Two In The Think Tank - 326 - Live Aid (with Joel Zammit)

Episode Date: January 19, 2022

This week we look at Live Aid, the monumental 1985 music concert watched by just under 2 billion people across the planet. Queen, U2, Madonna, Elton John, Paul McCartney, Run DMC, Phil Collins, David Bowie, Tina Turner and many more came together to raise money to fight famine in Ethiopia. The intentions were good, but where did the money go? Get tickets to Do Go On: The Quiz Show at The Melbourne Comedy Festival April 4, 11 + 18:https://www.comedyfestival.com.au/2022/shows/the-quiz-show Support the show and get rewards like bonus episodes: dogoonpod.com or patreon.com/DoGoOnPodCheck out Joel Zammit's Sanspants Radio podcasts: https://www.sanspantsradio.com/  Submit a topic idea directly to the hat: dogoonpod.com/Submit-a-Topic  Twitter: @DoGoOnPodInstagram: @DoGoOnPodFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/DoGoOnPod/Email us: [e-mail] Check out our other podcasts:Book Cheat: https://play.acast.com/s/book-cheatPrime Mates: https://play.acast.com/s/prime-mates/Listen Now: https://play.acast.com/s/listen-now/ Our awesome theme song by Evan Munro-Smith and logo by Peader ThomasLIVE AID SET LIST:http://liveaid.free.fr/pages/liveaidtimesdetaileduk.html https://www.phillymag.com/news/2020/07/10/live-aid-history/ https://www.theguardian.com/music/2004/oct/17/popandrock5https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/oral-history-live-aid-ones-made-brighter-day-33-years-ago-174656465.html https://dangerousminds.net/comments/meet_david_weinstein_the_18-year-old_kid_who_opened_live_aidREFERENCES AND FURTHER READING Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Just jumping in really quickly at the start of today's episode to tell you about some upcoming opportunities to see us live in the flesh. And you can see us live at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival 2024. We are doing three live podcasts on Sundays at 3.30 at Basement Comedy Club, April 7, 14 and 21. You can get tickets at dogo1pod.com. Matt, you're also doing some shows around the country. That's right. I'm doing shows with Saren Jayaimana, who's been on the show before. We're going to be in Perth in January, Adelaide in February,

Melbourne through the festival in April, and then Brisbane after that. I'm also doing Who Knew It's in Perth and Adelaide. Details for all that stuff at mattstuartcomedy.com.

Death is in our air. This year's most anticipated series, FX's Shogun, only on Disney+. We live and we die. We control nothing beyond that. An epic saga based on the global best-selling novel by James Clavel.

To show your true heart is to risk your life. When I die here, you'll never leave Japan alive. FX's Shogun, a new original series streaming February 27th exclusively on Disney+. 18 plus subscription required. T's and C's apply. We can wait for clean water solutions or we can engineer access to clean water. We can acknowledge indigenous cultures or we can learn from indigenous voices. We can demand more from the earth. Or we can demand more from ourselves. At York University, we work together to create positive change for a better tomorrow. Join us at yorku.ca slash

write the future. Hello and welcome to another episode of Do Go On. My name is Dave Warnke and as always I'm here with Matt Stewart. Hello Matt. Hey Dave, how's it going? Thanks so much for having me here. Great to have you here but also we are joined by a very special guest, Mr Sandspants Radio himself, it's Joel Zammett. G'day, g'day.

Thank you for having me. Zammett, how are you? Yeah, I'm alright. Eh, can't complain. I forgot your first name was Joel. Yeah, look, so do I. I'm like, I think they fucked that up. I was panicking.

I was also rolling the dice on that. I picked a name at random and that- Oh, it's yours, Zammett. Yeah, you're like Beyonce or Elvis. You don't need two names. Madonna, maybe. Madonna's another classic. I do remember, and I don't know if you remember this, Matt,

maybe just as a gracious person, but I do remember we did a live show together in, I think it was Adelaide. And at the end of the show, when everyone was leaving and everyone ran off stage or whatever, due to some reason, I ended up being like, and thanks our guest, Matt Smith. I don't remember that at all. And because you're such a kind soul, you never picked that up on me and I didn't realise that until listening back to it

and realising I said that to a crowd of people. So I just cut that out of the recording. I'm like, I can't deal with that. That's just, oh, I was just like a too busy thing in a Doctor Who or something. Next week we'll be joined by Tom Baker I do, I remember a long time, like I imagine I would have

noticed at the time but it's the kind of thing like I remember getting that advice starting Stan I was like, if the MC says your name wrong don't bring it up on stage no one cares Yeah, don't bring it up, especially if the MC is not just an MC but also your friend that you've just done another show with.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Very funny. But you just obviously repaid the favour by not knowing Zammett's first name. Hey, Zammett. God damn it, Zammett. I know your Twitter handle. Thank you.

All right, yeah. Anyway, we're actually here at Sam's Pants Radio. How cool is that? Sam is one of the few guests that will come on the show but also supply their own studio. So we really appreciate that. We must say that Jess is in a bit of a COVID isolation situation at the moment, which I'm sure all of us will be at some stage.

So it's her turn to be in the soundproof box. We are waving at her. She is conscious. It's only a matter of time. Jeez, I hope that dates well. But, Dave, before we get into the episode, you've got an announcement to make about an upcoming live show we're doing. That's right.

Do Go On is appearing live at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival, but in a slightly new format. We are doing Do Go On dot, dot, dot, the quiz show. Jeez, those dots. I reckon the people were gasping. What's it going to be? Dot, dot, dot. Is he going to tell us this week?

Yeah. So it's our quiz show. Who are you quizzing? Are you quizzing your fellow Do Go Oners? Yeah, that's right. So I'll be the host in this scenario, and each week I'll be bringing up one topic from history, and we'll be going through it, and I'll be quizzing Matt on one team with a guest,

Jess on another team with a guest, going head-to-head in what I would call comedy shenanigans. And they're going to be big guests. Dave has promised me big, big guests. That's right, Jerry Seinfeld. It's going to depend on who the festival books, but if Jerry's here, Dave said he'll get in. Yeah, that's right. I want to heckle that guy. I've got a big net.

Jerry, get in. So, yeah, that's really exciting. So there's three Monday nights. We're doing that 9pm Monday nights. And we're doing it at the Melbourne Town Hall, which is a proper nice venue. We've made it. We told the Comedy Festival we'd sell the tickets,

so please buy the tickets. We'd really appreciate it if you came down. So it's 9 o'clock on Monday, April 4, April 11, and April 18. Different show every week, different guests every week. Yeah, please come on down. It's going to be a lot of fun. I'm pumped. You can get tickets at comedyfestival.com.au

or via the link in the description of this episode. So that'll be really, really cool. And while we're here plugging shows, Zaman, even sooner, you've got a live show coming up. Yeah, apparently we're doing a live show February 19th at 5.30 at the Comedy Republic. It is a live Plumbing the Death Star where we're going to be answering the important question

of how would you curse a small village, which if anybody listens to Plumbing the Death Star, it's actually like basically a cursed episode because we did this once before. And when we finished recording it, like not live, but like, you know, at the studio. And when we finished it, we all looked at each other and we're like, we can't release this.

This is terrible. This is bad. Like we went places. So it's only available to like certain Patreons as it were. So we're going to be doing it live. So good luck to everyone that's there. It's a great venue. We did our Christmas show there in December.

I had a great time. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, yeah, that's a hot tip. So people could right now buy tickets for four different shows. We should say that about our quiz show. Each show will be an entirely different show. Completely different. And it's going to be like a Do Go On episode. By the end, while you're leaving, you've laughed, but you've also learnt.

That's right, because we're deep diving into a topic you think you know a lot about, but then when you think about it, you actually don't know that much, and we'll find out how little you know. You laugh, you learn, you live, and in the end, you lament a little bit. Anyway, we should really get on to the show. Zamit, I'll get Dave to explain the show to you and any new listeners. Dave, what is this show?

Zamit, what we do here is we take it in terms of a report on a topic often suggested by a listener. One of the three of us, me, Matt, or Jess, go away, do a bit of a research on a topic, bring it back to the group in the form of a report. Now, you guys, and you can attest to this because some people don't believe us, but you don't know what the topic is going to be.

I don't. And we always start with a question to get us onto that topic. So my question for you and Matt is, in 1985, the broadcast of which music concert was watched by an estimated 1.9 billion people worldwide? 1985. Okay. I was not born. Okay. Well, Matt was

about 600 years old back then. Six or so hundred years. Give or take a couple of millennia. So you say 1985? Was it that one where Queen sang with the microphone stand? Yes, there is a microphone stand and there is Queen at this gig. So is it a live-aid

type thing? Is it a Live Aid? It is a Live Aid type thing, so much so that it is indeed. Is it Live Aid? It's Live Aid. Congratulations. Zami, you're so close there, but we'll have to give the point technically to Matt. Someone is tracking the scores. Okay, that makes sense.

So we've saved them having to make a new column. That's it. Look, you said Queen and I was like, oh, yeah, Live Aid. I was usually going to be like, is that like a marriage between a royal? Is that when Diana and Old Man? That was around that time, wasn't it? She died in 97, the day the saints finished on top of the ladder. Bit of a sweet day for you as a child.

I was watching an Agatha Christie mystery when that happened. Really? Oh. Did they stop it? No, no, no. Poirot was about to say, the murderer is... We interrupted this broadcast.

The media hounded her. We were watching like Death on the Nile or something like that, like a VHS, and then when that finished, we were like, oh, oh, oh no. Oh no.

That's, yeah. Anyway, sorry to bring that up for everyone. Great Agatha Christie though, there's no denying it. Rest in peace, the People's Princess. Yes. And also the people murdered in Death on the Nile.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Hey, spoilers day. Now, this topic has been suggested by a few people, also voted for by the Patreon and supporters of the show at dogo1pod.com. I put up four musical topics in this one. Just pipped another topic that I'm going to get to one day, but I don't want to give away too much.

But this one's suggested by Zoe Jones from Portsmouth, Harry Green from Cows on the Isle of Wight, Sam Robinson from Wellington in New Zealand, Eric Morales from LA, and Steve Dumbled from San Diego. Ah, wow. They're from like three different countries. Yes, I appreciate all. Truly an international podcast. Big fan of cows, the Isle of Wands.

And an island. Yeah, so our cows are obviously named after their cows I'm guessing. Do we not have anything original? Our Moorabbin's the original Moorabbin. The Moorabbin. Yeah. That's what people call them. You're telling me it's not the Frankston? Yeah. No. Surely not. Oh, telling me it's not the Frankston? Yeah. No.

Surely not. Oh, I bet you there is. Frank probably, he would probably name towns all around the world. Now, the background to Live Aid, sadly,

is the unspeakable tragedy of a famine that took place in Ethiopia from 1983 to 1985. So we've got to go through that a little bit. But then there's a bit more light on the other side of that.

But for the context, we've got to say, food shortages led to a hunger crisis and famine that caused up to one million deaths in those couple of years. That's pretty fucked. Yeah. Northern Ethiopia was particularly affected because of a drought and a border war at the time. And it's since been noted that the famine was caused by much more than a natural disaster, more than a drought and a border war at the time. And it's since been noted that the famine was caused

by much more than a natural disaster, more than a drought, and had a lot more to do with government and war and the government spending on war and not on health and food. But at the time, it was widely reported on as being a big drought. We've got to help these people. Their crops have failed. Now they're starving. So ignore the fact that we have military welfare.

Ignore that. Yeah, don't worry about that. Ignore that we're waging a shush. Yeah, we're spending 30% of the budget on military and 2% on health. Don't worry about that. It's that pesky no rain. At the time, that is the world's view of it. And the famine became big news, particularly in the UK,

when in October 1984, Michael Burke's BBC News report beamed images of hundreds of thousands of people starving in Ethiopia. The BBC were the first to report on the famine, and Burke described it as, quote, a biblical famine in the 20th century. He also described it later as the closest thing to hell on earth. Central to that news story was 31-year-old British-Swiss nurse named Claire Bertschinger. Bertschinger, great name. She was shown in the broadcast to be surrounded by 85,000 starving people and had the horrific daily task of deciding which children would be allowed into her feeding station and which were too sick to be saved.

Cool. What a fun job to have. Yeah. So, you know, you are, it's a heroic job, but also very scarring. She didn't talk about it for 20 years afterwards. That's awful. It really scarred her. Burke, the reporter, later recalled, quote,

there were two films, two pieces that finally aired. I knew they wanted them to be about three minutes, but I cut eight and thought, fuck them. And that's what they aired. He's a badass. Fuck them. Fuck them. They'll play this. And they did what they did. He's a badass. Fuck them. Fuck them. They'll play this.

And they did, and it was a massive news story, and the images shot by Kenyan cameraman Mohamed Amin have been described by The Guardian as one of the most famous television reports of the late 20th century. It spurred the British public into- I reckon they could have just gone the 20th century. Or they're comparing it to television reports from the early 20th century. Let's just call it the 20th century.

Give them the- Why are they minimizing the achievement? Honestly, it was much more influential than the footage shot in the 17th and the 18th centuries. Let's call it all time. It's an all-timer. Freaking hell. Oh, it was probably the most influential footage on TV from that week.

From March 1985. Yeah. Small sliver there. Yeah, the week after that. Really just diminish your achievements. Yeah, after that, top of the pops again. It spurred the British public into inundating relief agencies with donations and also put the famine on the front page across the world.

It was even broadcast on a major news channel without revoicing Burke's original English commentary, something that was almost unheard of at the time. Usually they'd revoice it, recut it, but they were like, wow, this is powerful. So it just went out. Yeah, Burke had quite a difficult accent. It was like full Cockney.

Anyway, being... I want to hear more. Go on. Let's recreate it. We cross live now to Michael Burke in Ethiopia. Hey, all right. Hey, it's me. Oh, it's me.

Oh, blimey. Wrong tone. I never had, I never had, I was about to say I lost control. I never had control of that. And that went for eight minutes. Just Gus who was finishing a durry. All right, you guys, there's not this one over here. He's starving.

That one's starving. Oh, it's all fucked. It's all fucked. Powerful stuff. That one's starving. Oh, it's all fucked. It's all fucked. Powerful stuff. That is powerful. And they played that unedited. Yeah, eight minutes of, oh, fuck, mate. Honestly, fuck.

Well, enter another man who's got a famous voice and also famous for swearing on TV. Millions watched it, including an Irish musician by the name of Bob Geldof. Ah, yes. At the time, the 33-year-old was the singer of the Boomtown Rats, a band who do not like Mondays. Do they have any other hits?

That's their big international one. Right. Probably, I think, locally maybe. Tuesdays are all right. Wednesday's my favourite. There's a Friday-Saturday reprise. Sunday-Funday. Tuesdays are all right. Wednesday is my favourite. Thursday, Friday, Saturday reprise. Sunday funder. All I know about Galdolf is that he had maybe a feud with Michael Hutchinson.

Is that it? Yes, I think he adopted Michael Hutchinson's daughter after he died because he was dating. The ultimate revenge. Raising your daughter after he died because he was dating. The ultimate revenge. Raising your daughter after your death. Because he was dating Paula Yates, who maybe was the mother, but then she also died. Yeah.

And then. They had a series of Irish and UK hits including Clockwork, Rat Trap. I don't like Mondays and Banana Republic. Yeah, I think the Mondays one's the only one I can think of Rat Trap sounds familiar Rat Trap sounds like it's going to be a fun song Yeah I was

I just thought I was going to know Something else but Nah I don't like Mondays got released in 1979 And again in 1994 Yeah a bit of a repeat That's our That's probably why we know it, because it was a top 40 single nearly 20 years after it was first released.

How about that? How about that? As Michael, whatever his name is, would say. Michael Burke. Probably not even saying that right. How about that? Michael Burke. Gary?

I didn't even get near an English accent. I just made it my voice deeper. I loved it. Live for it. It was good. I appreciate it. Can you trim some of this stuff out? All right, listeners, you might notice this episode is a little tighter than normal

because Dave is going to do a heavy edit of it. He has to release it pretty much as soon as we stop recording. For that to happen, I will have to pull an all-nighter and then go to work tomorrow. We'll find out. If you're hearing this, I went to bed. So Geldof thought up the idea of – he watched this news report that everyone else is watching at the time.

Big news, he thought up the idea of releasing a charity single to raise money and awareness for famine relief. Gary Kemp from Spandau Ballet recalled in 2004, quote, the day after Michael Burke's report, I was in an antique store on King's Road. Geldof saw me and came in. What are these pop stars' lives? He sucked the air out of the place and took over as he does. He said,

Don't do that. Did you see the news last night? He was very clearly moved. Maybe if we get a few people together, yourselves, Duran, and some others, maybe you would be interested in making a record. I said, yeah, sure, and that was it. Great. So he's just got this idea and just gone, seen a mate and gone,

let's do it, and then it's happening. It's interesting. I just for some reason assumed that Bob Geldof was interested, like he was visiting Africa and involved with it. He just saw a TV report that everyone else saw. Yeah, obviously very powerful report. Eight minutes of swearing in a cockney accent really got him across the line. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Or whatever that accent was. He's like, mate, did you see something on the telly last night? Should we make a song? Yeah. Spandau Ballet. What was that? Gold? True.

We have to stop and sing one of the band's hits every time I mention a band. It's going to be a long episode. I know two of this band's songs, so I think we're getting bigger as we go. What about? Gold. I always believe in gold.

I don't know that well. I know of Spandau Ballet. So, Galdolf's like, I'm going to write this song together with the singer of Ultravox, Midge Ur. Midge Ur. It was Vienna. Vienna. I watched the making of that the other night.

You know, when you're just on normal TV just flicking and the making of Ultravox's Vienna was on at about 12.30 at night. Is the song called Vienna? I don't know. Yeah. The making of. Yeah, and it was, you know, the classic talk heads are all sitting in rooms going, I don't know what I thought it was.

They were Scottish, but he's like, you know, the classic talk heads are all sitting in rooms going, I don't know what I thought it was. They were Scottish, but he's like, you know, and I thought maybe we could make the clip sort of art house, you know. It was doing black and white. Was it a very important clip? I guess they seemed to think it was. It would have been for them. There's a making of it. Yeah.

That was on the telly. Yeah, it. Yeah. That was on the telly. Yeah, it's weird. It's on the telly. That's why I had to. In 2022. I couldn't get my head around what you meant, making of. What do you mean? But anyway, so he's often overshadowed slightly by Geldof, but with him, he also co-wrote

the song Do They Know It's Christmas, the big charity single that year. Oh. So Midge and. I was confusing those two things. I was thinking that this was that, but that year. Oh. So Midge and. I was confusing those two things. I was thinking that this was that, but that had already happened. I'm not sure when Vienna came out. No, sorry. Do they know it's Christmas?

Happened before. Before Live Aid. Yeah. So they did the charity single first. And I'm not sure if you'll ever hate this, but Midge got his nickname because his name is Jim. And that's what Jim sounds like backwards. Even though you spell it M-I-D-G-E, Midge.

Yeah, I do hate that. Yeah. As nicknames go. You know what I like about you hating that? Because I expected to do this report with Jess, and I also thought she'd hate it. So you're filling in completely. Cool.

That's perfect. I think that's pretty hateable. When I hear Midge, I think of Moe. Moe's like, hey, Midge. Is that because he doesn't know her name? He doesn't know her name Right I thought it was a nickname

Or if he just never Figured out her name Hey Midge That's very funny He's got a big crush on her He's best friend's wife So Geldof and Midge Put the call out

To their famous buddies And formed the super group Band Aid And on the 25th 25th of November. Yeah, that's a pun. I hate that as well. It's a copyrighted brand.

Yeah, but good luck to Band Aid suing for that. You look like a dick. Yeah, Johnson & Johnson coming for you. On the 25th of November, 1984, nearly 40 pop stars arrived at a studio in West London to record the single. In 1984, nearly 40 pop stars arrived at a studio in West London to record the single. Artists on it include Sting, Phil Collins, George Michael, Bono, Duran Duran, Culture Club, Kool and the Gang, Spandau Ballet, Bananarama, and many, many more.

And Huey Lewis. Was he there? Yeah, he got a late call-up, if I'm thinking of the right thing. Oh, fantastic. I've heard him tell that story a few times. Really? He gets a call up for this, but did not get the call up for Live Aid. Yeah, well, they're lost, I guess. Misses out. Well, I think that he

originally was on there, but maybe there was a fight between the people running it. Right. That's one of the few things I don't go into. There's a lot to get through here. Nothing quite like, hey, we're doing something for charity. No, no, let my ego get in the way. Yeah, whoa, whoa, whoa. That's a lot of get through here. Nothing quite like, hey, we're doing something for charity. No, no, let my ego get in the way. Yeah, whoa, whoa, whoa.

