Claire Tole-Moir
Head of Department
Lot 149*
Live Aid: A large stage used backdrop for 'Live Aid' at Wembley Stadium, London, 13th July 1985,
Amended
15 December 2016, 12:00 GMT
London, KnightsbridgeSold for £10,000 inc. premium
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Stephen Maycock
Specialist Consultant, Collectors, Popular Culture
Live Aid: A large stage used backdrop for 'Live Aid' at Wembley Stadium, London,
13th July 1985,
the large handpainted canvas backdrop featuring the iconic Live Aid logo of a black guitar in the shape of Africa at the centre, displayed on stage during the concert, it was one of two backdrops clearly visible to all attendees and those watching the television broadcast whilst musicians such as Freddie Mercury, Brian May, David Bowie, Elton John, U2, The Who, Paul McCartney, Bob Geldof, Band Aid and many more all performed live at Wembley Stadium. Accompanied by a copy of the book 'The Eighties, One Day, One Decade' by Dylan Jones, in which the banner is illustrated,
72 x 138in (185cm x 351cm) (2)
the large handpainted canvas backdrop featuring the iconic Live Aid logo of a black guitar in the shape of Africa at the centre, displayed on stage during the concert, it was one of two backdrops clearly visible to all attendees and those watching the television broadcast whilst musicians such as Freddie Mercury, Brian May, David Bowie, Elton John, U2, The Who, Paul McCartney, Bob Geldof, Band Aid and many more all performed live at Wembley Stadium. Accompanied by a copy of the book 'The Eighties, One Day, One Decade' by Dylan Jones, in which the banner is illustrated,
72 x 138in (185cm x 351cm) (2)
Footnotes
Please note: the backdrop is made of an unstretched canvas / hessian fabric. It is an ex-lot from the Live Aid sale in Sydney in 1985, not London as catalogued.
Live Aid was initially organised by Bob Geldof and Midge Ure as an on-going music-based fundraising initiaitve to provide relief for the Ethiopian famine. The event at Wembley had 72,000 attendees, and was one of the largest-scale satellite link-ups and television broadcasts of all time: an estimated global audience of 1.9 billion, across 150 nations tuned in to the live broadcast.
Dylan Jones writes on page 19 of his book The Eighties, One Day, One Decade: 'Live Aid was the greatest stadium concert of all time, possibly the most important rock spectacle of them all, with as much cultural resonance as Woodstock or Altamont, and one shared by billions of people as opposed to then of thousands. It was a spectacle in so many ways, and in a way the day unfolded like a thriller, from the hours before the performance to the finale in Philadelphia and into the small hours after. For ten hours on Saturday 13 July 1985, exactly halfway through the decade, Wembley Stadium became one vast, electronic begging bowl, a massive excercise in choreographed compassion.'
Ex-lot 283, Collectors & Live Aid Charity Sale, Sotheby's, London, 7th December 1985
Saleroom notices
Please note: the backdrop is made of an unstretched canvas / hessian fabric. It is an ex-lot from the Live Aid sale in Sydney in 1985, not London as catalogued.
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