Voting Station

Live Aid

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Event

The Resume

    (July 13, 1985- )
    Concerts organized by Bob Geldof to raise funds for African famine relief
    Held at Wembley Stadium in London and JFK Stadium in Philadelphia

Why Live Aid might be annoying:

    It was a benefit concert for Africa without a single African performer.
    Many of the biggest acts from the 80’s were absent.
    Michael Jackson did not appear stating he had recording obligations.
    David Bowie in London and Mick Jagger in Philly planned to do an intercontinental duet, but synchronization problems made it impossible.
    Bruce Springsteen sat out and later regretted it.
    Tears For Fears (temporary) break up happened on the eve of event.
    Huey Lewis and The News, Paul Simon and Stevie Wonder all declined performing at the event.
    Cyndi Lauper backed out despite appearing in the promotional ad.
    Rumors of a partial Beatles reunion with Paul McCartney and George Harrison singing ’Let It Be’ occurring at the event died quickly!
    There were a bunch of technical glitches, including: the sound and picture from Philadelphia were out of synch when broadcast to Europe; the TV feed from Wembley failed in the middle of the Who's set; Paul McCartney's mic did not work during the first two minutes of 'Let It Be.'
    Led Zeppelin's performance was called 'one of the worst rock-and-roll reunions of all time.'

Why Live Aid might not be annoying:

    The event raised funds for Ethiopian famine relief.
    The concert was attended by 72,000 in London and 100,000 in Philadelphia.
    Worldwide viewers amounted to 1.9 billion.
    The project was a spinoff of Band Aid’s ’Do They Know It’s Christmas.’
    The concert was Boy George’s idea.
    Bowie and Jagger instead recorded a cover of 'Dancing in the Streets' with the proceeds going to the Live Aid charity.
    Joan Baez told the crowd, 'This is your Woodstock, and it's long overdue.'
    Queen's set was chosen as the greatest live rock performance in a Channel Four poll of musicians, critics and music industry executives (2005).
    Prince did not perform live but submitted a filmed acoustic performance of ’For the Tears in Your Eyes.’
    Phil Collins performed in both venues hours apart!
    The event raised almost $200 million.
    At the end of the concerts, the artists got together on stage to perform ’Do They Know It’s Christmas’ and ’We Are The World’ in London and Philadelphia, respectively.

Credit: battyx3 & C. Fishel


Featured in the following Annoying Collections:

Year In Review:

    For 2024, as of last weekly ranking, Out of 1 Votes: 100% Annoying
    In 2023, Out of 151 Votes: 66.23% Annoying
    In 2022, Out of 217 Votes: 44.24% Annoying
    In 2021, Out of 13 Votes: 38.46% Annoying
    In 2020, Out of 5 Votes: 60.0% Annoying
    In 2019, Out of 3 Votes: 33.33% Annoying
    In 2018, Out of 262 Votes: 58.40% Annoying