That's a lot of egos too. Oh, so many. They're all used to being huge stars in their own right. So just to get in the same room would have been interesting. And some of them have feuds with each other and all sorts of stuff. One of the stories that Huey tells, or I'm sure I've heard him tell at least once or twice, and some of them have feuds with each other and all sorts of stuff there was some there was the one of the stories that huey tells or i'm sure i've heard him tell at least once or twice was that uh michael jackson was right next to him i think i'm gonna butcher this but they they did

it in one take so you know it was uh you know lionel richie or whoever and they do it one by one everyone does a line then it's elton John. I can't remember who it was or whatever. And then it would get up to Michael, and they would just stop before him because he'd be like, if he didn't get it right, he'd fuck it up, so it would have to all start again. But they never let it. And then it meant that all the people after him. I can't remember. You haven't butchered it. You're it meant that all the people after him. I can't remember.

You haven't butchered it. You're still there. I'm there. It gets to Michael. They leave a space. I'm there. I don't know. I'm there.

You don't know that. I can't remember. I thought it was going to make sense as I told it, but I've. We can fill this in. So by the time it got to them, all the people after them... So after they'd cut and start again, there was some reason why it was a genius thing that someone was doing. I can't remember what.

I can't remember the anecdote. Hughie tells it well, though, I promise you. And the best part is, it's not Do They Know It's Christmas? It's We Are The World, the other charity single. Oh, no. That he was, that Huey. Huey, no. He didn't do Do They Know It's Christmas.

I didn't know there were, I didn't realise there were two different charity singles. There's another single, yeah, which I also will talk about. Is this all happening after Michael Young's story? Michael, who was the reporter? Burke. Yeah. Burke's story.

Burke's story goes out. Bob Geldof sees it and says, we've got to do something about this. He writes and records Do They Know It's Christmas, which despite being a legitimately terrible song, it became the fastest selling single in UK chart history, selling a million copies in the first week and passing three million sales on the last day of 1984. The song went on to hold the record as the biggest-selling UK single ever,

a record it held until Elton John came along and re-released Candle in the Wind after the death of Princess Diana. Oh, it's funny that that came up. Initially, Bob Geldof had hoped the single would raise £70,000. That was his aim. It went on to make £8 million in the first year. Smashed it. And continues to raise money with the royalties every year.

So if you hear it on the radio, despite it being a terrible song, it is still raising money. Did it make a real difference, that money? For a good cause, right? Because of the drought. Yeah, it did send a bunch of stuff over. Yeah. But then Geldof was like, we could do more.

So he set his sights on staging a huge concert to raise further funds. His hope was that a concert could help the band-aid organisation that he'd set up buy a fleet of trucks to move food and supplies to Ethiopians in need. If they had their own, the first time they flew a bunch of supplies over with their money,

which is great, but if they had their own trucks, they could break a cartel that had been set up in the country, was his idea. You don't have to go through the local people who might rip you off. He's going to, they own the trucks outright, the food's going to go where you want it to. That was his hope. So it's not going to like the military, it's going straight to the people. They're cutting out the middle military. Yeah, exactly. The middle truckies.

Now, it should be noted that this wasn't the first charity concert put together by rock and pop stars. In 1971, former Beatle George Harrison had organised the concert for Bangladesh at Madison Square Garden, and this was a benefit for refugees in the former East Pakistan. So that had already happened 14 years earlier. Okay. But once Goldhoff arrived with the idea of a concert, he was determined.

He arrived at promoter Harvey Goldsmith's office and said, we're doing this. Apparently everyone who talks about him, he was like a whirlwind, like a real power, sets his mind to something. Everyone goes, all right, Bob. Yeah, right. There you go. You don't have to wave a gun around.

With the help of producer Michael C. Mitchell, Live Aid sold broadcast rights to 150 countries. Both MTV and ABC carried the feed in the United States and later in the form of a primetime special hosted by Dick Clark. Wow, the Dick Clark. The Dick Clark, DC. The BBC agreed to cover the event, clearing their schedules to run the 16-hour concert in its entirety on BBC One, BBC Two and on Radio One. Bands, like I said, said Geldof was simply impossible to refuse. He travelled around the world to track them down and then demanded they add their names to the bill.

And apparently he even had to trick some of the artisans into doing it. Andy Zweck, who was a production manager on the show, said Geldof had to call Elton and say Queen are in and Bowie's in. And of course they weren't. Then he'd call Bowie and say Elton and Queen are in. It was a real game of bluff. That's great.

You're in. And then of course they're like well if they're in, we've got to do it. That's just You're in And then of course they're like Well if they're in Yeah We gotta do it That's just a great scam Like that's just Ah he's just playing at everyone's egos Sure Good job mate

That's how we got Zammett to agree to be a guest this week I said Elton was in He said Yeah yeah So he's kidding Fortunately Elton is running late Okay fair enough But he'll be here

He's notorious He very poorly didn't ask questions about it Yeah Bob Geldof himself recalled When I announced it He'll be here. He's notorious. He very poorly didn't ask questions about it. Bob Geldof himself recalled, when I announced it, the only one who was dithering as ever was Brian Ferry. Fucking Brian. So I just said, when he announcing it, he just said, and Brian Ferry.

Yeah. And he rang to say, I didn't say yeah. And I said, well, say no then. You're the one who can announce it though. So he's going to come out and say, say no i'm not doing that big charity concert so he basically most pieces and you also you've given them a chance to just being involved in an iconic thing in the end like it it made it really built queen's legacy or gave you the chance to anyway. I don't know.

No one's really talking about Brian Ferry's iconic. No, but spoiler, he does perform. Okay. He got him across the line. Was this the one that Led Zeppelin reformed for? Is that a different one? Oh, yeah. I'm talking about that.

I don't know if you've seen this. Sam, it will be going through. I have not. My knowledge of this is like zero. Zero? Oh, great. I think mine might be. Matt's got quite a bit.

Well, I mean, I was talking about the wrong song before. Huey, Louie. Huey, Louie and Dewey were involved. Yeah, Huey, Louie and Dewey story. Uncle Scrooge was there. Oh, that's right. I got to Uncle Scrooge. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

And he made him stop the recording. Huey, Louie. We finally found someone who knows less about Huey, Louie than Matt. If that story comes to you, just buzz in at any time. Yeah, I wonder how it ends. What was the genius thing? I think it was like they did it in one take, but because of MJ, they're like, well, we pause a little bit so that even if he fucks up,

we can keep going and make it look like it's one take. I cannot. But it's a split. We can keep going and make it look like it's one take. I cannot. But it's a split. I can't remember. And definitely what I do remember is it wasn't a story worth repeating. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Email us in. Yeah, that's right.

Huey, email us in. I was having a cold sweat when I remembered that you're not editing this episode. Like, we'll regret that. Like, I will regret that. Okay, so the idea of Live Aid was to run two massive live concerts simultaneously, one at Wembley Arena in London and the other at John F. Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia. And then other acts from around the world would join via satellite links. So they've got crosses to Germany.

Peter Andre in Australia, probably. There is an Australian contingent. Didn't know that. But the biggest worry was sticking to time. Because, you know, they've sold broadcast rights. They can't, a 16-hour concert, if it goes 10% out, that's a lot. It's a 16-hour concert. Yeah.

Holy shit. It's a festival. Yeah. Probably the best line-up ever put together. Yeah, amazing. The whole thing was planned down to the minute and even the second. Promoter Harvey Goldsmith bought 20 massive clocks and stuck them all around the stage and sent notes around to every single act saying,

I don't care what time you go on, I only care what time you go off. So if you two run 15 minutes late, sorry, Brian Ferry, but you're singing one minute. That's nice. He's running a tight ship. Okay. I can respect that. Brian's like, I don't even want to be here.

I've been bumped. Did anyone get bumped? No, we'll get to that. So, promoter Goldsmith's biggest worry was Axe going overtime. But Geldof, on the other hand, worried that the Axe just wouldn't turn up and that 16 hours of his own band, the Boomtown Rats, would have been, quote, a bit too much for everybody. Rat trap. All right, we're playing rat trap again.

Oh, do we play Banana Republic yet? Yes, six times. Have I told you my thoughts on Mondays? Another song. It's like, if we can stretch it out instead of like, we'll do Monday, but like, say, the 1st of Feb and the 2nd of, and we just go by the dates. What do we think?

And we can stretch that to like, Tell you what, I don't like May the 4th. Tell you what. The 40-minute version of I don't like Monday. They're like, I swear Mick Jagger's going to turn up any time, guys. Stick with me. Don't change the channel. To minimise change over time, guys. Stick with me. Don't change the channel.

To minimise change over time, bands performed on a revolving stage, so whilst one was playing, another could be setting up. Oh, that's sick. At the end of each set, the stage would turn and the next band would start to play. In this way, there was only a very short pause, but the bands were also threatened by Geldof. He said, no one goes over. If you don't stop, we're literally going to press a button and the stage will spin around, which is hilarious to imagine.

This reminds me a bit of when you organised a world record attempt at the longest- Longest ever variety show, yeah. And there was a similar rule where each act couldn't go over. Yeah, you couldn't. Ten minutes each, and the emcees, which was Adam Knox and I, couldn't do more than five minutes in between each act, and we had a timer each time.

So if one act theoretically goes ten minutes and ten, the whole record's off. It's not a variety show. So this is all set down, the rules set down by Guinness. By Guinness, yeah. And I get carried away a bit on stage, and I talk pretty slowly. So I thought I had a set of eight minutes to do with a bit of a buffer. And then I see there's clocks everywhere as well.

And then Adam Knox pretty much came up. And anyway, that was Matt because I went to like nine minutes and 55 seconds. You're yelling out the punchline. This is very much just like I guess the ends justifies the means This is all Geldof's idea here I don't care

Whatever happens, we've got a goal and we're getting there That's right, if I've got a fly kick out and John off the piano It's what's going to happen Which is like, Streson ain't going to make it there And then if they do, it's like Now fuck off again. There's the side tap on his wrist, like, come on, mate, come on. I think I read somewhere that U2's manager called him at 2am the night before and said they'll only go on if they get a sound check,

but no one gets a sound check because there's no time for that sort of thing. And the manager said, well, they won't play. And then he goes, well, fuck them, and hung up. Of course they turned up and played but you know he was just that like yeah

he just got shit done which is cool I used to think he was a bit of a dick from the interviews I'd seen with him but now I'm like I respect this guy

yeah right well it sounds like he's using his a bit of a dickness yeah oh yeah like mad props to it like he's like

I got no time for your diva shit yeah okay you're not gonna say anything you're gonna come yeah cause if you don't I'm not saying you announce it come? Because if you don't, I'm not saying, you announce it, mate.

You say why you weren't there as a thing for charity. That you said you were going to be. Go on. He's using his powers of his own divaness to combat their divaness. If you're the ultimate diva, you can't out diva him. I'm King Diva. Yeah, he is King Diva. Well done, Bobby.

Now, there's three awesome oral histories of Live Aid that I found, one on The Guardian, one on Yahoo, and one from Philly Mag. I'll link to them all in the show notes, but they're where a lot of the quotes in this bit come from. English TV presenter Noel Edmonds was helping out with getting the artists to the London gig. So it's all voluntary. Everyone's volunteering their time.

Noel Edmonds sort of chauffeuring. to the London Geeks. So it's all voluntary. Everyone's volunteering their time. Noel Edmonds sort of chauffeuring. Yeah, and this is him speaking to the Guardian. He said, I had a helicopter company based in Battersea at the time. Of course he did.

It's the 80s. Sure. We shuttled people into London Transport's cricket ground about 400 yards from Wembley Stadium. On the day, it was the climax of their cricket tournament and they wouldn't abandon their game for us, so the umpires had whistles, and when they saw a helicopter coming, they blew the whistles and the field for us to land.

Imagine being playing in that game. You're on 99. You're reminded of a whistle blows and then Brian Ferry, looking pissed off, gets out of the helicopter. There's a grumbling, what am I mean? A whistle blows and then Brian Ferry, looking pissed off, gets out of the helicopter. He's grumbling. What am I doing? I don't want to be.

Yes. It would be amazing. You'd dine out on that forever as one of those cricketers. Oh, it'd be so great, wouldn't it? That's sort of like mid-level cricket, I'm guessing. It's not international cricket or anything. Right. Yeah, amazing.

This is another quote from Noel. I seem to remember that David Bowie's management said he only flew in a blue helicopter. That's blue on the inside. And we managed to find one. I was killing time with him at Battersea before we flew in and I said, look at the inside of this helicopter. He looked at me as if I were mad. He didn't give a shit about what colour the helicopter was. That's so good.

I'm going to be like, we got you a blue one. And he's like, what? Why? Isn't that like a trick managers do sometimes to make sure you really

care about their acts? And paying attention to the rider. Yeah. Put a weird request in. Because if you get that right, you've probably got all the actual stuff right.

But I love that. But he's like, what? Yeah, imagine, I'll do this charity thing, but here's a ridiculous demand. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Here's my rider. Okay.

These are the things I need. One, helicopter. Blue. Yeah. Amazingly, everyone made it. I will say that David Bowie is wearing a blue suit at the gig, so maybe he did want a blue. But amazingly, everyone made it to the show, including Princess Diana, who arrived at 11.30am. Rest in peace.

All the acts lining up to meet her. They're all celebs, but they're all like, oh, my God, Princess Diana's one of the most famous people on the planet at this time. It's wild that she came up independently at the start and then you've already mentioned her twice. She's just on air for some reason. Yeah, we're talking about her a lot. TV presenter Paula Yates

Who was also in a relationship with Gelboff Had to stop at a petrol station on the way to Wembley Because she remembered she hadn't got any flowers For the princess Just as her daughter Fifi was about to hand over the flowers During the royal line up She realised that the price was on the very Very cheap flowers

There you go Princess Diana She's a princess Imagine she's on the very, very cheap flowers. Here you go, Princess Diana. She's a princess. What does she know? She's like, oh, I'm furious that these flowers are going to throw into a pile. Yeah, me, a princess who can get anything I want, and you've given me $5. You spent on me.

What a weird thing to get. All right, now you, my servants, or whatever you call normal people when there's a coin. Subjects. Subjects, my subjects. I've got a ridiculous amount of money, but I still do want gifts from you for some reason. Surely she should be giving out the flowers. Yeah, right.

Exactly. What the fuck is wrong with this system? This is why I'm like death to the royals, you know? Okay, it's good because normally I'm outnumbered by monarchists on this show. Dave and Jess are very- Obviously. No, no, no, no, no, no. All hail the Republic.

Big respects to- Obviously they were chosen by God to be there, to lead the country into battle. They've got that special blood, I know. Our country as well though, Dave. Yeah, all the countries. Honestly, if everything was under the Queen, we'd all be a lot better off. Nothing bad ever happened due to the monarch. Exactly.

Oh, I didn't realize that. That's a great, that is an amazing fact. Once you realize, you can say why I think that once you realize that. Yeah. Once you realize that most wars were probably fought, you know, because of like a petty family squabble. Yeah. Just colors like the royals in a bit of different light, you know?

Yeah. Exactly. They're the beautiful people. a bit of different light, you know? Yeah. Yeah, exactly. They're beautiful people. Yeah, beautiful, beautiful. Always right. Always right. And they deserve more than cheap flowers. Anyway.

Now, Zabit, I've done an episode. Cinevo flowers as well. I've done an episode a year or two ago about Woodstock, and some people were offended when I didn't give too much time on their faves. Okay. So I will say that. Yeah, the band. Yeah, I offended.

But that was because, yeah, I think we didn't realize you said the band. We thought it was whatever you said before that, and then you were just underlining the fact that they were a band. The band. Like you said something like the string band, the band. Like, oh, yeah, we understood that they were a band. Oh, it's a band called The Band. Like, oh, yeah, Dave, we understood that. Oh, it's a band called The Band?

Yes. Okay, okay. But we didn't give them enough respect. Okay. A few people were absolutely yelling at their iPods. And there were a couple of bands that I just sort of skipped over. But I will say that I simply can't go through every set in Live Aid because it goes for 16 hours.

But I will go through the whole line-up so no one misses being mentioned. So hopefully everyone's happy with that. Some are still huge acts today. Others are 80s bands that now play at the Shopping Town Hotel. It's a real mix. That's fun. It's a fun game to see how many of these people I know. I reckon

not many. And also, what does Dave think is still a huge band? You would count U2 as still being a huge band, even though they don't pop charts anymore. Yeah, but a band that everyone knows. Still sell out arenas. Yeah, they're a huge band. Like you would count U2 as still being a huge band even though they don't pop charts anymore. Yeah, but like a band that everyone knows. Yeah, still sell out arenas. Yeah, that's in huge like popular culture for decades to come. The whole thing kicked off at midday local time in Wembley.

72,000 people packed the stadium. They each paid £25 to get in and then at home on TV and on the radio, the audience were encouraged to pledge fire, either calling a telephone line or by mailing in cheques. Great. Really was a different time. And kicking off the whole show with the aptly titled song Rocking All Over the World, Status Quo.

No idea. Well, you'd know them from the Coles ads, wouldn't you? Is that them? Yeah, but which song is it? They're the ones, Prices Are Down. Oh, yeah'd know them from the Coles ads, wouldn't you? Is that them? Yeah, but which song is it? They're the ones, Prices Are Down. Oh, yeah. The Prices Are Down. The Coles band.

The Coles band. Yeah, I know the Coles band. In the Moscow building, like, play the Coles song. Yeah, where's the big hand? I think all those Coles ads are their hits, but just with, you know, love changes to prices or instead of peace, they say supermarket shelves. Rocking all over the world, discounting all over the world.

In brackets, mostly the Australian market. But their song is rocking all over the world, so it makes sense that they kick it off. Then there's the Style Council. Oh, I only vaguely remember. But it's a great, great title. Yeah, what's their hit? That's the thing.

I don't have time to go through every one of those. Look, fair enough. Literally, do not look up every band, Matt. It will take too long. Dave, I'm telling you that The Style Council Posse will come after us. No. They call themselves a posse, not me. I would, I mean, they're going to cancel the name.

There is a list. They played You're the Best Thing, Big Boss Groove, Internationalists, and Walls Come Tumbling Down. I think I might know that one. I mean, look at that photo. They're a beautiful couple of boys. It looks like he's dressed up as that iconic rock photo where he's wearing the bum bag and the gold chain.

Before his time. That's actually what's famous about this band is Paul Weller is one of the duo. Oh, from the hair's Before his time One of That's actually what's Famous about this band is Paul Weller Is one of the The duo Do you know Paul Weller? Oh, from the hair From the shampoo No

Famous Weller, Weller, Weller No, I still like that He went solo after After the Style Council Who? And he's called The Modfather

He really influenced The 90s Who? Mod bands like Oasis And Britpop Oh, wow There you go Oh, the Beatles influenced Oasis and Britpop. There you go. Oh, the Beatles influenced Oasis.

Oh, he was also in The Jam. No, they covered The Beatles. The Jam? He was in The Jam, then Style Council, then went solo. Oh, wow. So he's been around for ages. So he's a legend that we all should know. Yeah.

People are furious that we don't. Yeah. But you can catch them playing at the Shopping Town Hotel. And then there's the Boomtown Rats, Bob Geldof's own band, which is pretty cool. I heard about them from before. Yes, they played I Don't Like Mondays. Actually, now we know more of their songs.

They played I Don't Like Mondays, Drag Me Down, and they encored with Rat Trap. Okay, Rat Trap. Such a funny name for a song. How come they got an encore? I thought there was a very tight time limit. No, it wasn't. They just did a funny name for a song. How come they got like an encore? I thought there was a very tight time limit. No, it wasn't. They just did a long version of that song.

Then there's Adam Ant, who, looking back, sounds a bit sour about only being allowed to perform one song. He played Vive La Rock. Okay. He's the guy with the one stripe across his face, yeah? Yeah, I think they're pretty good. Apparently Adam and the, I thought they were just a funny novelty kind of band. A bit of a joke band, and they certainly were treated that way for this.

Right, because, yeah, apparently I know some bands that are like now have, you know, when they've guested on radio shows and put a music list together, they've played Adam and the Ant songs that I've never heard of. So I think some people. Some people rate them. Yeah, I mean, it's all so I think some people. Some people rate them. Yeah. I mean, it's all so fucking subjective. Yes, that's the thing.

Isn't it? But Adam, looking back in the oral history, he's a bit sour. He said, initially I was asked to do four songs, and then I think what happened is big bands started to show interest. Queen, Bowie, and late in the day through Harvey Goldsmith, the promoter, I was told, you're off the show, you're not doing it. Fortunately, I was managed by Miles Copeland, who managed Sting, and who said, if you don't put Adam on, you're not going to have Sting.

