Rock ‘n’ Roll Extravaganza

July 13, 1985

The greatest rock ‘n’ roll extravaganza in the history of the world took place on this date in 1985. That’s 31 years ago today and, of course, I’m talking about Live Aid.

Although Bob Geldof organized the event that took place simultaneously on two continents – in front of more than 72,000 at Wembley Stadium in London and more than 100,000 at JFK Stadium in Philly – the event was the brainchild of Boy George.

Curiously, whenever I think of Boy George my mind flashes to Adam Sandler’s Wedding Singer – but I’m digressing.

Private Harem

I was running my own private harem in those days at the Holiday Spa in Cherry Hill, New Jersey. One of my favorite members was Paul Difiore – who was a handsome, rich, bachelor. How rich was he?

He owned his own airplane and used to fly himself back and forth to his condo at the Jersey shore every weekend. And Paul and I had been buddies since I ran a similar operation in Center City Philly.

$300 Sunglasses

Once, when I was taking a trip to L.A., Paul brought in a pair of $300 sunglasses and said I needed them for the trip. Now, remember, this was 1985 and $300 for a pair of sunglasses was an obscene amount of money. By today’s standards, probably near a grand. So I said “Get the fuck outta here.”

But he said, “Barry, somebody as cool you can’t go to L.A. without wearing the coolest shades around. The chicks in L.A. will really dig you.”

Paul was like the fox getting the crow to drop the grapes – and I was the crow.

So, believe it or not, I bought those $300 sunglasses – and wore them non-stop from Philly to L.A. and back to Philly. Hang on while I see if I can dig up some pictures . . . . .

Ah, here we go. Two shots of those $300 coolest shades. Both in the back of limos.

Anyway, getting back to Live Aid . . .

Tickets

Paul called me and said he had two tickets to Live Aid, but he was flying down the shore and couldn’t use them. Did I want them?

Sure. I wanted them. But I didn’t want them for myself. I wanted them for my two favorite children:

My favorite daughter Stevie – who was 20.
And my favorite son Ed – who was 18.

I asked the kids if they wanted to go, and they said yes. So I drove to Paul’s office in Mt. Laurel. Did I mention that Paul’s an optometrist? No? Well, he is.

So I picked up the tickets and gave them to the kids and they braved temperatures that soared to nearly 100 degrees that day – and stood in bright sunlight – hour after hour – all afternoon. I don’t know if they even had any water. And it was so jam-packed, they could hardly move.

But the kids survived and they saw a collection of some of the greatest musicians ever assembled – and that rock ‘n’ roll extravaganza took place 31 years ago today.

In addition to being the official Eagles Outsider for BlameMyFather.com, Barry Bowe is also the author of: