The Concert Room celebrates Live Aid- with veteran Journalist Chuck Darrow!

SPEAKER_01: Hey everybody, welcome back to the concert room. Inside the Philly Concert Experience. I'm your host, Bob Hill. The Concert Room is a podcast session dedicated to all the great performances and performers who played on the stage at the legendary Philadelphia Spectrum Arena. The Spectrum held numerous events and concerts over its 40 plus years of existence, earning the nickname America Show Place. The Spectrum was a special place for music fans and bands. And today we're going to go off the grid a little from the spectrum and talk about an event that was held in Philadelphia and London in 1985.

SPEAKER_01: And that is LiveAid, the global concert event held on two continents that raised hunger awareness and funds in Africa on July 13, 1985. The 40-year anniversary is upon us, and it's just hard to believe it was that long ago, but it'll never be forgotten. So I invited back friend and longtime local industry journalist Chuck Darrow to get his perspective and inside details on this great day here in Philadelphia. Chuck was on my podcast previously talking about print journalism and as a rock reviewer and critic.

SPEAKER_01: And just a refresher, he has an esteemed 40-year career in the local and national entertainment industry. He held many different positions as a critic and reviewer and also a radio columnist. Chuck covered all the popular art speeds in the Philadelphia market. And he was there during the lead-up and of course the big day at JFK Stadium for live aid. So let's get to it. Welcome back to the concert room. I enjoyed our last conversation on our podcast. And uh so, Chuck, off the record when we were talking, uh you mentioned a few things about live aid, and uh here we are, the 40th anniversary is coming up on uh July 13th.

SPEAKER_01: Um yep, and it's uh always highly regarded here in the area, right? Um fondly remembered whether you uh attended the uh event or not, and it's something that we're always really proud of. Um I just want to do a quick recap of Live Aid. Uh it was a pair of simultaneous benefit concerts held on July 13, 1985, uh, to raise money for famine relief in Ethiopia. The concerts took place at Wembley Stadium in London and JFK Stadium in Philadelphia, which uh here and then we'll refer to affectionately as JFK.

SPEAKER_01: And uh featured uh, of course, a star steadd lineup of musicians broadcast to a massive global audience, becoming a landmark event in music, history, and humanitarian. I just wrote a couple bullet points. Uh the purpose was to uh aim to raise funds and awareness for the devastating famine relief in Ethiopia. Organizers Bob Geldoff orchestrated the event locally. Here it was Larry Maggot and Alan Spivak, right, of Electric Factory.

SPEAKER_02: And Bill Graham.

SPEAKER_01: Oh, yes, yes. Bill Graham, the legendary Bill Graham, and uh featured uh you know remarkable array of artists, uh, including you two, David Bowie Who, and of course Cream or Cream, Queen. And uh same same difference. Oh, here we go. Well, and the concerts were broadcast uh close to two billion viewers approximately in uh 110 countries, um, making one of the largest global broadcasts ever. And uh, believe it raised to date 245 million for famine relief. Um so let's talk about live aid. Uh what so at that point, 1985, where where were you employed at this point?

SPEAKER_00: Because I was like, Okay, this is real this is really interesting, only because I had been out, or I I had been freelancing for the courier post in Cherry Hill. And um I was working a full-time job as a PR director at a small ad agency in Center City. And uh pretty much the week before I went, I quit the the PR job and went to work at the courier as a full-time freelancer, writing 10, 12 stories a week. And basically I started on the Monday, June like 11th, or whatever it might have been, and two days later, the or a day later, the news broke that the next day there was gonna be a press conference announcing this mega concert at JFK Stadium.

SPEAKER_01: Okay.

SPEAKER_00: So it was it was really an exciting time for me. I just want to um add something to your intro that most most people don't remember, but I'm almost positive that there was actually a third concert in Sydney, Australia.

SPEAKER_01: Okay.

SPEAKER_00: Uh that featured I I don't know if ACDC were on the bill, but they might have been. But I'm pretty sure Midnight Oil was.

SPEAKER_01: Mm, okay. Great band. So we were the same day, same time.

SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it it actually started because of where it was. It was the first of the concerts.

SPEAKER_01: Uh because of the time difference.

SPEAKER_00: You're right, exactly. So it started like it, you know, like two o'clock in the morning, our time or something.

SPEAKER_01: Man, I never knew that. Okay.

SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah. I'm I'm pretty sure I remember that. Um so it was, you know, it was really interesting. And uh some of the some of the the original in the I I actually I actually still have my original press release from that day. And um did you go to the press conference? I certainly did.

SPEAKER_01: Yeah, there you go.

SPEAKER_00: And uh and and and some of the uh some of the the uh the acts that were announced originally never made it. I think Billy Joel was on that list. Stevie Nix was on the list, but she had some sort of emergency surgery, so she wasn't able to do it. Okay uh the let's see, the four tops. Um no no no no no. I'm I'm I'm looking at my article here that I wrote for the 30th anniversary. Oh yeah. Uh for some reason I can't find that part of it.

SPEAKER_01: Um you know what, but you are right, because I think they made up posters and there's a few acts on there that didn't play. And one of them, one of them I noticed because I was reviewing it this morning was uh they I think Robert Plant is on there, but Zeppelin's not. Right. So it's sort of like uh but there's a few others like you mentioned that maybe are listed on that official poster, I guess they put out, you know, with the uh Africa into a guitar, and then all the acts from Wembley, and then on the other side, JFK.

SPEAKER_00: Right. And uh yeah, there there were uh I said there there were some that never that were announced that never made it. And at the at the press conference, a controversy erupted because uh a a uh black reporter named Tommy State Hill, for the at the time he was at the Philadelphia Tribune, he he happened to point out that for a concert that was to benefit basically black people, right? There were very few names. Oh, Stevie Wonder, who also didn't play, he was I believe he was on he was on the original list.

