13 July 2025 will mark the 40th anniversary of Live Aid, the biggest live music event in history.
It was an event that raised a huge amount of money for famine relief in Africa - and showed how the biggest stars in music could come together for a good cause.
But on that sunny day at Wembley Stadium, it wasn’t all smiles in the backstage enclosure - as Status Quo’s Francis Rossi would reveal.
Quo were chosen as the opening act for Live Aid by organiser Bob Geldof, who felt that Quo’s 1977 hit Rockin’ All Over The World was the perfect start for a show with a global TV audience of two billion.
In a 2019 interview with Classic Rock, guitarist/vocalist Rossi recalled how Geldof had persuaded Quo to perform at Live Aid.
“You’ve got to give Bob Geldof his due,” he said. “He got everybody to do it.
“When he asked us, I said: ‘Look, Bob, we’re not getting along, we’re not rehearsed, we’ll sound like a sack of shit.’ He said: ‘It doesn’t matter a fuck what you sound like, you’re the ones!’
“Subsequently I found out he said the same thing to The Who, to everybody.
“The funny thing was, everybody was jockeying not to open. But when we felt the vibe coming off that audience, I thought: ‘Oh, hang on, I get it!’ It was the most euphoric gig.”
Rossi agreed with the consensus that Queen stole the show at Live Aid.
“They were the donkey’s knob that day,” he said. "Everyone said: ‘Jesus, they’re on it.’ But they would be, they’d been out touring.”
Rossi had fond memories of hanging out with Queen singer Freddie Mercury and David Bowie backstage at Live Aid.
“Near the end of the show, I was sitting at a table with Bowie,” he said, “and as Geldof was trying to get everyone up for the big finale the lights went out and the table collapsed!
“I did go back up on stage [for the all-star finale], but I didn’t want to. It was embarrassing. So I stayed as far back as I could.
“I always got on all right with Bowie, though. That mysterious image he had, that was not the man he was. He was just a nice guy.”
Rossi said of Freddie Mercury: “As everyone was decamping out of Live Aid, Freddie bent me over a desk, in a half-nelson, held me down and I couldn’t move. Fuck, he was strong!”
But there was one star at that show that Rossi didn’t get on with.
“I remember getting the hump with Declan – Elvis Costello,” he recalled.
“I said: ‘Alright?’ And he looked at me like: ‘I can’t talk to you, I’m a proper musician.’
“Get over it, son. I’m over it. You’re up your own bottom, aren’t you?”
