Live Aid rocked the world from the sports complex on this week in Philly history
For 14 hours on July 13, 1985, 40 names from an iconic era of rock ‘n’ roll put on a marathon concert at John F. Kennedy Stadium.
In the early 1980s, a vicious famine ripped across Ethiopia before spreading to neighboring Sudan, threatening to wipe out millions. Enter the rock stars.
A singer with a deep sense of morality asked some of the biggest names in rockdom to help him help Africa.
Bob Geldof, lead singer of the Irish rock band Boomtown Rats, called it Live Aid. He envisioned a worldwide superconcert to benefit famine victims. Thousands of musicians and their fans could potentially make so much noise that no one could ignore calls to help alleviate suffering.
“I don’t believe that music can change the world,” Geldof told The Inquirer in April. “What it can be is a device for gathering people, a pied piper sort of idea.”
Live Aid was planned as two monster shows that would emanate from two world-class cities.
So planners settled on London and, drum roll, Philadelphia.
Wait, why would they ever choose Philly?
Location is everything. Philly offered a central location on the East Coast with an international airport.
The city had a navigable layout, the whole LOVE and Independence thing, and citizens with attitude.
We still had John F. Kennedy Stadium in South Philadelphia (where the Wells Fargo Center is now). It was a hulk of a horseshoe-shaped relic that could jam in more than 100,000 spectators and power one of the biggest rock stages ever built.
And the city offered it free.
So how hard did it rock?
For 14 hours on July 13, 1985, 40 names from an iconic era of rock put on a marathon concert.
Bob Dylan and Madonna and Phil Collins (after flying in from London, where he performed earlier in the day).
Ozzy Osbourne with Black Sabbath. Mick Jagger with Tina Turner.
Joan Baez and Patti LaBelle and Eric Clapton.
Hall & Oates and Duran Duran and the Beach Boys. Rick Springfield and Teddy Pendergrass and REO Speedwagon.
Crosby, Stills & Nash and Run-DMC.
Led Zeppelin reunited (but it wasn’t pretty), and comedian Chevy Chase and actor Jack Nicholson were on hand.
The night climaxed with the entire stadium singing “We Are the World,” led by Lionel Richie, Harry Belafonte, and an all-star choir of earlier performers.
Across the pond at Wembley Stadium, 22 superstar acts had played for 10 hours in front of 72,000 people.
Satellites carried the concerts — watched and heard by more than 1 billion — to televisions and venues around the globe.
They raised about $100 million in donations for famine victims.
“This is it,” wrote an Inquirer reporter in a front-page story, “the day they make rock music loud enough to hear around the world and good enough to save a little piece of it.”