evan@petfe.UUCP (Evan Marcus) (07/14/85)
As those of you who pay attention to my postings to this group (there must
be somebody) could guess, I enjoyed Live-Aid. I Vid-taped a great deal
of it, and enjoyed just about all of it. My favorite moment was Hall&Oates
and the Temptations.
Where were: Julian Lennon (he was advertised!), George Harrison, Ringo Starr,
Bruce Springsteen, Billy Joel? How about Cyndi Lauper (not that I missed her),
Paul Simon, Art Garfunkel, Bob Seger, Huey Lewis, Stevie Wonder, MJackson (see
Cyndi Lauper), Chicago, John Fogerty? And Peter Paul and Mary were there for
the finale, but didn't perform. And how come the Stones didn't play together?
The potential for surprises that fell through amazed me! Is there anyone who
didn't guess the finale? A few surprises underwhelmed me like the CSNY
reunion. Led Zep was great to see, even if Plant can't hit those high notes
anymore. The Who sounded amazing! (Except when they f-f-f-aded away) And
I wish Collins had learned another song or 2 on the piano.
The MTV coverage was bad in many ways. I REALLY didn't want to see Martha,
Nina, and Mark singing along during The Who, or the Brit finale (another big
disappointment--no Beatles, no quick teamups, no nothing!). They seem really
stuck on themselves. Yes, the VJs worked hard--it was a long day, but they
were just too hung up on their own image.
Does anyone know why the independent coverage (channel 5 here in NY) started
to show tapes of earlier in the day at about 4pm? They missed the Brit finale,
Madonna (thank God for small miracles), and everything that happened after 4.
In spite of this, I liked a lot of things I saw. Sting was great. I liked U2
(I usually don't), Tom Petty (I didn't have to look at him, though), Hall &
Oates, the 4 Tops, and lots of other parts.
I'm sure I won't be the only person to discuss this on the net. Let's hear
about it.
--Evan Marcus
--
{ucbvax|decvax}!vax135!petsd!petfe!evan
...!pedsgd!pedsga!evan
Just to hit the ball and touch 'em all
A moment in the sun
It's gone, and you can tell that one goodbye.wro@noscvax.UUCP (Michael Wroblewski) (07/15/85)
Okay, got in to work this morning hoping to see some postings, but there
were none yet, so here go some idle ramblings....
First off, what I enjoyed (in no particular order)....U2 was fabulous,
but I wish someone from Empty Vee wouldn't have tripped over a cable and
cobbed up one song (I don't remember which one....I'll have to go back and
view the videotape). Sting's set, which was almost the same as his set on
the Secret Policeman's Balls, with the addition of Branford Marsallis on
soprano sax. Also Sting's collaborations with Phil Collins and Dire Straights
Boomtown Rats were good, except the butchered broadcast feed of Bob Geldof's
microphone. The Who were okay, but given the atmosphere of the whole event,
I certainly enjoyed them. Again, as with U2, the satellite feed went out
on one number. The rest of the Wembley performances get a little bit hazy
right now....I got up at 3:30 Pacific and taped all 17+ hours while doing
things around the house.
As for the US performances, I wish we could've seen more of them, given
Empty Vee's propensity for other horseshit. The Led Zeppelin reunion
made my day (the only time I saw them was the one of four nights in
Chicago back in '77, when Jimmy Page got sick and played for only 45
minutes). Bryan Adams' set was good, but again, another technical problem,
and on the Canadian benefit song that all you people north of the border
have been writing about, and I've never heard! Didn't think Duran needed
to show up, but Power Station was good, even without Robert Palmer (wish
he still sang though, instead of Michael DesBarres).
Dislikes? Few of the performers....Ultravox wasn't quite up to snuff,
C,S & N were out of tune and sounded rotten (didn't Crosby look like
shit?), the Beach Boys did backup vocals for somebody who escapes me at
this time (but sounded okay on their set....must only be able to sing
harmony on just their own stuff, and probably on ly after lot's of
practicing!!)ly after lot's of . Main gripes, I guess would be the Empty Vee anouncers,
especially Mark Goodman, who I think should be shot, and Nina Blackwood.
