July 11, 2025
PA Images/Sipa USA via USA TODAY NETWORK
Queen was one of over 70 performers at the Live Aid concert on July 13, 1985. WXPN will air highlights from their set and others from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Sunday.
WXPN will help its listeners relive Live Aid by airing 10 hours of sets from the concert Sunday for the show's 40th anniversary.
The radio station will play highlights from the benefit concert in chronological order, mirroring the schedule of performers on stages at Wembley Stadium in London and JFK Stadium in South Philadelphia on July 13, 1985. Over 70 musicians performed that day, raising over $150 million for famine relief in Ethiopia.
The playback will include live recordings of Queen, David Bowie, U2, Madonna, Elton John, Bob Dylan, Led Zeppelin, The Beach Boys and Run DMC. Listeners can also expect tracks from Philadelphia natives Patti LaBelle, Hall & Oates, Teddy Pendergrass and the Hooters. The block will close out with the concert's group finale performance of "We Are the World," recorded earlier in 1985 to fight the famine.
In between sets, WXPN will air stories from people who attended the concert. Hosts Robert Drake and Bruce Warren, who were at the show, will chat with Hooters keyboard player Rob Hyman, cabaret performer Martha Graham Cracker and WMMR host Pierre Robert.
The Live Aid concert was a big day for music, and not just because of the stacked lineup or massive funds it generated. The event reunited the surviving members of Led Zeppelin – Robert Plant, Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones – for the first time since their 1980 break-up, spurred by the death of drummer John Bonham. It was also Pendergrass's first time back on stage after his 1982 car accident, which left him paralyzed from the chest down. Phil Collins managed to perform at both Wembley and JFK stadiums by taking a supersonic jet across the pond.
One musician notably absent from the day was New Jersey rocker Bruce Springsteen. Though Live Aid organizer Bob Geldof prodded the Boss for months, even moving the original date to better accommodate him, Springsteen declined in favor of spending time with his family. According to the book "The Eighties: One Day, One Decade," which chronicles the concert, he later expressed regret, admitting he "did not realize how big the whole thing was going to be."
WXPN's Live Aid 40th Anniversary show will be broadcast from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Sunday. Listen on your radio at 88.5 FM. it also can be streamed at XPN.org or using the station's app.
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