Oz for Africa
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Oz for Africa was an Australian concert held on 13 July 1985 at the
Sydney Entertainment Centre Sydney Entertainment Centre (later known as Qantas Credit Union Arena) was a multi-purpose arena located in Haymarket, Sydney, Australia. It opened in May 1983, to replace Sydney Stadium, which had been demolished in 1970 to make way for the E ...
. It was organised by Bill Gordon who also organised the EAT Concert held at the Myer Music Bowl in Melbourne at the end of January 1985. That event was televised nationally on Channel Nine. Over $1million was raised in the accompanying telethon. Gordon organised for all proceeds to go to the Red Cross. During the 10 hour event live satellite hook ups between Melbourne London and Los Angeles included interviews with Geldof and many of the stars of the hit songs "We Are the World" & "Feed the World". The Oz for Africa concert was broadcast locally and internationally as part of the worldwide
Live Aid Live Aid was a multi-venue benefit concert held on Saturday 13 July 1985, as well as a music-based fundraising initiative. The original event was organised by Bob Geldof and Midge Ure to raise further funds for relief of the 1983–1985 fami ...
performances to raise money for famine relief in Africa. The concert featured 17 bands performing some of their best-known songs. All groups donated their services and the concert helped raise $10 million throughout Australia.


Background

The original concert for famine relief in
Ethiopia Ethiopia, , om, Itiyoophiyaa, so, Itoobiya, ti, ኢትዮጵያ, Ítiyop'iya, aa, Itiyoppiya officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country in the Horn of Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the ...
, called East Africa Tragedy (EAT) Appeal Concert, was held at the
Myer Music Bowl The Sidney Myer Music Bowl is an outdoor bandshell performance venue in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. It is located in the lawns and gardens of Kings Domain on Linlithgow Avenue close to the Arts Centre and the Southbank entertainment precinct ...
,
Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...
on 27 January 1985. The concert was organised by Bill Gordon with assistance from Zev Eizics of Australian Concert Entertainment. Band Aid co-founder
Midge Ure James Ure (born 10 October 1953) is a Scottish musician, singer-songwriter and record producer. His stage name, Midge, is a phonetic reversal of Jim, the diminutive form of his actual name. Ure enjoyed particular success in the 1970s and 1980s ...
was brought to Australia to head the day-long televised performances. Live satellite crosses to fellow co-founder
Bob Geldof Robert Frederick Zenon Geldof (; born 5 October 1951) is an Irish singer-songwriter, and political activist. He rose to prominence in the late 1970s as lead singer of the Rock music in Ireland, Irish rock band the Boomtown Rats, who achieved ...
and other Band Aid performers were included. The concert raised $1 million which was paid to the
Red Cross The International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement is a Humanitarianism, humanitarian movement with approximately 97 million Volunteering, volunteers, members and staff worldwide. It was founded to protect human life and health, to ensure re ...
. Bill Gordon floated the idea of a UK concert with Ure utilising all of the performers of Band Aid's charity single "
Do They Know It's Christmas? "Do They Know It's Christmas?" is a charity song written in 1984 by Bob Geldof and Midge Ure to raise money for the 1983–1985 famine in Ethiopia. It was first recorded by Band Aid, a supergroup assembled by Geldof and Ure consisting of pop ...
". Gordon visited Geldof and the Band Aid Committee in London in April 1985 to secure a place for Australia in the planned event. The idea grew to become the Live Aid concept, which was to have concerts in UK, USA and elsewhere (including Australia).


