Brian May And Roger Taylor Look Back On Queen's Legendary Performance At Live Aid

It is Live Aid's 40th Anniversary this month, Brian May and Roger Taylor look back at Queen's legendary performance. They express how the band were apprehensive before the iconic event.

In an interview with Radio Times, May and Taylor discuss their legendary performance and reminisce of the past. Queen's performance at Live Aid is often acknowledged as one of the greatest and most iconic live sets in rock history. Live Aid featured performances from over 50 artists and bands, these include legendary acts such as David Bowie, Elton John, The Who, Queen, and many others. May and Taylor tell Radio Times that "We thought it was going to be a disaster."

Bob Geldoff gave Queen one clear instruction before their performance and that was “Don’t get clever; just play the hits. You have 17 minutes.” May explains to Radio Times that his gut instincts told him to not partcipate in the event on July 13, 1985 at London's Wembley Stadium. He tells them that it was only Taylor who was convinced to play at the now historic and iconic event. “We weren’t touring or playing, and it seemed like a crazy idea, this talk of having 50 bands on the same bill,” he tells them, “We thought it was going to be a disaster. Freddie, in particular, said, ‘I haven’t got the right feeling for this.’ He wasn’t the leader of the band, but if he dug his heels in there was no dragging him, so we parked it.”

After a few weeks, the more tickets that were being sold and with the excitement and anticipation building for the event, May realised that the band needed to show up. They explain to Radio Times, that with Geldoff constantly on the phone, May later agreed that Taylor was right, “I said to Freddie, ‘If we wake up on the day after this Live Aid show and we haven’t been there, we’re going to be pretty sad.’ He said, ‘Oh, f*** it, we’ll do it.’”

The two Queen members explained that they had three short rehearsals, as they came up with a set list and then ran through it a couple of times. Although they did express how difficult it was to decide which songs to play for such a short set, however for Taylor it was “obvious to open with the verse of Bohemian Rhapsody; it was so immediately recognisable. Then to finish with We Will Rock You and We Are the Champions was a no-brainer. We were told a strict 17 minutes was allowed, although I think it ended up at 21.”, as Taylor expresses the need to make room for Freddie Mercurys highly anticipated call and response.

May tells Radio Times that, “There were still a few doubts as to how difficult it was going to be to change over between groups. But the whole thing ended up running to time, which is unheard of. It was all thrown together, and it took a lot of goodwill to achieve that. Queen had a great trust in each other. We were perhaps lacking in oil, but we were a well-exercised machine. Then, from the moment we hit the stage, the response from the crowd was so deafening, it took your breath away. I ran on, which I don’t normally do, all due to adrenaline. From the beginning, we felt we were at home."

“At the end, I came off thinking, that went OK but also very aware of the places where it nearly fell apart. It came off the rails quite significantly at the end of Hammer to Fall. If you look at it, you might think that was on purpose, but it wasn’t, because there were little tweaks and nobody quite knew where we were. Live shows aren’t perfect. But most of the things we tried to do worked out. I came off very conscious of the flaws in our performance, but I also knew Freddie had been great" he continues.

Queen have recently announced that their Live Aid performance will be livestreamed on YouTube to mark the occassion. The 21 minute set will premiere on July 13th on the bands official YouTube channel, the stream will be available to view for 24 hours.