Star-Studded Concerts Raise Funds for Africa

More than 160,000 rock fans jammed into stadiums in London and Philadelphia on Saturday for the star-filled, globally broadcast Live Aid rock concerts held in hope of raising up to $50 million to fight famine in Africa.

Featuring more than 50 of the top acts in music, the concerts--the one in London lasted 10 hours, the one in Philadelphia 14--were melded into a 16-hour extravaganza for broadcast, in part or completely, to at least 100 nations, Live Aid officials said.

Performed during a sweltering summer day in each city, the concerts were likened in spirit to the fabled Woodstock festival of 1969. The lineup included such Woodstock veterans as Joan Baez, Santana, The Who, and Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young.

‘Dramatic Need’

But Mike Love of the Beach Boys, who performed in Philadelphia, said: “I think it (Live Aid) is much more important than Woodstock because this is for a very dramatic need.”

The concerts, at Wembley Stadium in London and at John F. Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, were marked by good feelings: a royal visit to Wembley, Soviet rock via satellite, frequent and welcome hosings-down of the sunburnt crowds by Live Aid security forces, and only about a dozen arrests reported at each site by police.

The long day began at noon in London, where Prince Charles and Princess Diana drew loud cheers as they arrived at the stadium. A military band played “God Save the Queen,” the royal couple waved, and the opening act, Status Quo, began rocking.

The prince clapped in time with the band, quipping to reporters, “You see, I’ve got natural rhythm.”

Two hours later, across the Atlantic, the American concert began with actor Jack Nicholson grinning and telling some 90,000 packed into JFK Stadium: “Good morning, Philadelphia. Say hello to the world.”

“Good morning, children of the ‘80s--this is your Woodstock and it is long overdue,” Baez said before starting the concert with a cappella versions of “Amazing Grace” and “We Are the World,” the latter originally recorded by 45 American music stars for USA for Africa, a separate famine relief group.

The crowd’s reaction to her greeting seemed muted. But much of the crowd seemed too young to have been more than toddlers when Baez sang at Woodstock. However, the fans erupted in roars at performances by hard-rocking groups like Black Sabbath and Judas Priest, and the sunny good vibrations of the Beach Boys.

‘I Got Chills’

The driving force behind the Live Aid extravaganza was Irish rocker Bob Geldof of the Boomtown Rats. Before performing in London, he expressed elation, even though visibly near exhaustion from his weeks of work to organize Saturday’s giant benefit.

“I was so tired when I woke up this morning that the fact that this was ‘The Day’ didn’t even hit me until I got here,” he said in an interview. “But as soon as I got here and saw the crowd, I got chills.”

“It’s wonderful,” rock star David Bowie said of the concerts. Said another performing star, Elton John: “It’s the closest we’ll get to Woodstock.”

Other stars performing at the concerts included former Beatle Paul McCartney, U2, Bob Dylan, Duran Duran, Billy Ocean, Bryan Adams, Neil Young, Mick Jagger, Tina Turner, Madonna, and Phil Collins with Sting.

Julian Lennon had been scheduled to join Collins and Sting but failed to appear. There was no immediate explanation for the absence of the son of the late Beatle John Lennon.

Attends Both Concerts

After his Wembley turn, Collins dashed to catch a supersonic Concorde jetliner heading to New York, hoping to get to Philadelphia in time to perform before the end of the Live Aid concert there. He made it, and played drums and sang with guitarist Eric Clapton.

Before his transatlantic dash, Collins was quoted by United Press International as saying: “I’m a lunatic, I must be. I don’t know why I’m doing this. Somebody just put up the idea, and I thought I’d do it.”

The concerts were as much a triumph of technology as of rock-star organization. Ten video and four audio satellites were used for the Live Aid broadcast, which included a taped rock concert from Australia and live performances by bluesman B. B. King in Holland, rock acts in West Germany and two songs from Moscow by the leading Soviet rock group, Autograph.

Although the Soviet Union was among the 100 nations said to be receiving the 16-hour broadcast, it was not airing it live. A spokesman for Soviet television said that no decision had been made on whether the concert would be televised in that country.

100 TV Stations

The broadcast was aired in its entirety in the United States by MTV, the rock video cable network, and by three young-adult ABC Radio networks. More than 100 TV stations, including KTLA in Los Angeles, aired all or part of the 13-hour concert package offered them.

Those stations and MTV also aired appeals for donations for Live Aid, complete with a toll-free number to call to make pledges. At the conclusion of the Philadelphia concert, pop star Lionel Richie announced that the appeal had raised $40 million in telephone pledges. The goal had been $50 million, and the total was expected to exceed that as more pledges came in.

The last three hours of the Philadelphia concert, combined with taped highlights of earlier performances, were carried by the ABC television network.

The U.S. broadcasts included both commercials and taped messages about conquering world hunger, the latter by such world figures as former President Jimmy Carter, Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and Coretta Scott King, widow of civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Movie Stars Give Messages

Movie performers also delivered messages, among them Burt Lancaster, Jeff Bridges and Sally Field, a two-time Oscar winner. Field declared that “this concert is a turning point” and that “after today, the world may never be the same.”

Concert organizers had voiced no opposition to the airing during the Live Aid broadcast of local and national commercials for such products as Miller beer, Ivory soap, Toyota and Tide. Not all the commercials were to sell products.

There was a sprinkling of specially tailored ads by Chevrolet, Pepsi and AT&T; that, although not mentioning Live Aid directly, gently asked viewers join in the fight against hunger.

The AT&T; commercial, for example, showed pictures of African famine victims as an off-camera chorus sang the company’s famous “reach out and touch someone” jingle, then added the words, “someone whose only hope is you.”

Robert Hilburn reported from London and Dennis McDougal from Philadelphia. In Los Angeles, Times staff writer Jay Sharbutt and Richard Cromelin and John Horn contributed.