I didn't like how they'd talk over some of the songs, and other basic
ramblings between sets ("Hey, that's Bruce Springsteen's lighting truss").
So overwhelming, all of it. I will get a better picture of it all as I
view my videotapes over the next couple of weeks....It was recorded in
Beta Hi-fi, so should make some great audio cassette compilations this
summer.
The other thing that ticked me, was that Oz for Africa, the four-hour show
from Australia, was broadcast just prior to Live-aid, and wasn't even
advertized....I would've taped that too....INXS had a really hot set.
Das ist alle fur heute."
Mike Wroblewski
*** REPLACE THIS LINE WITH YOUR MESSAGE ***rlr@pyuxd.UUCP (Rich Rosen) (07/16/85)
MTV coverage and regular commercial TV coverage were different, both uneven, and strangely enough, about half a second apart: if you switched back between MTV and channel 5 (NYC) e.g., you noticed a half-second delay in MTV. Anybody know why? MTV decided to give us a whole block of over a hour at once, and so just after that THEY missed the Pretenders, who were on the regular stations. Network coverage was abysmal (I hear they broke in IN THE MIDDLE of Stairway to Heaven). I missed the Who completely, but saw a mediocre performance of "WGFA". They weren't all that good at Kampuchea either, and bitterness between Daltrey and Townsend must have hurt some. Question: MTV kept mentioning a John Lennon feel running through the whole affair. Was it deliberate that so many artists covered Lennon tunes. (Elvis Costello - "All You Need Is Love", Thompson Twins - "Revolution" (???), Patti Labelle - "Imagine") I recall some more, does anyone have a list? -- Anything's possible, but only a few things actually happen. Rich Rosen pyuxd!rlr
ran@bentley.UUCP (RA Novo) (07/16/85)
I watched the live aid concert here in the NYC area on channel 5 during the day and channel 7 at night. The coverage was quite pitiful. During the day, we would see about 30 seconds of a song, then interrupted by 3 minutes of ads (it seems that they only had 3 different ads they used over and over) and a 3 minute sales pitch by Sally Field asking for donations. Before the concert, Bob Geldof was worried that the big names involved would overshadow the cause for which this concert was held, but when watching it, I constantly had to remind myself that this was the concert event of the century, and not a spin-off of the Jerry Lewis telethon. (BTW, was that David Gilmour playing guitar behind Bryan Ferry?) At night the coverage was somewhat better, but not by far. The Led Zeppelin set consisted of half of "Stairway to Heaven". I felt like strangling Dick Clark when he gave the long speech on the Led Zep background directed towards the Madonna and Michael Jackson fans while half of the set was lost. Later on the local news, they played a small part of Whole Lotta Love (Did anyone notice that there was another drummer to back Collins up. Did John Bonham use another drummer?). When the Who played, we only heard a portion of "Won't Get Fooled Again". Well, at least Dick Clark didn't sing along with Roger Daltrey. Dick Clark also persisted in priming us for "mega-surprises" until the last minute. By the way he was talking, I was expecting the finale to be a duet between JS Bach and Kate Bush! :-) The potential for surprises was there, but that's all it was, potential. Highlghts of the day: Morning: Dire Straits (They had one of the few sets that was uninterrupted) Autograph (It was interesting, seeing Russian rock, even though their quality left something to be desired) Ozzy back with Black Sabbath (I guess, if you like Metal) Evening: Led Zeppelin and the Who (A bit of nostalgia. Does anybody know what their whole sets consisted of? Please respond by mail.) Low points of the day: Too many ads. Sally Field. Led Zep and the Who (We wanted more) Madonna (Were all her concerts that raked in cash that bad?) Bob Dylan (Blowin' in the wind was a letdown.) We were set up for too many surprises. Phil Collins (So, he flew from London to Philadelphia, big deal, has anyone heard of Charles Lindbergh? He played the same songs in both stadiums (stadia), and messed up one of them in London. True, he played for Clapton, and Led Zeppelin, but as a drummer he is only mediocre.) Well, here's my review of "the big event of the century", but from the sound of things, promoters want to turn this into a yearly event. flames to /dev/null -- Robert A. Novo "Captain! They put creatures AT&T Bell Labs in our ears! They made us say Piscataway, NJ things that weren't true!" ...bentley!ran
lsmith@h-sc1.UUCP (Liz Smith) (07/16/85)
