As we reported back in March this year, a long-awaited DVD release of the 1985 Live Aid concert, held at London's Wembley Stadium and JFK Stadium, Philadelphia, is due out on November 10th. The rights for the release of the DVD were sorted out this year, mainly due to chief organiser Bob Geldof's annoyance at the amount of bootleg DVD's flooding the market. Geldof tipped off police after pirated DVDs were found on the internet for £110 for a 10-disc set.

Warner Vision International won the bidding for the rights to produce and release the concert, and the four-DVD set will feature over 10 hours of performances, re-mastered in surround sound and a new backstage documentary entitled ‘Food, Trucks & Rock N’ Roll’.

"Twenty years ago they not only played 'real good for free,' they took an issue that was nowhere on the agenda of the political world and placed it at the very top," says concert organizer Bob Geldof. "By buying the Live Aid DVD, that day continues far off into some distant but hopefully better future for all those people in whose name those great artists played."

As part of the show, David Gilmour appeared with Bryan Ferry, providing the sole Pink Floyd involvement in the show. At the time, Ferry did not intend doing any shows to promote his Boys and Girls album, on which Gilmour guested. He wanted to continue with the next album before thinking of playing live again. Geldof managed to convince him to perform at what has been the biggest live event in the world ever.

Ferry's Wembley set, which included the songs Sensation, Boys And Girls, Slave To Love, and Jealous Guy, was beset by technical problems: Andy Newmark broke a drumskin with the first beat on his snare drum, Ferry performed most of his set holding two microphones as they were intermittently playing up, and Gilmour's Stratocaster experienced a power failure during the first song. Obviously Floyd fans will hope that the DVD set will include a brief bit of the Ferry/Gilmour performance at the very least...

Of course, apart from David Gilmour and Andy Newmark, there were other people involved in the show with a Floyd connection: also in Bryan Ferry's band were Jon Carin and Chester Kamen; with Paul Young was Pino Palladino; with Madonna was Pat Leonard; with Power Station and Duran Duran, Garry Wallis, and with Eric Clapton (being himself a Floydian link), Tim Renwick. Finally, there was also Bryan Adams and The Hooters that were later to join Roger Waters for his 1990 show in Berlin...

Other stars who performed at Live Aid were U2, Sting, David Bowie, Elton John, George Michael, The Who, Queen, Paul McCartney, Phil Collins, Mick Jagger, Tina Turner, Neil Young, Ozzy Osbourne & Black Sabbath, Spandau Ballet, Dire Straits, Paul Weller, Sade, Adam Ant, The Boomtown Rats, The Cars, Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers, Crosby Stills & Nash, The Beach Boys, Judas Priest, The Style Council, Simple Minds, Thompson Twins, Nile Rodgers, Hall & Oates, Status Quo, The Pretenders, Elvis Costello, Howard Jones, Teddy Pendergrass, Alison Moyet, and Kenny Loggins.

For more details of the concert, please check out the excellent unofficial site run by our friend Jean-Manuel, at www.Live-Aid.info.