Warner scores Live Aid DVD
Warner Vision Intl. has won the rights to release the long-awaited DVD of Live Aid, the biggest concert in rock ‘n’ roll history.
Having long insisted that they would not allow TV re-runs or a video release of the concert footage, Live Aid organizers led by Bob Geldof (news) changed their minds earlier this year after pirate copies turned up on the Internet.
Warner will put out the historic four-disk Live Aid set on Nov. 1 worldwide.
The concert, which took place July 13 1985 in London and Philadelphia, raised over $140 million to fight the African famine. Over 1.5 billion TV viewers watched the event.
It featured all the biggest rock and pop acts of the time, including U2, Sting, David Bowie, Elton John, George Michael, The Who, Madonna, Queen, Paul McCartney, Mick Jagger, Phil Collins and many, many more.
Permission for the DVD had to be sought individually from each artist, since the eventuality of such a release was never antici-pated at the time.
Ray Still of WVI commented, “There is only one music event that begs the question, ‘Where were you on that day?’ and that is Live Aid. It’s an understatement to say that it’s a great pleasure and an honor for Warner Vision to be involved in bringing all the extraordinary moments and performances that encapsulated Live Aid to DVD for the first time.”
Source: Yahoo! News