Queen at Live Aid 1985

It was 6.41 pm – Saturday 13 July 1985. Just 39 years ago. It was 21 minutes of magnificance.

The Queen Set at Live Aid ‘85 (Wembley) exemplifies absolute perfection. All elements of their performance melted into excellence: the performance, the music, the band’s synchronicity, the showmanship, and the stadium audience reaction—streamed to a massive TV audience—all fused to create one of those moments that will be remembered as ‘Where were you when? ‘

Live Aid ’85 was a massive project led by the frontman of the Irish Band Boomtown Rats. It followed ‘Band-Aid’, where celebrity pop stars from the early ‘80s came together to produce a record to raise money for people in Africa facing starvation. The show at Wembley featured some of the best-known popular music acts of the time.

More about Live Aid here:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/music/thelive8event/liveaid/history.shtml

Queen’s set at Live Aid was flawless. It was a lesson in utilising an allocated time slot. It was impeccably structured and visually sensational.

Firstly, the set was thoroughly prepared with a through line. There are many messages – (too many to list here).

To begin, Freddie Mercury (Queen’s frontman) emerges with the rest of Queen, greets the audience and moves to the piano. He plays the opening notes of the 1976 Christmas NO.1 hit ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ at the piano with gusto. Those opening bars and the first line, “just killed a man”, ensure that their segment started dramatically with a musical flourish. Still, the song is one of no hope as a man who has murdered another man in cold blood (”put a gun against his head”) and realises he will also die. The death penalty is imminent, hanging like the metaphorical noose above his head. The song’s narrator is alone, scared and resigned to his execution.

In contrast, the set ended with exuberance. Queen declared, ‘We are the Champions of the World’. It had moved from one lone man to a whole group of people together with one purpose. This was an appropriate finale for Queen performing at a concert streamed across the world and which resonated with the aim behind the concert which was to draw attention to famine in parts of Africa and to an underlying unsaid notion of establishing the role of the West as the superheroes coming to the rescue of the developing world – an example of the underlying colonial mindset still in existence in the mid-1980s.

As well as meeting Live Aid’s objectives, Queen’s own objectives were met. Queen wanted to ensure that their short stint on the Live Aid Wembley stage raised Queen’s profile after a period in the pop world wilderness and to re-establish the band as world-leading, world-class—exemplifying popular music at its very best.

Queen were not playing to their own audience, but an audience made up of a diverse group of fans with ecliptic musical tastes. The line up included Status Quo, Duran Duran, Tina Turner with Mick Jagger and David Bowie duetting across continents with Mick Jagger. It also included a ‘little known’ upcoming female artist called Madonna.

Queen utilized a general pop fan’s familiarity with their oeuvre; queen and frontman Freddie Mercury engaged with the capacity Wembley audience to encourage a response and their participation in the band’s act. The stadium audience’s cooperation was crucial to how the TV audience viewed the moment broadcast into their homes.

Freddie used the microphone, his instruments (guitar & piano) and his physicality to command the stage. Dressed in tight white jeans & white vest, Freddie muscular and lean ‘sexy’ physique dominated the large stage. He swept up stage, centre stage, downstage and held the audience in awe by leaning into them on the very edge of the apron. Making use of his then signature moustache, Freddie performed sexual innuendo (or explicit sexual gestures and movements). Freddie was mostly playful when teasing that he (the performer) was sexually available and absolutely NOT available. An example of this paradox is the way Freddie places his face close to the mic to suggest that the fellatio is about to take place. Yet Freddie flirted with cameras, seducing those watchers at home at a distance through a lens. Indeed, Freddie was always the frontman, and for a fleeting moment, he retreats into the dim lights of playing the piano and reestablishing his showmanship in an instant.

To achieve this sensational moment, Queen practised and practised (and practised) in front of live audiences night after night before the Live Aid Concert.

The presentation was meticulously structured, following a clear set of segments that aimed to engage the audience. It was also rehearsed to ensure that the set would have some currency at the actual event.

Queen utilised their previous best-selling music to engage an audience. In other words, it didn’t go off on a tangent, and introduce new material. They stuck to the brief (from Bob Geldoff) to stick to their hits.

The set had an introduction (intro to Bohemian Rhapsody), a middle (Radio Gaga and Crazy Little Thing called Love – with a nod to Elvis Presley) a conclusion (We are the Champions), and most importantly (stress again). It was perfectly timed.

A possible unintended consequence of Queen’s set at Live Aid – whether planned or partially planned or even hopefully planned – was it became the bridge – the transition – from the light of the day to the dusk of the evening.

The Live Aid concert itself started in the carefree moments of the early afternoon – it’s focus on the young & Romantic & post punk performers such as the far from good & raw Boomtown Rats – shifted to the grown ups, the maturity in the night and literaly set Wembley Stadium ablaze as the stadium floodlights came into being.

In my view, Queen’s Live Aid Set was an example that any student having to deliver a presentation for an assessment could learn from.

And in that moment, the young Julie watching on TV thought for just a moment –

“Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy?”

I was there in front of my TV when Queen happened.

It was amazing. 🔥🔥🔥

Also see

https://edition.cnn.com/interactive/2018/11/opinions/queen-live-aid-cnnphotos/

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