Great Film overall

I wanted to like it more than I actually did... But much of the humor totally escaped me and I walked out only mildly impressed.

One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

There is not one person in this country who can't remember the event that changed the world and charity forever. Live Aid, dreamt up by genius Sir Bob Geldof was the biggest fund raising charity event in 1985, mixing live entertainment and charity together was fantastic. Everyone you can think of was singing/performing there for ten hours! These people included: Bryan Adams, Adam Ant, Black Sabbath, Bono, David Bowie, Jeff Bridges, Tony Butler, U2, Dick Clark, Phil Collins, Billy Connolly, Elvis Costello, David Crosby, Simon Crowe, Paul Denham, Duran Duran, Bob Dylan, Sally Field, Tony Hadley, Mick Jagger, Sir Elton John, Casey Kasem, Martin Kemp, Madonna, Queen, Paul McCartney, Wham! (with George Michael), Jack Nicholson, The Pretenders, Griff Rhys Jones, Lionel Richie, Status Quo, Mel Smith, Sting, Tina Turner, Tracey Ullman and The Who. Viewers in the crowd included Prince Charles, Princess Diana and Tony Thompson. It was number 58 on The 100 Greatest TV Programmes. Very good!

... Give or take a few hours of course but I still have vivid memories of this ultimate concert . As soon as it was announced I wished I could have attended it but as you can imagine tickets for the Wembly gig were somewhat difficult to get your hands on . I did hear via a friend of mine Rab Kincaid that his sister Vicki got a ticket and would be going to London on the 13th of July , I did feel some self sorrow because the previous Summer my sister acting as courier wanted to know if I wanted to go out with Vicki but I turned her down . She was a very nice girl with a highly developed body for a teenager but from the neck upwards she looked disturbingly like Celtic footballer star Maurice Johnstone with a mullet hairstyle . i wasn't and never will be the sort of guy who'd ever go out with a girl for ulterior motives but it did flash through my mind in the early Summer of 1985 that if I'd been going out with Vicki I might have been able to get a Live Aid concert ticketStill not to worry it was going to be broadcast live on television and I was really looking forward to seeing my musical heroes U2 perform . I kept rubbing my hands wondering what their set list was going to be while I played their live LP Under A Blood Red Sky to death , I was really hoping they were going to perform I Will Follow . So on the day of the concert I was wishing the dross supporting acts like Status Quo , Howard Jones , Paul Young and Adam Ant ( Who played the title track of his new album ! ) would just go away and let Bono and the boys show the audience how it's done . At 5 O'clock the transmission alternatively switched from Wembley to JFK Staduim Philidelphia where we saw the Bryan Adams set . Jack Nicholson said we're going back to London to hear a band who aren'1t afraid to speak their mind and U2 came on to perform the appropriate Sunday Bloody Sunday . Unfortunately their second track was Bad a song I've never taken to and Bono spent so much time jumping into the audience to get a girl to dance with him that they had to scrap their third track Pride . In fact I thought their whole set was a major disappointment that I couldn't believe the positive feed back they got in the press later and there was no one more surprised than the band themselves ! Major disappointment aside I still stayed in to watch the rest of the concert most of which I watched on my sister's portable black and white TV and it wasn't until a few days later that I started digesting what a monumental event it was where Queen stole the show with their medley , where Bob Geldof swore live on air ( In those days bad language on television was still very rare ) , the dominance of British music that saw every act at Wembly hail from the British Isles and where a third of the acts at the American concert were also British , and the strange fact within a couple of years many of the acts at Wembly had disappeared from the charts altogether . But without doubt the abiding memory for me was the entire lack of cynicism . Artists went out of their way to give a concert while people went out of their way to put their hands in their pockets . Even if you want to be cynical then you can't deny that money was raised and it went to humanitarian Non Governmental Organisations ( NGOs ) that saved countless human lives . That was the difference between Live Aid in 1985 and Live 8 in 2005

