Remembering Live Aid

On the 30th anniversary of Live Aid today my thoughts turn to the concert which took place in London on Saturday July 13th 1985. I was 8 years old in 1985, much too young to appreciate the event, but I do remember the Wembley stadium concert being on TV all that day, my older brother was glued to it. Of all the stories that emerged from that day, my favourite concerns David Bowie who fulfilled a slightly unusual request by the organizers earlier that day before his 7:22pm stage slot. On the day, helicopters were flying the stars into Wembley but because the stadium did not have a suitable landing pad, the helicopters were landing on the nearby London Transport cricket ground where police cars were waiting to ferry the artists to the stadium. Just a few hundred yards away from the landing zone, a wedding was taking place in the cricket ground's pavilion and the revelers were understandably upset by the constant noise from the fleet of helicopters. Live Aid Event Co-coordinator Pete Smith recalled: "Somebody had the stroke of genius that if a star could be talked into going in there, it might help smooth things over. In the end David Bowie went in, shook hands with the groom, kissed the bride and wished the happy couple well. There wasn't a word out of them for the rest of the day!" Jill Sinclair who was at the time the producer for Channel 4's music program The Tube caught an ecstatic Bowie as he has coming off stage and asked him what he planned to do next and Bowie replied "I'm going home to have a really good fuck"