So I was allowed to play one song. Oh, that's, yeah, I don't like that too much. Yeah. But that is classic getting bumped for a bigger, there's a drop in. Chris Rock is coming. But then Chris Rock has said, I'm not going on unless he goes on before me. Love it. Sting, someone says that to Sting.

He said, no, I'll go on. Adam and the Ant. Adam who? The Ant Man. I hate him. Then one of the crosses was Oz for Australia. Molly Meldrum. Really?

Then introduced via satellite some highlights from the Oz for Africa concert that was held on the same day at the Sydney Entertainment Centre. So there was a whole gig on. Yeah, right. That's cool. And due to time zone differences, the Oz for Africa concert began 12 hours before the Wembley Stadium and was therefore technically the first live aid gig.

Got them. Got them, man. Got them. Basically, it was an Australian thing. Well done, boys. Well done. Bob Geldof is basically Australian. Jess loves a big international story that somehow references Australia.

She would have been so excited by this. She would be buzzing for this. So mid-'80s in Australia, the band, it would have been like Brian Mannix and stuff like that. Well, so Channel 9 and 7 both played the whole concert in Australia and some songs by In Excess were actually shown on BBC in the UK and other songs by Men at Work, Little River Band and In Excess as well were shown on the United States on ABC.

They all held up as like they're still pretty well-known bands, I think. Yeah. They're all ones who sold overseas as well. I was really hoping they were going to throw up some just big local market bands. Well, the ones that didn't make it so that we had Mental Is Anything, Machinations, The Models, Do Re Mi, Electric Pandas, Dragon. They're a big local band. Don't go out in the rain.

Don't go. Which they played as well as Are You Old Enough? Creepy. That is a creepy tune. Aussie Crawl, Australian Crawl. Oh, yeah. Party Girls and the Uncanny X-Men did play. That is Brian Maddox's band.

I would have, I mean, yeah, I reckon I know two-thirds of those. That would have been a great festival. In excess headlined. They were huge. When did Farnham become like an Australian icon? He was an icon as a teen. And he was in the Little River Band for a while. He was, playing a win.

Where was he? Let me see if he was in at the time. He might have been. It was sort of in that mid-'80s period. But he went solo again and had in, I think it was like 86 maybe was when he had the album with Yule The Voice. That would have been great for like. Yeah.

Big crowd sing-along tune. Yeah. What was that album called? Whispering Jack. You're not going to believe it. What a name for an album. John Farnham in the band from 82 to 86. He would have been there.

Fancy played Livehead. Did they play Plan to Win? Keytar? I can bring up their set. Their final song was Playing to Win. Fantastic. It's all coming up. All right, new time machine destination for me.

I'm going to go to Live Aid. Oh, awesome. London or Philadelphia? Australia. Oh, no, Sydney. Sydney. That's the best. I'd love it if you did that.

Like the person operating the time machine's got Live Aid ready to go because so many people choose it. You go, whoa, whoa, whoa. No, no, no. Does that say Wembley? No. What the hell is that? Why would I want to go there?

You misspelled Sydney Entertainment Centre. Did you know like 12 hours before this? Garbage. But in Sydney. Maybe if they let Adam and the Ants play one or two more tunes. But one track. Then it was Ultravox, Midge's band. Then Spandau Ballet.

No idea. Elvis Costello. No, that one. There you go. Got one. That's a name I know. Is that because you're thinking of Elvis Presley? No, no, no, no.

He's got glasses, yeah? He wears a hat. That's right. Yes. All of his arms. What did he play? He's one of those guys who could play a long set. He looks like a failed uncle, right?

No, he looks like a successful uncle. He actually had an extremely short set. He played the Beatles cover, All You Need Is Love, for three minutes. That's all he did. Yeah, interesting. Apparently he got his name because he went to some little punkish kind of record label was going to sign him, and they sign him and they go, but by the way, your name is now Elvis Costello.

His real name is like something quite plain, I guess. He's like, all right. He just said, yeah, all right. And they went, oh, we were joking. Your name is now Elvis Costello. Oh, okay. She's like, yes, this is what record labels do. Yeah.

Yeah, I'm just stoked to sign. Early on, big bands end up having these long, awful contracts because they just want to make it. I love the absolute opposite of that and this takes real confidence uh the white stripes early on uh record i wanted to sign them but jack white said no because the logo of the record label was green and he didn't want to put it on the back of that yeah that's amazing he just wanted red white and black which is their colors and they wouldn't change the color and he went, oh, I don't want to do it then. Yeah, that's like an extreme version of it. So, Wester Stallone was sort of similar to Rocky.

He was like, he had all these film companies who were interested in the script, but he insisted on starring and they're like, no, we'd love to get to, and he held out and he held out and they ended up caving. Love, yeah, if you're that confident, which is, I'm still waiting for Warner Brothers to get back to me. I'm actually going to be in my own action movie. They said they'd pay me $9 million for the script. I said, no, unless I'm in it.

Now, hold on, Al. That's good. Elvis Costello's real name, Declan McManus. Not bad. That's a good name. Declan McManus. That sounds like a boy band member, though. Yeah.

Not in a punk rock label. But, like, look. Look at this picture here. It's a picture with Mary Louise Parker. He looks like an uncle that, like, he's pretending he's doing well. Are you joking? Yeah. Look, if you met him at, like, a family do and he's like,

I'm doing really well and I'm like, I'm sure. Why is he telling you that? I'm sure you are I'm like, I'm sure you are, Uncle Elvis. I'm sure you are, Uncle Elvis. Seven beers in, it's like, hey, kid, can I borrow 20 bucks? Yeah, yeah. Yeah, he's the uncle that's hitting me up for a 20. Any uncle who's going around to his nieces and nephews going, well, I'm doing really well. I know what your dad said about me.

Alright, Uncle Declan, I did not. And also, I will not call you Uncle Elvis. Uncle Dex, I get it. I get it. I'm doing really, really well. Also, come to my record. I've got gold records all over the walls. Yeah, I'm sure you do. And yes, you can sleep on my couch tonight.

I don't need a couch. I've got quite a big house. Mate, honestly, don't need a couch. I've got quite a big house. Mate, honestly, don't be too proud. I've heard about you, uncle. I've heard of you. That dinner, they gave him one song and it was a cover. He goes, don't you know I played a live ad? And you go, yeah, but it was one song and a cover.

I mean, are you really doing that well? At least Adam Ant got his own song. He did his own fucking song. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So are you really doing well or are you just pretending you're someone else? Adam Ant is also your uncle.

Walking around in a full costume. I'm doing really well. Yeah, we know you're doing great, mate. Adam's doing great. Elvis. Elvis, have you met Adam? He makes you get a gimmick. He dresses up like an ant.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I guess. And here's you. What do you reckon? A bit of face paint. I think he's trying to dress up as an ant. I think he's trying to be a cat, isn't he? Yeah.

And here's you, Mr. Elvis, you know, just shunning our family name. Yeah. Piece of shit. The McManuses are a proud clan. And here you are. Elvis, Elvis. All right, so I'll go through the line-up separately, but it was at this point you've got to imagine that the Philadelphia concert

kicked off, and from then on it went one band in one city and then the other, and they'd broadcast live in the stadium the footage. Oh, that's cool. So that way there's always something to watch. Then there was Nick Kershaw. We're still at Wembley. I'd like to know you. I'd like to know you. I'd like to see you know me well.

I only know Nick Kershaw because Tony Martin will sing little bits of his songs on his radio show sometimes. Oh, okay. I'd like to think I know you well. I don't know if that's the lyrics or not. I've never heard an actual song where I've only ever heard Tony Martin's version of Nick Kershaw. His opening song was called Wide Boy. Absolutely classic. That's great.

I think, I don't know this for sure, but I picture him as like skinny leather ties, sort of. That kind of 80s. His closing song is called Wouldn't It Be Good. Wouldn't It Be Good. Yeah, I think that's one of the ones that Tony Martin referenced. Sounds a bit like he's like trying to rip off the Beach Boys but then change it. Wouldn't it be good? Wouldn't it be good? Yeah, I think that's one of Tony Martin's reference. He's like trying to rip off the Beach Boys but then change it.

Wouldn't it be good if we had a wide boy pointing to someone in the crowd? Oh, piss off. Piss off, Nick. Wide boy at a charity concert for people who were starving. Oh, Nick, what were you saying? He's a wide boy at a charity concert for people who were starving. Oh, Nick, what were you thinking? Yeah. Poor taste, mate. Just a little bit. Wide boy.

Wide boy. That's one of the funniest song titles I've ever heard. Really funny song. Great work, Nick. Probably a masterpiece. People are furious. Kershaw heads are at home going, they're making fun of Wideboy?

Are they mocking the seminal classic Wideboy? I mean, I'm going to look it up on Spotify. It's probably got like 100 million plays or something. Nick Kershaw. Is it one of his big hits? It's not there, but his most played song is called The Riddle Then Wouldn't It Be Good Then I Won't Let The Sun Go Down On

And then Wouldn't It Be Good Re-recorded And then I Won't Let The Sun Go Down On Re-recorded No Son of a wide boy Or I'd Like To Know You Well Or something like that No it's mostly Remixes of Wouldn't It Be Good

Obviously he's a big hit I've found it or something like that. No, it's mostly remixes of Wouldn't It Be Good. Obviously, he's being hit. Oh, I found it. Wouldn't It Be Good is the one with the lyric, I'd like to get to know you well, I think. Why are we getting sidetracked by this? I know, sorry. The last lyrics of Wide Boy, it's,

I'm here to tell you that you ain't no Superman, you just a wide boy. The poet, Nick Kershaw. That's really funny. Wide boy. I found on Spotify it has had two million plays. Okay, okay. Great work. Wide boy. All right. People seem to be digging it. Must be 2 million plays. Okay, okay. Great work. Wide boy. All right.

People seem to be digging it. Must be a good song. Yeah, people loving it. Wide boy. I know. I'll have to post and listen to it. All right, so that's Nick Kershaw. Then B.B. King beamed in to do a set from a jazz festival in the Netherlands,

which is pretty cool. Okay, heard of him. Yep, cool, cool, cool. Then the singer Sade. Big at the time and had a very acclaimed set. What was her big song? She absolutely killed it. She played Why Can't We Live Together,

Is It A Crime, Your Love Is King, her three songs. I think she had one really big song and I didn't recognise any of those. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I have no idea who this person is. Then you're going to know. You probably recognise these names. Fingers crossed.

Then Sting and Phil Collins performed a medley of their songs together. Yep, I know Sting from the Dune film. He was very good in it. Oh, my God. One of the worst films I've ever seen. What? Do you like that movie? Like, yeah, but not for good reasons.

Oh, okay. I tried to watch it as a good. Maybe I've got to reassess my watch. Yeah. I definitely know Wouldn't It Be Good. I'm just looking at the lyrics. I know that song for sure. Wouldn't it be good to be on your side?

You don't know White Boy. The grass is always greener over there. I know that song. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Wouldn't it be good? Apologies for the singing. Can I just ask which of the nine versions on Spotify that was? He's definitely, if he's still getting around,

he's starting and finishing sets with that. Starting and finishing. Hey, guys, in case you got here a little late, here it is. Wouldn't it be good? Wouldn't it be good if you're on time? All right. One, two, three, four. Sting and Phil Collins performed together.

I don't know if you heard that bit, Matt. So that's pretty cool. A medley, one of their songs and the other. Then Phil Collins left Wembley via a helicopter just before 4 o'clock, flew to Heathrow where he connected with a waiting Concorde plane to fly him to the USA where he would perform at the other event as well. Isn't that great to spend so much money on fuel and stuff for a charity event? At the time, we weren't worried about global warming.

Can we use this Concorde flight to send some food over? No, we're going to send Phil. Sorry, we thought you said send Phil over. We thought you needed Phil. And here it is. He's playing to it. They're like, one, we've never heard of you. Two, what the fuck?

It is just a little ridiculous. Because a lot of these bands and performers would be paid astronomical amounts that they could kind of do a lot with what they have, right? And so it comes down to personal responsibilities. But it's just like, no, no, no, no, no. Just the ego to be like, I am going to perform in Wembley and then get on a fucking plane. A helicopter first. A helicopter first.

Blue interior. Blue internally. And then on the fucking Concorde and then perform in America. And that's going to be sick. I am doing so. It's like just like the cognitive dissonance that you must have For any of this to be like This isn't going to be a sick idea I feel like to be super rich

You must have some cognitive dissonance going on right To not be going like I probably should Share a bit of this around I reckon I could probably fix some problems Maybe But not being directly involved Just if I throw a money at it

But you've got to remember, it's the 80s. Everything's big. Hair, shoulder pads, and egos are flying at an all-time high. Huge, huge. Great is good. That's the 80s. I think, yeah, the whole mindset, they didn't. Although people were already talking about some things that were happening negatively, right?

And people actually also talk about how some people say that this saved the decade of the 80s because it actually made people think about, because it was all about greed and all that sort of stuff. Sarah was like, this is a good idea. Because, you know, I mean, 1.9 billion people watched it. That's something. Did anyone get pissy at Phil Collins for, like, going and getting on the Concorde, being like,

why didn't I do that? Why was an Iron Fist? Where was my Concorde? Hello? Hey, look, I know. Surely Sting would have been like, oh. Oh, okay. He gets to go on the.

Is there another seat? I wonder, wouldn't you be like, glad I didn't have to. I could get my set out in one hit. Yeah, honestly. That's kind of brutal. It's a lot. And you hear Phil does a lot during the day. I'll talk about that. I need it because people big- That's kind of brutal. It's a lot. And you hear it. Phil does a lot during the day. I'll talk about that.

I need to because people will be yelling at their iPods. Me going on about that, like to get to know you well, being a Nick Kershaw song. It was actually a Howard Jones song, another guy that I don't really know. But Tony Martin, he mentions those two acts. Oh, okay. That's what connects them in my head. Right.

Well, next time if you just quote Wide Boy, we'd be much happier. Honestly, Dave, are you sure you don't have time to edit this one tonight? Hey, you've clarified everything. People have hit the tweet, replied to the tweet saying, sorry, you just realised it was Howard Jones.

I know a lot of our listeners will be big Howard Jones heads. Oh, be how he is. Yeah. Phil Collins, he gets on the Concord, he later remembered all the baggage handlers came out to wave goodbye. Then we took off in the Concord. Cher was on the flight. Okay.

Just heading back to the States, and I'd never met her before, so I went over and said hello. You know, hi, I bought I Got You, babe. That's what he told Cher. She's like, what the told you she's like what the hell and she asked what was going on i told her about live aid and she asked whether she could get on i told her to just turn up that's fine so so so it went from being like okay you if you you are coming you have a certain amount of fucking time and don't you fuck around or you

are cut to like, just come on. He's getting his act like, fuck, he's got no control of this. Is it? This isn't Bob, this is Phil. Yeah, I know. Phil's just invited. He's saying to the pilot, hey, I reckon you could drop by. Yeah. Drop by. So yeah, like Geldof is there being like, we've got this accident. Cher pops up. He's like, what

the fuck is this? He's probably also like, I guess it's Cher. She's pretty big. It feels like a good problem to have. But I think those sort of things make for a better story, right? That Cher's just doing a drop-in. Yeah, just whatever. Imagine, you know, the belief of being like, oh, this is an all-star festival. Yeah, bump one of them for me.

Yeah, that's right. I was in the neighborhood. Has Adam Ant played yet? Get him off. He's Adam Ant. That's why he wears the magus, to cover the tears. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh. The perfect time to bump Adam Ant would be directly after Sting performs.

Because he's got no leverage. The manager's like, we've already got Sting again. Bumped for sure. Poor Adam. In the deal. But Adam has to go on before Sting. Get off you dog.

Brian Ferry, who was bullied into playing, got on. So Brian Ferry from Roxy Music. He said, I have terrible memories of it all going wrong. I'd put together an all-star band and the set was fraught with problems. We had David Gilmour from Pink Floyd on guitar. And poor David, his guitar wasn't working for the first couple of songs. Oh, Jesus. With his first hit, the drummer put his stick through the drum skin.

And then my microphone wasn't working, which for a singer is a bit of a handicap. Yeah, well, no more than the guitarist's guitar isn't working. There's no guitar. There's no vocals. There's no drums. The bass player. It's my time to shine. He's carrying that band.

Oh, my God. Brian said, a roadie ran on with another mic, so then I was holding two mics taped together and I wasn't really sure which one to sing into. It was a great day, though. He's got fond memories. That's kind of nice. It's like pairing a fuck-up with a good thing,

so it stays in his mind a lot. Positive fuck-up. Because, yeah, there's other stories. the the led zeppelin one i believe none of them remember it fondly if i'm thinking of the right thing you are absolutely thinking of the right thing and you know what i've just gone back to the set list to have a look at what brian ferry played and you're never gonna believe this but after sting and and Phil Collins before Brian Ferry, I missed one band, and that is a certain Howard Jones. Oh, no kidding. Oh, there you go.

When I was copying over the set list, I missed him. He played Hide and Seek. Is that the song? No. Oh, I think it's called I'd Like to Get to Know You Well. I'd Like to Get to Know You Well. They let him play one song so that Howard Jones was on the lineup. That's amazing.

There you go. I just missed it. Thank goodness, because people would be furious. Yeah. I think I'm going to try and listen to, there must be Spotify and other playlists. Oh, I've been smashing it all week. It's awesome.

Yeah, great. So you would have heard some Howard Jones then. So you would have probably heard Wide Boy. No. To be honest, some of the acts I really skipped through. It goes for 16 hours. So you would have probably heard Wide Boy. No. To be honest, some of the acts I really skipped through their set. It goes for 16 hours. So Brian Ferry, then Paul Young, then U2 played an acclaimed set that showed that they were future stadium superstars.

They were four albums in and on the rise, but they'd only had one top 40 single in the US at this point. Oh, interesting. Which was Pride in the Name of Love. Rolling Stone later wrote that the 12 minutes at Live Aid really made their career, referring to their 12-minute version of their second and final song they played, a track called Bad. They did a 12-minute version of a song?

Yeah. And how long did they have to play? About 15 minutes. Okay. Was Geldof furious or was he just like, is this far enough into the concert that he's probably given up? No, it's not even halfway through. Don't worry, Bob.

We're only going to play two songs. Well, they were supposed to play three. So they played Sunday Bloody Sunday, which was a hit in Europe. Sunday Bloody Sunday. I don't like Mondays. What's with Irish musicians and Days of the Week? Bob's like, I don't know about this. I kind of did the days of the week thing.

Craig David comes on. He's fucking furious. So they were meant to play their big hit, Pride in the Name of Love, but Bono went AWOL and went into the crowd during their 12-minute version of Bad. He wanted to bring three girls onto the stage to dance. Classic Bono. And it took so long they had to cut their final track. And the band and the crowd can't see what's going on.

So you can literally see the band looking at each other like, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding. You know, that classic riff. And this is the set that made their career. Yeah. Yeah. Holding time. Just playing for time.

Because he's a rebel. He's going to the crowd. He's grabbing women. The microphone. Sorry, not the microphone. The TV camera captured it all. So at home everyone seeing this great moment. He goes in and it takes a while for security to let the girls out of the crowd.

And he's going to come up and he dances with them. But Bono had this big idea to create a TV moment, which he did. So it was a massive thing at home. But the band actually left the stage because they had to cut out. It's a different time, right? A big TV moment back then was a mulleted Irishman getting into the crowd and just bringing a few people out. A few people out, kissing them on the cheek.

While the edge goes ding-ding-a-ding-a-ding-a-ding. That's a TV moment. Everyone was glued to their screens. Is he going to get them over the barrier onto the stage? Or will they fall over? Yeah, I think the only TV moment I can think of really that may, you know, like more modern is like Justin Timberlake, you know, grabbing Janet Jackson's titty out.

Yeah. Like that's like, that's a TV, like a terrible TV moment. It's like, oh, you're fucking up. Well, you remember that moment. But you remember it. That's a TV moment. In the 80s, people remember the time Bono got some girls out of the crowd.

Yeah. And so the band actually left the stage thinking that the set was a bit of a mess because they had to cut their whole last song. Oh, yeah. But later heard that they were named by many as a highlight of the day and with so many people watching it really cemented their status as like rising superstars.

Because he grabbed three. It's massive for YouTube. People remember like, oh, yeah. And I will say if you watch the set, when they're performing, they are really good. Yeah. Yeah. I imagine to do that better, they should have,

that long version should have been their hit, you know, and then they get the people up on stage and he sings the big, because that is one of those big arena, all their hits are big arena songs, but, you know, it's In the Name of Love, all that sort of stuff. That would have been pretty sick. After that build-up, the tension build-up, and then the big chorus that no one's heard before.

