Queen were NOT the best act...
... that honour, I'm afraid, belongs to U2.
They really came out of the wood work that day and triumphed over all the other acts, including the oft mentioned Queen.
Don't get me worng, I thought Queen were great the way they successfully and seamlessly took charge of the tuly MASSIVE audience into an arm waving, mass sing along. However, this can be considered nothing more than the typical Queen we have come to expect a from 25 + year, seasoned rock institution.
U2, however were a reletively unknown band (at the time), and competing against already established rock and pop acts such as The Who, Status Quo, Bryan Ferry and the aforementioned Queen and most certainly caught everyones attention with their impassioned, energised, fresh and reletively unheard of act.
From the moment they took charge of the Live Aid stage with the militiristic drum snare that could only be Sunday Bloody Sunday, to the moment they finished with the ambient epic, echo driven Bad, they firmly established themselves, in my mind at least, as the band that walked away that day the undisputed musical lord and master of Live Aid.
Although they only performed two songs, they left an impact that no other band or musical act equaled that day. Even in the synth driven era of the 80's, the militiristic, politically charged Sunday Bloody Sunday and the beautiful, haunting and almost religious Bad seemed almost out of place in the vast sea of tried and tested pop songs, classic rock tunes and twee, forgetful one hit wonder artists that no one can even remember any more.
Out of the two songs U2 performed, the one that has drawn more discussion then the other would have to be Bad. The superb TWELVE minute rendition of a song famous for it's vague, open to interpretation lyrics takes on a life of it's own and transcends it's album counterpart with it's effective use of echo, stunning guitar chimming and almost nursery like nature.
Praise must of course be given to the final piece of the jigsaw that completes the song and give's it it's life force, Bono. The way he goes through a whole range of vocal registers such as the impassioned yells to the heavens to the delicate, tender whipsers, to the final, ad libbed snippets of passed classics makes this rendition the absolute definitive.
As much as I adore their classic performance, it should be noted that I can barely stand and tolerate Bono. I'm guessing that after their legendery performance, all that well deserved praise went to his head just a little and turned him into the laughably pompous, barely understandable puppet for the politicians we see today. Shame, considering at the time of Live Aid he had so much potential to be one of the greatest singers of all time. If only he kept his mouth shut and resereved it only for sninging.
U2 are one of those rare bands that sound better live than on record. Only a few select bands have managed to accomplish this feat such as Van Halen and The Who and it is truly phenomenal that a barely established rock band from Irelad managed to reach such a height with only ONE performance.
U2, no matter what I may think of you now during the present day and age, you will forever be solidifeid in stone during that immortal day in 1985. I take my hat off to you.