Concert details

Due to time zone differences the Oz for Africa concert began twelve hours before the
Wembley Stadium Wembley Stadium (branded as Wembley Stadium connected by EE for sponsorship reasons) is a football stadium in Wembley, London. It opened in 2007 on the site of the Wembley Stadium (1923), original Wembley Stadium, which was demolished from 200 ...
,
London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...
leg and was thus the first Live Aid concert. Oz for Africa was organised by furniture dealer Bill Gordon and music producer Brian de Courcy, in co-operation with Geldof and the
Band Aid trust Band Aid were a charity supergroup featuring mainly British and Irish musicians and recording artists. It was founded in 1984 by Bob Geldof and Midge Ure to raise money for anti-famine efforts in Ethiopia by releasing the song "Do They Know I ...
. Gordon sold his furniture business to use the cash to support the concert. The compere, Ian "Molly" Meldrum, was the musical director of Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s TV pop show, ''
Countdown A countdown is a sequence of backward counting to indicate the time remaining before an event is scheduled to occur. NASA commonly employs the terms "L-minus" and "T-minus" during the preparation for and anticipation of a rocket launch, and eve ...
''. The four-hour concert and telethon was broadcast on two Australian television networks Channel 7 and Channel 9. Sections of it were seen internationally during the world-wide live broadcast of
Live Aid Live Aid was a multi-venue benefit concert held on Saturday 13 July 1985, as well as a music-based fundraising initiative. The original event was organised by Bob Geldof and Midge Ure to raise further funds for relief of the 1983–1985 fami ...
, some songs by
INXS INXS (a word play, phonetic play on "in excess") were an Australian Rock music, rock band, formed as The Farriss Brothers in 1977 in Sydney, New South Wales. The band's founding members were bassist Garry Gary Beers, main composer and keyboar ...
were shown on
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board ex ...
in UK and other songs by
Men at Work Men at Work are an Australian rock band formed in Melbourne in 1978 and best known for breakthrough hits such as "Down Under", "Who Can It Be Now?", "Be Good Johnny", " Overkill", and " It's a Mistake". Its founding member and frontman is Coli ...
and
Little River Band Little River Band (LRB) are a rock band originally formed in Melbourne, Australia, in March 1975. The band achieved commercial success in both Australia and the United States. They have sold more than 30 million records; six studio albums rea ...
in United States on
ABC ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster ** Disney–ABC Television ...
. An edited version of Oz for Africa was broadcast on
MTV MTV (Originally an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable channel that launched on August 1, 1981. Based in New York City, it serves as the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group, part of Paramount Media Networks, a di ...
from late at night on 12 July. Two INXS songs from the BBC broadcast are contained on Live Aid's four DVD boxed set released in 2004. About 11,000 spectators paid $18.50 each, in order to see Oz for Africa. The concert and telethon, and the associated Sport Aid Oz, raised ten million Australian dollars for the International Disaster Emergency Committee in Australia. John Lilley of ''
The Canberra Times ''The Canberra Times'' is a daily newspaper in Canberra, Australia, which is published by Australian Community Media. It was founded in 1926, and has changed ownership and format several times. History ''The Canberra Times'' was launched in ...
'' attended the Sydney show and observed, "17 top Australian bands had the crowd of 11,500 jumping and clapping its approval." He found " he venuedid not fill up until about two hours after the concert began, in time for the Machination's set. Its music and the following act by Dragon had most of the full house on their feet, singing and clapping. Even more joined in when Australian Crawl played 'Boy's Light Up'."