Ding-a-ding-a-ding-a-ding. Bad. We're bad. You're bad. It's apparently a staple of their live set, the song Bad, so it still is. So is it a song we'd know? I didn't know it, but I thought it was awesome. If you watch it, they sound good.

They were one of the better sounding bands. You used to hate U2, so you got converted by this TV moment. That's right. No, I didn't hate U2. That's okay. You can hate U2. I don't have much care for U2. That's my thing.

I don't love or hate them. I'm very U2 neutral. But some of their songs are like Sunday Bloody Sunday and One is a great song. Love that song. I think, yeah, they've got a lot of great songs, I think. Yeah, but definitely don't hate them. Yeah. But the TV moment.

I would say I don't love them or hate them. I know Ireland hates them. Yeah. Or at least hates Bono. We found that out. Yeah, we did a live. We did Bono and U2 as a topic. Yeah, right.

Live in Dublin. And they did not appreciate it. It was fun because they hated it so much. For a while we thought they were saying boo, no. Boo, no. Are you saying boo, no or Bono? I was saying boo, no. Then Dire Straits performed with Sting who sings I Want My MTV

or I Want My MTV, or I Want My TV on Money for Nothing. You know that song? Yeah. I never realised I was Sting singing that bit. Yeah. And then he did it live, which is super cool. We did an episode about that album on Listen Now.

Oh, your spin-off podcast about you going through the 80s at the time. Is that right? Yeah. We're still counting down the, as voted by the listeners, the top 20 albums of the 80s at the time, is that right? Yeah. We're still counting down the, as voted by the listeners, the top 20 albums of the 80s. I think we're 11 or 12 albums in and then COVID. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That pesky COVID keeps fucking things.

We do go on. We find ways to get it done every week no matter what. But listen now, we have a different approach. Yeah, that's right. Different ethos. But the harder, because we play clips of the songs, it's just harder to do it remotely. I tried to start cutting them in and it was an nightmare.

So I'm like, we'll wait this out. We'll wait. How long could this take? And every time we schedule in a session in the studio, it was just like guaranteed to call a lockdown. Yeah, yeah. So we asked you to kindly stop scheduling. Stop jinxing. Listen Now is cursed.

The Cursed Podcast. Then when you think of a band at Live Aid, there's generally one band set that comes to mind. A band that has absolutely knocked it out of the park or stadium, if you will. Do you know who I'm talking about? Nick Kershaw. Fantastic. The Nick Kershaw himself.

The Nick Kershaw featuring Howard Jones I am of course talking about Queen Yes They were introduced by comedians Griff Rees-Jones and Mel Smith Dressed as police officers Addressing the crowd They say

We've had a bit of a complaint about the noise From a woman in Belgium Which is very funny It's that loud anyway That makes it loud Complain about the noise from a woman in Belgium, which is very funny. It's that loud anyway. That makes it loud. Belgium's quite a while away. That's a long way away.

There's this distance, far. And a woman, that's funny. Because they're not normally ones who would complain, so that heightens the comedy there, doesn't it? They do a bit of stand-up to fill in the time between acts. It's good. We're going to have to just fill in the time between acts. It's good. It's good. We're going to have to do the rest of the day quietly, unplugged. Unplugged.

You will hear nothing here, but at home they will hear it. So they do a medley of hits, which a lot of people said was absolutely genius. Yes. They didn't just play like so most bands played their three five minute songs but they just went all right we're gonna play that's clever you two the other supposedly iconic set from what you're saying from the day yeah went the opposite direction no they played an album track and stretched it to 12 minutes so honestly yeah so do it one way or the other don Don't just play songs as they are.

So this is their set. They played Bohemian Rhapsody, just a two-minute 20 version. Then Radio Gaga. They played the build-up to Bohemian Rhapsody, and they never rocked out of the end. Yeah, that's true. They never released it. They edged them. Good on them.

They edged them. Normally that's a Sting thing, but Queen did it this time. Sting takes 16 hours. Yeah, it's like, oh, hey, Sting thing, but Queen did it this time. Sting takes 16 hours. Yeah, it's like, oh, hey, Sting, you free for this? It's a six-hour concert. Oh, yeah, I can do that. Just me, yeah? No, no.

No other bands are going to be playing. Okay, well, can I feature on the Phil Collins and the Dire Straits tracks? I don't know why you... Then Queen played Radio Gaga. Then they did the audience participation when Freddie does that. Radio! Which is so fucking cool. That's such a great moment, and people remember

that. Then they played Hammer to Fall. They did Crazy Little Thing Called Love. Crazy Little Thing Called Love. Then they played We Will Rock You just for a minute. And then they finished with We Are The Champions, which is awesome. No Fat Bottom Girls. No.

I can't believe it. Pin me the card. The song was actually called We Will Rock You in brackets, like parentheses, for a minute. I think that would be a nice song title. We Will Rock You for exactly one minute. For a minute. Yeah, I recommend going and watching the set

if you haven't seen it before. It's awesome. Freddie Mercury had the crowd eating out of his hand and that note, during the acapella section, I recommend going and watching the set if you haven't seen it before. It's awesome. Freddie Mercury had the crowd eating out of his hand, and that note, a-oh, during the acapella section came to be known as the note heard around the world. That's what the media called it. That's certainly what a woman in Belgium said. A-oh, shut up.

Shut up. Shut up. The note heard around the world. It's great, isn't it? Is it good or is it awful? No, it's awful. No, I love it. I feel like you're the angel sitting on one shoulder,

Zammett's on the other shoulder again. I'm like, nah. Like, media, think of something better. I don't know what you could, but really? The note heard around the world. The note. The L heard around the world. The note. The L heard around the world. The vocalisation heard around the world.

Midge, one of the Geeks organisers said, they took the 18-minute slot because everyone had about the same amount of time and they did a greatest hits review in 18 minutes. People sat there thinking, my God, I'd forgotten about this one. Oh, and this one. Oh, and this one. Oh, this one's killer too. It was just overkill. It's like, in Ultravox, we didn't have

that many hits. It's like you get into like minute 16, not too much. This is too good. I'm having too good a time. He just hits the revolve button. Oh, whoops. They didn't play a lot of their big hits. That's the thing. They could have played like 10 more hits. He just hits the revolve button. Oh, whoops. Look at that. Like they didn't play a lot of their big hits. That's the thing. They could have played like 10 more hits.

Yeah. Massive hits. Bob Geldof later said, Queen were absolutely the best band of the day. They played the best, had the best sound, used their time to the full. They just understood the idea exactly that it was a global jukebox. They just went and smashed one hit after another. It was the perfect stage for Freddie, the whole world. And he could pounce about on stage during

We Are The Champions. How perfect could it get? And that is so beautifully self-deprecating. Because he is including himself in that list of the best bands on that day. He didn't be like it was after us. Like this Monday song. Yeah, that's right.

I'm liking Bobby Geldof. Queen knew their place. They didn't sing about Days of the Week because that's our thing. I mean Irish people. Live Aid was the first gig that Freddie's long-term lover Jim Hutton attended. Imagine that being the first time you see your partner doing his thing and you're like, holy shit, you're good at this. Yeah. Oh, my God.

I hadn't checked you out yet. I thought you did like covers at the pub or something. Oh, my God. He did covers at the pub, you know, like Elvis Costello does. Yeah, yeah, yeah. He later wrote in his memoir, this is Jim Hutton, his book's called Freddy and Me. He wrote, when he came off, he rushed to his trailer and I tottered behind him like a puppy. His first words were, thank God that's over.

That's nice to know he could enjoy the moment. Adrenaline still overflowing. Freddy knocked back a large vodka to calm himself. Then his face lit up. As we stepped out of the caravan, we met a grinning Elton John. He said, you bastards. You killed it. Love it.

That's so good. Because Elton's coming up soon. Like, how do I top that? It's amazing to think that someone like Elton John's going, I can't follow that. Queen said this. You can picture what he was wearing. I don't know what he actually wore, but I'm picturing him in huge sunglasses,

you know, those huge glasses and a big hat. He busts. Or no, he's wearing that tight white singlet with a black armband. You bust it. Come on. I don't have time to change. This is embarrassing. That's why he puts on

a big hat and glasses to cover it. Yeah, cover it up. What have we got on hand? That was like, I can lend you some stuff. That's how a family look. I don't know what I'm doing with these English accents. I'll have to say it because no one would know that that's what I was trying to do. That was English, wasn't it? Barely sound like the language, let alone the accent.

Queen said at Live Aid has been consistently voted as one of the greatest, if not the greatest and most iconic live performance at a festival or a gig. It's consistently up there. People absolutely love it. And you watch it, it's really, really good. Incredibly hard set to follow. And honestly, few could do it other than Mr. David Bowie, who kicked off his set with a pre-recorded video of him and Mick Jagger

doing dancing in the streets. Yes, right. Was that recorded for this? I'm not sure if it's recorded for this. I've definitely seen that. It's a famous video, isn't it? Because I saw it. I think Bob Geldof maybe organised this.

It was for a charity. You'd hope it was. Yeah. Unless he's just like, I made a video. Everyone watch. You kind of want it to be made. I think, I don't know if it was, I'm guessing it was, I didn't know it was played there,

but I remember hearing the story that they were asked to put something together. I think maybe it was Bob Geldof asked them to put something together, and it might have been Bob telling the story. Sorry to relay another butchered anecdote. Well, you know what's going, right? Yeah. And he's like, two days later, I asked him if they could put something together. Two days later, they handed me the tape.

They'd gone out and just made the clip over that weekend, recorded the song. This classic Motown, you know, it was a cover of a classic song. Was it Motown? Dancing in the Street originally? Whatever. Yes, it was a cover of a classic song. Was it Motown? Dancing in the Street originally? Whatever. Yes, it's originally – it's written by Marvin Gaye. So it was put together really quickly and they just, like, slapped it together, just clearly having fun.

It's great. It is a great clip. And it's almost – it became one of the iconic versions. Oh, you're absolutely right. So the original plan was to form a track together live with Bowie at Wembley Stadium and Jagger at JFK in Philadelphia until it was realized that a satellite link would cause half a second delay. It would be impossible unless one of them mimed their contribution

and they refused to do that. So they came out with this video. Yeah, cool. And you're right. They just smashed it together. That's really nice. The mix of the track was completed in just four hours. Love it.

Yeah, I think that's so fun. Hey, you probably have both seen it. I love that clip of the, they've taken the music out. It's just sort of like the shoe sound and then breathing. That's so great. That is very good. Love it. I do love, yeah, any kind of,

any time you get like a music video or something like that, they're just like, yeah, let's just strip the music and like what's the actual sounds happening? And then, yeah, mick just going just strutting around in classic mick jagger stuff he's so funny uh so that kicked off bowie set and then he finished with a six and a half minute version of heroes awesome stuff he then introduced a video from CBC television footage from Ethiopia of starving people. He'd seen the footage earlier in the week and insisted it be shown in the show

and even offered to give up part of his set if it meant it could run. And after it played the charity pledges greatly increased. People at home are like oh yeah this is more than just a show. I was supposed to be giving. Remembering why. I just thought I was watching a cool thing. Yeah.

Then The Who played. Who? I was waiting for it. Roger. Doesn't that show a maturity from me and Zamit? I mean, I'll do bad stuff. You'll do. But even I drew a line there.

You'll do The Band, but a line there You'll do the band But not the Who I didn't That was genuine That was a genuine But yeah The Who Yeah that's

Roger Dolphrey from the Who said At the time We weren't actually a going band We'd broken up So we were kind of at a poor level That was a bit of a weird Weird Weird show for us

Right Three weirds Then Elton John came on Kind of at a poor level. That was a bit of a weird, weird, weird show for us. Right. Three weirds. Then Elton John came on, introduced by Billy Connolly. How cool is that? Yeah. 32 minutes, Elton had the longest set of the day. 32 minutes.

Yeah, wow. But it's hard to blame him. He played I'm Still Standing, then Benny and the Jets, then Rocket Man, then Don't Go Breaking My Heart, and he brought out Kiki D to do the duet. Then he did Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me with George Michael and Andrew Ridgely from Wham. So good. Which is cool.

Because that song, I remember as a kid, George Michael had a hit with it, and it was like a live, the clip that would be played on Saturday mornings or whatever. It's a live version, and he'd get to, you know the two-thirds of the way through the song and then he'd say ladies and gentlemen mr elton john and elton john comes out and sings a verse i always thought it was george michael's song but yeah it's the reverse of that and it's so funny that george michael just inverted a thing that had already happened where he was the special guest on a and he was massive at the time we're huge but even if you watch uh a bunch of if you watch the footage there's people

like holding up wham posters and stuff so i'm wondering if they were disappointed that wham get a full set uh then he played a another cover of a motown song originally performed by marvin gaye can i get a witness and that finished Elton John's 32 minutes. Then Freddie and Brian May from Queen came back on and did an encore and performed Is This the World Recreated? Right. Was that a planned encore or is it just because their set went so well? I don't think it was planned, but Brian later said,

because that's already one of their songs, but he later said, playing it, it was like we'd written it for live and it felt so perfect. And then the final solo act of the day at Wembley is a man that's pretty hard to follow, Paul McCartney. He came out and sang Let It Be. Now, I'm like, of course Paul played. That makes sense. But at the time, he hadn't performed live for over five years and apparently was very nervous going out there. He hadn't performed live for over five years and apparently was very nervous going out there.

And when he launched into the letter B, his microphone went dead and the vast majority of the Wembley crowd couldn't hear a thing. But, of course, it's one of the greatest sing-along songs of all time, so they just sing. The crowd just sings it until it goes to a gun. It makes it even better, probably. And then when his mic came back on for the second verse, the crowd absolutely roars.

They're like, oh, my God. But it was kind of kept a bit of a secret. Like they sort of snuck him onto the stage and then he starts playing the opening chords of Letter B and the crowd just goes absolutely bananas for him. There's no bigger secret guest that you could have. You know, the Meredith Music Festival, when pre-COVID times I go to every year,

and one year they experimented by having a secret slot and the rumours got out of hand of who it was going to be. People were thinking it was going to be all sorts of things. I reckon some people thought it might have been Paul McCartney and stuff. It ended up being Bob Logg III, who's great. But, you know, his set just bowed under the weight of these expectations. People are going to say, why would they do it if. Oh, my God, Nirvana are reforming.

So they're like, we're. He's putting on his stage. All sorts of reformations were talked about and stuff. And they're like, we won't be doing that again. And it was unfair on him. And it just meant that everyone felt disappointed because very few people were like, oh, jeez, I hope it's Boblog the Third. But if they advertised Boblog the Third, there would have been a bunch of people who would have put on a great show.

Like at the back of Beat Magazine, do you remember, it used to have a list of all the upcoming tours, then it would say rumoured and then it would always have stuff like Nirvana or The Beatles, just a couple of absolutely impossible ones. Near the end, Bob Geldof walks out with David Bowie, Pete Townsend from The Who and Yaz's Alison Moyet to sing a reprise of the song for fans who missed the beginning. So they do the start of Let It Be again.

Bowie starts singing the chorus at the wrong time, but he stops himself and then he just stands there and smiles and looks super cool like, ah, whatever. I'm David Bowie starts singing the chorus at the wrong time, but he stops himself, and then he just stands there and smiles and looks super cool, like, ah, whatever. I'm David Bowie. Finally, the London League of Live Aid finished with a curtain call performance of Do They Know It's Christmas? Yes.

What time of year is it? July. The best song. Yes. Do They Know It's Christmas in July. Great song. You're absolutely right. I've got a great anecdote about Huey Lewis and that song.

Look, I'll see if we've got time for it. Bob Goldhoff came out and he dressed the crowd and said, I think you know the next song because it sold 3 million copies. It might be a bit of a cock up, but if you're going to cock it up, you might as well do it with 2 billion people watching you. So let's cock it up together. But not everyone did know the words. PR chief Bernard Doherty had to go and photocopy Do They Know It's Christmas

because Bob suddenly before they won, I realized half of these acts don't know the words. Yeah. It's hilarious watching Bono stand there in a top hat straining to see the words. But Bowie starts the song and then everyone joins in and it's pretty awesome. It's pretty awesome. I honestly think so. There's this one and then there's Feed the World. Is that the other one?

We Are the Children, so it's the big charity single that I'll talk about. But I honestly think the best one is the parody of it, which is The Simpsons' We're Sending Our Love Down the Well. Down the well. That's honestly the best of the three songs. Yeah. Because we're sending our love down the well. Out of the way now.

Sting digging. Actually digging the hole. Yeah, it was all so good. One of my fans needs me. I've never heard him play any of your records. Shut up, Marge. He's a good digger. He just like came last thing and just home and grabs him, pushes him aside.

Yeah. I remember when Simpsons was good. Oh, so good. Okay, so that's Wembley. Now we've got to go through JFK. Oh, wow. Okay, so there's heaps more. There's so many more.

I'm just trying to imagine being in the audience for any of this. It's just like, I don't know at what point. Sure, amazing. These bands are incredible. They are like the biggest thing you could probably be doing at that moment in time, seeing these people live. But maybe like an hour three? I am so tired.

Looking at the gig, I'm wondering three things. What are they eating? What are they drinking? Where are they pissing? Yeah, right. Because people have camped out the front to get the good spots and there's like 80,000 people behind them. You're shitting your pants, right?

It's really... Like it's a sunny day in England. They're all burning to a crisp. And then apparently, because there's so many people there, up the back you couldn't hear or see that much. A lot of people later said it was better to watch it at home. Right. Great thing to say you were there, which is cool.

Obviously you tell your kids and grandkids forever, but I reckon that it would be pretty hard. The best moments would have been when the crowd were singing along. They're sort of, you're getting to hear that. Oh, let it be. Oh, right. I guess Paul here. Everyone's waking up at the back.

Oh. Is Elvis Costello doing it or is this Paul McCartney doing it? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Because I'm impressed by one of them. So over to JFK Stadium in Philly where 90,000 people had packed it on a very hot and sunny day. Very hot there as well, even hotter. Okay. Opening the U as well. Even hotter.

Opening the US segment of the show in Philadelphia wasn't a superstar at all. In fact, it was an 18-year-old unknown named David Weinstein. Who? He'd just graduated high school in Miami, and when he heard about Live Aid in Philadelphia, he was determined to get on. What? He hoped he could convince legendary concert promoter Bill Graham to give him a shot. So before he left, he recorded a demo tape of a few of his original songs at his high school studio with his music teacher. And as the tape started rolling, David uttered the words,

Dear Mr. Graham, I would like to begin the Live Aid concert in Philadelphia with this song. And then he starts playing. That's ridiculous that that worked. He drove to the stadium 10 days before the concert and camped out there in his van. On the stage. Yeah, well, because he was there so early, he was able to get into the bit where they were going to build the stage. He spotted promoter Bill Graham who asked the kid,

what the hell are you doing here? Dangerousminds.net picks up the story, which I'll link to as well. David explained his intentions and handed over his demo tape a day or two later graham came out to the parking lot where david was camped out in his car graham said he liked the material but that david's singing and guitar playing needed work undeterred david asked if he could play for him right there in the parking lot graham left but a few hours later someone brought out a prime rib dinner for him surely a good sign so they're sending out food to this kid Graham came out again this time bringing along a reporter from Rolling Stone and David played Bob Dylan's All I Really Want to Do

afterwards Graham said I'll get back to you and when he got back to him it was with a yes wow he was invited to open live aid in front of 90,000 people at the sold-out stadium. When David called his music teacher to tell him that it was actually happening, his music teacher didn't believe him and advised him to see a psychologist. So it sounds like the promoter was like he got a journalist in, sussed it out, and he's like, this would be a great story. Well, it is a great story. We're talking about it.

I mean, that's like well done to the kid, well done for the promoter. It's cool, isn't it? And he performs the Bob Dylan cover on an original song called Interview. I'm looking forward to the end of this story when Dave said, and straight after that, the record producer said, your name is now Elvis Costello. And the kid goes, I think that one's already taken. He goes, oh, right.

It's funny that you should say that because he actually was told his name wasn't that good, so he changed it to Bernard Watson for the gig. He said, I'm Bernard. So he did retitle himself. Has he gone on to do other great things in the future? Well, Bill Graham introduced one scene who said you should use the name Bernard Watson. That's so funny. That's just how it is.

So funny. You're now Bernard Watson. Give me your name. That name's crap. Has anyone ever told you what a crap name that is? It's not like you were tasting it. Not for me. No, it's crap. See this? If I could spit out your crap name that is. It's only you were tasting it. Not for me. No, it's crap.

