All-Time Concert Event

I've been fortunate to see my share of bands and attend plenty of live concerts in my lifetime.

I've seen Van Halen a few times, AC/DC once, Rolling Stones and U2 twice. I was front row at Maple Leaf Gardens for Great Big Sea and Blue Rodeo. I've watched Loverboy, BTO, Heart, Alice In Chains and numerous other Canadian acts like Gowan, David Wilcox, Barenaked Ladies, RUSH, Tea Party, 54-40, Northern Pikes, Glass Tiger and does anyone else remember the band FM featuring Nash the Slash? I left out Celine Dion but she doesn't count since I saw her while attending the JUNO Awards in Toronto and she performed as part of the show. A great singer but just not my cup of tea.

I often wished I'd kept a running total or list of the bands I've seen over the years just so I could remind myself of all of the shows I've been to because my list above hardly scratches the surface.

There's nothing like attending a live concert and being there in person to experience the spectacle. While the concert itself is usually great, the sights and smells and craziness that takes place in the crowd is something to behold. I remember my very first "real" concert on August 18, 1986 at the old Exhibition Stadium at the CNE in Toronto. It was one of the hottest nights of the summer and the place was packed as we watched Bachman Turner Overdrive, Loverboy and Van Halen perform a great show. We started out on the floor quite a ways back but by the time Van Halen took the stage we were right up front. They had to hose us down to keep us cool as we were jammed in so tightly but it didn't matter as the concert rocked. This was also the first time I can remember seeing marijuana. As we sat in our seats during BTO, people were passing it up and down our row, back and forth sharing the weed with all. There was plenty to go around. I can honestly say I never inhaled.

As I'm writing this the latest global concert has come to an end. This time the message was "Save the Planet" or something like that. It was the "Live Earth" concert. This was a 24-hour music marathon spanning seven continents, everyone from aboriginal elders to famous scientists to country singers called on the world to turn interest in the Live Earth events into environmental activism. Blah blah blah blah blah.

Sorry, I'm all for taking care of our planet and doing our part to keep our environment going strong but what the heck does a concert have to do with this? Sure you can argue it raises awareness but will the people the concert appealed to actually do something about it or will they just wake up on Sunday morning and continue on with their average lives and not change a thing?

When I look at the list of performers for the show I don't see too many artists or groups that I'd class as legendary. The only one's who come close would be Madonna, Genesis, Metallica (I guess), The Police and Bon Jovi.

I don't know, maybe I'm getting old but as far as I'm concerned there has only been one true global concert with a purpose and a goal to raise money for African Famine Relief and that was on July 13, 1985 with LIVE AID. No, not LIVE 8 the poorly run sequel but the original.

I remember waking up that morning as a 16-year-old music fan and turning on the TV at 7:00am to watch something that had never been done before on that scale. I was watching history being made with a live television feed from London, England. Other than running to use the bathroom or a quick dash to the kitchen, I didn't take my eyes off the show all day which had so many great performers and moments.

Billed as a "global jukebox", the main sites for the event were Wembley Stadium, London, attended by 72,000 people, and JFK Stadium, Philadelphia, attended by about 90,000 people, with some acts performing at other venues such as Sydney and Moscow. It was one of the largest scale satellite link-ups and TV broadcasts of all time -- an estimated 1.5 billion viewers in 100 countries watched the live broadcast.

On a television program in 2001 one of the organizers stated that while initially it had been hoped that Live Aid would raise £1 million ($1.64 million), the final figure was £150 million (approx. $245.4 million) for famine relief.

Here's a list of some of the amazing musicians who performed on that day: Queen, The Who, Led Zeppelin, U2, Dire Straits, INXS, B.B. King, Black Sabbath, Phil Collins, Howard Jones, CSN&Y, Judas Priest, Beach Boys, David Bowie, Mick Jagger, Tina Turner, Elton John, Paul McCartney, Madonna, Bob Dylan and many many more. Now that's a line-up.

The concert had many great moments and stories but my favourites include:

• While U2 performed the song "BAD", lead singer Bono jumped from the stage to pull a girl out of the crowd who was being crushed. He danced with her before climbing back on stage.

• On the stage was a set of lights (green, yellow, red). Green meant you were good for time, yellow meant you were running out of time and red meant times up and it's time to get off the stage. During The Who's performance, which was amazing, Pete Townshend kicked out the lights. He was having a good time and nobody was telling him when to get off the stage. They played an extra 5 minutes.
  

• When Bob Dylan broke a guitar string, Ron Wood (Rolling Stones) took off his own guitar and gave it to Dylan. Wood was left standing on stage guitarless. After shrugging to the audience, he played air guitar, even mimicking The Who's Pete Townshend by swinging his arm in wide circles, until a stagehand brought him a replacement.

• Queen played better and more tightly than ever, and the antics of lead singer Freddie Mercury got the entire Wembley crowd clapping in unison to "Radio Ga-Ga" and singing along, word-for-word, to "We Will Rock You" and "We Are The Champions."

• It wasn't even an American who opened the U.S. concert as Canadian Bryan Adams opened at JFK Stadium.

An event such as Live Aid can never be duplicated. It happened at the right time and was one of a kind.

Events like Live 8 and Live Earth are all just cheap copies that don't even come close to having the same impact or effect on a generation. People, like myself who lived through it and witnessed it, will always remember the original Live Aid concert just like those who went to Woodstock will always know it was one of a kind. The Woodstock and Live Aid concerts are very different in many ways but they are the same in that they touched a generation, stood for something and changed lives.
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Below is a clip of Queen performing their first two songs from the show. Bohemian Rhapsody and Radio Ga Ga.