Live Aid, By the Numbers
A data-driven look at the biggest day in Philadelphia live music history.
The stage at JFK Stadium in Philadelphia for Live Aid (photo via Squelle/CC/Wikimedia Commons)
Just how big was that giant stage at Live Aid? How many hours and minutes passed between Phil Collins leaving Wembley Stadium and arriving at JFK Stadium? How many people were ejected from JFK from bad behavior? We answer those questions and more.
8:51 a.m.: Time that David Weinstein took the stage at Live Aid. Don’t know the name? That’s because he was a completely nobody. Weinstein somehow got a tape of his music into the hands of the Philly concert organizers and convinced them to let him sing a couple of songs to kick off the event. For some reason, they agreed. Right away, one of his guitar strings broke. Then his voice cracked. It was, as he later put it, a “disaster.” Then came Joan Baez and then the Hooters.
4: Years after Live Aid that Philadelphia Mayor Wilson Goode condemned the stadium, which was decrepit and quite literally falling apart. When it came time to demolish the stadium in 1992, here’s what the person in charge of demolition told the Inquirer: “The stadium was falling apart before demolition. It scares me to think that there were 100,000 people in here.”
23,744: Square footage of the stage specifically built for the show at JFK, billed as the biggest in rock-and-roll history. In the center of the stage was another stage, essentially a turntable, that rotated between acts, so one band could set up while another was playing — a necessity when there were mere minutes between some performances.
$35: Cost of a ticket to the show in Philly. An authenticated Ticketron ticket recently sold for $350 on eBay.
0: Songs from the Led Zeppelin reunion you’ll find on the official Live Aid four-DVD box set. The band reportedly blocked their inclusion. We think we know why.
Led Zeppelin at Live Aid / Photograph by Ron Galella Collection/Getty Images
9 hrs.13min.: Time between when Phil Collins departed the stage at Wembley, where he performed solo and with Sting, and his arrival onstage at JFK as part of the Led Zeppelin reunion, made possible by a three-hour supersonic Concorde flight from London to New York. Though based on what happened with Led Zeppelin, he should have stayed in London.
1: Rap acts that performed at Live Aid. Run-DMC got many of the 100,000 people in attendance at JFK to “throw [their] hands in the air” during “King of Rock.” White people all around the world were like, “Oh, so that’s what rap is!”
Run-DMC / Photograph via Getty Images
22 minutes: Duration of the longest Philly sets, courtesy of Led Zeppelin, Duran Duran, and Hall & Oates, back when Hall & Oates were still on speaking terms. Poor Kenny Loggins got a mere four minutes. Yes, he played “Footloose.”
1.9 billion: Number of people who reportedly watched the Live Aid broadcast. (Likely exaggerated.) The most popular performance on the Live Aid YouTube channel, by far, is Queen doing UK at Wembley, with 263 million views. Most viewed from JFK? Madonna’s “Holiday” with 20 million.
8: Acts introduced by Chevy Chase, who intro’d more performers that day than any of the other emcees, who included Bette Midler, Joe Piscopo, Jack Nicholson, Don Johnson, and George Segal. Ah, the ’80s.
$125 million-$150 million: Amount Live Aid was said to have raised for famine relief in Africa through ticket and merchandise sales and telephoned-in donations during and after the concert. But how much of this money actually went to famine relief? Good question. More on the Live Aid money controversy here.
12: Concertgoers ejected from JFK Stadium for a variety of misdeeds and misbehavior. Considering the usual antics at JFK Stadium, that was pretty impressive.
$100,000: What it normally cost a concert promoter in 1985 to rent JFK Stadium. But Mayor Wilson Goode waived the fee, because he really wanted Live Aid to come to Philly.
102,000: Capacity of JFK Stadium for Live Aid. Wembley held a paltry 72,000.
95 degrees: High temperature in Philadelphia for Live Aid. But anyone who was there will tell you it felt way hotter.
19: Years after Live Aid that Live Aid founder Bob Geldof would find himself opening for the Hooters in Germany. This is significant because Geldof didn’t want the Hooters to have anything to do with Live Aid. So the Hooters had the last laugh.