See this? If I could spit out your name, I would. So, Bill Graham goes out there and introduces him and he says, we thought we'd give him a shot and let's help him make his dream come true. And the crowd's really warm and good for him. I would be thinking he's being ironic and about to introduce a fan. Like, at that show, someone's saying, let's give this guy a shot. You're going, oh, who's it going to be?

Michael Jackson comes out. It's going to be Brian Ferry against his will. Literal gun to his head. Noodling guitar. Yeah, yeah, I'm here. I am sad to report that the 18-year-old's nerves got the better of him. No!

He dropped a pick, broke a string, hit a bung note, and later described the performance as a complete disaster. Oh, no. No! I've never felt as much pain as I do right now. Even so, he was very grateful to Bill Graham for giving him a go, and the crowd were very warm and receptive.

Oh, that's good. But he hasn't gone on to do that much. He still performs, but... Oh, that's nice. So he's like the most people to have ever it was his first gig and uh you can't really yeah honestly you'd never top that um he claims that he's got the only footage of the set he got it off a news station uh you can watch like 15 seconds of it on youtube but you can't hear the actual sound so i can't tell you how good or bad it is. But apparently Bernard Watson slash David Weinstein has the footage,

but he's like, yeah, I'm not going to release that. That's just for me. And so that part of the set didn't go out on the telecast, obviously. Yeah, or it doesn't exist anymore. I'm not sure. Yeah. Because the crazy thing is not all of it exists still. That is wild.

Because, yeah, it's so funny that tv stations used to need the tape so they tape over their own shows and stuff and and and i'll talk about later but galdof made a deal with the axe you come give your time up and this is it it's a one-off thing yeah we won't put the recordings out some of them they've since put out like a live a dvd and stuff bands like you two and queen that absolutely killed it they're like yeah sure you can put on a dvd it would look great yeah but other people are not so keen we can wait for clean water solutions or we can engineer access to clean water we can acknowledge indigenous cultures or we can learn from indigenous voices we can demand more from the earth or we can learn from indigenous voices. We can demand more from the earth. Or we can demand more from ourselves.

At York University, we work together to create positive change for a better tomorrow. Join us at yorku.ca slash write the future. Death is in our air. This year's most anticipated series, FX's Shogun, only disney plus we live and we die we control nothing beyond that an epic saga based on the global best-selling novel by james clavelle to show your true heart just to risk your life when i die here you'll never leave japan alive fx's shogun a new original series streaming February 27th exclusively on Disney+. 18 plus subscription required. T's and C's apply.

Next up in Pennsylvania was singer, songwriter and activist Joan Baez, who was supposed to actually open the show. She was introduced by Jack Nicholson, introduced heaps of the acts and was kind of the show's MC. That's fun. Apparently a lot of the performers were starstruck by him, despite their own fame, showing how big of a deal he was in the 80s. Yeah, right.

For about 50 years. What were his big movies then? I guess he was just in a lot of big movies at the time. He was in, what was it? Was that around the time where Few Good Men? No, that's well before Few Good Men. What's his Johnny called? The Shining. The Shining What's his Johnny called? Shining

The Shining The Shining The Shining One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest Surely Terms of Endearment Was massive in 1983

Right One Flew Yeah Cuckoo's Nest was in 1975 So that was big Yeah that was Yeah yeah yeah Chinatown

The 70s Of course It's Chinatown March Easy Rider In the late 60s So he'd been around For ages already Right Chinatown, the 70s. Of course. It's Chinatown, Marge. Easy Rider in the late 60s. So he'd been around for ages already. Right. But.

Yeah. It's like pre-Joker. He was just super cool. And everyone was like, oh, my. A bunch of the. So funny to think of him as super cool, but I guess. Like a bunch of the oral histories that people saying, I just couldn't stop thinking, holy shit, that's Jack Nicklaus. That's amazing.

It's like, yeah, but you're in the who or whatever. Wrong continent, Dave. Wrong continent. Next up was the Hooters introduced by. You're in the Hooters. The Hooters were there. Introduced by Chevy Chase. Slightly less cool. But he would have been massive at the time. He was big. Introduced by Chevy Chase. Slightly less cool.

But he would have been massive at the time. He was big. Very big. Very big. I think the Hooters are the band that Bob Geldof said, who the fuck are the Hooters? And didn't want to get them on. And then it's been pointed out since that he has since that gig opened for the Hooters in Germany who were massive over there.

Right. They played when the wall came down and stuff. So he's since been smaller there. Then a great run here. We've got the Four Tops. Then Billy Ocean. Get out of my car, get into my dreams. Might be the reverse of that.

Get out of my dreams. Caribbean Queen. I think that's Billy Ocean. I remember my dad hated Billy Ocean when I was really little. It was one of my earliest memories. That is, absolutely. Is your dad hating Billy Ocean? Billy Ocean.

I look back now, it's just pop. It's just sort of catchy pop music. What's to hate about this? Surely when you get to a certain age, just some music has to grind on your gears. I think pop music from when you're just past, you know, past music being, pop music being directed at you, that's when people tend to hate it. Unless you're aware of it

because I think I'm getting that age if I'm not well and truly there. And I think just being aware of it means that I don't let it get to me. But I think people who aren't aware of it are like, what's this crap? This isn't like the music from three or four years ago. What's this?

I guess you'd call it music. Yeah. Get out of my dreams. I'd like to apologise to your dad and say that Billy Ocean performed Caribbean Queen. I think it's a classic tune. How does it go? That's fun.

I think something like, I know Get Out of My Dreams and Into My Car. You know that one? Yeah, yeah, yeah. I think it's very similar to that. Okay. Caribbean queen and into my car. Oh, God. I remember that Capper and who was it?

Capper and someone did a promo for their festival show with that song playing and them in roller skates doing a car wash. Did that ring any bells? It sounds fun, but I don't remember it. You don't remember this vague memory of mine? No, no. Then we've got a big U-turn from Get Out of My Dreams Into My Car. Black Sabbath came on.

We hadn't played together in six or seven years and reformed at this gig with Ozzy Osbourne as the front man. In true Sabbath fashion, the band were incredibly hungover. What a whiplash in terms of time. Yeah, that is a wild back-to-back. Although they would have been sandwiched with an English set, right? Yes, it would have gone. Somewhere halfway between.

What would you say is halfway between Billy Ocean and Black Sabbath? Would you say Shardage? Smooth Operator. That's her song I reckon that was her really big one. Oh, she didn't play to this gig though. Okay. So it goes from her singing Is It A Crime to Black Sabbath playing Children of the Grave. then iron man for seven minutes and then paranoid uh and michael debarry

who replaced robert palmer in the band power station record a classic aussie story he goes i said to aussie osborne backstage isn't this man, what they're doing for Ethiopia? And he said, what's that? A restaurant. It's so good because you can fully imagine Ozzy saying it. What's that? A restaurant. You think this is all for a restaurant, Ozzy? He's got a reform with people he hasn't played with in seven years for a restaurant.

Just who? What? What, Sharon? Sharon, don't fucking understand. So good. So as well as pop and rock, metal and heavy music was featured. And next up were Run DMC, and this was a big moment for hip hop. In 1985, pop stations were still reluctant to play this new form of music.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. And the rappers took to the stage, not with the band, but with DJ Jam, Master J behind two turntables. But the crowd really got into it. They were a bit nervous. They weren't sure how it was going to go. Run DMC later boasted about their Live Aid win on 1986's My Adidas rapping, stepped on stage at Live Aid, all the people gave,

and the poor got paid. That's good stuff. Yeah, I think the American lineup had a lot more music diversity. We've gone from like pop to metal to hip hop within three acts. And then? Whereas nearly all of the English one was pretty much pop, wasn't it? Pretty pop, yeah. Then we've got Rick Springfield, another Aussie you're representing.

Oh, geez, he timed that well. No, he was bigger in America for longer. He was sort of one hit wonder in Australia, but I think he had more of a career over there. He ended up playing himself for a whole story arc on Californication, I think, if I'm remembering that right. Yeah, that sounds about right. Then it was REO Speedwagon.

Crosby, Stills and Nash were after that. Sick. Then Judas Priest, more English metal. Interesting that they had two English metal bands playing on the American line. Maybe they might have been over there either living or touring at the time. And they sweated up a storm in their leather in the hot Philadelphia heat. Singer Rob Halford later reminisced, my big moment was meeting up with Jack Nicholson, who is a metalhead.

We talked backstage. He continues, the real party was after the event in a private penthouse suite in downtown Philly. I was standing with Jack and people were going on. Don't you think that's perfect? Isn't that a beautiful meeting of raising money for Ethiopia and an after party in a private penthouse suite? Cognitiveness. This beautiful just, okay.

Yeah, we were raising money for some restaurant or something. I wonder where that restaurant's going. Jack Nicholson invited us to his fucking penthouse. There was a fruit bowl of cocaine. It gets blurry from there. We were patting each other on the back. We did it. We did it.

Did a swear. He said, I was standing there with Jack, Jack Nicholson, and people were going on about The Shining. And I said, you get that there with Jack, Jack Nicholson, and people were going on about The Shining. And I said, you get that all the time, Jack? And he just said, yeah. And then starts singing, breaking the law, breaking the law. That's awesome. Big Judas song.

Yeah, I get it all the time. Breaking the law. So good. Okay, then Bryan Adams came out. Then the Beach Boys Brian Wilson and the gang hadn't played together for a long time at this point Brian said, we had a lot of bad feelings Not that you can tell when they

End of sentence Seriously, that is the end of the sentence We had a lot of bad feelings Bad, bad, bad, bad, bad feelings Well, you can't tell, they played good vibrations and they sound pretty good. But he also said the audience was full of energy and love. We got a lot of love and it was a great night for all of us. It was a pleasure being there.

So a lot of bad feelings, a lot of great feelings too. I didn't know so many of these iconic bands played it. Queen sort of feels like they've overshadowed. The whole thing, yeah. But it's like these. Beach Boys. I didn't it's like the Beach Boys yeah and Sabbath

Run DMC I don't think I'd it almost feels like it was an English event you forget half of it was in America

and then you're like and then another half was in Australia because either of the concerts on their own are like one of the best lineups ever but then you link them up

you're like oh my god yeah Nick Kershaw Howard Jones Howard Jones on their own are like one of the best lineups ever, but then you link them up and you're like, oh my god. Yeah. Kershaw. Howard Jones. Howard Jones. David Weinstein. Then we've got George Thorogood and the Destroyers.

Sadly, he did not play One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer. Which I know is a song you love, mate. Yeah, it's got like a... We were playing in the car when we were driving around the UK. We've played it in England before. And then it just goes for ages and then it just breaks into this final bit. I love it.

It feels like there's five minutes of him just talking about getting up in the morning. I can't remember what it's about, but it's just going through all these deep... The chorus is so deep into the song. Yeah. Trying to pay the rent with his landlord and then landlady and then like, yeah. And then finally gets to the front of a bar queue and then he orders. Finally orders the titular one bourbon. Or one scotch.

One beer. Benel and denel and denel and denel. It's really good. He didn't play it though. Not enough time. He would have played Bad to the Bone. I don't think he did. When I was looking at the list, I was like, what's going on here?

He played... Did he play Rock and Roll Christmas, a song I discovered last Christmas, which starts with the most awkward sort of, I guess it's scripted banter. It's like, hey, man, hey, hey, man, hey, hey, what are you up to, man? Oh, just going to have a rock and roll Christmas? What's that? Well, let me tell you. I'm going to have a rock and roll Christmasmas what's that well let me tell you i'm gonna have a rock and roll christmas just like we used to do i'm just going through let me let me go through the set list this

is it george thurgood destroyers and beau diddly first song who do you love then 59 seconds of tuning which no one else has that listed in their set. Then The Sky is Crying, six minutes. Then George Thurgood, The Destroyers, and Albert Collins, five-minute version of Madison Blues. But a minute of tuning. Wow. It sounds like that middle song sounds like no one's explained to George

the concept of rain. What's going on? The sky's crying. The sky is crying. The sky tears are falling. What's happening? That's good. I'll write that down.

They're actually the band that played before Queen, like in the live link up. Okay. Well, it's good to be, yeah, like before would be like a much better preference. No one remembers you. Yeah. If you fuck up, it's all good. Yeah. Apparently they got the call up at the last minute

after another act bailed, and they had to race to get to Philly. Yeah, right. Who bailed? Do we know? Can we name and shame them? We can't name and shame that one. I do have a list of a few bands that didn't make it.

Okay. But in the lineup then there was Simple Minds, and this is singer Jim Kerr. For probably 89% to 90% of the set, I was thinking on stage, holy fuck, that's Jack Nicholson. So I 89% to 90% of the set, I was thinking, on stage, holy fuck, that's Jack Nicholson. So I don't really have much of a recollection. That's so funny that I'll say that.

So much of this lineup seems to be British. They're Scottish, aren't they, Simple Minds, or English? Yeah, and their mega hit, Don't You Forget About Me, had only been released a few months earlier, so they're absolutely peaking. You did the freeze frame to that song. Yeah, I tried. Exactly.

That had all just come out. Then we've got The Pretenders. At the time, singer Chrissy Hynde was married to Jim Kerr, who'd just played with Simple Minds, so they went one then the other, which is cool. Awesome. Then Santana played. I did not know this.

Yeah, Woodstock Connection. Yeah, so he played Woodstock along with The Who, Crosby, Stills and Nash and Neil Young's coming up. So there's a few, and that was what, 16 years earlier, 17 years earlier. So they were still great. That just feels like lifetimes in between Woodstock, like the

60s and the 80s. But 16 years, like you go back 16 years now and that, I mean, this is just old man talk, but it doesn't feel like trends and that have changed that much, you know, music and. No, I guess go back 16. Yeah, no, there's like 16 years back in 2006. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I don't know. I imagine if I went back there, I'd be like, fuck, why is everyone wearing boot cut jeans? Yeah. You're telling me that now the Black Eyed Peas aren't cool anymore?

Yeah, okay. No, there's a fair change. I'm so 2008, you're so 2008. That hasn't held up. Fair call. Fair call. Yeah, that doesn't hold up to scrutiny. I'd need to look at a 2006 top ten list or something.

Nick Kershaw was there. Howard Jones releasing. or something. Yeah. Nick Kershaw was there. Howard Jones releasing. Still big. Yeah. I think Kershaw released Wouldn't It Be Good, 2006 version. Then Ashford and Simpson played. Do you know them? A husband and wife duo who wrote heaps of hits for Motown,

including Ain't No Mountain High Enough. Oh, wow. One of the greatest all-time songs. They performed. It's a really special set to watch because they performed with Teddy Pendergrass in his first live performance since a car accident a few years earlier that it left him paralyzed from the chest down. So he comes out in a wheelchair, performs a beautiful song.

They performed Diana Ross's Reach Out and Touch Somebody's Hand. And watching it back, it's very emotional. They bring him out. Crowd goes absolutely wild. It's very emotional. They bring him out. Crowd goes absolutely wild. It's awesome. Really, really cool. Then Cool and the Gang perform via video. Then Madonna.

Where are they? Why are they performing via video? I'm not 100% sure where they were. That shows power. You'd think they'd be like, if you can't make it to the venue, you can't play. But Cool and the Gang were obviously a big enough draw that they thought it was worth it.

And then Madonna comes out, who was only two albums in at that time, so pretty fresh. Only about ten number one singles probably. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But she was massive because the second album in particular, absolutely huge. She was introduced by Bette Midler, who said... Bette Midler's there as well, by the way, guys.

Yeah, okay. Jack Nixon, Bette Midler. Muhammad Ali is hanging out backstage. He doesn't come out. What is this, the Krusty Telethon? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yes. It just seems that it feels like a lot of people didn't know it was happening

and all their mates are like, well, I guess I should wander along. I guess I should go. Did Bette get up and sing Wind Beneath My Wings? She doesn't. She didn't sing, but she did introduce a few people with Jack Nicholson, which is pretty cool. Okay. But she goes, I want, this is introducing Madonna.

I want you to know that I have no idea why I was asked to introduce this next act. A woman who pulled herself up by her bra straps and has been known to let them down occasionally. She's great. She's a lot like a virgin. She's Madonna! And then Madonna's set was also highly acclaimed. A lot of people talk about U2, Queen and Madonna being top picks for the day. She absolutely killed it.

Then Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. Fucking hell. It doesn't stop. Then Kenny Loggins did one song, Footloose. Oh yeah. It would have been tough him choosing between that and Danger Zone. Oh, I know what I would have picked. I would have been on that highway, baby. Then The Cars.

Sick. Then Neil Young did a solo set. Holy shit. Which is cool. Then Power Station came on before, that band I talk about. Then the Thompson. Who was Power Station? Oh, they, why didn't I mention them before?

I don't think, do you know Power Station? No. This one more than the English one is like, I think I've known every act until this point. I think they were like a super group at the time. A couple of members of Duran Duran were in it, and then they had a couple of different singers. Yeah, right.

They had a famous singer who then left. It was made up of Robert Palmer. You know, Robert Palmer. Former chic drummer. I was watching his film clips the other day. They're so funny. It's like this middle-aged man and then just models miming instruments behind him. It's just, I'm like, only whenever that was could that be like an MTV hit.

It is beautiful. Are we past the age of middle-aged people having hits? I reckon no. Who's middle-aged now and having like pop hits? Oh, Elton John's had two number one hits in the last year. Did you know that? No.

A Christmas song maybe? A Christmas song with Ed Sheeran and then someone else. I think Panau. He did a song with Panao. Really? That was huge. Made a number one hit. Yeah.

So he's had two. Panao had a number one hit in England. I think in America. In America? Yeah, the song is Panao. Sorry, it's Elton John, Dua Lipa, the Panao remix. Yeah, wow. There you go.

How old is Ed Sheeran? Because when he gets to middle age, I reckon we'll- Yeah, that's true. He'll still be cranking them. I'm thinking of, like, who's the N.E.R.D. front man again? Pharrell. Pharrell. Like, he had hits into his, like, at least into his 40s.

Yeah. Madonna maybe did as well. But, yeah, it doesn't seem like it's that common anymore, but, I mean, I couldn't tell you what the top ten songs right now are. I wouldn't have a clue. Maybe they're all by. When was the last I can kind of think of middle-aged man with, like, models behind him?

I'm only thinking, like, blurred lines. Oh, yeah. That's a recent hit, yes? That's a classic recent one, right? Yeah, that's true. Would he have been, and he was middle-aged. He probably would have been Robert Palmer-aged. He was going through a midlife crisis.

Yeah, because Robert Palmer was. He probably wasn't even that old, was he? Well, he died in 2003 and he was only 54 when he died. Yeah, right. But yeah, so to answer your question, Power Station was him, the drummer from Chic, and then the bass player and guitarist from Duran Duran, two Taylors. So yeah, they came out and performed without Robert Palmer.

The other guy, Michael DeBarry, replaced him. Then the Thompson Twins came on, who were sort of peaking at that time. They were a very 80s band. They also performed in the Madonna set. Then Eric Clapton came out. His Layla was also acclaimed. Right. Another English act.

Then Phil Collins made it to the gig to be the only performer to sing live at both live head concerts. He says to the crowd, I was in England this afternoon. Funny old world, innit? And he starts playing. He just did like a hymn and piano set. He was introduced by Jack Nicholson and Bette Midler, which is pretty cool. Then it's time to discuss Led Zeppelin. Okay.

The three surviving members of Led Zeppelin reformed. This is five years after their drummer, John Bonham, had died, and they called the band off then. Two drummers filled in for Bonham. One was Phil Collins. So he did a third set. He's already done a medley with Sting, now a solo set, now he's playing drums.

Because he'd played on Robert Plant, the singer of Led Zeppelin's first two solo albums. So they knew each other well. And then they also had Tony Thompson play on one track. Phil stuck around. He introduced Led Zeppelin and then gets on. He goes, my mates, you might know him. It's Robert Plant.

Et cetera, et cetera. What have I gone blank on? Jimmy Page. John Paul Jones. The performance was criticized for for Plant's horse voice. Oh. No. Is that a fucking horse up there?

That fucking mane. Jimmy Page was criticised for his obvious intoxication and out of tune guitar. A lack of rehearsal and poorly functioning monitors. That rules. Plant described the performance as a fucking atrocity for us. It made us look like loonies. Oh, this is great. Okay, this is for charity.

It's going to be one of the biggest things that the world's ever seen. Are you drunk as shit? Yes. I am off my face. Yes, I am. I'm looking forward to performing for this restaurant. Aussie told me it tastes fucking good They use a bread or something

You use that instead of like a fork Very good I hate forks Fuck them This is from a music website I found I'm not sure if you're familiar with that But I think it's called wikipedia.org I think I've heard of that one

You've heard of that? Yeah Wow okay I haven't You haven't? Okay Wait wookiepedia or wiki? Wikipedia.org I think Another's called wikipedia.org. I think I've heard of that one. You've heard of that? Yeah. Wow. Okay. I haven't. You haven't? Okay. Wait, wookie-pedia or wiki? Wikipedia.org, I think. Another wookie one.

