Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
I'm just Stevens and we are celebrating the fortieth anniversary
of Live Aid with legendary producer and concert promoter who
co produced Live Aid in nineteen eighty five with Sir
Bob Geldoff.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
This is Harvey Goldsmith. Okay, well, hello there, Harvey. How
are you doing you? I'm very good. I was.
Speaker 1 (00:19):
I was one of those kids that was driving around
in the car listening to my favorite radio station on
July thirteenth, nineteen eighty five, trying to catch and I
had a baseball tournament that weekend, so I was trying
to listen as much as I could on the radio,
play the baseball tournament, and then get home and watch
Live Aid. And to get a chance to talk to you,
the legendary producer and concert promoter who worked with Bob Geldoff,
(00:43):
is amazing.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
So, Harvey, where did forty years go?
Speaker 3 (00:48):
Tell me? Zipped by?
Speaker 1 (00:52):
It?
Speaker 2 (00:52):
Zipped by? I mean, it feels like a minute ago.
Speaker 1 (00:55):
But when you think about the logistics of everything that
went into that special day, I truly believe nothing. There
have been a lot of attempts to do things, you know,
that get compared to Live Aid, nothing really holds up
to what you guys put together on that special day
in nineteen eighty five.
Speaker 3 (01:12):
I think so it was I'm a big believer in
what's meant to be happens. If it's meant to be
and the will is there, we'll find a way to
do it. At that period of time, everybody in the
UK saw the pictures for the first time ever on
the six o'clock BBC News of the famine in Ethiopia
(01:36):
and children and people literally dying. No one had ever
shown those kind of pictures before, and it hit everybody.
And it was Bob who then got together with Vision
created the record that started this whole kind of movement along.
And I'd worked with the Buntaun Rats and I knew Bob, well,
you know that's really what started it off.
Speaker 1 (01:58):
Well, and yeah, band Aid had been maybe six months
before that, and then We're the World of course, just
took over the radio and blew everybody away with all
those artists that got together, and then that seemed to
flow right into Live Aid. I mean, when you consider
that six month period from band Aid to We're the
World USA for Africa and then Live Aid, I mean,
(02:20):
it's really mind blowing to think of how much stuff
was pulled off in just that six or eight month window.
Speaker 3 (02:26):
Yes, that's true. And for me, I was looking after
Roger Waters it split from the Pink Floyd and we
were launching his solo career at Radio City. Oh, and
so my focus pre bulb coming up the idea of
the show was really on Roger. And then I got
(02:48):
a phone call out of the blue from Wam's manager,
Simon aper Bell, who said, I've arranged two concerts for
Wham to play in Hong Kong and I've worked with
WAM and then they're going to China and I've arranged
a tour in China, but I can't go to China
because they won't let me in. So you're going to
(03:08):
have to pick them up in Hong Kong and take
them to China. And then he put the phone down.
It was like not who went where? What? And then
Bob was calling me saying, I've got this idea we have.
You know, I've just come back from Africa. I didn't
want to go, but I got pushed into it. And
now I've seen what I've seen, This just spit in
(03:29):
the ocean. What we've raised. We have to do a
concert I said, Bob, I've got to go to New
York with Roger Waters and then I'm going to get
from New York to Hong Kong, and then from Hong
Kong to China. I don't even know if I'm coming home,
let alone they think about another concert. It was completely bonkers,
and I said, if I get back in one piece
(03:52):
from China, then we should beat up. And fortunately it
all went after a very strange beginning. But what happened.
Bolt came to my office literally the day after I
got back from China and said this is the date
we want to do it. And I said, no, no,
we can't do it. Then I've got Bruce Springstick. He
(04:12):
said he could do one of the shows for us
and he'll all be fine. I said, no, no, he won't.
He can't. He's got his own thing, that's what he
wants to do. And we finally, you know, chose the
week before and then after about ten twelve days, he said,
you know, I've really been thinking about it. Doing just
a shower WEBSS stadium isn't big enough. We've got to
(04:35):
get global attention, so we need to play, say stadium
in New York. So I said, you know, a great idea,
but Gettysha Stadium isn't going to be that easy, right,
And he said, no, yeah, you've got to get You've
got to get a show in New York. And so
I started making some calls and I couldn't get Shae Stadium.
(04:57):
I couldn't get Giants Stadium. I couldn't get our case state.
Bob was getting more and more frustrated. He said, no, no,
we've got to find somewhere, and you know it's got
to be in America. And I find out Bill Graham
and he said, yeah, we could do this. We need
to do it at Stanford. We've got to do this
on the West coast. And I started to work out
the timings. I said, no, Bill, we've got to do
(05:18):
it on the East coast because we can coat with
five hours time difference, but we cannot cote with aid hours. Yeah,
and he got really annoyed. He said, no, no, we
got to do it on the West coast. Larry Maggi,
I said, Larry is a friend of mine. I said, Larry,
you've got to help me out here. Yeah, I've heard
about this. He said, I'll go and see the Mary
of Philadelphia because Philadelphia was going through some issues, and
(05:42):
he felt that they may come to the table, and
sure enough, he went to see the Marra of Philadelphia
and the mayor said, Okay, I'll give you the stadium. Wow,
that works out really well. I didn't. Went back to
Bolve and said, great news. We've got We've got jok Philadelphia,
he said, Philadelphia, what the hell are we doing playing there?
(06:02):
We've got to play?
Speaker 2 (06:04):
Oh boy, You're like, come on, man, I'm working here.
Speaker 3 (06:09):
If we can't get any major stadium in New York,
I've tried Washington. I can't even get into Away Park
in Boston, I said. And then it suddenly dawned them.
I said, Bob, this is the home of the Liberty Bell. Yeah. Perfect.
The mayor has come to the tables, giving us the stadium,
(06:30):
and that's where we're going to play. And that's the
end of finally dawned on him, and that's really how
it started.
Speaker 1 (06:37):
Well, Harvey, I mean, I could talk to you for
hours about the logistics of how all of this came together.
As we celebrate the fortieth anniversary of Live Aid talking
to Harvey Goldsmith from the first time that you and
Bob Geldoff had a conversation to July thirteenth, when the
concert actually happed, concerts actually happened.
Speaker 2 (06:58):
How much time was in there? Was it weeks? Was
it months? Was it days?
Speaker 3 (07:03):
Ten and a half weeks?
Speaker 2 (07:04):
Ten and a half weeks?
Speaker 3 (07:05):
Yeah. Without the best production people in the world that
I've always worked with, I couldn't have done it. It would
have been impossible. But they were the best of the best,
and they just, you know, we just knuckled down and
got it done. I couldn't do it on my own, obviously,
but yeah, when people really want to make something happen, Production,
the services to sound, companies that like companies, trucking, staging, everything,
(07:29):
they all came to the table realize that this was
going to be something important.
Speaker 1 (07:34):
So when we're talking about some of the special collaborations
that had that happened that day, like Mick Jaggerantina Turner
singing State of Shock, David Bowie doing Rebel, Rebel, and
Modern Love. The cars did just what they needed and drive,
which was amazing. Also Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers got together.
(07:56):
By the time Live Aid took place, Madonna was one
of the biggest, probably the biggest pop star star in
the world. Paul McCartney was joined on stage by David Bowie,
Pte Townsend and Bob geldofff to do let it be.
Of course, Queen's performance was absolutely epic.
Speaker 2 (08:12):
All of that stuff. How much of that was actually planned?
Speaker 3 (08:15):
No, everything was planned podlast minute. The only thing that
was spontaneous for the encourse. We had to plan it
because when they did the Olympics the previous in nineteen
eighty four, they used three satellites to send the Olympics
around the world. We had to use sixteen satellites, all
coordinated together. There were no mobile phones and there were
no computers, so we had to do it with landlines
(08:38):
what's called a telex machine. That was it. That was
our only form of communication. So we had to plan
everything down at the last second. You know. With Mick
Jagger we did it. We see the turn, We planned
that out if and then with David Bowie, he came
up to my office with Bob and we were looking
at videos and looking at who was going to introduce him,
(09:00):
what number he wanted to play, and all the rest
of it. And suddenly these videos that connect this video
that Canadian Broadcasting had produced CBC of the cars, with
the cars song drive and watching those pictures of children
dying and all the rest of it, and he just
stopped said I'm going to drop a number. You have
to put that on. And that was of course one
(09:22):
of the highlight and then same with Persuaded Queens do
it and so on and so forth. It was all
planned out, but it was literally we were working twenty
hours a day for ten weeks.
Speaker 1 (09:34):
Wow, well, Harvey again, we could talk for hours. I'm
this has been one of my favorite events of all
time and in my entire life, and I can't believe
it's been forty years.
Speaker 2 (09:44):
Harvey, you are a legend.
Speaker 1 (09:46):
Thank you for all your hard work on this, and
we are going to celebrate the fortieth anniversary of Live
a great talking to you, my friend.
