Live Aid going to 11

 

First, the context: the Live Aid concert was conceived by (Sir) Bob Geldof, leader of rock outfit the Boomtown Rats, outspoken activist in his own right — and star of The Wall, the film based on Pink Floyd’s masterpiece of the same name. The first major concert of its kind, it was aimed at aiding the fight against famine in Africa, more specifically in Ethiopia. It came on the heels of Geldof-helmed 1984 single “Do they know it’s Christmas?”, a worthy predecessor to “We are the world”, the anthem that closed Live Aid on the event’s US stage (live from Philadelphia) and featured most if not all major US recording artists of the era.

Then, at 6:41pm, Queen took the stage at London’s Wembley stadium… and the rest is, as they say, history: their 21-minute set is considered to this day (by many) to be the best rock show ever performed. With good reason: its intensity was unparalleled, Freddie Mercury was at his absolute best throughout, the band didn’t waste a second going from hit to hit in their illustrious repertoire… and the crowd was quite simply elated, chanting with Mercury whenever he pleased… A great moment in musical history, for a great cause in world history.

But how did that come about, exactly?

 

The comeback

Let’s talk motivation(s): in 1985, Queen had been at it for a good 15 years, 10 which had seen them at the top of the music charts, from 1975’s A night at the opera and its groundbreaking single “Bohemian Rhapsody” onwards. However, the early 1980’s were a somewhat low point in the band’s career, first with the release of 1982’s Hot Space, whose hottest space was arguably the incredibly happy accident that stemmed from David Bowie jamming with the band in a Swiss studio — “Under Pressure”. The rest of the album did not remotely inspire the same reaction: decried as a departure from rock to more electronic fare, it felt closer to the type of dance music that could be heard in clubs at the time, but justifiably didn’t stand the test of time. Added to that the inevitable fatigue that comes after years of over-the-top rockstar living (including the infamous New Orleans launch party for 1978’s Jazz album), and incessant touring: in short, Queen’s star had been slowly but steadily declining after years of shining bright.

The spark for their 1985 “comeback”, however, may be more specific than that. The year before, Queen had agreed to perform several (sold out) shows in Apartheid-era South Africa, one of the very few bands to do so, violating a United Nations cultural boycott in the process. The British press were not kind to them upon their return, while their only response, much in the way Michael Jordan claimed in the Netflix documentary “The last dance” that he did not get involved in politics, was that they only played for the fans. In any event, their image had somewhat been tainted by that episode, and standing on a world stage, for a benefit no less, was a great way for Queen to redeem themselves at home and across the world.

Note: the assertion made in the 2018 biopic that the strength of this performance may have to do with the fact that Freddie Mercury had recently found out that he was HIV-positive and that his days were therefore likely counted does not seem to be true. By all accounts, Mercury only found out about his illness around 1986, and still hid it to his bandmates for a while after that. No, the singer did not need a life threatening condition as well as he did that night…

 

Going to 11

Now, about the band’s sound suddenly going to 11… Indeed, as soon as Queen started their set, the volume of their instruments felt noticeably higher than other Live Aid performers — which included other bona fide superstars, lest we forget: the aforementioned David Bowie, Paul McCartney, Elton John, Sting, U2, Led Zeppelin… the list is near endless. In the 2018 biopic, we can see Queen’s manager secretly pushing the buttons on the stage’s soundboard: while that looks good on camera, it would hardly be conceivable in an event of that magnitude. Reaching the sound board unnoticed would have been no easy feat, and very few managers, rogue or otherwise, would agree to such an act for a band of that magnitude… This was not Battle of the bands we were talking about here: everyone present that day represented the best music had to offer to the world in 1985. And offer they (all) did…

The reality is actually more prosaic than that, if perhaps more ironic: the company which was hired to handle sound on the Live Aid stage at Wembley stadium happened to be Queen’s own sound company. In other words, the benefit concert’s sound engineers all effectively worked for the band. Which explains why they had no problem tweaking the volume in favor of their employers rather than Elton John, for one. And there you have it: rather than duplicity, it was employee diligence that did the trick…

 

The point of all this is — Queen had the performance of their lives that day, and so did all the viewers sitting at home. Regardless the reasons and behind-the-scenes actions involved, what matters ultimately is that musicianship and artistry prevailed and that, hopefully, Live Aid helped push the needle in the right direction for one of the world’s (still) most worthy causes…