In article <389@petfe.UUCP> evan@petfe.UUCP (Evan Marcus) writes: > >Where were: Julian Lennon (he was advertised!), George Harrison, Ringo Starr, >Bruce Springsteen, Billy Joel? How about Cyndi Lauper (not that I missed her), >Paul Simon, Art Garfunkel, Bob Seger, Huey Lewis, Stevie Wonder, MJackson (see >Cyndi Lauper), Chicago, John Fogerty? And Peter Paul and Mary were there for >the finale, but didn't perform. And how come the Stones didn't play together? > Some random thoughts of mine: I was wondering about the notable absentees also - what about Talking Heads? Did anyone ask the Grateful Dead? (I doubt it) My favorite part (aside from getting to see Eric Clapton) was the Bowie/Jagger video. (actually, everything that Bowie did was excellent) "Dancing in the Streets" - a great surprise! Liz Smith
mangoe@umcp-cs.UUCP (Charley Wingate) (07/17/85)
What I saw of it, the British camera work was crappy compared with the American (not that the Americans were perfect either). My favorite part was actually getting to see all of Patti LaBelle's hairdo! Charley Wingate umcp-cs!mangoe "You want me to make a donation to the Coast Guard Youth Auxiliary!" (Is there really such an organization?)
dsi@unccvax.UUCP (Dataspan Inc) (07/17/85)
And once again, the United States shows that they can screw up perfectly
good audio. The digital feeds from Wembley were EXCELLENT!!!!! I've heard
better audio from the Mr. Microphone/Close-N-Play combo than was fed fro
Philly.
AAARRRRRRGH!
dyakimery@wdl1.UUCP (Sam Kimery) (07/17/85)
> The MTV coverage was bad in many ways. I REALLY didn't want to see Martha, > Nina, and Mark singing along during The Who, or the Brit finale (another big > disappointment--no Beatles, no quick teamups, no nothing!). They seem really > stuck on themselves. Yes, the VJs worked hard--it was a long day, but they > were just too hung up on their own image. > Not to mention the really cruddy shots from the lips of the stadiums, and the constant close ups of one person in a group, instead of at least spreading the close ups around. (IE Sting, while singing with Dire Staits) The best example of the long shots, was the finale at Wimbley, when whoever joined Paul McCartney on stage, 90% of what we saw was a top view of the stadium! I suppose that sometime in the future, a complete video tape will be released that will show all the stuff that we missed while bouncing back and forth, and watching the VJ's enjoy themselves. Oops, got a little carried away. Ah, well such is life....... Sam Kimery
merchant@dartvax.UUCP (Peter Merchant) (07/17/85)
Live-Aid was quite good. I listenned most of the day and watched it on ABC-TV when they showed it at 8:00PM EDT. It was also nice to listen to it on ABC's radio network. Worked out well...I just turned on the TV and turned down the sound. ABC stopped showing leftovers from London about 9:30 or so, so you didn't have to listen to Duran Duran and watch Paul McCartney (but I do suggest it if you want a laugh) Madonna, for all you may dislike her music, still came up withthe most notable quote of the Philly Concert. She remarked about taking off her coat and how "She wasn't going to take anything off ever again or they might get me for it in ten years." Mick Jagger & Tina Turner were dynamite doing "State of Shock." Who wrote that?! WHen Mick & Mike did it, it was pretty weak. Tina added a bit of raunch to the song, which seems to be just what it needed. I was kind of hoping that Mick would do "Lucky at Love", but he didn't. Led Zep was quite good. I've never been an outrageous fan, but it was easy to get caught up in the grandeur. All in all, a good show even if alot of the promised people didn't show. I'm glad to hear it made lots of money. -- "Don't try living your life in one day..." Peter Merchant
davew@shark.UUCP (Dave Williams) (07/17/85)
In article <1222@pyuxd.UUCP> rlr@pyuxd.UUCP (Rich Rosen) writes: >MTV coverage and regular commercial TV coverage were different, both >uneven, and strangely enough, about half a second apart: if you switched >back between MTV and channel 5 (NYC) e.g., you noticed a half-second delay >in MTV. Anybody know why? MTV uses satellites for its distribution. Channel 5 in NYC probably used terrestrial links for their feed. This means that MTV's signal had to travel approx. 50,000 miles farther to get to NYC if only one satellite "bounce" was used. This translates into a delay of about .28 seconds. In many instances a remote telecast is sent back to the main studio via sattelite and then sent out on other satellite feeds. This can cause a delay of over a half second or more depending on the number of "bounces". -- Dave Williams Tektronix, Inc. Graphic Workstations Division "The 6000 Family" "The workstations that made Wilsonville famous."