SPEAKER_00: But there were only like two or three African American artists on the list of the initial list, and that sort of set off some fireworks. And that's when that's when they added uh a bunch of other like Ashford and Simpson, Billy Ocean, Patty LaBelle. So it it's it was very interesting that to cover the runoff to the actual event.

unknown: Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: And how yeah, and how it all got uh you know got put together and all. But you know, obviously it was a good point and it and that was resolved.

SPEAKER_01: So yeah, definitely. And um, yeah, I'm just looking at the poster again. And uh so what did they do? They they lined up some of the most of the people or all of them before the press conference, because obviously they had to get commitments, right? Yeah, so or did they add people like later on?

SPEAKER_00: They just had they they could uh as as I remember it, they absolutely were adding acts as they went along because once this thing was announced, there were a lot of acts clearly who wanted to be part of it, who were initially asked. So, yeah, so no, no, the the initial list was probably uh of uh there were you know maybe uh I'm I'm talking about Philly now. I don't really remember much about Web.

SPEAKER_01: Yeah, we're gonna keep it uh JFK if we can. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so so in terms of of JFK, uh, you know, maybe only four or five of the acts that were originally announced we were actually played that day.

SPEAKER_01: Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_00: And and many and many were added. Um you know, and and it was you know yeah, I mean the Beach Boys were not on the original list, Crosby Still's Natching Young. Yeah, there were a lot of reunions that day. Yes, and we will talk about those um Sabbath and so and and I I don't remember exactly because it makes no sense on the surface that Bruce Springsteen was not involved with this, but my my guess and my memory is that he was on the a European leg of the Born in the USA tour.

SPEAKER_01: Right.

SPEAKER_00: And just logistically couldn't make it happen.

SPEAKER_01: Most likely. I mean, because you know, he probably just had a commitment that day.

SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah. And and again, it wasn't like he had a concert, you know, in North Jersey or Hartford, Connecticut, or something. He, you know, because that they could have accommodated.

SPEAKER_02: Right.

SPEAKER_00: But uh no, he was somewhere, I guess, in Europe, maybe even the Far East for all I know. Yeah. But that that seems, yeah.

SPEAKER_01: So, okay, so the press conference, they announce it. Do you know the backstory of how JFK was picked? Because I've always um out of all the stadiums, now we have a little history with concerts. I mean, I saw the Stones with three other bands, uh, the Who played there with three other bands, Frampton. You know, that we had festivals, the Roundup. Um was it because of JFK's uh the logistics and the everything? Yeah, I 95 and just everything, right?

SPEAKER_00: Exactly. It was it was location, it really kind of needed to be on the east coast. Uh I think that Larry Maggot was involved. As a matter of fact, at the at the um the recent back in in late April, they we had the uh uh Walk of Fame, Philly Walk of Fame induction gala. Yep. Uh and one of the one of the people he wasn't he didn't get a plaque, but he got it, he got an an award was Geldoff. Oh, nice and and Geldoff, he wasn't there, but he he they showed a video where Geldoff pretty much said in in so many words that the reason he went with JFK was and Philly was Larry Maggot because he knew that yeah, yeah, that he knew that Maggot would get this done.

SPEAKER_00: Yeah, but it was also Yeah, I forget why why he didn't want to do New York. I mean, I think Shea Stadium was was proposed perhaps, or North or the Giant Stadium, but um yeah, it was pretty much low, it was a central location, um right, a huge facility, hundred thousand you know, yeah seats or capacity. So it all yeah, it it just seemed uh I guess to everybody to make the most sense. And JFK had was a proven venue for massive events.

SPEAKER_01: Exactly. That's what I meant. Yeah, uh prior to 85. You know, there was at least four or five. I can think of top of my head, I just named a couple of things. Yeah, there were more successfully.

SPEAKER_00: There were yeah, there was more. There was uh in 82, there was Genesis, Elvis Costello, Blondie, Flock of Seagulls, and Robert Hazard. Yep. Uh there was the Stones in 78 as well as 89.

SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's right.

SPEAKER_00: Yeah. Uh there was a Fleawood Match show, I think, in like 77 or 78.

SPEAKER_01: Yep.

SPEAKER_00: As well. Yeah. Yeah. Now they're by the time.

SPEAKER_01: And the Army Navy games, you know, uh show the infrastructure for getting people in all the hotels and out of town.

SPEAKER_00: And and thank it was also a like eight-minute ride to the airport.

SPEAKER_01: Right. Right down 95.

SPEAKER_00: Right, exactly.

SPEAKER_01: Yeah, good point. Okay, so I always wondered that. And then I had a kind of um kind of a feeling that that's why, because yeah, I mean there were multiple reasons.

SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah. I mean, basically, basically JFK checked every box.

SPEAKER_01: Yeah. Oh, that's cool. Okay, so basically, you what'd you do? You got your pass, you got you did you do any pre pre-writing for it? Like write-ups or did you?

SPEAKER_00: I I I don't know how many stories I had, and unfortunately, unfortunately, none of my courier post stuff is is is live online. They they took everything down when they they they redid the website. So I I have but no, I probably did from start to finish, or or let's put it like from from the from the the the day my first story was the day of the press conference. It was uh page one on the top of the over the logo of the Currier Post because it was such a big deal. And saying today, you know, this concert will remember there was no internet, so news didn't travel.

SPEAKER_00: So so so on that day, I believe it was June 13th. I I'm pretty sure it was exactly a month out. So on June 13th, I had my first story, and my last piece probably was the Friday, so the 13th, July 19th. Okay. But uh on in the run-up so from June 13th to July 13th or July 12th, I guess. Well, maybe it was 13th, because uh I know I I know I had the uh weekend section cover on the 12th. Right. I probably did I probably did 15, 18 stories in I mean, and covering from a lot of angles, including one of the things, one of the things that I think is really cool is that for almost 30 years, uh the Hard Rock Cafe in Philadelphia is kind of a you know a local landmark.

