show to give a real sense of the performance. Overall, this is still something for all music fans - highly recommended.