Speaker 3 (09:52):
Thank you very much. Indeed,
I'm just Stevens and we are celebrating the fortieth anniversary
of Live Aid with legendary producer and concert promoter who
co produced Live Aid in nineteen eighty five with Sir
Bob Geldoff.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
This is Harvey Goldsmith. Okay, well, hello there, Harvey. How
are you doing you? I'm very good. I was.
Speaker 1 (00:19):
I was one of those kids that was driving around
in the car listening to my favorite radio station on
July thirteenth, nineteen eighty five, trying to catch and I
had a baseball tournament that weekend, so I was trying
to listen as much as I could on the radio,
play the baseball tournament, and then get home and watch
Live Aid. And to get a chance to talk to you,
the legendary producer and concert promoter who worked with Bob Geldoff,
(00:43):
is amazing.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
So, Harvey, where did forty years go?
Speaker 3 (00:48):
Tell me? Zipped by?
Speaker 1 (00:52):
It?
Speaker 2 (00:52):
Zipped by? I mean, it feels like a minute ago.
Speaker 1 (00:55):
But when you think about the logistics of everything that
went into that special day, I truly believe nothing. There
have been a lot of attempts to do things, you know,
that get compared to Live Aid, nothing really holds up
to what you guys put together on that special day
in nineteen eighty five.
Speaker 3 (01:12):
I think so it was I'm a big believer in
what's meant to be happens. If it's meant to be
and the will is there, we'll find a way to
do it. At that period of time, everybody in the
UK saw the pictures for the first time ever on
the six o'clock BBC News of the famine in Ethiopia
(01:36):
and children and people literally dying. No one had ever
shown those kind of pictures before, and it hit everybody.
And it was Bob who then got together with Vision
created the record that started this whole kind of movement along.
And I'd worked with the Buntaun Rats and I knew Bob, well,
you know that's really what started it off.
Speaker 1 (01:58):
Well, and yeah, band Aid had been maybe six months
before that, and then We're the World of course, just
took over the radio and blew everybody away with all
those artists that got together, and then that seemed to
flow right into Live Aid. I mean, when you consider
that six month period from band Aid to We're the
World USA for Africa and then Live Aid, I mean,
(02:20):
it's really mind blowing to think of how much stuff
was pulled off in just that six or eight month window.
Speaker 3 (02:26):
Yes, that's true. And for me, I was looking after
Roger Waters it split from the Pink Floyd and we
were launching his solo career at Radio City. Oh, and
so my focus pre bulb coming up the idea of
the show was really on Roger. And then I got
(02:48):
a phone call out of the blue from Wam's manager,
Simon aper Bell, who said, I've arranged two concerts for
Wham to play in Hong Kong and I've worked with
WAM and then they're going to China and I've arranged
a tour in China, but I can't go to China
because they won't let me in. So you're going to
(03:08):
have to pick them up in Hong Kong and take
them to China. And then he put the phone down.
It was like not who went where? What? And then
Bob was calling me saying, I've got this idea we have.
You know, I've just come back from Africa. I didn't
want to go, but I got pushed into it. And
now I've seen what I've seen, This just spit in
(03:29):
the ocean. What we've raised. We have to do a
concert I said, Bob, I've got to go to New
York with Roger Waters and then I'm going to get
from New York to Hong Kong, and then from Hong
Kong to China. I don't even know if I'm coming home,
let alone they think about another concert. It was completely bonkers,
and I said, if I get back in one piece
(03:52):
from China, then we should beat up. And fortunately it
all went after a very strange beginning. But what happened.
Bolt came to my office literally the day after I
got back from China and said this is the date
we want to do it. And I said, no, no,
we can't do it. Then I've got Bruce Springstick. He
(04:12):
said he could do one of the shows for us
and he'll all be fine. I said, no, no, he won't.
He can't. He's got his own thing, that's what he
wants to do. And we finally, you know, chose the
week before and then after about ten twelve days, he said,
you know, I've really been thinking about it. Doing just
a shower WEBSS stadium isn't big enough. We've got to
(04:35):
get global attention, so we need to play, say stadium
in New York. So I said, you know, a great idea,
but Gettysha Stadium isn't going to be that easy, right,
And he said, no, yeah, you've got to get You've
got to get a show in New York. And so
I started making some calls and I couldn't get Shae Stadium.
(04:57):
I couldn't get Giants Stadium. I couldn't get our case state.