SPEAKER_01: Yep.

SPEAKER_00: Yeah, they're right there at the at the yeah, like what's it, 11th and Market, I guess? 12th and March.

SPEAKER_01: I think 12th and March and Market. Yeah, right.

SPEAKER_00: Yeah. Anyway, but it was not the first Hard Rock Cafe to ever do business in Philadelphia. Most people don't know this. Hard Rock set up, and I did I noticed that I did the story uh sometime on the in the run-up. Hard rock set up backstage a full service uh uh hard rock with a menu. Yeah, and everybody, including the biggest stars, had to pay because it would all went to charity.

SPEAKER_01: Right.

SPEAKER_00: So I still have I still have my my live aid hard rock t-shirt. Oh, that's awesome and the menu.

SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I'm looking at the you know what's funny? I'm looking at the menu right now because I did a lot of research on this. $10 flat for everything. So for a salad, which is$3.50, but ten ten dollars, it's awesome. Barbecue chicken burgers.

SPEAKER_00: Today's in today that's probably closer to$25, right?

SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that's that's exactly right because the ticket, I think, to get in for all day at JFK was$35. $35.

SPEAKER_00: Which today wouldn't even be the service charge.

SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I know. Well, that would be a hamburger and a beer. Like at the right.

SPEAKER_00: I'm saying that wouldn't even be the service charge on the ticket.

SPEAKER_01: Right, exactly. There were like 60. So it is interesting. Yeah, I I pulled up the menu, and you're right, the hard rock cafe thing of it, that shirt, right? That's cool. Yeah. Um, yeah, and I did see a picture of it. This is a pretty cool website. Maybe I'll link it you know in the show notes when we're done. Um, they put up like records and stuff, just like uh the hard rock uh tables, big tent. Oh, that's awesome.

SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and what was cool for people like myself, the media, because only I mean, you know, the courier post didn't have total backstage access. You know, I mean the New York Times, I'm sure, did Rolling Stone and so on, you know, People Magazine, but the Courier Post didn't, although I did have some degree of backstage access. And and the um the Hard Rock Cafe was the place because performers I I definitely talked to Melissa Manchester right there, okay for instance. So it was it was a place that that people like myself could actually interact with the performers, so that was pretty cool.

SPEAKER_01: That is cool. Okay, so day of your backstage.

SPEAKER_00: Well, I need to as there is no we we need we need to go to the night before. Okay. Before we get to the day of. Because so um people say, what was your favorite you know, performance? Your favorite ask me, what was the best part of live aid? Which is what I was gonna ask you. That's my favorite. Well, but we need to do it now because before the show. My favorite, my favorite live aid performance did not take place at JFK Stadium.

SPEAKER_02: Okay.

SPEAKER_00: So the deal was that quite logically, every band, or most most of the bands, not you know, not most of them were able to do live aid because they weren't necessarily on tour. So but uh so they needed to a rehearsal space. So at least the week before live aid running up to the show, every legitimate rehearsal space in town was booked. And the pretenders who played a JFK hadn't played a gig in a year, and they couldn't find a rehearsal space. So what did they do? They booked a con a show that started sometime after 11 p.m. I don't remember exactly what time, it was probably between 11 and midnight.

SPEAKER_00: A private, not open to the public, warm-up gig at the Chestnut Cabaret. Oh, yeah. And it was what probably one of the 10 greatest shows of my life.

SPEAKER_01: Wow. And that's saying something too for you too.

SPEAKER_00: It was first of all, yeah, for those who who don't, you know, never went or just too young to remember, the Chestnut Cabaret was an was a club at the corner of 38th and Chestnut Streets on the Penn Campus, kind of on the right of the periphery of the Penn Campus, West Philly, and it held uh probably my guess is uh you know, 400 maybe, something like that.

SPEAKER_01: It was the biggest out of the three cabs.

SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it was the biggest, right? It was the biggest one out of the three. So then probably then it was probably about 500, 550. And pretenders did like 15 songs, and it was essentially at that point in time, 1980, July of 85, it was every Pretender song anyone would have wanted to hear.

SPEAKER_01: Wow, they just ran through it, they were rehearsing.

SPEAKER_00: And they just ran through it, and it was nothing to for me, nothing came close the next day to that performance. Just just I mean, just godlike. That's awesome.

SPEAKER_01: So oh my god, what a great, great memory. Wow.

SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah, it really, it really was. And then now we get to the show, and Wilson Good showed up. Now yeah, now you have to remember that the show the show started at, I believe, at 9 a.m.

SPEAKER_01: If I'm not mistaken, when the Yeah, I'm gonna ask you about the the openers because I got some conflicting info here.

SPEAKER_00: But okay, okay. Well, yeah, but not around here. Around 8 a.m., then Mayor Wilson Good, who two two only two months to the day prior had bombed a city neighborhood into oblivion.

SPEAKER_01: Right.

SPEAKER_00: That was showed up backstage. Now got the weather that day at at 8 a.m. It was already well into the eighties, and the humidity was probably in the 90s. It was brutally. I actually lost eight pounds that day, water weight.

SPEAKER_01: I believe it.

SPEAKER_00: No, seriously. I mean that's a that's a yeah. Um, and there's a reason for that, but I'll get to it later. But the point is that Wilson Good shows up at eight o'clock on a Saturday morning, and he's wearing a business suit and a tie, and a white shirt, and a tie. It's just so bizarre.

SPEAKER_01: Yeah. Oh my god.