Oh, okay. Yeah. I'll look into that. Paige later criticized Collins' performance, because Phil's on drums, saying, Robert told me Phil Collins wanted to play with us. I told him that was all right if he knows the numbers, but at the end of the day, he didn't know anything. We played a whole lot of love. And he was just there bashing away cluelessly and grinning.

I thought that was really a joke. Fuck. Look, he's jet lagged as shit, you know. Give him a break. But having read some stories about this, it sounds like everything went wrong. And Jimmy Page is just scapegoating Collins. For sure. Because Collins responded, it wasn't my fault it was crap i would have walked off i could have walked off if i could have walked off i would have

but then we'd be all talking about why phil and colin's walked off during live aid so i just stuck it out i turned up and i was a square peg in a round hole robert was happy to see me but jimmy wasn't yeah that's what it sounds like jim Page, from when he rocked up, was like, why is this fucking guy here sort of thing. And Phil Collins had played drums in Genesis, so he's like a famous drummer. Yeah, he's known as one of the greatest drummers of all time. He's a really good drummer.

It's funny that he's sort of known as having some of the cheesiest pop songs of all time. Yeah, but he's also technically a very good drummer. Led Zeppelin, they're one of the ones that have blocked broadcasts of the performance and withheld permission to be included on DVDs. But you can watch a pretty low-res version on YouTube, and the comments are brutal. And I will read some of them now.

You know what's going to be bad? When his voice is straining just to get the crowd amped up before he even sings. He's like, G'day, Phil, I'll be home. Here's another separate comment. The fact that Jimmy Page had the audacity to blame this atrocity on Phil Collins astounds me. Another one.

The last person I'd expect to butcher a Jimmy Page solo is Jimmy Page. Someone wrote, Jimmy is so high he doesn't need a stairway to reach heaven, which they did play. And finally, if they ever make it Led Zeppelin biopic, Live Aid will definitely not be their ending scene, which it is in The Queen, The Queen one, Bohemian Rhapsody. They played rock and roll, a whole lot of love, and then a nine-minute version of Stairway to Heaven,

which is going quite – On paper. Yeah. It's hard to beat that as a set. And it's going quite- Stairway's not too bad until it gets to the solo and he just starts going for it. Whack, whack, whack. You even see Robert look at him like, what the hell?

He says, nay, Jimmy, nay. I am playing with one of the greatest rock and roll guitarists ever. Oh, my God. Okay, then Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young come out. They've done their separate sets. Amazing. And they come together. They calmed the crowd down after Led Zeppelin.

So the live crowd, I imagine, probably wouldn't have even noticed that Led Zeppelin were butchering it. Because they're singing along. Yeah, yeah. Crowd goes absolutely wild for it. If it wasn't televised, you know. Because they were one of the most hyped and anticipated acts. Yeah, because they'd been broken up.

Broken up for five years. Most people thought they'd never play together again. And they were huge. Then Duran Duran came out. I think that being anxious about that Can lead to you doing things That aren't going to help your performance Sounds like none of them were prepared And you wonder if it was

I mean who knows But it feels like maybe they were nervous So nervous that they Got either too high Or didn't rehearse or whatever Or maybe I'm That's a cop out I don't know But that's what I'm thinking If I'm, that's a cop out, I don't know.

But that's what I'm thinking. If I'm feeling the pressure of that build up, I'll be like, maybe I'll just have a little sherry. All of a sudden you're like drinking sherry or some weird drink from the bottle. Let's not forget that in the Woodstock episode, Santana was waiting side of stage for so long that he just took one of these hallucinogenics that absolutely kicked in during his set,

and it's like highly acclaimed. That's true. He killed it. Is there footage of that, though? Was that going out live? Yeah, yeah, yeah. I guess it depends what, you know, was imbibing it. So it's like psychedelics, yeah, it would help the performance.

He thought his guitar was a snake. He saw a snake. But then half the crowd, three-quarters of the crowd at that gig were also on the trip with him. So they were happy to see anything. Then Duran Duran come out, who were huge at the time. Another English band. They'd just done the Bond theme, View to a Kill,

and there was a lot of anticipation for their set. They were also highly amped up. Young crowd, very happy to see them. But really the band was in turmoil. They drove in silence to the gig they were not getting on oh no during the chorus of a view to a kill singer simon lebon inadvertently hits an off-key falsetto note and media outlets called it the bum note heard around the world as opposed to freddy's note around the world that's's just cruel. LeBron later described it as the most embarrassing moment of his career.

I've watched it. Again, it's on YouTube, but honestly, if you haven't pointed it out, I wouldn't have noticed. It's not that bad. It's like, a view to a kid. Who cares? They played for 18 minutes or something. Who cares?

Yeah, it's so funny. It's nice to know that that feels like a real Twitter and YouTube generation thing to do, but it's nice to know that humans have always sucked. Oh, yeah. Piling on this tiny mistake and everyone going, that sucks, I'm writing a story about it. Simon Le Bon fucked up his life.

What a big fucking loser. And we joke about it. Like, he's gone from the coolest man in the world to being, like, so uncool. Live Aid wasn't intended to be a farewell performance for Duran Duran. They only wanted to take a break after years of nonstop touring, but they didn't get back together again until 2003. That's how badly it went. Wow.

Look, mate, because that one note. Yeah. Let's just take a break. Let's just see how the band, see badly it went. Wow. Because, look, mate, because that one note. Yeah. Let's just take a break. Let's just see how the band, see how it goes. The guitarist actually blamed Phil Collins for this set. It was backstage, but. Backstage fucking with the microphones going. That wasn't me.

Then Patti LaBelle. Then Hall & Oates. They did a pretty sweet set. Then Mick Jagger. Hall & Oates actually stuck around to be the backing band for Mick Jagger. John Oates described the rehearsal of this. We rehearsed with Eddie and David, and then Mick came in to go over his stuff. He went into the entire Mick Jagger routine,

but this was in a room with nobody except us. He started running around the stage, flapping his wings like a chicken and doing the Mick Jagger facial things as if there were 100,000 people in the room. The room was empty. It's so funny to imagine. You know, they're going, trying to keep a straight face. Yeah, it's like I've got to, whoever's watching,

I can't drop my guard. Yeah. This is my mask. Yeah. I'll look silly if I don't do this. And that, like, they would have had the genuine version of that music-less film clip. Yeah.

Him just. Mick did a few songs solo and then Tina Turner came out for a duet. Fucking hell. I know. Okay. She'd cancelled her own shows to be there. Amazing. I cannot believe this list keeps going.

And there was a famous wardrobe malfunction moment where he accidentally, in inverted commas, unclips her skirt. Oh, my God. Many have speculated that it was planned. Very similar to the Janet Jackson moment. That's right. Scandalous. Okay, then.

If they didn't mean to unclip the skirt, why was she wearing pants underneath? Huh? Huh? Tell me that. Doesn't make any sense. Then Bob Dylan came out. Also, people were fawning over him, too. Like, apparently people were, like, getting photos. Like apparently people were like getting photos and like,

because he's such a superstar, which always made me laugh that in the, when he was in the Travelling Wilburys with all those superstars, George Harrison, Robson, et cetera. But apparently. Got that Tom Petty. Tom Petty and Jeff Lynne. Yes. I call him the ELO guy.

But they're all superstars, especially a Beatle, George Harrison But apparently they were all like, oh my god, we get to play with Bob Dylan Oh, I heard it was the Roy Orbison I think Jeff Lynn loved Roy Orbison He was his childhood hero, can we get him in the band? But with Bob Dylan, and I think even on day one Bob Dylan said something like Did you know ELO, the O in ELO actually is a tribute to Roy Orbison?

The big O. Yeah. ELO. But yeah, I think on day one, they had to say something like, look, I know we're all in awe of you, Bob Dylan, but we've got to be equal here. And he went, oh, you're happy to play with me? Well, I'm pretty happy to play with you guys too. It's like, fuck.

It was George Harrison. I know, but he was like. But, yeah, I know George Harrison was definitely. I was reading recently about how George Harrison was like, when him and Bob met early on, George was like, how do you write these lyrics? I don't understand how you come up with them. And Bob was like, how do you write these lyrics? I don't understand how you come up with them.

And Bob was like, how do you know all these chords? And how do you put them together? They were both going like, you're a genius. Interesting. Which is nice. It's much nicer when it goes both ways, I think. So Bob Dylan came out. He was the headlining sort of with the last solo act, like Paul McCartney was on it.

And he was backed up by Ronnie Wood and Keith Richards from the Rolling Stones. So pretty cool. Then the US concert finished with all the artists on stage to sing We Are The World, the charity single written by Michael Jackson and Lionel Richie under the name USA for Africa that had sold 20 million copies. Wow. Okay. So do they know it's Christmas comes out and they go,

we've got to do one in America too. So a few months later they did We Are the World. I found the Huey Lewis story if you want it. I do. I do. I want to know what happened. It makes sense now because he was part of this song. Yes.

Okay. So I haven't read it and I'm like, I hope it's worth it. But it's not too long anyway. Okay. So I haven't read it, and I'm like, I hope it's worth it. But it's not too long anyway. Okay. So this is from EW.com, but this is quoting directly from Huey talking to EW. And it's him talking about Michael Jackson, I think. I stood right next to him. I won't do the voice.

The Huey, the beautiful gravel. Okay. I want to do an episode about Huey Lewis one day. Fascinating story. I know to do an episode about Huey Lewis one day. Fascinating story. I know you do. I stood right next to him on the solo lines because he had the line right after. Holy shit.

They've edited that bit out. I stood right next to him on the solo lines because I had the line right after he did. We had to share a position there for a couple of hours and we chatted. I think maybe because there were so many of them, they might have had to share mics and stuff. He said lots of nice things about my songs and he knew our stuff and he was just sweet, sweet, sweet. You know, Quincy Jones was producing and they wanted to make one full sweep of the lead vocals and they kept getting about halfway and somebody would forget the words and they'd stop again and so we never got a chance to rehearse our lines

down at our end as it were basically it would keep stopping just before them so everyone in the lead-ups rehearsing every time and then it stops and like oh fuck when the pressure's really on when it gets to us so uh uh so i sort of stood up for that. I said, hey, can you go all the way through at least so I can rehearse? Stevie Wonder over there has sung his part four times. Having a crack at Stevie? And Michael thought that was really funny. So he said, yeah.

And the very next pass, we did the whole thing. How did it sound, though? Yeah, yeah. yeah and the very next pass we did the whole thing how did it sound though and that and the next pass we did the whole thing we made it all the way clear clearly it was the good version and i saw quincy telling the engineer okay let's do another and michael had his headphones off and quincy says all right yeah okay let's do another one and michael very concerned grabs my hand and says, they're going to save that last one, aren't they? Because he knew that was the one.

Obviously, what can be said about this guy? Super talented and super fabulous and super sweet at the same time. I mean, I think there's some other things you can say about him. A couple of things. He was very comfortable. This is not a story worth telling. That's it. He was very comfortable.

It was just really nice. Was this a Michael Jackson praise fest? Michael was just a really sweet guy. That's the story. The story is just as he was a sweetheart. Oh, no. Is that the agenda you want to push? Yeah.

Is that what you want to go with? That's how well Huey told the story When I heard it I'm like What a good story You really changed your opinion On Michael Jackson Sure there are rumours And allegations

And maybe some facts Yeah But I won't But I won't be commenting On anything until I hear Hughie comment on it I can't believe He told the story

Like it was important And I got sucked in by that Just this vague memory Anyway Hughie Maybe I won't do an episode Oh story like it was important and I got sucked in by that. Just this vague memory. Anyway, Huey, maybe I won't do an episode about Huey. Oh, my God, it'll go for six hours and we won't learn anything. Look, at least we can know that Huey's a very good judge of character. I remember he was good at baseball as a kid, Huey. Again?

All right. This episode's gone long enough without Huey's childhood. We're to the final number. Edit out. If you could go back, edit out me bringing it up in the first place. Could you edit out me cycling back to it? As I'm reading down, I'm like, holy shit, I don't think this story goes anywhere. Surely there's a point.

Surely there's a point. They've written about it. I've heard him tell it. He's retold it to EW. They're printing it. You're like, there's got to be a twist in this killer anecdote. A bloke met another bloke. He's like, oh, yeah.

Michael Jackson laughed at his lame joke. Stevie Wonder over there. And it's also Huey going, hey, Michael Jackson, he said he knew and liked my songs. Yeah. He's this guy, he likes me too. Sorry, everybody, for wasting all your time. We're so happy to hear you realise in real time that the story's nothing.

Oh, my God. I'm sweating. Okay, so the final track at Live Aid. Guys, let me just stop you. I found a really good anecdote. I've got so many of Rock's best anecdotes in this report. You're like, let me just top that. Let me just top David Bowie's Blue Helicopter.

Huey Lewis, he's one of those, he's sort of like Phil Collins where a lot of people shit on him. And I always have this weird instinct to be like, even though they're super rich, famous people, I'm like, you know what? I'm getting on this underdog. I'm going to big him up. He needs you in your corner.

I'm going to big up this guy who's been number one multiple times in multiple decades. And then I think if anything, I think I've heard his legacy. I'm trying to retell that tale. What a tale. What a tale. And only Hughie could tell that tale.

What a storyteller. The time he stood next to Michael Amazing To be fair If I'd done that I'd be That'd be my story forever Yeah That I sang next to Michael Jackson

But anyway Final track We are the world We are the children Blah blah blah So Now you hate the Christmas one What do you think of this?

They're pretty similar Yeah It's not as I think it's better than the Christmas one. What do you think of this? They're pretty similar. Yeah. I think it's better than the Christmas one. It's not as gimmicky, I feel. Yeah. The Christmas one is a bit like, do they know it's Christmas? Like, I don't know.

It just seems it's very- Even beyond the lyrics, you don't like the song itself. No, I don't love it. I think We Are The Words better, but I think We're Sending Our Love Down The Well is the best one. Yeah. Sadly. All the way down. So great. But on stage for the closing number, it's pretty amazing people.

This is some of the people that came out. Lionel Richie comes out and Harry Belafonte, absolute legend. He's like A banana song What's that song? Yeah, that one That's Harry Belafonte Banana Boat Yeah

That song? The Banana Boat song? That's how you were doing Shake, shake, shake your mind Shake it all the time Is that him? Yeah, he was the first When I I looked him up, so he did sort of... So did MJ perform at any of these, by the by?

No, which I'll talk about. Okay, okay. He was... Okay, okay. Harry Belafonte, he's been around forever. He's still alive, age 94, and he's been great with civil rights and stuff. But his breakthrough album, Calypso, released in 1956, was the first million-selling LP by a single artist.

Wow. Which is an amazing claim. But he comes out already an absolute legend 35 years ago. But also Sheena Easton, Peter, Paul and Mary, Bill Graham, the legendary promoter, Diane Warwick, Mick Jagger, Daryl Hall, Graham Nash, Kenny Loggins, Mick Jagger, Daryl Hall, Graham Nash, Kenny Loggins, Patti LaBelle, Chrissy Hind and Tina Turner.

Wow. And Cher made it. She rocked up and, of course, they let her on. Well, of course. That's a fair line-up for a sing-along. I love Kenny Loggins reminiscing about the good times. I was on in the closing song, but shit shit i don't even remember what it was maybe a beatles tune all i remember was what's her name that woman with the voice of god it was her turn to sing and she was screaming on the microphone

it was so loud so overwhelmingly loud there were at least 12 mics on stage and the sound guy had to figure out what mic she was on to turn it down. It was hilarious. He's talking about Patti LaBelle who commented what can I say? I got the spirit. And if you watch it she is so fucking loud. She's got such a big voice. Also you can

hear Diane Warwick even though her microphone is off. It's not so loud. But yeah, Patti LaBelle huge voice. so it's intrudely it's really incredible lineup across the world but some artists missed out billy joel boy george waylon jennings chris christopherson tears for fears and paul simon were all included in initial promotional material for the philadelphia They were supposed to, them as well, but they didn't appear. Where were they?

Where'd they go? Just for a range of reasons, they didn't make it. They were all actually packing like food packs into a Concord flight. Actually, yeah. Actually helping. That's nice. Bruce Springsteen also didn't play, which he later regretted. He said, I simply did not realize how big the whole thing was going to be.

Right. Prince didn't want to perform live, but he sent in a video. And his drummer, Sheila Easton. Yeah. Sheena Easton. Sheena Easton. Sheila Easton, the Aussie cover. Sheila.

And Michael Jackson declined to perform, releasing a statement that he was busy recording in the studio and didn't want to turn his back on his responsibility to the people he was working with. Oh, half a day off. So he just didn't show up. Okay. Probably hanging out with Huey. We're living the good times.

Remember a couple of months ago when I said that about Stevie Wonder? God, that was fun. Yeah. Yeah. You know, you like my stuff. You know, you know me. It's good. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Hey. Hey. Yeah. A few of these acts like I've played at Meredith, like Sheena Easton did, Sheik did, or at least there's a front man for Sheik. Niles Rogers.

Niles Rogers. Did Sheik play or was just. It was just the drama was in Power Station. Right. That sort of... But Niles Rodgers, I think he... It's wild that I've seen any... I mean, I've seen Paul McCartney live.

It's wild that I've seen some of his bands. One degree of separation from me being... But Niles Rodgers did perform with the Thompson Twins and Madonna, so he did perform. Oh, right. Yeah, he wrote one of Madonna's big Thompson Twins and Madonna. So he did perform. Oh, right. Yeah, he wrote one of Madonna's big hits, didn't he? So he was a feature. He, at Meredith, Nile Rodgers did a medley of songs he wrote for other people

or produced and maybe produced. That's so cool. And it was just like just hit after hit after. It was wild. And you sort of, when you're hearing him, you're like, oh, I can really see how, and he would have been, because it was around the time, what was his big album with, that French band, Daft Punk?

Okay. Get Lucky, he was, you know, he was on that album. Okay. You familiar with his band? Not really. Daft Punk? Yeah, yeah, yeah. I know of them.

God damn it, Sam. See how it comes to him, it's useful. And how about Bob Geldof? Well, the whole experience changed his life and not totally for the better. One of the most famous moments of the concert happens seven hours in at Wembley where Geldof gave an infamous interview in which he swore on the BBC. He's sitting on a couch next to the king of squaring, Billy Connolly, at the time, which makes it even funnier to me. But presenter David Hepworth from the BBC conducted the interview, had attempted to provide a list of addresses to which potential donations should be sent.

Geldof interrupted mid-flow and shouted, fuck the addresses, let's get the phone numbers. It's actually passed into folklore that he yelled at the audience, give us your fucking money, but although Geldof has stated that that phrase was never uttered, and it's just one of those things that people remember. Due to his Irish accent, the profanity was stated to be misheard as fuck

and fucking, respectively. Scandalous. What did he actually say? He definitely says, fuck the addresses, let's get the phone numbers. Because they're saying, this is where you can send checks, and he's saying, fuck the checks, call up and give us your credit card details now. He asks people at home not to – he does this emotional plea, which is quite famous. He asks people at home not to go to the pub but to stay in

and give them the money instead as there are people dying now. So he says, so give me the money after the outburst, giving an increase to 300 pounds per second. So it really, really worked. Okay. Okay. Real laying on that guilt. People really gave him their fucking money.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. They do. And it all went well. And he put the gig on after performing himself on stage. He had the thought that every person I'd ever met in my life in the world

was probably watching. Like, what a weird thought to have. Because everyone's watching this gig. And you put it together, so everyone's watching it. It's amazing that not everyone did a bum note like Simon Le Bon. Yeah. If you watch it back, there's a few, like, you just hear, like, random feedback for no reason and stuff.

Yeah. It sounds like nearly every set had some issue. Yeah, because they didn't have proper sound checks and stuff like that. After the show's success, Bob was referred to in the media and sometimes still is as Saint Bob, a moniker which he absolutely hates. Is it like an ironic sort of? No, it's because, well, maybe it has become that now, but I think at the time people were like,

you've done so much for charity, you're sent Bob. Yeah, imagine if someone who felt like doing something like this wouldn't enjoy being the centre of it. And he liked how successful the show had been. He thought he'd done a good thing, but also felt that afterwards he wasn't able to be a rock or pop singer anymore. People in the media acted as if that was beneath him.

It seemed petty and meaningless by comparison to saving the world, but he just wants to go out and write songs and, you know, perform in clubs. But they're like, oh, why are you doing that? Why don't you go over and do more charity stuff? And he found really trapped by this new vision of him. He later said, for a while I was bewildered. I didn't have much money at the time.

