Philadelphia Live Aid concert -- Why so few Black performers? (2025)

I don't think that you are properly representing the H&O set with Eddie & David. Daryl and John worshiped Eddie and David. The set was composed of 6 songs.

Out Of Touch
Maneater
Get Ready
Ain't Too Proud To Beg
The Way You Do The Things You Do
My Girl

The final 4 songs were Temptations classics that featured Eddie and David doing lead vocals. Hall and Oates sang the background vocals on the four Temptation songs. 1985 was the absolute zenith of Hall & Oates career.

6 weeks before Live Aid, Hall and Oates played the same 4 Temptations songs with Eddie and David at the Apollo Theater in Harlem.

The more Phil Collins volunteered to be their drummer, the more of them dropped out.

They showed the video for "4 the Tears in Your Eyes", not for "Hello".

Which you probably meant but just makin' it clear!

Bruce's tour was on a break at that time so he could've played.

Obviously he didn't have a show that night since Live Aid used his stage!

IIRC, he felt the band needed some time off after the end of the European tour.

I believe he's said he regrets the decision not to play.

Lionel Ritchie’s manager at the time was a huge D Bag and Ritchie initially refused to perform at all. Then when they found out how big it was they had a last minute change of heart

Headley!

Ashford and Simpson were actually there because of Teddy Pendergrass, it was his slot, but he did not want to do it alone, he had not performed live since his accident in’82. He rolled in with 6-7 gold/platinum albums to his name at that time. He, like Patti Labelle, lived in Philly, and like Labelle was connected through Electric Factory/Larry Magid.

Ashford & Simpson / Teddy Pendergrass - Reach Out And Touch (Live Aid 1985)

Four Tops
Eddie Kendricks
David Ruffin
Billy Ocean
Run DMC
Teddy Pendergrass
Ashford Simpson
Patti LaBelle
Lionel Richie
Albert Collins
Dionne Warwick
Harry Belafonte

George and Albert rocked the house!

More black artists on the bill at Live Aid would have made the majority of the ‘legacy’ acts and the lame bands like The Hooters who performed look even worse than they already did.

He wasn’t even an itch in his dad’s pants, yet.

THIS.

Close thread.

Same reason the US Festival line-ups were the way they were.

Same reason that MTV programming was the way that it was for its first three years.

The culture evolved and broadened eventually. And that's what counts.

Wise.
Godawful song.

More from the Graham memoir:

*************************
BOB GELDOF: Toward the end, it started shaping up. England was really full up. So we had to send some people over to Philadelphia. Chrissie Hynde and the Pretenders and Simple Minds flew to America simply because England was full. There was a lot of fuss about that and the Thompson Twins did the same.

Bill was going ******* apes*** and giving them a bum steer because they weren't the acts he had gotten and they were coming in on his show. An ego as big as his, you have to be very fu-king tactful and I am not a tactful person. I'm very blunt and he's as blunt as I am. He and Harvey also were rivals in a certain sense anyway and it was something else I didn't need at the time.

Lionel Richie came in on the last week and Ken Kragen said I had to keep it quiet that Lionel was in and I said, "Why?" The obvious reason was that they weren't sure. They were going to see how it panned out. Right at the last moment, if it was a biggie, they would come in. "Hey. I'm a special guest."

It wasn't everybody. People like Eric Clapton gave up a couple of nights in Caesar's Palace and flew in to do it.
*************************

Four Tops, yes (though kind of an odd choice for 1985).

Kendricks and Ruffin, as I understand, were the invited guests of Hall & Oates, not scheduled performers.

Billy Ocean, yes, but he's not an American artist.

Run-DMC, yes.

Teddy Pendergrass, I think, was the guest of Ashford & Simpson (?).

Patti LaBelle, yes.

Lionel Richie was not a scheduled performer and had no solo spot.

Albert Collins was a guest of George Thorogood and the Destroyers.

Dionne Warwick and Harry Belafonte did not perform.

