Programming Note: Watch NCS Original Series “Live Aid: When Rock ’n’ Roll Took On the World,” celebrating the definitive story of how two rockstars impressed the largest world music occasions in historical past. The second episode of the four-part sequence airs Sunday, July 20 at 9 p.m. ET/PT.
NCS
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With the assist of helicopters and a supersonic turbo jet, Phil Collins pulled off a sequence of performances worthy of a “Mission Impossible” film at Live Aid forty years in the past.
The singer and drummer participated in the profit live shows organized by musicians Bob Geldof and Midge Ure to draw consideration to a famine in Ethopia and lift cash for aid efforts.
Collins didn’t perform on only one stage, but two – on two totally different continents.
The Genesis frontman initially took to the stage in London at Wembley Stadium, the place he carried out “Against All Odds (Take a Look at Me Now)” and “In the Air Tonight.” He additionally performed performed drums for Branford Marsalis and Sting.
That would have been sufficient for many artists, but not Collins.
Instead, he hopped on a helicopter to Heathrow Airport in London, boarded The Concorde to New York City, then took one other helicopter to Philadelphia, the place he joined famous person Eric Clapton for his set and carried out three songs with Led Zeppelin’s Robert Plant, Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones.
(The Concorde was a supersonic airliner that allowed passengers to cross the Atlantic in beneath three and a half hours. It made its first check flight in 1969 and was formally retired in 2003.)
Backstage after the London efficiency, Collins gave an interview in which he mentioned he thought the first efficiency had “gone very well, considering” and expressed his satisfaction in collaborating.
“I’m very proud to be asked to do it because everybody’s involved and it’s just great to be a part of something like this,” he mentioned. “It’s just too obvious to say it’s for a good cause.”
There was, nevertheless, some drama in regards to the second present, and the way the a number of performances took place.
Collins defined that each Plant and Sting had individually requested him to take part in Live Aid, with a UK-based promoter suggesting he take The Concorde in order to play each exhibits.
But Collins defined to Classic Rock in 2021 that the second present with Led Zeppelin was lower than clean, in half as a result of he uncared for to rehearse with the band beforehand, and likewise due to the bandmates’ strained relationships.
“By the time I got there, me and Robert and Jimmy playing together had become The Second Coming Of Led Zeppelin – (bassist and keyboardist) John Paul Jones was there too. Jimmy says: ‘We need to rehearse.’ And I said: ‘Can’t we just go on stage and have a play?’” Collins recalled. “So I didn’t rehearse when I got there, but I listened to ‘Stairway To Heaven’ on Concorde.”
He mentioned the finish end result was messy, partially due to the indisputable fact that co-drummer Tony Thompson “had rehearsed for a week, and I’m about to steal his thunder – the famous drummer’s arrived! – and he kind of did what he wanted to do. Robert wasn’t match-fit. And if I could have walked off, I would have done, cause I wasn’t needed and I felt like a spare part.”
“Anyway, we came off, and we got interviewed by MTV. And Robert is a diamond, but when those guys get together a black cloud appears,” Collins continued. “Then Page says: ‘One drummer was halfway across the Atlantic and didn’t know the stuff.’ And I got pissed off. Maybe I didn’t know it as well as he’d like me to have done, but… I became the flagship, and it looked like I was showing off.”
It ended up changing into a Led Zepplin reunion that Collins wrote about not wanting to be part of in his 2016 autobiography, “Not Dead Yet.”
“I didn’t come here to play with Led Zeppelin, I came here to play with a friend of mine who has morphed back into being the singer of Led Zeppelin – a very different animal to the one that invited me,” Collins wrote. “Now I’m caught up in the ceaselessly toxic, dysfunctional web of Led Zeppelin interpersonal relationships.”
While his second efficiency maybe didn’t go fairly as Collins had hoped, Live Aid raised greater than $125 million for famine aid. His transatlantic flight additionally included a really well-known fellow passenger.
“When I got on Concorde, Cher was on it,” Collins recalled in the NCS authentic sequence “Live Aid: When Rock ’n’ Roll Took On the World.”
Cher requested Collins what he was up to.
“There’s a live gig in London today and in Philadelphia,” Collins mentioned he instructed Cher. “She said, ‘Oh, could you get me on it?’”
Hours later, Cher joined a star-studded group of artists on stage to shut out Live Aid with a efficiency of “We Are the World.”
Mission achieved.