It all started in the fall of 1984 when Boomtown Rats front man Bob Geldof wrote a song called Do They Know It's Christmas after watching news reports about the ongoing famine in Ethiopia. Fast forward to July 13th 1985 and LIVE AID, a benefit concert held at London's Wembley stadium as well as JFK Stadium in Philadelphia.
Unless they were already on tour and couldn't make it, everyone who was anyone performed at one of the two venues including Mick Jagger, David Bowie, Black Sabbath (with Ozzy), Bob Dylan with Keith Richards and Ronnie Wood, Judas Priest, U2 and many more.
Now, I was totally looking forward to watching all of LIVE AID that Saturday and towards the end of the London end of things, Queen took their turn. As a one time HUGE fan of Queen, I had sort of stopped following them in the early 80's, as did a lot of Americans. In fact, their last tour of the States happened in 1982 even though they were still popular throughout the rest of the world. They just didn't do it for me anymore...until they hit the stage that night.
It was if Freddie Mercury had something to prove to the two billion people watching on TV. They were by far the most electric, dynamic act that performed on either continent that night and my love for Queen was renewed.
To this day, that is the greatest live televised performance IMO and I've never looked back.
Sorry, I strayed Queen.