British band Queen’s performance at1985 charity mega concert Live Aidhas gone down in the history books, but it almost didn’t happen, according to members Brian May and Roger Taylor.
Speaking to UK media outletthe Radio Times, the pair recall that the band, particularly lead singer Freddie Mercury, were initially nonplussed when they were approached by Live Aid organizer Bob Geldof.
“We weren’t touring or playing, and it seemed like a crazy idea, this talk of having 50 bands on the same bill,” guitarist May told the Radio Times in an interview published Tuesday.
“We thought it was going to be a disaster. Freddie, in particular, said, ‘I haven’t got the right feeling for this.’ He wasn’t the leader of the band, but if he dug his heels in there was no dragging him, so we parked it.”
However, Geldof came back to ask again, May recalls, and with excitement building around the show, Queen decided to get involved.
“I said to Freddie, ‘If we wake up on the day after this Live Aid show and we haven’t been there, we’re going to be pretty sad.’ He said, ‘Oh, f**k it, we’ll do it,’” said May.
Geldof told the group that they would have a strict 17-minute slot, which made putting a set together a challenge.
The band was also feeling nervous, said drummer Taylor.
“We hadn’t been on the Band Aid single, and we felt relatively senior compared with a lot of the younger acts. It wasn’t necessarily our audience because we were a very late addition,” he said.
“And it was daylight, which we don’t like because the stage lights have no effect. Plus it was so thrown together on the stage, we just had to hope all the elements would come together,” added Taylor.
“I wouldn’t say we doubted our own skills, but we had… technical apprehension,” he said.
The band went on to give one of its most memorable performances.
Mercury also inspired one of the most incredible images of Live Aid, clapping in time to “Radio Ga Ga” in front of a 72,000-strong Wembley crowd, the vast majority of whom also had their arms in the air.
“It wasn’t a Queen audience,” May said. “So we went on not knowing if they’d even know what to do.”
“They didn’t think about it, they just did it,” he added. “Every single hand seemed to be in the air.”