Ugly American Werewolf in London: Live Aid at 40 - Part 1

Live Aid may have been the cultural event for Gen X'ers just as Woodstock was for their baby boomer parents. Bob Geldof had led a group of British pop artists to the charity single Do They Know It's Christmas? That inspired US artists to create We Are The World. Both singles were to aid millions of starving people in Africa who were suffering from severe drought and broken politics. The huge success of the songs lead Geldof to be even more ambitious in coordinating a dual continent live concert with the biggest stars of the day (and with some legends as well) to raise money for Africa. On July 13, 1985 artists gathered in Wembley Stadium in London and JFK Stadium in Philadelphia and MTV broadcast 15 hours of programming which we ate up!

Though a million things could have gone wrong, the day was an amazing event that raised money and awareness for a dire situation and brought together the most incredible lineup of talent. This is the first of 3 parts commemorating this incredible event. Here we'll breakdown how the singles came together, who came, who didn't, controversies and legacy. We name all the acts on both coasts before breaking down the UK performances before the US feed was piped into the UK. Part 2 will have the primetime acts from the UK and the US and we discuss the now infamous Led Zeppelin performance. But we're really excited about Part 3 which will feature interviews from 2 folks who were in Philadelphia that day - one of whom was an MTV VJ!!

Viewed by 1.5 billion people around the world, the MTV broadcast in the US is so memorable for The Wolf and Action Jackson, we couldn't wait to reminisce about it. Talking to one of the original MTV VJs was a dream come true! But that's Part 3, for now listen to our excitement building up to the event, how we snuck off to watch it and the acts stood out early in the broadcast.

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