It impinged entirely on my private life. It probably ended up costing me my marriage. Because, yeah, the media went wild for him, followed him everywhere he went for a while. With an estimated audience of 1.9 billion people in 150 nations, that means nearly 40% of the world population at the time tuned in to watch Live Aid.

That's ridiculous. And a whole lot of money was raised it's been estimated at 150 million pounds was raised which is nearly half a billion pounds in today's money but where did the money go well went to the starving children well that has been debated over the last 36 years what you, my God. What? You mean this thing that was maybe ill-conceived didn't work? I am shocked. The BBC World Service reported that a certain proportion of the funds were siphoned off to buy arms.

Oh, my God. For the Tigrayan People's Liberation Front. But in 2010, they issued a full apology saying there was no evidence that that ever happened. Okay. Oh, yeah. Just report it on a hunch. Yeah, sorry about that.

Because that's what I have heard of. It was like, yeah, this whole thing was like, yeah, it went towards arms. But they just made that up. Well, former BBC chairman Michael Grade commented, we're very glad to finally be able to reassure all the millions and millions of people around the world over 20-odd years have given millions of pounds to Band Aid and Live Aid to relieve suffering. That, of course, the money did not go to arms. That's like 20. People have died.

People have given money and then gone on to die, thinking, being like, oh, man, I helped a terrible thing. And they're like, yeah. Some people still argue that a percentage of money had to be given to local people, local fixers and stuff like that to get the aid there. Yeah, right. That kind of thing. And Bob Gelatov at the time even said, afterwards said, look, I even said at the time that I was prepared to shake hands with people on both sides.

I didn't care who, which devil I shook a hand with as long as we get the money to the people. And he thinks that they did feed the people. Michael Burke, you remember the BBC reporter who'd inadvertently kicked the whole thing off with his report? He missed the whole show because he was being tear-gassed in South Africa at the time. That took a turn. Yeah, he's like a hardcore foreign correspondent. Right.

But in 2004, he told The Guardian the money raised would have saved about one to two million lives. Live Aid made a terrific difference. But actually, the key thing it did, which utterly dwarfed Band Aid and Live Aid, was to force a change of policy in the EU and particularly in the UK and America. The public opinion that they mobilised and represented was what counted.

So after this, giving to third-world nations sort of put it as a front agenda for these advanced economies. And that was a big part of Live Aid's legacy. According to one aid worker, a larger impact than the money raised for the Ethiopian famine is that, quote, humanitarian concern is now at the centre of foreign policy for the West. So, you know. Okay.

All right. Well, it'd be nice to think that's true. You'd hope. Well, you'd hope so. You'd hope. And the concert became a cultural touchstone for that generation and sort of everyone remembers where they were sort of moment kind of thing. And the artists did well out of it too, it should be pointed out,

with Madonna, Phil Collins, Queen and U2 smashing the charts after the concert. All their albums took up the top 40. No wonder Bruce was kicking himself. It's such a funny thing to say. I didn't realise it was going to be really big. It could have been really good for me. I would have been nice to help this fledging restaurant that I hear wasn't doing well.

But no, what could it have done for me? What could this charity event have done for me? Bruce Spring this charity event have done for me? Bruce Springsteen. I don't know if you've heard about me. Hi, my name is Bruce Springsteen. It feels like it would have been made for him. He would have crushed it.

Yeah. With his messages as well, yeah. You know, he would play live more than anyone, I imagine. So gig-hardened sort of thing. Gig-hardened. But, yeah, I don't think he would have been hitting any bum notes. No. Simon Le Bon, hang your head in shame.

The most embarrassing moment of my life. It was heard around the world, so, you know. It was bummed out around the world. Many more charity concerts formed afterwards, including Farm Aid, that was launched in 1985 to support American farmers. Bob Dylan actually, controversially at the time, he's on the mic saying, hey, maybe we could also give some of this money to American farmers who are doing it tough.

And Bob Geldof's standing there going, what the fuck? Who said that? Bob Dylan. But him and Neil Young and a bunch of people started this thing later. He said that on mic. Yeah, yeah. That's interesting. Geldof himself was at it again in 2005 with Live 8,

which was 10 simultaneous concerts held on the 2nd and 6th of July. Live 8? Live 8. As in number 8 and then it was 10. Was it like 2008? I think it was. I am confused. It was the.

Do you not understand this pun? It was to do with the G8. Okay. Yeah, it was not the time. It was trying to get people to donate more money. She should have done it in eight locations. That would have been easier to remember and made more sense. And the G8 level, G8 leaders pledged to double 2004 levels

of aid to poor nations from $25 billion to $50 billion by the year 2010. So it was about raising money at the concerts but also pressuring politicians against. That's a lot of cash. Yeah, did they do it? How much of that is going towards ARMS?

About 85, 90%. Okay, okay, okay. Which still leaves $5 billion. Okay. And that's pretty good. That's a lot of tomatoes away. Yeah. So not all of the concerts exist, like I said before,

because Geldof promised the artists at the time this is a one-off deal. And, yeah, some of it doesn't exist anymore. And even the Philadelphia concert, they didn't multi-track it. They just got a stereo mix of it, so they can't remix it. Right. Which is a bit of a bummer, so that's why they can't take out the feedback and stuff. But a lot of it's online.

I've had a great time watching hours of it this week, and I'm sure i'll be linking and showing photos and stuff on the social media but if you're interested yeah check out queen and you too and madonna and then also the the final numbers of each concert are cool because you're like is that blah blah and then a bunch of other people with 80s perms that you probably won't recognize but galdof has said just to finish we took an issue that was nowhere on the political agenda and through the lingua franca of the planet, which is not English, but rock and roll, we were able to address the intellectual absurdity and the moral repulsion of people dying of want in a world of surplus. Yes.

Yeah, it's funny. It feels like it's become like people are very cynical about it all now, but it sounds like, I mean, from what you said, it sounds like it was a really good thing and had a really positive effect. Really positive and like, yeah. It's so funny that he's become, I feel like he's become a, he's almost become a punchline. Yeah. Maybe not anymore.

I don't think you don't hear people talking about Boggled off that much anymore, but I remember in years ago, you know, sketch shows that have impersonations of him and stuff, and they'd be pretty grotesque. Yeah. I don't know if he, maybe that's, I don't know, yeah, what happened in the later years. But it sounds like he did a pretty cool thing. Yeah. It was really successful.

He seems like, yeah, he seems like a nice guy. He's like, right, I watched this thing on the tally. Let's get all our mates together and let's raise some money. Yeah, the intentions were really, really noble. He's like, right, I watched this thing on the tally. Let's get all our mates together and raise some money. Yeah, the intentions were really, really noble. He didn't care. He's like, I don't give a shit about your ego. We're doing this for this particular cause. Sounds like to be organised you needed someone like that

who just took charge and was like, I don't give a fuck. Yeah, you wouldn't get that many people involved otherwise. And it snowballed from him lying. Bowie's involved. Are you going to be involved? Hey, Bowie Elton's involved. Are you going to be involved? Hey, Bowie Elton's involved. Are you going to be involved? He did a lot of good, but what you've got to remember is

if it wasn't for Bob, Simon Le Bon would never have done that bum night. No, Simon, that fucking girl died. Ruined my career. I was doing Bond themes. I was killing it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And we would have not had this terrible reunion of Led Zeppelin. Yeah, that's right.

Robert Plant's also like Jesus. Well, Zamit, that brings us to everyone's favorite section of the show. Now, you're filling in for Jess. So she does a jingle. I'll tell you what the section's called, and then you just turn it into a little jingle, okay? Okay, okay. The section is called Fact, Quote, or Question.

Fact, Quote, or Question. Fact, Quote, or Question. Ding. That's good. He always remembers the ding. That was good. I think that's better. Jess always does it to the tune of Widget the World Watcher, which probably isn't a reference.

Not at all. Certainly that she doesn't remember. I don't think that anyone on this planet knows that. Widget the World Watcher. That's how it goes Okay Anyway So this is basically

The time when we Thank all these people Who are supporting And equally Maybe not Let's not say equally Okay But

They support something else Which is this show And It helps keep it run If it wasn't for these supporters We wouldn't This show wouldn't happen. So we thank you all very much.

I just had this thought just before that it would be, I mean, it would maybe be embarrassing for how unsuccessful it could be, but we do some sort of Sands Pants Do Go On podcast for charity, but we do it. Pod aid. Pod aid. Life pod. On a barge in international waters.

We record a 16-hour podcast on a barge. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Well, anyway, I'm planning to see if Bob's listening. Let's not think about this time two years ago. We did do a charity gig for the bushfires. That's true. Yeah.

We all came together and. Send money down that well. We did send money down that well. Down the well. All the way down. So, yeah, we just basically thank a few of our great supporters. If you want to support the show, you can do so via dugongpod.com or patreon.com slash dugongpod.

Would that be right, Dave? That's absolutely correct. Nailed it. That was full muscle memory. I blanked. I sort of blanked out as I said it. So you can get all sorts of rewards if you jump on and support us there, depending on the level.

What are some examples there, Dave? We put out three bonus episodes a month. Can you believe this, Amit? That's impressive. I'm putting out a report this week if you want to get another one. It is a space-themed one. That was really fun to record. Which is really, really fun. But also we put out, once a month we do a, we'll go through

a Brendan Fraser movie with Phrasing the Bar. And yeah, but there is at least one bonus report a month. It's a lot of fun. You get to find out about live shows before anyone else and get discounts. There's a Facebook group. We'll give you the shoutouts that we're about to do. And it's just we just appreciate you. That's another good thing you get.

Our appreciation. I think that's one of the most beautiful things. I start with the fake word or question bit. Is that right? Absolutely. We have four each week. I forgot about this when I was setting it all up before. How funny is that? You are so well organized.

I was about, you've got things color coordinated. It's all in different columns. I'm like, holy shit, that's impressive. Maybe I just did that. Yeah, maybe. The color doesn't mean shit. All right, well. So this section, people get to give us a fact or quote or question.

If they're on the Sidney Schaumburg Deluxe Memorial level or above, I don't read these out until I read them out. So I'm not all that organized, but I think it's fun to just do it live. That's what Bob would do. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Absolutely. Send us your fucking money. Yeah, send us your fucking money.

Fuck it. We'll do it live. It's all good. Do an Irish accent though. Irish. Irish. Send us your fucking money. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. money fuck it we'll do it live it's all good send you do an irish accent though what were you doing there? Sanders, you're fucking mad. Sanders, you're fucking mean. You're fucking Sanders. Sanders, you're fucking mean. Are you doing that?

That sounds like Garth from Wayne's World doing an R-Sexy. I'm the man of a thousand noises, not a thousand accents. So the first one comes from Tessa Chilcott, and they also get to give themselves a title. And Tessa's given herself the title Queen of Yawns bracket. I have trouble going to sleep bracket. And now I'm going to yawn because you said yawn, and hopefully some listeners are also going to yawn now as well

if you have the same thing that I do. And I've made Matt yawn as well. Isn't that good? So we recently added a fact quarter question. You can also give us a brag or a suggestion And Tessa has opted for a brag I love a brag And Tessa writes

It's not really a brag or a suggestion or a question There are a few facts and I suppose you could quote me Okay Why did you call it a brag then Tessa Why did you lie to me like that We'll see how it goes I wanted to say thanks for the last two years for continuing to post episodes during the endless lockdowns and uncertainty.

This one isn't about listen now, obviously. I'm guessing you're referring to Duggan. Especially when you were in Melbourne, capital of lockdowns. Do you know this, Zammett? We have the world record. Yeah, it rules. It fucking slaps is what it does. Hey, how cool is that? Yeah. We have a world record. Yeah, it rules. It fucking slaps is what it does. Hey, how cool is that?

Yeah. Another world record. Number one. No one locked down more than us. Yes, you certainly couldn't have been feeling upbeat that whole time. You know what? You're right. I work in an emergency communications centre

for ambulance answering triple zeros, which is our 911, or what's the English or British one? 999. 999. And what other countries where people listen? 2 is the international one, I believe. Okay.

So Tessa works dispatching ambulances, looking after paramedics, et cetera. I'm a tired soul at the moment. I imagine this was written a couple of months ago. So I imagine you're at a whole nother level now. Thank you so much for the work you're doing. Feeling,

feeling a bit burnt out and definitely has needed a laugh and a distraction, especially during the last few months. So thank you, a shining light in my week and something I could listen to over and over again because I have terrible memory. Thank you, Matt. Thank you, Jess. Thank you, Jeff. Oh, that's very nice, Tessa.

That's not a brag at all. Yeah, that was a nice thing. You tricked us. Yeah. You tricked us. Hang on, but you bragged about your terrible memory, meaning you can enjoy content over and over again. No, that's very nice.

That was so sweet. Appreciate you doing great work. Too kind. And the emergency work is great work too. Thank you so much. Amazing. But you have made it look like, to Zamit, that we just end the show with people writing in compliments.

And now for our segment called Praise Me. It's not normally like this, Zamit, I promise. No, that's nice. Look, I mean, it gives you like a time to feel a bit warm and fuzzy. This is kind of nice. It's like, oh, I'm on a show. You know, your fans seem to appreciate you and send nice things. We get a lot of like, well, once again, you're fucked up.

You fucking idiot. Did you not think about this? And I'm like, no, I didn't. I didn't. I'm sorry. That wasn't a Nick Kershaw song. Sorry, I've now heard that you did say it was Howard Jones. Sorry.

Appreciate you getting the word out about Howard. The next one comes from Claire Norris. Claire has given herself the title Infiltrator of the Moles. Oh. And Claire is offering us a fact. Jeez, I hope the fact isn't. I really love your podcast. I hope it is.

I need it. I need that praise, Claire. Come on. Praise me. Praise me. Here's this fact. It's a fact that I love this pod. Go on.

Come on. Undeniable fact. Well, let's start that way. Hey, gang, I love learning from your show. Yes. Thank you. My students every year do in-depth research on an animal species of their choice. For the first time ever this year, one student picked an Australian mole.

So I felt the need to pass on my newfound knowledge. There's a bit of a running thing when we talk about, I can't remember where it started. Mole people being in control of everything. The fortress of the moles. I think there was a theory on one of our mystery episodes that mole people were under it all. Yeah. Under it all and in charge of it all. I don't know if you guys listen to any sort of radio dramas or those type of things, but

there is one particular podcast called, I think it's called The Truth. And there's one little story where they have, which is all about people who live underground, and it's just terrifying, just terrifying. Yeah, so it's a real thing. Wow. Well, do you want to hear some facts about the Australian mole? I do, I do.

Via Claire Norris. There are two, I didn't know there were Australian moles, by the way. Me neither. There are two Australian moles, both of which are technically not true moles and are marsupials. Oh, fake mole. The southern Australian mole, or Itjari, is apparently incredibly rare to see at the surface,

less than 10 times per decade. That's amazing. Once a year. A little rare bugger. It doesn't even create burrows, but rather swims through the ground, decade. That's amazing. Once a year. A little rare bugger. It doesn't even create burrows, but rather swims through the ground, leaving no permanent burrow. That's amazing. This is like magic.

Does that mean that when it wants to sleep, it just stops? It just like buries itself. Man, that's sick. That's cool. Its pouch is also backwards to avoid filling with dirt. That's clever. That's cool. Its pouch is also backwards to avoid filling with dirt. That's clever. Makes sense. Thanks for listening to my random science facts.

I love the pod. I look forward to you each week. Thank you so much, Claire. They're amazing facts. I think I had like the yaoi. You remember yaois? Yes. The little chocolate yaois?

Yeah, yeah, yeah. And it had like different Australian animals in it. I think I had the mole one. You had a mole one? Oh. And do those facts, are they true? Look, I don't. Is your little plastic version the mole?

I'm trying to remember, did they come with any little facts? But my kid brain cannot retain that. So let's just say yes. Okay. Well, the next one, thank you, Claire. The next one comes from Eric Epson Nearguard Jacobson, who's given himself the title of Capo de Tutti Capuchin. Oh.

Does that mean anything to you, Dave? Captain of all. Remember, that was the leader of the mafia. Oh, right. The five families. Yeah, that was the Capo. And Capuchin. Captain of all captains.

Capuchin is the Capuchin monkey? Yeah, you should know that about primates. Yeah, because Capuchin is the Capuchin monkey? Yeah, you should know that about primates. Yeah, because Capuchin monkey, I think it's named after, I think cappuccino and Capuchin have the same, they both come from the same word, which is the colour, I think, of the Capuchin monk's uniforms or something. I did read it at one point on the monkey show. What was it called again?

Primates. I did read it at one point on the monkey show. What was it called again? Primates. So Eric has got a question, which is, what is your favourite way of travelling? Mine is the scientist. A proper road trip.

No, sorry. A proper road trip is the second choice. It's another Tony Martin-based thing, which I'm now not sure if it's me misremembering, but I remember Tony Martin on his old radio show, Get This, playing a clip. I swear he played this clip, and he might have doctored it, which is so funny that I just believed it. But it was Shane Warne interviewing Chris Martin from Coldplay.

For a while, Shane Warne, the cricketer, had an interview show for about eight episodes. That rules. And the final question was always, boxers briefs or commando? Anyway, you interviewed Chris Martin. He interviews Chris Martin from Coldplay and he said, so what's your favourite Coldplay song?

Mine's a scientist. Like he asked and then answered in this weird aggressive way before Chris Martin could get a word in. So often people will now answer their own questions with Minds of Scientists. That makes sense. But now I've found that interview and it's not in there. So I don't know. Oh, wow. I didn't realise you found the interview.

I've watched the whole interview and it's not in there. So I'm not sure what's happened here. If I'm misremembering or if Tony Martin doctored it somehow or what happened, I should try and find out. Get Tone on the blower. Ask him some questions. So anyway, yes. So Eric says he loves a road trip.

That's his favorite way of traveling. Do you have a favorite way of traveling? On foot, bicycle, flying. Yeah, like again. Concorde. Travelling has been such a rare thing these days. It's almost like a distant memory. Do you like to travel from the kitchen to the lounge room?

Oh, yeah, yeah. But how do you travel? In the concorde? On foot. Oh, okay. You've got to hit the steps up. Yeah, that'd look fair enough. Three or four of them at a time.

I do love to drive. Driving's always fun. I love to drive because I love listening to I do love to drive. Driving is always fun. I love to drive because I love listening to music, listening to podcasts. Yeah, yeah. I always like having – who else am I driving with these days? Because, you know, even in this little bubble of ours, but like driving places with my wife, it's always like a good time to have a conversation. It's always a fun time.

Yeah, I love a road trip with my partner. What's your favourite – like It's always a fun time. Yeah, I love a road trip in my park. What's your favourite? That's going longer distance. It sounds like we're all kind of road trip over plane. Look, I quite enjoy a plane ride. Don't get me wrong. Big fan. I found more recently, because I've done the Australia-UK several times,

and in the more recent times, we've broken it up by just going to, say, Malaysia or something like that, having a couple days there. And that is great, and I'm never not doing that. Your favorite way of travel is to lay over. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Right? Well, yeah, just get as many destinations in as you can. If that becomes a thing that happens, you know, common again,

I reckon I'll be making the most of every opportunity to go anywhere. 100%. But, yeah, I like the road trip. Obviously, you can't road trip overseas from here, but you can stop at any point and get a dare-ice coffee. You know what I mean? You can't do that on a plane. Get a sausage roll.

Yeah, at any point. Any point. Any point. Servo's coming up. Get a dare-ice coffee. You know what I mean. Get a sausage roll. Yeah. At any point. Any point. Any point. Servo's coming up. I'm going to get a dare-ass coffee. You want anything? It's a sausage roll. Yeah, there are a couple of weeks back.

We went like sort of out into, where did we go? Somewhere out in the bush that we were just like, there's an Airbnb available. It's cheap. Let's go. I want to sleep in a bed that's not mine. Love it. And on the way back, we passed them like a Macca's and we're like,

dare we? And we just got a Slurpee with a bit of soft serve in that. Oh, did you put that in yourself? What did you ask for? No, no, we asked for it. You can just do this now. It's even on some of the self-checkouts. You just go, boop, boop, boop, done.

Whoa. You mix that up, had a good time. That's so good. I wonder if there's anything where the machine will say, no, that's fucked. You can put a combo in, and and it's like you want bacon bits, you want chicken, you want a Fanta, you want it inside a slushie, you want an Oreo McFlurry, you want a fillet of fish all in one. That was not computer.

You want it in a bag, a paper bag. You served and the machine just starts burning. See, I wrecked your machine. I'm sorry. Sorry. Just quickly, say you go on machine. I'm sorry. Sorry. Just quickly, say you go on your public transport in town. So, you know, obviously you can drive or ride or walk. But of the three Melbourne public transports, what's your favourite?