simpson@lll-crg.ARPA (Rea Simpson) (07/17/85)
In article <389@petfe.UUCP> evan@petfe.UUCP (Evan Marcus) writes: >As those of you who pay attention to my postings to this group (there must >be somebody) could guess, I enjoyed Live-Aid. I Vid-taped a great deal >of it, and enjoyed just about all of it. My favorite moment was Hall&Oates >and the Temptations. > >Where were: ... Huey Lewis ... > I was told that Huey Lewis pulled out because "a lot if the food that has been sent to Africa already is rotting on boats in the harbors". I only watch small segments of Live-Aid. Were there problems with the monitors for the performers on stage? I saw the Thompson Twins (I would rather have seen just about anyone else but anyway) and I thought someone was singing quite a bit off key. Also friends of mine who saw CSN said they thought they sounded terrible too. ____ " Let there be songs to fill the air ... " ____ Rea Simpson Lawrence Livermore Labs L-306 P.O. Box 808 Livermore, CA 94550 (415) 423-0910 {dual, gymble, sun, mordor}!lll-crg!simpson simpson@lll-crg.ARPA
cuccia@ucbvax.ARPA (Nick "Coosh" Cuccia) (07/18/85)
Despite the problems with Live Aid, I enjoyed it immensely. I don't
have MTV, so I had to watch the normal coverage (serious bummer..).
I was *very* disappointed that I didn't get to see The Who, but Dire
Straits came close to making up for it.
I'm glad that Sting brought Branford Marsalis with him during his set;
otherwise, it would've been _The Secret Policeman's Ball_ all over
again. His sop sax added just enough variety to keep my interest in
one place.
The Brits definitely got the better end of the deal; I was impressed
by The Pretenders, Madonna (I'll bet the locals who know me *never*
thought I'd be saying that...), The Temptations/Hall & Oates, and
Neil Young, but was seriously depressed by CSN(Y) and The Beach Boys.
Almost everybody that performed in London kept me going. Not even the
lead singer of Wham! could ruin Elton John's set...
Off on two tangents here: (1) is there going to be a videocassette and/or
album of Live Aid? I've already heard rumors that there won't be...
(2) What was with Madonna's voice? Yow! Why can't she sound like that
on her recordings/videos? Then again, maybe I've been listening to too
much June Christy and Astrid Gilberto lately...
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
--Nick "Coosh" Cuccia
--{...}!ucbvax!cuccia (USENET)
--cuccia%ucbmiro@Berkeley (Arpanet)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
The University wouldn't dare say some of the things that I say...
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^barb@pyuxa.UUCP (B E Nemeth) (07/18/85)
Hall and Oates and the Temptations were superb!! From this point on is when I didn't move from the set. Loved seeing Mick and Tina though I would have liked to see Tina perform alone, too. I loved it, and wished I was there although the finale was a disappointment.
