It's 1985, I'm 25 and three members of my rock band live with me in a big house near the Hollywood Palladium. I work the graveyard shift as a dispatcher for a huge cab company. But I won't be sleeping today because the biggest concert ever will be on the TV in our living room. The beer and other substances were already procured.
And so all day long, other musician friends of the household as well as many cab drivers I knew would come in and out, watch a set or two. The TV btw was a classic old 25" tuber and by the time the thing ended around 10pm, we were all as f*cked up as Ronnie Wood, Keith Richards and Bob Dylan.
There were many memorable performances among the 57 twenty-minute sets, good and bad. Pictured above is one of the good ones, my old buddy Michael Des Barres, who absolutely killed it fronting Power Station that day, only his 2nd time with the band. I vividly remember the "Bang A Gong" finale, I couldn't believe I was watched my old mentor perform in front of 100,000 people.
Yes, it was quite a day. Some useful 40th anniversary links >
1) 40th Anniversary 3-part CNN special starts tonight
2) The entire official broadcast and shows just upped today by Live Aid