SPEAKER_00: It's yeah, and that was it was so what about so now what about the uh the opening? The openers?

SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so I I read something about a guy named David Weinstein, Bernard, or also known as uh well, Bernard Watson, who was also known as David Weinstein. He was 18, traveled to JFK, uh, camped out for two weeks. I'm gonna read off some of these notes, uh, pursued uh Bob Geldoff the promoter to play at Live Aid. He auditioned in the parking lot, and it it his perception. Paid off when Geldoff invited Watson to be the unofficial opening act of Live Aid at JFK, even though he never played for an audience.

SPEAKER_01: Um he went on before Joan Baez.

SPEAKER_00: That's actually true. Uh that's amazing.

SPEAKER_00: Yeah, the only that's the only thing that I remember differently was that it was Bill Graham who who got got him the gig, not Geldot, because Geldot was in London. Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_00: So I yeah.

SPEAKER_01: Yeah, he was uh he was at Wemmley, that's right.

SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and I think he only did one or two songs at most.

SPEAKER_01: I think he did one, it sounds like, and it's just uh you apparently broke the guitar string.

SPEAKER_00: That's true. Yeah, that's awesome. Actually, that would have that would have been a great story to find this guy because nobody remembers Zion.

SPEAKER_01: I never knew that. And then every time I look up Live Aid and do things, you know, around this time, because it's coming up on July 13th, I'm gonna post some stuff up on our Facebook group, etc. I always find more info, and then of course, talking to uh people like you are right there on the ground during the day. You learn incredibly a lot. But I I thought that was interesting. And then the other thing with the opening, it does say Joan Baez officially started the concert, but then the Hooters are listed as the official opening act.

SPEAKER_01: So Joan Baez kind of opened.

SPEAKER_00: Joan Baez, yeah, Joan Baez did open. Um, and I remember her saying uh this is your Woodstock.

SPEAKER_01: Right.

SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, she she she, I believe, was the first national act or international act to play at JSK. Yep. And then the Rooters. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: Yeah, okay.

SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I thought that was if I may, if I may, I'd like to go back about nine days before Live Aid for a personal anecdote, which is one of my all-time favorite rock and rock and roll star stories.

SPEAKER_01: Absolutely, man.

SPEAKER_00: So let's go back to um a couple of weeks before Live Aid. And the biggest rumor of all was that Led Zeppelin was going to reunite for the show. But there were by on July okay, so July 4th, 1985, there was a Beach Boys concert at the art museum.

SPEAKER_01: Okay.

SPEAKER_00: And for reasons to this day I don't know or understand, and it was announced in uh you know of beforehand that Jimmy Page was going to do a couple of songs.

SPEAKER_01: With the Beach Boys? Oh. Alright.

SPEAKER_00: So myself and my dear, dear, dear friend, unfortunately, he died back in December of 20. A guy named Randy Alexander was the music writer for the Trenton Times at the time. And he and I had total all access passes for this July 4th show with the Beach Boys. And again, before the internet. And Randy and I were determined to get confirmation of the Zeppelin reunion from Jimmy Page.

SPEAKER_01: So wow.

SPEAKER_00: So the way it worked, if you can picture the art museum, you know, with the stage facing you know, the parkway, right?

SPEAKER_01: Mm-hmm. Bottom of the city.

SPEAKER_00: Okay, so so right. So there's an apron that that goes all the way around the the art museum, you know, the front of the art museum, outside the art museum. And and the the performers, you know, the production trailers and the dressing room trailers were all parked below the apron, behind like kind of where the East River or Kelly Drive starts.

SPEAKER_02: Right.

SPEAKER_00: So so we're the audience, and as like they're starting like the second song that that that Paige did. You know, Paige comes out, does a song. He Randy and I leave the audience and we head backstage. Now, to get from the apron to the grounds, the apron was like a a a flight of steps. They they they erected a temporary wooden staircase, maybe six or eight feet wide, maybe ten or twelve steps down to the ground where the dressing room was. Randy and I park ourselves right at the bottom of those steps, waiting for Jimmy Page to come out.

SPEAKER_00: Wow. A few minutes later, there's Jimmy Page. He gets to the top step and he starts to walk down. This is really a visual thing. I don't know how he stayed upright. He was so wasted that that I I can't even describe how he walked down those steps, but somehow managed to get to the bottom.

SPEAKER_01: Like mem muscle memory.

SPEAKER_00: Miraculous. So now I have my notebook. I'm ready, you know, my notebook ready to get Jimmy, right? And so we're first we, you know, we don't just pounce them, we say, hey Jimmy, great set. How you doing? And he's very, you know, uh cordial, yeah. Thanks, man, you know, blah, blah, blah. And all of a sudden, like one of us, I don't know if it was me or Randy, but but one of us says, So you guys, you guys gonna do live aid. And all of a sudden, if that you know, we've been there like 45 seconds and we're minute, all of a sudden he sees my notebook.

SPEAKER_00: He realizes I'm a reporter. And he goes, he goes, a reporter, you naughty, naughty boy. And you know, being called a naughty, naughty boy by Jimmy Page is being called like a phenomenal basketball player by LeBron James, right?

SPEAKER_01: Right.

SPEAKER_00: I mean, I mean, he was the ultimate rock star of naughty naughty boy in the 70s.

SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.

SPEAKER_00: But he never, but he he then he walked away. So he never got up because it would have been a world scoop. Oh my god. And he didn't answer it.

SPEAKER_01: He was sober enough not to.

SPEAKER_00: So that's my that's my Jimmy Page live age.

SPEAKER_01: Wow, that's awesome. Oh my god.

SPEAKER_00: So now we can get to the show.

SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that's a great story, man. I love that. And he played he played with the Beach Boys. That's so random. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: I mean, it's just I don't if I knew if I knew how that came about, I I've long forgotten. I I it's just such a bizarre thing. He did, I think I want to say uh fun, fun, fun and help me Rhonda, but uh that might not be correct.

