lastdecember said:
thesexofit said:
I did an appreciation thread on here before and I still love it. Just love the atmosphere really. But I must say that from the documentaries I have seen, the USA did not quite get it as much as their UK counterparts. I heard alot of US acts would only do it if they were on at the right time etc.. I know UK acts thought about this aswell, but not to the extent I feel than the US acts did.
Also, the show would of been so much better with Springsteen, Michael Jackson and Prince. Easily much better. They asked Michael's people and he just said no apparantly (working on "Captain EO", but for one day Mike? For charity?).
I just think in general some US acts (particually black acts) thought "We are the world" was the beginning and end of the project and that was that.
But what got me was the lack of black acts at the US concert? Diana Ross, Dionne Warwick, Stevie Wonder, Michael Jackson, Ray Charles, even Lionel Ritchie. Where were they? Lionel pointlessly comes out during the finale singing "we are the world", yet didn't even have a set that day! Why not play?...
...That annoyed me, that apparantly one black act decided against performing, so the rest blocked it aswell. Pretty sad.
I know some black acts were there (Patti Labelle, Four Tops, even Billy Ocean), but why not the other much bigger stars? Does anyone know why they boycotted it? A waste....
I know pretty much the UK acts didnt really care but i think the US version at least towards the end became a whole, i want to do this and i want to do that. I have heard this is why John Mellencamp didnt do it, he said there was too much "What time am i on" going down. I really didnt think much of the USA version, the UK fucking rocked and alot of the early acts i didnt know their material but there i was a little kid in front of the tv at 6am getting instructions from my older brother on how to change the vcr tapes after recording 2 hours while he had to go to work that day. For the USA version to me the highlights were the ones NOT talked on, Reo speedwagon did a great set, Rick Springfield fucking was awesome as were the Cars. Hall and Oates were good, but you could tell they were worn the fuck out from their own stardom, and Duran DUran to this day thought they sucked ass, i dont think they were that bad, of course that note simon hit, well, lets not mention it, but shit happens. Had this event happend the following summer a-ha would have done it, they were just breaking in at this time, barely but werent asked. Queen to me still own this day, i mean, they went out and kicked ass, no soundchecks, no egos, except that they fucked rocked the place!
Thats interesting John Mellencamp said that. Paul Simon phoned Bob Geldof and saif he couldn't work with US promoter Billy Graham. Another shame. I agree about Rick and REO Speedwagon. Black Sabbath sounded OK as did Judas Priest infact (more UK acts LOL).
Zeppelin sucked and blamed Phil Collin's drumming for it all. I (and I know you have it aswell) have watched the Zeppelin set (not on the DVD) and its true, the drums do sound a little off at times (both Phil and Tony Thompson I think were drumming), but to blame the slightly dodgy vocals and quite frankly, shocking guitar playing by Jimmy (who Phil said was drooling LOL) all on him was very unfair.
Phil said that when he came off the concord from the UK to their trailer, he said it was like walking into a dark cloud or something? A dark place. A bad atmpsphere.
Phil said before he even said hello to the band that Page barked at him asking did he know where to come in on "stairway to heaven"? Phil demonstrated to Jimmy he knew where, and Jimmy just barked back "wrong wrong wrong!" Talk about a bad attitude. Phil did no reheasal or soundchecks with them, so you know, getting immediately shouted at was not a good start. Phil even said that halfway through the set, he was thinking of walking off stage. Thats how bad he felt about it all!
The whole day wasn't about the sort of egos Led Zeppelin were showing, yet they still publicly blamed Phil and blocked the rights of their set to the DVD (which was also pretty sad). Talk about a farce. Its a charity concert for f*** sake! Did The Who get mad with their technical difficulties, what about poor old Paul McCartney during "Let it be"? No they didn't complain because its for charity and you just let it go. Zeppelin to me seem obsessed by their legacy and seem more American then English in their general attitudes to me now anyway...
Shame Santana blocked his set to DVD aswell, as his set was one of the highlights for me. Very 80's (which is probably why I liked it), but I thought it was a great set personally. Prince donating "4 the tears in your eyes" was nice, but I don't like the song much. Prefer the studio version as well. Still, at least the gesture was there, even if it did begger the question, "if you can make a bloody video, why not just perform at the damn event itself!"
George Thurogood and Albert Collins (replacing Tears for fears) were great aswell. Simple rock and roll always sounds good in stadiums (if played well of course).
Geldof was amazing for pulling both the single "do they know it'c christmas?" and inparticular "Live aid" itself. Very brash and arrogent, but you needed that to get the job done.
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I'm a guy!!!!
I've not a clue for why Prince or Michael were not there.
