It might have been Queen who stole the show at Live Aid - their performance is frequently voted one of the greatest of all time - but it was actually Paul McCartney who had the coveted final spot at Wembley Stadium (notwithstanding the big group singalong of Do They Know It’s Christmas?, of course).
Unfortunately, though, things didn’t go entirely to plan: when McCartney sat down at the piano to sing The Beatles’ Let It Be, it turned out that his mic wasn’t working, meaning that, for the first two minutes of the song - after which the mic was fixed - those in the crowd could barely hear him.
Now, in an interview with The Times to mark Live Aid’s upcoming 40th anniversary (13 July), organiser Bob Geldof has been recalling the McCartney mishap.
“Paul asked me which song he should do and I said Let It Be, because it’s a benediction,” he says. “Then his mic fails and Pete Townshend grabs me from one side and says, ‘Let’s help him,’ and David Bowie grabs me from the other, and with Alison [Moyet] we went out to sing along.”
They certainly took their time: watching the footage back now - which has been edited so that the vocal is fixed (this audience recording gives you a better idea of what those in the stadium heard) - we see that Geldof, Townshend, Bowie and Moyet only appear after about three and a half minutes, by which time McCartney’s mic was working again.
Not that anyone really cared - this was a charity gig, after all - but it must have been pretty stressful for McCartney, given his circumstances at the time.
“It was his first time on stage since John [Lennon] died,” says Geldof. “Linda, Stella and the kids persuaded him to do it. He was driving up from Sussex, listening to U2 on the radio, and they were so good, he was getting really nervous, especially because once he’d said yes, given the hierarchy in pop, with the Beatles unassailable at the top, he had the added burden of closing the show.”
You can hear much more about Live Aid in a new 40th anniversary documentary, When Rock 'n' Roll Took On the World. As well as Geldof, this also features interviews with Bono, Sting, Patti Labelle and Phil Collins, along with contributions from political figures such as George W Bush, Condoleezza Rice, President Obasanjo and Tony Blair. It airs on the BBC in the UK from Sunday 6 July, and CNN in the US from Sunday 13 July.
You must confirm your public display name before commenting
Please logout and then login again, you will then be prompted to enter your display name.