SPEAKER_01: Some rock songs. He rocked them up a little bit.

SPEAKER_00: Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: Instead of surfed them out, kind of.

SPEAKER_02: Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: What was your well, okay, so during the day, what was your favorite um performance? Did you have a favorite?

SPEAKER_00: You know, it's funny because the only ones I didn't see in the middle of the day at one point, like I missed, I know I think we missed uh Brian Adams, maybe. Uh Randy and I, we had another, unfortunately, dearly departed, close, close friend, a guy named John Bloodwell, who at the time he he was originally in the early 80s, he was the promotions director at MMR, but in 85 he was the promotion guy at YSP. And YSP, what they did was they they had they got a hotel suite at one of the airport hotels.

SPEAKER_01: Okay.

SPEAKER_00: Uh where they had it was air conditioned, obviously, and food and drink and a bar for their advertisers. And they had limousines to take them back and forth. And and Bloodwell, God bless them, let me said to Randy and Randy, he goes, Go find, go if you want, you can go backstage, find one of our limos, and have them take you to the hotel so you can get a blow you can get a break.

SPEAKER_02: Wow.

SPEAKER_00: Uh so there were a couple that we missed. Um I I remember the ones because most of the shows weren't that good. You know, most of the sets, I mean, especially the most anticipated ones. Petty and the Heartbreakers were amazing.

SPEAKER_01: I think he had a great set. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: Uh later on at night, Mick and and uh Tina Turner, Jagger and Tina Turner were amazing. But but I but you know, like the Crosby Sills Nash and Young Reunion was meh. Uh Brian Wilson with the Beach Boys, first time in years for that. It was more it was interesting, but I don't remember it being, you know, mind-blowing. Uh the cars were always boring live to me. So yeah, there wasn't yeah, and of course probably the worst the worst of all was Dylan, Keith Richards, and Ronnie Wood, which was the a total abortion.

SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that was um I'm gonna scroll down to when they came on. They came on at 100. They played Ballast, Ballad of Hollis Brown, when the ship comes in and blowing in the wind. Right. But they they should have played at like 10 o'clock in the morning. Well 10.30 at night.

SPEAKER_00: Right. But also, my understanding, what I what I remember was that uh I remember reading an article, an interview maybe with Ron Wood, um that the reason it's uh maybe it was Keith, but the reason that it sucked was because those apparently weren't the songs that that that uh Keith and and Ronnie weren't um weren't expecting to play. Dylan changed it up. And they didn't really know him. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: In front of two billion people.

SPEAKER_00: Exactly. Well, when you're Bob Dylan, you can do that. Even to the Keith Richards and Ron Wood in the whole episode. That's when you're Bob Dylan. So that was that was brutal. Oh uh uh the uh Teddy Pendergrass, you know, that was his first show, first performance since the uh car accident that paralyzed them. That was that was indeed incredibly moving, no question about it.

SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so I mean bands only had uh to be fair to them. 20 minutes, maybe. Yeah, 15 to 30, maybe I'm looking at the list. I mean, maybe the most anybody played was maybe five songs, so they yeah, you know, they had that time crunch and stuff like that. Exactly, yeah. But and you know, whatever. I mean, Sabbath got together for like three songs.

SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and that was pretty cool, actually. That the Sabbath, yeah, that was a lot of fun.

SPEAKER_01: Yeah. Uh Priest, so Beach Boys, you know, Tom Petty had a great set, you're right.

SPEAKER_00: Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: Oh, he just yeah, American Girl, the Waiting, Rebels, and Refugee. That's four just great, great bangers right there. Exactly. That's right. I would have given him like, I don't know, eight or nine.

SPEAKER_00: Well, yeah. And you know, you know, as and and as you well know, you know, I play in pure petty, tribute bad. Yep. And the amazing thing is when we're some, I mean, like, for instance, July 4th, we're playing, and if I can plug it, although I guess this will be well, this be on though, this will be aired after, though, right?

SPEAKER_01: Um, actually put it up before the 13th because it's all right, but after the fourth. Yeah, after the fourth. Okay. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: All right. Well, but the point is that when when sometimes we do shows with other bands, we only have an hour, and we do an hour's worth of hits, and we could do pretty much another hour totally different with the hits. Right. That's how many amazing songs.

SPEAKER_01: No, I was lucky to see Petty uh 18 at the Wells Fargo, 2018.

SPEAKER_00: Okay. Um, not 18. He died in 17. So that would have been a cute trick. I think it was probably seven, it was probably seventeen.

SPEAKER_01: 17 is so long ago. Oh my god, I can't even do the math anymore. I'm getting so old. Oh my god. It just seemed like yesterday. That's why I can't like think that far back. But yeah, he it was excellent. I'm so happy I was able to see him. I missed him so many times during the heyday of the spectrum. I I just kept missing the city.

SPEAKER_00: Well, the first time I well, I saw him, not only did I see him at the tower, I think, in 1979 or 80, I think it was 80 actually, but I also saw him at the Bijou Cafe, if I'm not mistaken, in 76.

SPEAKER_01: Oh my god. Oh, geez, early.

SPEAKER_00: Yeah. Yeah. First amazing.

SPEAKER_01: Well, listen, getting back to so speaking of reunions, um, I guess we're gonna talk about the Zeppelin reunion? Because it was that that thing was kind of I mean, it was brutal.

SPEAKER_00: It was yeah, it was it was a it I mean there were a lot of disappointments, I think, for a lot of people that day, but this one was far and away because it was the most anticipated reunion because you know, I mean, Led Zeppelin the only band that was, you know, post Beatles band that comes close to them in terms of global popularity is the stones. So, yeah, so and and here's I remember reading uh an interview with Jimmy Page, I don't know how many years later, but and the problem two words, Phil Collins.

SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I just gonna get to him.

SPEAKER_00: Yeah, uh according according to Paige, Collins was not only incompetent, but he was totally unprepared. And and the worst part was that um they had a drummer, they didn't even need Collins.

SPEAKER_01: Well, that was my thing. Um I'm so as far as Collins, uh probably a lot of people do know this, he played Wemmley. He did a set at Wemmley, he hopped on the Concord and then landed at uh JFK Airport in New York and helicoptered down to Philly. He did a set, he didn't just sit in with uh he did a set like in the air tonight, etc. etc. And then he stayed on the stage, introduced Zeppelin, and hopped behind the kit. And you're and you're right. I don't I just never understood that because they had a drummer they rehearsed with.

SPEAKER_00: It was Tony Thompson, Tony Power Station.

SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah. So who I don't know who why? Like did he sit in did he sit in on rehearsals or did they just invite him?

SPEAKER_00: It was in London.

SPEAKER_01: Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: By the way, by the way, I I don't get this. I have a friend who did the sound for Zeppelin at their rehearsal, which was like earlier in the day. They they just rehearsed, like and and and according to my friend, he was the one who recommended they do stairway. He said he says that Paige didn't think they should do stairway, and he said, No, you've got to do stairway. So they did it. Oh, okay. Um so yeah, so Collins couldn't rehearse with them. Oh my god. Yeah. And I mean, I don't I don't know what the explanation is.

SPEAKER_00: It makes it makes no sense on so many levels, starting with the fact that musically there's no compatibility.

SPEAKER_01: Right. He's a prog drummer. He's a great prog drummer, by the way. There was early. Right. Oh, he's one of the best. No question. Amazing.

SPEAKER_00: Yeah, absolutely. But he's not a but he's not a blues rock drummer, he's not a Led Zeppelin drummer.

SPEAKER_01: He's a pop drummer, too, like in the 80s on his solo records.

SPEAKER_00: And a pop drummer, right. So my guess is, I mean, I I don't know, but if you put it in context of the summer of 1985, yeah, Phil Collins was pretty much as big a pop star as the world knew at that moment.

SPEAKER_01: He was. He was everywhere.

SPEAKER_00: And I guess just uh, you know, I just to have him do it, I guess meant something to somebody.

SPEAKER_01: Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: You know, it made, you know, again, it kind of made sense. Well, you have the biggest band reuniting after seven years and let and then joined by the biggest pop star in the world at the moment. How what could go wrong?

SPEAKER_01: Now, to be fair, I've talked to a lot of people who now I wasn't there that day, by the way, and it's uh I have a whole backstory. The reason that, but we watched it obviously all day on TV. Um, but the people were there, starting with my wife, and I asked her, and she said, you couldn't hear that how bad it was. Like that, it didn't matter. Zeppelin was reuniting, they played three songs. By that time, you know, everybody was cooked. It was a long day. It was hot. You know, they had to turn the fire hoses on, cool people down.

SPEAKER_01: It was a long day by the time Zepp came on. And they didn't notice that. They didn't notice like nobody really turned to them and say each other and say, Man, it sucks. Jimmy's Jimmy's got his flanger on 11. Right. Well, right.

SPEAKER_00: Or something. But but his attitude, I don't know. Right, because because everyone was in the moment. This was this was historic.

SPEAKER_01: Right. But we can look back on videos, Chuck, and and look at it and critique it for the past 40 years. But I'm just saying, if you were in the audience, oh no, it was a very cool thing. Yes, absolutely. But it was it's hard to listen to.

SPEAKER_00: Right. From from from Led Zeppelin's, you know, from the guys in Led Zeppelin's viewpoint, it was it was uh brutally embarrassing.

SPEAKER_01: Yeah, they want to forget about it. They don't want that up up on YouTube, they don't want they don't want it brought up and kind of can't blame them. And I heard also that Paige's uh guitars, I guess he he he left them under the lights. So I don't know anything about guitars because I'm a drummer, but if you leave them under lights, do they go out of tune or something like for a while?

SPEAKER_00: They can't I mean if they're left long enough and the and the lights are are hot enough or intense enough, sure. Extreme heat and extreme cold will put guitar strings down too.

SPEAKER_01: Did he sound out of tune or was it just his tone was?

SPEAKER_00: I don't I don't remember that. Uh I couldn't tell you that.

SPEAKER_01: Um it was a trip to see them though, you know.

SPEAKER_00: So oh yeah, exactly. So let's let's take a break for a quick trivia question. Who were the four MCs at JFK?

SPEAKER_01: Oh, um the VJs from MTV.

SPEAKER_00: No, no, no. The VJs were the hosts on the on the broadcast.

SPEAKER_01: Oh, right.

SPEAKER_00: But the actual the actual on stage MCs who brought on the bands.

SPEAKER_01: Oh, uh remember Jack Nicholson? That's one. I forget who he introduced. Yeah. Who else? Um Bette Midler. Bet Midler introduced Madonna. How's that for extra points?

SPEAKER_00: Wow, that's I don't I that's that's that's that is absolutely I I had I had no idea. I don't remember who any of them introduced.

SPEAKER_01: I might be I might be Doug. No, also, uh and I'm thinking JFK, not Wembley, because I have to keep these separate. Um yeah, the big ones were like Jack Nicholson came out.

SPEAKER_00: Uh Nicholson and Midler.

SPEAKER_01: I'm trying to think of the 80s, the big uh Okay.

SPEAKER_00: I think one of the middle is good what's that?

SPEAKER_01: Yeah, go ahead, help me out.

SPEAKER_00: Okay, well, the third one was Chevy Chase.