Train, tram, bus. Bus can, look, I think bus can die. Yeah, bus is definitely. Oh, train is a close also can die. Oh, no. I'm trying one. Really? I love the train.

But I think that's because I grew up outside the tram network. Oh, okay. Well, so did I, but I prefer the tram. Yeah, interesting. I like it. You can see exactly where you are. Yeah. With a train, often you're down.

They've cut a path for the train, but you can't see where you are. Yeah, but the train, it doesn't matter what the traffic's like. The train's zooming along. That's the true advantage of the train. I guess it depends. Am I in a hurry, or do I want to leisurely just get somewhere eventually? Ding, ding. You want to bump into MESO, and obviously then you go on the tram. I love reading on a public transport. If I'm ever to do that, which I've tried to avoid as humanly possible, and I think a tram is great for reading.

Great for a read. There you go. All right. I think we learned a little bit about each other there. So you've got two trains and a tram, is that what you're talking about? No, no, no. I'm a tram. I'm a tram.

Two trams and a tram. Two trams and a tram. No bus. No bus. I haven't crossed the river since I saw Speed. That's fair. Also, since I saw Speed 2, no more cruise ships. Yeah.

Also fair. But that was only recently. How do you feel about leeches in a bathtub, though? Oh, yes. I think that these little babies will keep me alive. I only watched Speed 2. Have you seen Speed 2? No.

Literally in the last four months. Cruise Control? Is that what that's called? Speed 2 Cruise Control. Willem Dafoe, pretty good. Great bad guy. But everything else, pretty bad bad. I don't think I've ever heard anyone call Willem Dafoe anything less than fantastic.

Yeah, that's right. That was just like a knifing him. Willem Dafoe, pretty good. That sentence has never been heard before. The hardest thing is that he was following up Dennis Hopper in what I think is probably the best bad guy ever in Speed 1. Blowing up Dennis Hopper in what I think is probably the best bad guy ever. Right.

In Speed 1. Famously in the film with Jack Nicholson. Easy rider, baby. Or Nicholson, whichever one's not the golfer. That's right, the bear. The corn bear. The last one. Jeez, we're taking – it's so funny.

We did a long episode now. We're just casually cruising through this section. Sorry, Zamit. So sorry. That's all right. And the last one this week comes from David Malofsky, a.k.a. A Place to Hang Your Cape. Oh, yeah. And David's given himself the title of The Funky Fun King of Punking the Pun King

by Pumpkin Puns. Sorry. It was so long, my screen chopped it off. It was only a computer dive. I think you got me there, David. I was going okay until the back half. And this is a quote from David. He writes, this is one of my all-time favorite quotes, and it comes from the legendary Stan Lee.

When asked if digital comics would replace print comic books, Stan the man replied, comics are like boobs. They look great on a computer, but I'd rather hold one in my hand. Just one. He's shaking hands with a boob. I'm picturing him having one, like, attached from a body. That he's got, like, he keeps it in, you know, like, some sort of a solution. And to relax, he'll take it out and hold it. I'm sorry, I'll take it back. Dennis Hopper's not the greatest supervillain of all time.

Stan Lee. Instead of a cat, he's stroking a single boob. It's amazing. He's holding just one up, just reaching across, being like, ah, let me just hold this for you. One of David's all-time favourite quotes. He says, this quote really struck a gourd with me. That's a sneaky pumpkin pun for you, Matt.

Okay. Are you a big pumpkin fan? No, but I think that relates back to his title, Pumpkin the Pumpkin King. He says, this quote really stuck a gourd with me because this year I've been binge reading digital comics, but at the end of the day, nothing beats holding the real thing. I disagree. That all had real virgin vibes about it, I've got to tell you.

I love it. That's so good. Thank you so much, David, Eric, Claire, and, of course, Tessa Chilcott, the Queen of Yawns. Would you believe it? We're only just beginning in this shout-out section, Zamit. I'm excited. You're settling in, which is fantastic.

We're going to race through this. We're going to race through this. This next thing, what Jess normally does here. We're giving everyone the time. They've waited for so long to be shouted at. We'll be racing through your time and we appreciate you. So, Zama, what Jess normally does here is she comes up with a little game. So, we read out a few names each

and then normally it'll be related to the topic where we'll give them a nickname based on the episode or something like that. I don't know. Can you think? That's pretty... Like we just say a little game based on... Maybe, yeah. Can we base based on one of the bands. Maybe each of them gets represented by one of the bands, Dave.

Okay, I've got the list here. And then what they do that's heard around the world. That's better. Yeah, the bung note. What are they doing that's heard around the world? So that's as an example, Zamit. Now you come up with one. Okay.

Or you can take that one. I don't know if I can top that right now. To be honest, I think that's pretty good. I was going to be like, how would they feel about being introduced by Jack Nicholson? But honestly, I think it's the whatever heard around the world is much better. All right. So I'll read out the first two. Zamit, if you want to give us the first one.

All right. So I'd love to thank, from Franklin in Tasmania, Laura Wood. Where was Laura Wood? I think she did that sniff that was heard around the world. So she had the fruit bowl. Yeah, she was back at the- She was hanging out with Jack out the back. Everyone was like, whoa, save some for the rest of us.

Used to journalists being like, wow. Franklin Dam, we're like the Hoover Dam. Thank you very much, Laura. I'd also love to thank from Glasgow, home of the great Billy Connolly, I believe, in Scotland, Lewis Douglas. Lewis Douglas. A great Scottish-sounding name, I think. Yeah, I love that. With the bagpipe heard around name I think Yeah I love that

What the bagpipe heard around the world Lewis would love that Lewis Douglas And the pipes heard around the world Does everyone just hear a bagpipe? Did we all I'm in Australia but did you over there Did you hear that? Did you hear that?

Did you hear that? Still somehow It sounds better than Simon Le Bon And finally from me I'd love to thank from South Fremantle In Western Australia, Alex Oh Alex Alex

The The slap Heard around the world. Yeah. With a glove. You know, like old school, I challenge you to a gruel. A gruel. A jewel.

A gruel jewel. It's a gruel off. Is that like a mud pit fight, but you fight in gruel? In gruel, yes. Love that. Yeah. And Alex is so badass. Won't just take the beating. So much gruel, yes. Love that. Yeah. And Alex is so badass. Just takes a beating.

So much gruel. At the end, Alex's catchphrase is, Please, sir, I want some more. Dave, would you like to thank a few of the next few? I would love to thank, from an unknown location, we can only imagine, Sam, that's deep within the fortress of the moles, big shout out to this person summed up in three letters, DEC Deck.

Could it be Elvis Costello using his birth name? Deck. Finally taking pride in his family name. Deck is the sad uncle heard around the world. Things are going really well for me. Things are going really well for me. Things are going really well. That's what's heard. On your deck.

We believe you. Things are going well. Hey, we're back up to Scotland now. We'd like to thank from Glasgow, Campbell J. Parker. Campbell J. Parker. Now, there's a name to set your watch to. Campbell J. Parker. The far herd around the world. Parker. Now there's a name to set you watch too. Campbell J. Parker. The fart heard around him.

And Campbell, famous quote. Where's the dog? Where's the dog? They're just battling to find a dog. Where's the dog? Sorry, mate. You were here alone. There's an epicenter around your ass.

We've dragged it down to you. I would also like to thank from North Carolina. Anything about that? North Carolina. I've got a fun fact about North Carolina. Did you know in North Carolina, their fire engines aren't red, they're blue. Huh. Isn't that funny?

Yeah, that's a fun fact. Do you know that, Dave? I didn't know that. I haven't heard that every time we've been in North Carolina for many months. And it feels like a real-life Shelbyville type scenario. Yeah, totally. And I believe it is only from the first time he's told the fact, and he's diluted it, it's in one specific place in North Carolina.

Which it might be Winston-Salem, and the resident there that I'd like to thank. Big shout out to Tim Dolan. Tim Dolan. Tim Dolan, you absolute legend. I think Tim Dolan might be one of our rare Patreon supporters who listens via YouTube and might be one of the few people on YouTube who does positive comments. Oh, so it might be the YouTube comment heard around the world.

Yeah, that's right. Less. The positive comment feedback heard around the world. Hey, good app. Yeah. Good app. Tip top. Good app.

Good app. Thank you, Tim. Maybe I could, do you want to thank the last three names? I'm just looking at the names. I might have thrown you under the bus slightly there. thank you matt smith um okay uh so uh i believe uh someone from from christ church uh in in uh uh canterbury in new zealand um i am first off i just want to say i am so sorry uh i apologize this is a brutal uh uh uh for for what look i uh if you want to throw it back no okay what we we are we are taranji we are taranji we are Taranji. Nigarimu? I think that's not it.

We are Taranji. We are Taranji. Nigarimu? Nigarimu. I apologize if I butchered that. Written down, it's a beautiful name to look at. I'm really enjoying it. I'm very sorry.

But hopefully close. In New Zealand, I'm thinking it is the bungee jump scream heard around the world. That's brilliant. They invented the bungee jumping, I think, in New Zealand. I put the history of bungee jumping up for a vote at one point. That'd be a great one, I reckon. Yeah. It sounded like an interesting story.

Also, probably you talk a lot about injuries. Yeah. Yeah, early days I imagine imagine would have been dicey, but that's why I bungee jumped in New Zealand. It was amazing. Over the water. Amazing. I recently found the USB, which I think has the video of me doing it.

I should see if I can rip that to post it on Twitter or whatever. Yeah. Did you do good? Were you scared? It looks funny. Like I sort of just flop off the edge a bit. It's not like a cool sort of, you know, Tom Cruise doing his own stunts kind of jump.

It's more like it looks like maybe I've just been sedated and I've fallen off. But as I was walking up to the guy, he must do this joke to a lot of people, but he goes, as I'm falling, he goes, oh, shit. No. Yeah, it must be a classic. Did it freak you out or did you go, come on? I mean, I was falling by that point.

But I imagine they do this to all the people. Before that, he goes, oh, how are you going? I say, good, thanks, you. And he's like, oh, how you going i said good thanks you and he's like oh absolutely hung over to be honest had a huge night last night feeling very hazy and i'm like oh yeah i'm going he's joking but you know a little bit of it gets through and then at the other end they when they bring you down you're hanging upside down and they bring you into the boat but he goes all right we're going to lower you into the water now it's quite cold get ready and we're lowering you into the but they're putting you into the boat, but he goes, all right, we're going to lower you into the water now. It's quite cold.

Get ready, and we're lowering you into the – but they're putting you into the boat. Just the whole time they're trying to fake you out. Can you see the boat or are you – No, I can't. I'm upside down. And, yeah, it was just like, can you just say one thing sincerely? All right, we're lowering you into the lava pit now.

Just three, two, one. We're going to shoot you now. We've got a gun pointed. A sniper has his point here. And they get someone with a laser to put the red dot on you. We don't want you to enjoy any moment of this. No, not at all. Not at all.

Well, thank you very much there, Weterangi. And also just, I I guess thank Rachel Jareth from Location Unknown. You can only assume, Dave. Deep. Deep. Deeper than the fortress. Very deep. Rachel Jareth, even in the

Fortress of the Moles, we can hear the high five around the world. Up top. Up top. Is it someone's dodgy uncle again? Up top. high five around the world up top up top is it is it someone's dodgy uncle again up top

you'll make it one day uncle Elvis I guess we'll call him yeah he really wants us to call him Elvis imagine when your uncle

rebrands as Elvis you'll be like Jesus Christ I couldn't do it and finally thank you Mikey Overdoon. From? From Devon Park in South Australia.

Australia. Devon Park in South Australia. Mikey Overdoon. South Australia. What are some of the things South Australia? The pie floater. The church. 24-hour bakeries. The serial killer heard around the pie floater. The church. 24-hour bakeries.

The serial killer heard around the world. You did say church. What about church bells? Oh, the church bells. Love the bell. I love the sound of the bell. The ding. The ding heard around the world.

Never forgets the ding, do I? Amazing. So thank you very much, Laura, Lewis, Alex, Dec, Campbell J, Tim, Watarangi, Rachel, and Mikey. I mean, we always have the most amazing names. I think I've got a conspiracy theory that somehow the algorithms don't let you listen unless you've got an awesome name. That sounds about right.

Yeah. I bet you Sandspans listeners are like Alan Davidson. Alan Sophie Ting. That's probably an Alan Davidson listening. Odds are. I'm joking, Alan. Alan's the cry I heard around the world. What about, come back, Alan.

Is that why you refer to him as Matt Smith? So you snore with that? Yeah. Somehow you've dulled down even my name. Stuart. No, no, no, no, no, no. It you've dulled down even my name. Stuart. No, no, no, no, no, no. It has to be some... Generic.

More generic. Even more generic. All right. Well, that brings us to the last thing we like to do. Can you believe there's more? Welcoming some of our long-term supporters into the Triptych Club. These people have been supporting us at the shout-out level or above for three straight years.

Three years. Three years. One of them for much longer than that, but we missed him a while ago. And the way this works is I'm standing at the door. In theory, you might a little bit here. I've got the velvet rope. I've got the clipboard. I'm going to read out the names, lift up that velvet rope,

welcome them into the club. Into that mind palace of the club. Dave is in there. He's the hype man. So he them into the club. Into that mind palace of the club. Dave is in there. He's the hype man. So he's on the stage. Everyone else has already been welcomed in, cheering everyone on. It's a slow clap building up. I'm kind of the Jack Nicholson of this.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Everyone's going, is that really Dave Warnocky up there? And Dave, he gives them a big hype up. Dave also normally books a band to play for the event. Can you believe it? I have booked a live aid reunion, but only one actor has shown up, and it is Nick Kershaw, and he's only going to play a white boy on repeat. Yes!

Yes! I couldn't ask for a better result than that. Jess normally comes up with a cocktail that is named based on the show. So what's involved in the Live Aid cocktail? Live Aid cocktail. Well, I guess it's got to be a kind of like a meaty drink. Yes. It's got to be filling.

So we've got to have like a base of Guinness. Okay. That's a wild start. Base of Guinness. That's what you want. You want something that you like. Is this a bit bready? If I'm looking through the cocktail book and I see Guinness is the number one ingredient,

I'm moving on. Okay. Then we want to maybe like, again, I think this is what- It's also Irish, Bob. You've got the Bob connection there. I'm pretty sure, I don't know if this is true or not, but to start when you're a young lad or lass and you want to start drinking and you're like, I'll try it with Guinness. You're like, oh, too much for me. You chuck a bit of Ribena in that. So we're going to chuck a bit of Blackcurrant.

I love Ribena. This is like an Irish snake bite. Yeah, yeah. Then what we want to do is one of them glossy cherries. Definitely want to put one of those on top. Now to really enhance, I don't know. Wait, so this, you've put a cherry on top and now you're going to put something else on as the cherry on top. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Of the cherry on top. I was you're going to put something else on as the cherry on top.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Of the cherry on top. I was just thinking, now, I don't know about you boys. I've never heard of anyone going beyond the cherry on top. But do you think? That's shorthand for the last thing. I know, but do you think a shot or two of Bailey's would improve this drink? I think so.

I think Bailey's improves anything. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So maybe a shot or two of Bailey's. And then on the rim, you know how you normally do salt? There's got to be cocaine. Hell yes. Lick, sip, snort. Yeah, yeah.

That sounds awful. It sounds like it would curdle. Yeah. In the glass before it does it to your stomach. Yum, yum. All right. So there's four names to bring in here. And if you just normally give Dave a bit of support because he's awful at this.

All right. That's not why. It's because I'm the great hype man. But behind every great hype man is another hype man or hype woman. Oh, sorry. That's what we say. Yeah. All right.

So just four names this week. Oh, sorry. That's what we say. Yeah. All right. So just four names this week. Oh, my God. Here we go. From Swansea in Great Britain. I think in, I'm thinking right in Wales, Swansea. Oh, yeah. Sari John Jones. Oh, Sari.

More like Carrie John Jones. I care for you so much. Okay. We care for you so much. Yes. You get it. From Boston, Massachusetts in the United States. From Boston.

It's Aaron McLaughlin. Oh, more like Cassachusetts. Thank you from Boston. Oh, my God. Boston. You are the boss of my heart. The boss of this podcast. Yes.

Hell yeah. From Brighton in England. It's Tom Cameron. Oh, the Brighton in England, it's Tom Cameron. Oh, the Brighton of my life. The brightest spot. You are so like sunny Brighton. That's what I'm getting from you. You are so bright.

Thank you so much for your support. If you think Tom Cameron is too boring of a name to listen to this show because he's two first names, there's an H in Tom, okay? So cop that. Yes, I'd love a good Thumb. And finally from Nashville, Tennessee in the United States, it's Annabeth Larrabee. More like Cashville.

Oh, my God, Nashville, the home of a lot of beautiful music there, playing like the heartstrings of my soul. Feels like there's a lot to work with Annabeth Larrabee, and you've gone with Cashville. I've done Cassachusetts. That's funny. But, I mean, how is that thanking them? It's making it sound like you're only seeing money.

No, I'm making it rain. We're in the club with the fucking money gun going. And I've got the burrito gun. Yeah. So thank you so much, and welcome to Annabeth, Tom, Aaron and Sari John. All fantastic names. Thank you so much. As is a rule.

That brings us to the end of the episode. We made it, Zammett. Thank you so much for coming on this episode. I think this is going to end up being one of like top five, maybe even top two longest we've ever done. Yeah. It's only a sneaky three hours. We don't normally go over the three hour barrier.

It's not usually this long. I reckon normally 20 minutes of this would be edited out as well, which I don't think we'll let. This is the director's cut episode. That's right. So I apologize. Any new listeners would be like, what the fuck? Hey, but we covered Live Aid extensively, right?

We did. And Huey Lewis' involvement. Man, I'd be normally begging for you to edit out all mentions of Huey Lewis involvement and extremely man I'd be normally begging for you to edit out all mentions of Huey Lewis but it's a very

integral story I knew you didn't have any time to edit it's an integral story to the DNA of this episode structurally

I cannot take Huey Lewis out fuck but Sam we won't people have any time to listen to any other podcast

if this one doesn't go for three hours, they can hear heaps of your voice. Heaps. If you at Sanspence Radio do lots of fantastic podcasts that we love. That's true. If you can, I guess, like, look, I'll keep it short. Yeah, let's just start it back.

Let's just start it back. Plumbing the Death Star, if you like some nerdy pop cultures with, like, some of the three biggest dumb fucks talking about uh culture joel douche has been on this show before and we've been on plumbing the death star as well that's right yes you have joel douche was on to tell us about ryan gosling a while back i'm trying to think it's cass has been on an episode as well anyone else from sans pants just the big three jackson has also been on our an episode as well. Anyone else from Sands Pants? Just the big three. Jackson has also been on our... Oh, Jackson, of course. An episode.

Who I actually counted the big three. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Dumped Doucher out. Top four at best. But let's be honest, Adam Cannavale is ahead of the douche. Top five of the douche. So, yeah, so Plum of the Dester, Based on Speculation,

and D&D is for nerds. Or you can listen to us on sanspanserario.com or on iTunes as part of the Bad IQ Boys collection. And people would be familiar, certainly our Patreon listeners would be familiar with our D&D campaign, which we did with Adam Cannavale. And you do a D&D show with him as well.

Yes, the D&D is for nerds. That is currently we're doing stories from the Greyhill Free Company. Do you do a voice like that on it? Yes, I do. You do a great posh voice. Yes, yes, yes. You do a great posh voice. I can't believe I didn't throw accents over to you all the episode.

I kept battling through them and they were all just weird. I'll take it from here. None of them were. I liked your weird Irish accent. I was a big fan of that one. Irish was the best. Or your cockney geezer at the start. Oh, my God.

There was nothing cockney about it. Yeah, it was beautiful. So I apologize to everyone who was offended today, which hopefully was nearly everybody. So that brings us to the end of the episode. Anything we need to tell people before we wrap it up, Dave? We can see Zammett live on February the 18th, I believe. And you can also come and see-

19th, I think. 19th. And you can come see us. The Do Go On quiz show tickets are now just going on sale April 4, April 11, April 18 at the Melbourne Comedy Festival. Man, we'd love to see you there. It'd be so fun. It's our Christmas time.

Yeah. And I mean, Christmas time's our Christmas time as well. We're so lucky to have two Christmas times. Very lucky. And yes, I think one of those shows has a better chance of going ahead. And I believe it is yours. So I'm looking forward to seeing that bad boy. Yeah, no, definitely.

We'll go ahead no matter what. So, Zammett, thank you so much for joining us. Anytime. And until next week, I'll say thank you so much for listening And goodbye Later That's exactly what Jeff says That was sick

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