Performance sequence

Song sequence with total set time for each band in brackets. *
Ian Meldrum Ian Alexander "Molly" Meldrum AM (born 29 January 1943) is an Australian music critic, journalist, record producer and musical entrepreneur. He was the talent co-ordinator, on-air interviewer, and music news presenter on the former popular mus ...
: compere *
Mental As Anything Mental As Anything are an Australian New wave music, new wave and pop rock musical ensemble, band that formed in Sydney in 1976. Its most popular line-up (which lasted from 1977 to 1999, and recorded all of their charting singles and albums) w ...
: " Live It Up", "If You Leave Me, Can I Come Too? ", "You're So Strong" - (11:30) * Machinations: "Pressure Sway", "My Heart's on Fire", "
No Say in It "No Say in It" is a song recorded by the Australian synthpop band Machinations. It was released in August 1984 as the lead single from the band's second studio album, ''Big Music''. The song peaked at number 14 on the Australian Kent Music Report ...
" – (15:30) *
I'm Talking I'm Talking are an Australian funk-pop music, pop rock band, which featured vocalists Kate Ceberano and Zan Abeyratne. They formed in 1983 in Melbourne and provided top ten hit singles "Trust Me (I'm Talking song), Trust Me", "Do You Wanna Be?" ...
: " Lead the Way" – (5:15) *
Models A model is an informative representation of an object, person or system. The term originally denoted the plans of a building in late 16th-century English, and derived via French and Italian ultimately from Latin ''modulus'', a measure. Models c ...
: "Big on Love", "
I Hear Motion "I Hear Motion" was the first single from ''The Pleasure of Your Company'', the third studio album by Australian new wave rock band Models. It was a Top 20 success on the Australian Kent Music Report singles chart, peaking at No. 1 ...
", "Stormy Tonight", " Out of Mind, Out of Sight" – (17:30) * Do-Ré-Mi: "
Man Overboard "Man overboard!" is an exclamation given aboard a vessel to indicate that a member of the crew or a passenger has fallen off of the ship into the water and is in need of immediate rescue. Whoever sees the person's fall is to shout, "Man overboa ...
", " Warnings Moving Clockwise", "1000 Mouths" – (13:00) *
Electric Pandas Electric Pandas were an Australian pop rock band, fronted by vocalist, guitarist and songwriter Lin Buckfield, which formed in Sydney in 1983. Fellow founders were Warren Slater on bass guitar, Mark Stinson on drums and Tim Walter on guitar. T ...
: " Missing Me", "Let's Gamble" – (7:00) *
Dragon A dragon is a reptilian legendary creature that appears in the folklore of many cultures worldwide. Beliefs about dragons vary considerably through regions, but dragons in western cultures since the High Middle Ages have often been depicted as ...
: "
Speak No Evil ''Speak No Evil'' is the sixth album by Wayne Shorter. It was released in June 1966 by Blue Note Records. The music combines elements of hard bop and modal jazz, and features Shorter on tenor saxophone, trumpeter Freddie Hubbard, pianist Herbi ...
", "
Rain Rain is water droplets that have condensed from atmospheric water vapor and then fall under gravity. Rain is a major component of the water cycle and is responsible for depositing most of the fresh water on the Earth. It provides water f ...
", "
Are You Old Enough? "Are You Old Enough?" is a song by New Zealand rock band Dragon, released in August 1978 while the band were still based in Australia. It was released as the first single from the group's fifth studio album ''O Zambezi'' (1978). The song peaked at ...
" – (16:00) *
Men at Work Men at Work are an Australian rock band formed in Melbourne in 1978 and best known for breakthrough hits such as "Down Under", "Who Can It Be Now?", "Be Good Johnny", " Overkill", and " It's a Mistake". Its founding member and frontman is Coli ...
: "Maria", " Overkill", "The Longest Night" – (13:30) *
Australian Crawl Australian Crawl (often called Aussie Crawl or The Crawl by fans) were an Australian rock band founded by James Reyne (lead vocals/piano/harmonica), Brad Robinson (rhythm guitar), Paul Williams (bass), Simon Binks (lead guitar) and David R ...
: " Reckless (Don't Be So)", "Two Can Play", "
The Boys Light Up ''The Boys Light Up'' is the debut album from Australian pub rock band Australian Crawl, which was released in 1980 and contains the title track, " The Boys Light Up", "Indisposed", "Downhearted" and their previously released debut single " Beau ...
" – (16:30) * Party Girls: "Isolation" – (4:00) *
Uncanny X-Men ''Uncanny X-Men'', originally published as ''The X-Men'', is an American comic book series published by Marvel Comics since 1963, and is the longest-running series in the X-Men comics franchise. It features a team of superheroes called the X ...
: " Everybody Wants to Work", " 50 Years" – (8:00) *
Goanna A goanna is any one of several species of lizards of the genus '' Varanus'' found in Australia and Southeast Asia. Around 70 species of ''Varanus'' are known, 25 of which are found in Australia. This varied group of carnivorous reptiles ranges ...
: "Common Ground", "Song for Africa", " Solid Rock" – (17:00) *
Little River Band Little River Band (LRB) are a rock band originally formed in Melbourne, Australia, in March 1975. The band achieved commercial success in both Australia and the United States. They have sold more than 30 million records; six studio albums rea ...
: "Don't Blame Me", "Full Circle", " The Night Owls", "
Playing to Win ''Playing to Win'' is the eighth studio album by Australian group, Little River Band released on Capitol Records. This album is the second studio album with John Farnham as lead vocalist and the first to be recorded by the band in the United St ...
" – (13:30) *
Mondo Rock Mondo Rock are an Australian rock band, formed in November 1976 in Melbourne, Victoria. Singer-songwriter Ross Wilson founded the band, following the split of his previous band Daddy Cool. Guitarist Eric McCusker, who joined in 1980, wrote man ...
: "
Cool World ''Cool World'' is a 1992 American live-action/animated black comedy fantasy film directed by Ralph Bakshi and written by Michael Grais and Mark Victor. Starring Kim Basinger, Gabriel Byrne and Brad Pitt, it tells the story of a cartoonist w ...
", "The Moment", " Modern Bop", "
Come Said the Boy "Come Said the Boy" is a song by Australian rock band Mondo Rock, released in November 1983 as the lead single from the band's fourth studio album '' The Modern Bop'' (1984). The song became the band's highest-charting single, peaking at numbe ...
" – (14:20) * The Angels: "Small Price", "Eat City", "Underground", " Take a Long Line" – (22:30) *
Renée Geyer Renée Rebecca Geyer (born 11 September 1953) is an Australian singer who has long been regarded as one of the finest exponents of jazz, soul and R&B idioms. She had commercial success as a solo artist in Australia, with "It's a Man's Man's Worl ...
: "
Put a Little Love in Your Heart "Put a Little Love in Your Heart" is a song originally performed in 1969 by Jackie DeShannon, who composed it with her brother Randy Myers and Jimmy Holiday. In the U.S., it was DeShannon's highest-charting hit, reaching number 4 on the Hot 100 ...
", " All My Love", "Telling it like it Is" – (12:30) *
INXS INXS (a word play, phonetic play on "in excess") were an Australian Rock music, rock band, formed as The Farriss Brothers in 1977 in Sydney, New South Wales. The band's founding members were bassist Garry Gary Beers, main composer and keyboar ...
: "
Original Sin Original sin is the Christian doctrine that holds that humans, through the fact of birth, inherit a tainted nature in need of regeneration and a proclivity to sinful conduct. The biblical basis for the belief is generally found in Genesis 3 (t ...
", "
Listen Like Thieves ''Listen Like Thieves'' is the fifth studio album by Australian Rock music, rock band INXS. It was released on 14 October 1985. It spent two weeks at number one on the Australian Kent Music Report Albums Chart. Considered an internati ...
", " Kiss the Dirt", " What You Need",{{#tag:ref, Broadcast by
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board ex ...
and later on the official 4-dvd box set 20th anniversary ''
Live Aid Live Aid was a multi-venue benefit concert held on Saturday 13 July 1985, as well as a music-based fundraising initiative. The original event was organised by Bob Geldof and Midge Ure to raise further funds for relief of the 1983–1985 fami ...
'' (2004), group="nb", name="British" "
Don't Change "Don't Change" is a song by Australian rock band INXS. It was released as a single from the album ''Shabooh Shoobah'' in October 1982. It has been described as the band's first international single. Reception ''Cash Box'' reviewed the "Don't Ch ...
" – (22:00)