Bob was getting more and more frustrated. He said, no, no,
we've got to find somewhere, and you know it's got
to be in America. And I find out Bill Graham
and he said, yeah, we could do this. We need
to do it at Stanford. We've got to do this
on the West coast. And I started to work out
the timings. I said, no, Bill, we've got to do
(05:18):
it on the East coast because we can coat with
five hours time difference, but we cannot cote with aid hours. Yeah,
and he got really annoyed. He said, no, no, we
got to do it on the West coast. Larry Maggi,
I said, Larry is a friend of mine. I said, Larry,
you've got to help me out here. Yeah, I've heard
about this. He said, I'll go and see the Mary
of Philadelphia because Philadelphia was going through some issues, and
(05:42):
he felt that they may come to the table, and
sure enough, he went to see the Marra of Philadelphia
and the mayor said, Okay, I'll give you the stadium. Wow,
that works out really well. I didn't. Went back to
Bolve and said, great news. We've got We've got jok Philadelphia,
he said, Philadelphia, what the hell are we doing playing there?
(06:02):
We've got to play?
Speaker 2 (06:04):
Oh boy, You're like, come on, man, I'm working here.
Speaker 3 (06:09):
If we can't get any major stadium in New York,
I've tried Washington. I can't even get into Away Park
in Boston, I said. And then it suddenly dawned them.
I said, Bob, this is the home of the Liberty Bell. Yeah. Perfect.
The mayor has come to the tables, giving us the stadium,
(06:30):
and that's where we're going to play. And that's the
end of finally dawned on him, and that's really how
it started.
Speaker 1 (06:37):
Well, Harvey, I mean, I could talk to you for
hours about the logistics of how all of this came together.
As we celebrate the fortieth anniversary of Live Aid talking
to Harvey Goldsmith from the first time that you and
Bob Geldoff had a conversation to July thirteenth, when the
concert actually happed, concerts actually happened.
Speaker 2 (06:58):
How much time was in there? Was it weeks? Was
it months? Was it days?
Speaker 3 (07:03):
Ten and a half weeks?
Speaker 2 (07:04):
Ten and a half weeks?
Speaker 3 (07:05):
Yeah. Without the best production people in the world that
I've always worked with, I couldn't have done it. It would
have been impossible. But they were the best of the best,
and they just, you know, we just knuckled down and
got it done. I couldn't do it on my own, obviously,
but yeah, when people really want to make something happen, Production,
the services to sound, companies that like companies, trucking, staging, everything,
(07:29):
they all came to the table realize that this was
going to be something important.
Speaker 1 (07:34):
So when we're talking about some of the special collaborations
that had that happened that day, like Mick Jaggerantina Turner
singing State of Shock, David Bowie doing Rebel, Rebel, and
Modern Love. The cars did just what they needed and drive,
which was amazing. Also Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers got together.
(07:56):
By the time Live Aid took place, Madonna was one
of the biggest, probably the biggest pop star star in
the world. Paul McCartney was joined on stage by David Bowie,
Pte Townsend and Bob geldofff to do let it be.
Of course, Queen's performance was absolutely epic.
Speaker 2 (08:12):
All of that stuff. How much of that was actually planned?
Speaker 3 (08:15):
No, everything was planned podlast minute. The only thing that
was spontaneous for the encourse. We had to plan it
because when they did the Olympics the previous in nineteen
eighty four, they used three satellites to send the Olympics
around the world. We had to use sixteen satellites, all
coordinated together. There were no mobile phones and there were
no computers, so we had to do it with landlines
(08:38):
what's called a telex machine. That was it. That was
our only form of communication. So we had to plan
everything down at the last second. You know. With Mick
Jagger we did it. We see the turn, We planned
that out if and then with David Bowie, he came
up to my office with Bob and we were looking
at videos and looking at who was going to introduce him,
(09:00):
what number he wanted to play, and all the rest
of it. And suddenly these videos that connect this video
that Canadian Broadcasting had produced CBC of the cars, with
the cars song drive and watching those pictures of children
dying and all the rest of it, and he just
stopped said I'm going to drop a number. You have
to put that on. And that was of course one
(09:22):
of the highlight and then same with Persuaded Queens do
it and so on and so forth. It was all
planned out, but it was literally we were working twenty
hours a day for ten weeks.
Speaker 1 (09:34):
Wow, well, Harvey again, we could talk for hours. I'm
this has been one of my favorite events of all
time and in my entire life, and I can't believe
it's been forty years.
Speaker 2 (09:44):
Harvey, you are a legend.
Speaker 1 (09:46):
Thank you for all your hard work on this, and
we are going to celebrate the fortieth anniversary of Live
a great talking to you, my friend.
Speaker 3 (09:52):
Thank you very much. Indeed,
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