Watch Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers Perform In Front Of 90,000 People At ‘Live Aid’

Posters advertising Live Aid, the all-star charity concert held on July 13, 1985, at JFK Stadium in Philadelphia and across the Atlantic Ocean at Wembley Stadium in London, labeled the international event “The Global Jukebox.” Held in response to a multiyear famine in Ethiopia, the concerts are believed to have raised in excess of $150 million to date.

In 1985, or anytime since 1976, an event billed as “The Global Jukebox” would certainly include American rock icon Tom Petty. Live Aid featured a performance by Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers in front of 90,000 people in Philly and billions more watching on television around the world.

After releasing their self-titled debut album in 1976, Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers went on to become one of the most popular and successful rock ‘n’ roll bands of all time. By the time Live Aid was held in the summer of 1985, the group had issued several top-selling albums bolstered by hits such as “Breakdown,” “Don’t Do Me Like That,” “The Waiting” and “You Got Lucky,” among others.

Over 75 acts performed at Live Aid. A now-defunct website for Live Aid organizer Bob Geldof summarized the event:

Live Aid was a multi-venue rock music concert held on July 13, 1985. The event was organised by Bob Geldof, Midge Ure, Harvey Goldsmith and the Band Aid Trust, in order to raise funds for famine relief in Ethiopia. Billed as a “global jukebox,” the main sites for the event were Wembley Stadium, London, attended by 72,000 people, and JFK Stadium, Philadelphia, attended by about 90,000 people, with some acts performing at other venues such as Sydney and Moscow. It was one of the largest-scale satellite link-ups and TV broadcasts of all time — an estimated 1.5 billion viewers in 100 countries watched the live broadcast.

Wembley’s lineup featured rock ‘n’ roll legends Paul McCartney, David Bowie, Elton John, The Who, Queen, Dire Straits, Elvis Costello, U2 and others. Joining Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers on the Philly lineup was Petty’s Traveling Wilburys bandmate Bob Dylan, as well as Led Zeppelin, Eric Clapton, The Beach Boys, Neil Young, Joan Baez, Black Sabbath, Santana, Judas Priest, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Tina Turner, Madonna and many more.

Onstage with Petty that day was The Heartbreakers lineup of keyboardist Benmont Tench, drummer Stan Lynch, guitarist Mike Campbell and bassist Howie Epstein. The Soul Lips Horns and The Rebeletts backing vocalists augmented the band at Live Aid.

At the time Live Aid was held, Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers were touring in support of their 1985 album Southern Accents. The record introduced now-classic songs such as the title track, “Rebels” and Petty’s co-write with Eurythmics’ Dave Stewart, “Don’t Come Around Here No More.”

Petty, who would have celebrated a birthday today, sadly died in 2017, just weeks shy of his 67th birthday, added only one Southern Accents song to the Live Aid setlist. The penultimate song of the four-song set was the aforementioned album opener “Rebels.”

Prior to that, Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers kicked off their set with the standout from their debut album, “American Girl.” Next came “The Waiting” off the 1981 album Hard Promises. The set ended with “Refugee” from the band’s landmark 1979 album, Damn The Torpedoes.

Those four Tom Petty songs are among the dozens that have been played on jukeboxes around the globe. An artist and storyteller, musician and showman, and unparalleled rocker – watch Tom Petty performing with The Heartbreakers at Live Aid in 1985 via the videos below:

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Setlist

Source: JamBase.com