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Bryan's Live Aid performance
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Author:  True2Life [ Wed Feb 14, 2024 7:43 am ]
Post subject:  Bryan's Live Aid performance
With a new musical show opening in the UK about the Live Aid concert in 1985 it got me thinking about Bryan's performance at the show.

As has been well documented it was beset by technical problems. My recollection from seeing it on TV on the day is that it didn't go down terribly well. He hadn't played live since Roxy ended at the end of the Avalon tour but Boys and Girls had been released only a few weeks earlier and was a number 1 album in the UK. Slave To Love had been a big hit. I still wonder why he opened with Sensation (not a favourite of mine).

I don't even remember him playing Boys and Girls, which definitely is a favourite of mine, but the stats say he did so he must have done. It's hardly a crowd pleaser for a big stadium crowd on a hot summer's day though - you have to think Love IsThe Drug or Let's Stick Together would surely have gone down better.

It would be another 3 years before we saw him live again.
Author:  UKRichard [ Wed Feb 14, 2024 1:51 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Bryan's Live Aid performance
I remember looking forward to his appearance immensely and was so disappointed given the technical problems.

I didn't really have an issue with Sensation as an opener, but I agree, B&G wasn't an inspired choice. The album might've been a number 1, but how many in the stadium and watching at home would've been familiar with it or inspired to buy the album based on it? I think the answer to both of those is 'not many'. It's said organisers weren't best pleased that he used his set to so overtly plug the album, but who knows? At least he did recover with STL and JG, which seemed to be Wembley crowd-pleasers.

B&G is such an oddity. The least accessible track on the album and yet the one from which its name is taken and, uniquely, the track that will have me shuffling uncomfortably in my seat whenever it's performed live (well actually not uniquely, it's an honour shared with STTY).
Author:  le freak [ Wed Feb 14, 2024 2:48 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Bryan's Live Aid performance
-Hmm, I saw it on telly, and I remember it. I had great expectations. I remember his white trousers, high knees and handclaps. Surely Avalon was a hard act to follow. Btw, I`m not good at recognizing a song from bare initials.
Author:  UKRichard [ Wed Feb 14, 2024 3:40 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Bryan's Live Aid performance
le freak wrote:
Btw, I`m not good at recognizing a song from bare initials.
:lol: It's bordering on a convention that's existed here for oooh, decades! And probably just as well - posts would be like wading through treacle if everyone wrote every song title in full. It's not RS.

On a lighter note, this topic did get me thinking about BF's (Bryan Ferry's) other charitable endeavours, recalling his in-depth interview with Alan Partridge 25 years ago. Fortunately Comic Relief and BBC2 were partners to it, otherwise no-one outside the fine city of Norwich would have known a thing about it.
https://youtu.be/HJCjaO7bHFM?feature=shared
Author:  pianoman [ Thu Feb 15, 2024 11:50 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Bryan's Live Aid performance
le freak wrote:
Surely Avalon was a hard act to follow. Btw, I`m not good at recognizing a song from bare initials.

Extremely hard, le freak. Not only that it was successful in so many countries - it had melodious songs like MTT, A, TACWM and the funky TSB & TMT. Then Roxy's split as a recording band and very high expectations for BF's follow-up.

STL was successful but too commercial to me. The B+G album with its dark mood left me puzzling where BF's way would lead. Moreover I wasn't amused about his Live Aid performance. Bowie showed him how that works ... Finally, BN was the album that reconciled me with my hero. I hope I used the correct abbreviations for all songs, UK Richard :lol: .
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