There was a tree just off to the left of the rear entrance at Live Aid along the wooden fence that surrounded that part of the stadium. Climbing up, I looked in, there were these two guys on the other side that saw me. I looked at them, and knowing what I was up to gave me the all clear. Thinking quickly I turned to look back at my friend Joe, gave him the high sign and jumped. I WAS IN! I walked straight across to the courtesy tent and had some pizza; mingling with the back stage crowd, I could not believe it. Very cool… Eventually I worked my way under the stage. I was now directly under the concert, hanging out and digging the situation. Now, right behind me was the stairs that led to center stage. This is where the talent went before getting on and who do you think was walking up at that time... TINA TURNER! I yelled "Hey Tina!" She stopped. I approached, took her hand and said, "Do Good Baby." (What else to say?) She said "ok I will", and up she went. WOW! Mental overload. Then a chick I met while I was under the stage took a picture of me shaking her hand. I met some cool people that evening. So Tina went up, I figured I would follow and making it to the top, security stopped me. I sad "Tina!"She looked back and gave me one of those "oh well" looks so I retreated. I went back down and under to the front of the stage. It was open, I had a clear view of Tina, and Mick Jagger getting down, that was until security told me I could not stay where I was... No problem, I went back to the stairs. So now what to do? This time I tried another approach, going to the back of the stage I found myself directly behind the concert, but this time security was a little thicker. I had to think about my next move, and sure enough, there was. This blind spot between these series boxes that made sort of channel about 3 feet high that went directly to the stage. All I had to do was crawl for about 15 feet and then walk right on, and that is exactly what I did. Wow! I could not believe it... I went to the scaffolding climbed it slid over on to the curtain rod, and now I was center stage directly above the concert. I could have jumped right on top of Bill Wyman. I had my shoe off, was going to toss it at him... I should have jumped on the stage; at least I would have made Letterman. However, I was good. ( I look back at that and should have jumped ) Now a photographer saw me and said that I could not stay there because I had no passes... This was fine since the concert was ending. Another thing I will never forget is singing "We Are The World" with everyone else on stage. Well, I was directly above them... Once the singing ended security locked hands and made a path for all the talent to walk in-between as they vacated the stage. So I climbed down walked right on stage and followed the "gang". I had to stop at center stage and wave to the crowd. It was incredible! I turned and walked past security down the back stage and got some more pizza. Now the fun starts... There was Joan Baize, and having no idea who she was at that time, I bragged to her about what I did... She was not fazed. Then there was Harry Bellefonte nice man, we talked about his neighborhood. Next was Cher, she was heading for the limo. We chatted about the concert, I probably could of got into the limo (I walked her right to it) but I could not leave all of this. At that point, I said goodbye and re-treated. I had some more Dominos. Then I went back to center stage and stood there in awe... It was truly amazing... By this time, the stadium was emptying. I went to the guest rooms and hung out... If I was only able to get in earlier, it would have been nice to meet Robert Plant and Jimmy Page. .. Now everybody left, it was time for me to go and it was hard to do. What an awesome situation to be in. But, I walked out the back, found my friends and told them the story. As for Joe, he got in also, having a neck full of back stage passes.

I happened to be in England at the time of this concert and was able to buy a ticket. I got there early and took a place on the field. The crowd was different than at an American concert -- mellower and nicer overall. Once U2 came onstage, though, things changed. The crowd started to move toward the stage in massive wave-like surges. It was a little anxiety-provoking, but nobody got hurt that I could see. The line-up was nothing short of spectacular and I was particularly happy to see The Who, David Bowie, Sting, Queen and Paul McCartney. This was in Paul's anxious phase, after John was killed; Paul only did one song and seemed to be hiding behind the piano. The surprise stand-out act of the day for me was Queen. Freddy Mercury really knew how to work the crowd and he had 50,000 people (or whatever) in the palm of his hand.