As has been explained, Live Aid is a follow-up to the US charity single, "We Are The World", which featured Black contributors:
Quincy Jones
Lionel Richie
Stevie Wonder
Michael Jackson
The Jacksons (and LaToya)
Jeffrey Osborne
James Ingram
Tina Turner
Diana Ross
Ray Charles
Harry Belafonte
Sheila E.
The Pointer Sisters
Smokey Robinson

Black musicians including Greg Philinganes, Louis Johnson, and Paulinho da Costa play on the single.

Given all this, it struck me as odd how few of these artist appears, just months later, at Live Aid.

In fact, you will note that not a single vocalist on "We Are The World" was a featured performer at the US Live Aid. That is odd.

Teddy Pendergrass, the late Philly singer who performed in a wheelchair with Ashford & Simpson, three years after a car crash left him paralyzed from the chest down, in an undated interview prior to his 2010 death: I was asked to do Live Aid by my manager. This was the same person who said to me, about a year or two after I was injured, he said, “Ted, it’s not how you fall down. It’s how you get up.” So he told me that there’s going to be a big concert and that he could get me in. I said OK. I needed to know how people would react to me.

Valerie Simpson of Ashford & Simpson: We got involved through Teddy. He hadn’t performed since his accident, and he had a little trepidation. He asked us to perform with him so he would be comfortable. And at that time, we were probably getting more recognition than we ever had. So it was a good time for us to be on a larger scale. Actually, that was the largest scale any of the performers had probably every been on

Live Aid in Philly: An Oral History of that Crazy Day at JFK

Man, this post made me realize I've totally slept on Hall & Oates as a live act. I had no idea they were as good as they were. That Apollo Theater set is incredible -- they left it all out there!

I can easily imagine that 1985 was at or near their peak as a live act, given how deep their catalog was at that point, plus they'd clearly put together a first-rate touring band.

At both the Apollo and Live Aid, you can see how excited they are to be performing with Kendrick(s) and Ruffin, on home turf no less. Eddie is diminished from his peak years, admittedly, but David sounds amazing. Both are utterly charismatic and consummate showmen, of course.

Daryl can come off as pretty blunt, egotistical, and abrasive and, though I actually find him pretty likeable in many ways, I'm certainly aware he's not a perfect human being (who is?). But his uncompromising attitude also translated to doing things like using his fame to replatform his heroes -- which is to say, he (and Oates) walked the walk. Ruffin obviously had huge issues and it's no fairytale story, but it's still a moving moment in musical history.

Hahahahaha ZING

Exactly! Daryl and John stepped aside and allowed Eddie and David to took over.
Hall and Oates used the highest-profile moment of their career to show love for the people who influenced them.

That remarkable band was intact for 5 years.

This, sort of, dovetails with my memory of the day. All of it was going to
be on MTV, live, with the final three hours being on network TV. (ABC,
if memory serves.)

I vividly recall turning on the radio that morning, and hearing Mr. Elvis
Costello doing his thing to a Beatles classic! Didn't seem like a big deal.

Later in the day it was on all the televisions at the gym, showing Sting
with Phil Collins. I still wasn't really all that interested, which was
kind of weird, as I loved so many of these acts.

It wasn't until much later that this event was seen as such a watershed.
If I'd had any clue, I would have videotaped it all, which certainly would
have been easy enough to do. I do recall that on Monday, all the radio
stations could talk about was how Madonna refused to take off even her
jacket, despite the heat of the day. Her nude photos had just surfaced,
and she was facing significant blowback for that.

"You guys ain't seeing ****!" I believe was her comment onstage!

I am thinking that many acts of all colors passed on this, thinking it was
more of an MTV stunt, than history in the making.

This website: Detailled list of all the artist having performed at the Live Aid concert, July 13th, 1985
has a complete setlist for every artist, on both sides of the pond. It is
pretty cool to see how when an artist was performing in the UK, they
would be setting up the stage for an artist in the US. Artists being what
they are, it must have been a logistical nightmare!

Here is my crude snapshot of a portion of that website's chart. But
visit them to see the whole thing. It is really well done!