Australia and Live 8

It was announced by Geldof, in 2005, that he was preparing
Live 8 Live 8 was a string of benefit concerts that took place on 2 July 2005, in the G8 states and in South Africa. They were timed to precede the G8 conference and summit held at the Gleneagles Hotel in Auchterarder, Scotland, from 6–8 July 200 ...
, a new project similar to Live Aid but for world poverty. Meldrum was approached for his opinion on a Live 8 concert in Australia: "''I'm hoping, he'll eldofdo it, we will have the acts.''" After his efforts remained fruitless to develop an Australian version of Live 8, Meldrum with ex-
Savage Garden Savage Garden was an Australian pop duo consisting of Darren Hayes on vocals and Daniel Jones on instruments. Formed in Brisbane, Queensland, in 1993, the duo achieved international success from the mid-1990s to early 2000s with the No.  ...
front man
Darren Hayes Darren Stanley Hayes (born 8 May 1972) is an Australian singer and songwriter. He was the frontman and singer of the pop duo Savage Garden until their disbandment. Their 1997 album ''Savage Garden (Savage Garden album), Savage Garden'' peaked a ...
were the comperes, on Australian television, of a ''Preview of Live 8''.


Notes


References


External links


Unofficial website: Oz for Africa


Australian music 1985 in music 1985 in Australia History of Sydney