maciag@spar.UUCP (Chris Maciag) (07/19/85)
>I only watch small segments of Live-Aid. Were there problems with the monitors >for the performers on stage? I saw the Thompson Twins (I would rather have seen >just about anyone else but anyway) and I thought someone was singing quite a bit >off key. Also friends of mine who saw CSN said they thought they sounded >terrible too. The Thompson Twins were quickly tossed into the limelight, having little experience in large performances. I have seen them live twice and many times on television-- They stink. Since most of their music is keyboard based, they can program it into a sequencer where they can edit it etc. and have they keyboard play on ``auto pilot''. Perhaps this is why their studio work sounds so much different. I do not know how they manage to get good vocals in the studio. ->Chris ________________________________________________________________________________ Regrets, I've had a few... Sid Vicious
brown@nicmad.UUCP (07/19/85)
In article <3358@dartvax.UUCP> merchant@dartvax.UUCP (Peter Merchant) writes: > >Madonna, for all you may dislike her music, still came up withthe most >notable quote of the Philly Concert. She remarked about taking off her >coat and how "She wasn't going to take anything off ever again or they >might get me for it in ten years." She said that "shit wasn't gonna come off", etc. -- AV-2010 |------------| | |-------| o| HRD725U & PV9600 Mr. Video | | | o| |--------------| | | | | | |----| o o o | | |-------| O| |--------------| |------------| VHS Hi-Fi (the only way to go) seismo!uwvax!astroatc!nicmad!brown ihnp4!nicmad!brown
brown@nicmad.UUCP (07/19/85)
In article <1222@pyuxd.UUCP> rlr@pyuxd.UUCP (Rich Rosen) writes: >MTV coverage and regular commercial TV coverage were different, both >uneven, and strangely enough, about half a second apart: if you switched >back between MTV and channel 5 (NYC) e.g., you noticed a half-second delay >in MTV. Anybody know why? Try the fact that a few satellites were in operation for this event. The ABC Radio feed was different at times from the MTV (audio portion). Right after the BBC power failure, the ABC radio was equal in time to the MTV audio. A while later, it wasn't again. The logisitics of putting together this technical marvel must have been awesome. -- AV-2010 |------------| | |-------| o| HRD725U & PV9600 Mr. Video | | | o| |--------------| | | | | | |----| o o o | | |-------| O| |--------------| |------------| VHS Hi-Fi (the only way to go) seismo!uwvax!astroatc!nicmad!brown ihnp4!nicmad!brown
kimery@wdl1.UUCP (Sam Kimery) (07/20/85)
> > Madonna, for all you may dislike her music, still came up withthe most > notable quote of the Philly Concert. She remarked about taking off her > coat and how "She wasn't going to take anything off ever again or they > might get me for it in ten years." > I think it went more along the lines of "I ain't takin' sh*t off, you guys might not respect me in ten years". or at least something like that, I'll have to dig the video back out and listen again. Sam
dsi@unccvax.UUCP (Dataspan Inc) (07/20/85)
For those who are interested in the technical feat pulled off last weekend,
there is a very interesting article in the two weeks ago Broadcasting.
No fewer than 13 satellites (including backhaul and interim link) feeds
were used, from all the major common carriers, Intelsat, and BrightStar.
Didn't anyone watch the feeds downlinked at Etam, W. Va; Rosman NC, and
all those good places (from across the pond) or the Empty-V backhaul feeds
(which were multiple) assumed to be free of the dreck which corrupted
American television?
(My earth station has been down for 2 years. . . snif!) Were Canadians
treated to a less polluted version?
Intelsat is probably hopping up and down violently (talk about your
typical bunch of self-serving anticompetitive nerds) but I think even the
Intersputnik satellite was used for the Soviet feed?
dyamangoe@umcp-cs.UUCP (Charley Wingate) (07/23/85)
> For those who are interested in the technical feat pulled off last >weekend, >there is a very interesting article in the two weeks ago Broadcasting. >No fewer than 13 satellites (including backhaul and interim link) feeds >were used, from all the major common carriers, Intelsat, and BrightStar. >Didn't anyone watch the feeds downlinked at Etam, W. Va; Rosman NC, and >all those good places (from across the pond) or the Empty-V backhaul feeds >(which were multiple) assumed to be free of the dreck which corrupted >American television? According to the _Wash. Post_, the Bowie/Jagger video came about because what they were originally going do didn't work. They were going to have Jagger in Philly and Bowie at Wembley sing a duet via satellite! Unfortunately, they had forgotten that it's 22,000 miles out there; the 4-second propagation delay through space and all that circuitry was just too hard to deal with. So they settled for a video. Charley Wingate umcp-cs!mangoe