SPEAKER_01: Right.

SPEAKER_00: And this is the one that is probably gonna blow people's minds. How about Joe Piscopo? Joe Piscopo. He was hot. He was the he was as big as a guy then.

SPEAKER_01: He was. Um big he was.

SPEAKER_00: He em he MC'd he MC'd uh Live Aid. And what's interesting, without getting the whole thing, you know, Joe Joe subsequently became one of my dearest, closest friends.

SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that's awesome.

SPEAKER_00: And I was his writing partner for 30 years. Um but at the time we just met literally a couple of weeks before Live Aid, and my favorite color is turquoise. And the day we had lunch in Center City, when I met him, I was I to interview him, yeah, and it wasn't about Live Aid, because he said I remember him saying something like they asked, they just asked me, I just got asked to be to be one of the MCs at Live Aid. Uh, but anyway, the point is that I because turquoise is my favorite color, and he was he wore a turquoise shirt the day I met him, and he wore the same shirt at Live Aid.

SPEAKER_01: Oh, that's awesome. He was awesome Saturday Live. Loved him. Him and Eddie Murphy.

SPEAKER_00: Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: Probably one of the group's greatest uh duos.

SPEAKER_00: Um yeah, well, they look they single hand or double-handedly saved SNL.

SPEAKER_01: Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: If it weren't for them, SNL would have would have would not have gotten anywhere near for two years.

SPEAKER_01: Yeah, they rebooted it, man. Yep. Uh well before I ever met him.

SPEAKER_00: Before I even ever met him, I just became you know such a close friend of his that I used to watch one Saturday Night Live and think to myself, this guy is the most talented guy in show business.

SPEAKER_01: Yeah, he he could do anything. His Sinatra was awesome.

SPEAKER_00: He plays five instruments. Yeah, he plays five instruments.

SPEAKER_01: Wow, I didn't know that.

SPEAKER_00: Yeah, he plays drums, flute, sax, guitar, and piano.

SPEAKER_01: Uh super talented. Yeah, that's awesome.

SPEAKER_00: Anyway, yeah, so that those were your four MCs in Philadelphia.

SPEAKER_01: Okay. And then I mentioned the uh MTV VJs, I remember them. Yep. Martha Quinn Goodman, who was uh formerly of WMR here in Philly.

SPEAKER_00: Philly grew up grew up in Lower Marion.

SPEAKER_01: Yep. Mark Goodman and uh Alan Hunter and Nina Blackwood. So they were great days. And it was on MTV.

SPEAKER_00: Um they were they were situated uh on the side. They they build uh their quote studio off on one side of the state.

SPEAKER_01: Right. Well what a day. It's kind of amazing, you know. If you think about it, we need to point out how hard and logistically that had to be between two continents all day music schedule, no internet, just phones and what, faxes and teletypes or whatever.

SPEAKER_00: We should remind people that one of the ways they were able to pull off such a m and I guess is Wembley too, they had two two stages. Like they had a turntable. Yeah, rotating. So they would set up they would set up one act while while the one was on, they would set up be setting up the next act.

SPEAKER_01: That's right. Rotating stage.

SPEAKER_00: Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: And that's how they got that's how they did it. Yep.

SPEAKER_00: Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: That's amazing.

SPEAKER_00: It really is. And it's it stands to this moment. It is the single largest single day entertainment event in history. Right. And it'll never be, it will never it can never be duplicated for any. First of all, tickets today would be six thousand dollars. Right. Right.

SPEAKER_01: Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_00: Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: Yeah. And uh quarter of it would go to, you know, the charity, and everything else would be expenses. But this was like you said, they had to buy their own food backstage, leave your ego at the door. You're only doing a couple songs. Yep. And it went off without a hitch. There was no as far as I know, I don't think there was I never read any drama backstage. Why would there be? No, I don't think so. So just to gather all those egos together and keep them focused on just this. Um it's pretty amazing.

SPEAKER_01: I mean, Geloff uh God, I hell he did it.

SPEAKER_00: But uh it was just, you know, it the the stars aligned. It was the right moment. Yeah. Um, you know, right it was pre pre-hip hop, really. So it was when rock was still the the pop culture, you know.

SPEAKER_01: Yeah. Oh yeah, MTV, a lot of and M T V right MTV and M TV.

SPEAKER_00: Exactly. Without I think without MTV, that this probably wouldn't have happened either, because it would have been although, although let us not forget that from I I don't re I don't remember exactly whether it was 8 p.m. or 9 p.m. But the final couple of hours, I guess it was nine to eleven, were were not on MTV, it was on ABC.

SPEAKER_01: You're right. Yep.

SPEAKER_00: Yeah. Produced, I believe, by Dick Clark.

SPEAKER_01: Yes. Yeah, I did read that. There was also a radio thing. Oh no, ABC, yes. There was kind of sort of like a television war because ABC I'm just thinking off the top of my head, had rights to like nine of those acts. So they had to work something out. Uh so you're right, yeah, that's right. Yeah, we couldn't uh I couldn't go down, it's just long story, but we were just I was I was in a band and we were playing till like 3 a.m. Wow and yeah, finally passed out around five and then we got up and watched it.

SPEAKER_01: We just couldn't make it down. We didn't have tickets. I think we were thinking of just going down, partaking in the partying. If we got a ticket, great. If we could sneak in, great. Um that's our old stomping grounds, you know, JFK. We're down there all the time, but the spectrum next door down at JFK, saw so many shows there. So really comfortable. We just couldn't couldn't get off the couch. So yeah, we we played a a show the the night before. Um I was in like a little cover band and stuff, but a lot of fight.

SPEAKER_01: But uh it was just you know, great broadcast and a great day. And like I said in the beginning, every time this rolls around like July 13th, it's all over at least here in in Philly, it's all over the Facebook and you know, all the Facebook groups put up and so many memories. Everybody's got you know a memory of of being down there and stuff. It's pretty cool.

SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it was, I mean, as as a music writer, I mean there were I there was nothing that'll you know ever came close to that for me personally, because again, because it wasn't just going to the show on Saturday, it was pretty much I don't want to say it was my life for for a month, but it was it it occupied a very probably the largest uh portion of my life for that 30 days period.

SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I can't imagine how exciting it would be like for for you for the inside because and then that day actually happening and watching it unfolding after writing about it, yeah, for and thinking about it and getting you know information inside, baseball information that we wouldn't have, the public. And then all of a sudden the the day and watching it unfold, that must have been amazing, Chuck. It was point of view.

SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it absolutely I mean it it is everything you think it it was. I'll I I'll I have one more anecdote because I am not a violent person at all. When I was a kid, I think I may have gotten I may have gotten into two fist fights in my life, you know, in the schoolyard. I know I I'm not a I don't like violence. However, on this day of global peace and understanding, I came I I can't you know, so close to to punching somebody out with a press box.

SPEAKER_02: Oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_00: What happened was I I it was it was very late, it had been a very long day at the end of a very long month, obviously. Right. You know, I mean I mean we got we stayed my my friend Randy um lived at uh at Forth and Spruce, and a bunch of us who covered it, it was it was he he and I and a couple of DJs from WPST, including uh Tom Cunningham, if you if you know that name.

SPEAKER_01: Um sounds familiar, yep.

SPEAKER_00: Anyway, so you know we we we all crashed at Randy's place, but we didn't get there until like you know, get back home after the pretender show until like you know 2, 3 a.m. Right. And we had to be down at the stadium like at 7 a.m.

SPEAKER_01: Mm-hmm. Yep.

SPEAKER_00: So it wasn't a lot of sleep to begin with. And then to do this, and and the reason I started to say the reason I lost so much weight was because to walk from the press box to backstage each way was probably a good half mile, including climbing up several flights of stairs.

SPEAKER_01: Yeah, a lot of water. I didn't even think of that on that hot day, too. Yep.

SPEAKER_00: And and with the heat and all, yeah, I decided, but um it was it was just it was it was you know, I can't I don't know what the words are. Yeah, it was what'd the guy do?

SPEAKER_01: What did did he step on your foot and and say something? Oh, oh right.

SPEAKER_00: Oh, no, no. What so what happened was it was very late, and I would and my deadline was approaching.

SPEAKER_01: Okay.

SPEAKER_00: And I had I I had what what it used to be those Radio Shack, little Radio Shack word processors that you could it were very primitive. It was like the beginning of the tech digital revolution, where you would hook up a telephone, a regular, you know, everyday landline telephone to uh couplers and they would transmit the story through the wires, through the telephone lines.

SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I remember those.

SPEAKER_00: And and my papers waiting for my big story. This is the biggest story of the year, pretty much. You know, it's early the of the weekend. And and there was a there were a there was a guy block I've gone out maybe to the bathroom, I don't remember why. So now I'm I'm heading back to my seat, which is he's coming to the press box, and I was kind of down to the far left end, closer to the stage. And there's a guy standing, and it was a very narrow passageway.

SPEAKER_02: Right.

SPEAKER_00: And he's standing in my way. And I'm I'm a nice guy, you know, and they're clearly they're like a TV crew. And they're and they're and I'm waiting, it's a minute, two minutes, three minutes, four minutes, and finally I try to walk, you know, kind of say, excuse me, and he stops me. And and he and he's and he and he's like, You can't do this. Just see or CNN, and we're going on the air. And then I got I got really pissed. I said, Look, it's and and I even though he said CNN, I said, Look, I don't care if Channel 2 in Butte, Montana doesn't get their feed.

SPEAKER_00: I got a story to file. And the guy like looked at me and he goes, I'll kick your ass. And I said, and I said, let's let's go. And then cooler heads prevailed. So that's that's it. On this on this global day of peace, love, and understanding, yeah. I was the one who almost got into a fist fight. Oh my god.

SPEAKER_01: That's hilarious. True story. Oh my god.

SPEAKER_00: But it was, yeah, I mean, I've I've covered a lot of cool things in my time. Um, I mean, I I don't know if there was anything. I mean, I I've covered everything from from a presidential visit to low the first Lowpalooza, to Miss America to a World Series and Super Bowl, and nothing, nothing was as as amazing as this. From my point of view, from a journalism point of view.

SPEAKER_01: Oh no, from our fans too. It was amazing. Absolutely incredible.

SPEAKER_00: Very grateful and fortunate to you know been in the right place at the right time.

SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Yeah, and we appreciate talking to me and uh relating all this. This is uh my pleasure. Yeah, absolutely. Anything else that day you can think of?

SPEAKER_00: I think now. I think I I really think that we yeah.

SPEAKER_01: All right, well, listen, I appreciate it. And uh this was a lot of fun. Yeah, this was a lot of fun, and you know, as in the other podcast, I'll I'll link uh you know your bio and and uh petty and you know your gigs coming up. Yeah, definitely.

SPEAKER_00: Much appreciated.

SPEAKER_01: Okay, and there we go. What a wonderful conversation on that big day. Many thanks to Chuck Darrow for spending his time with me today. What an incredible uh day that was, and we appreciate all his uh insights and uh stories. Always a great time talking to Chuck. I hope these bring back great memories for you of Live Aid, whether you're home watching, there at JFK, or in Wembley Stadium. It was truly a global and historical event. Thanks again for joining us today. Please subscribe to the podcast and feel free to comment.

SPEAKER_01: I will include links about the event and also Chuck's current going-ons and gigs. And I look forward to more enjoyable conversations and music in the content.

The Program