More than any artist on the star-studded bill, Queen have come synonymous with Live Aid, the band's short but spectacular six-song set providing the concert's most vivid and long-lasting images and memories. But, in a new interview with MOJO magazine, promoter Harvey Goldsmith reveals that Band Aid/Live Aid mastermind Bob Geldof didn't originally want Freddie Mercury's band on the bill at all, and that Mercury himself initially wasn't all that interested in performing on the day either.
The Live Aid concert was conceived by Geldof and Midge Ure, co-writer of 1984's best-selling Band Aid single Do They Know It's Christmas?, as a vehicle to raise funds for, and awareness of, famine relief in Africa. Enlisting the help of London promoter Harvey Goldsmith, the pair booked Wembley Stadium to host the UK leg of the show on July 13, 1985: they were then faced with the not inconsiderable task of putting together a bill of artists who could not only sell out the 72,000-capacity stadium, but hold the attention of two billion TV viewers across the planet. And Geldof apparently didn't think that Queen were up to the task.
