Paul McCartney’s 1985 Live Aid performance, his first live show in five years, was nearly derailed by a tech glitch

Paul McCartney performing at Live Aid in London in 1985. (Duncan Raban/Popperfoto/Getty Images via CNN Newsource)

Paul McCartney hadn’t taken the stage in over five years when he sat down at his piano to sing “Let It Be” for Live Aid on July 13, 1985, in a performance that was almost totally derailed by a single tech glitch.

There the music legend was – performing live for the first time since his post-Beatles band Wings had broken up, and his lifelong friend and Beatles bandmate John Lennon had been assassinated – to sing “Let It Be,” one of the last songs the Fab Four ever released… and minutes into the performance, McCartney’s microphone died.

“One guy. A mic and a piano (and) a mic for the voice. Really simple. What happened?” Live Aid organizer and musician Bob Geldof recalled thinking at the time in CNN’s “Live Aid: When Rock ‘n’ Roll Took On the World.” Geldof added that he thought, “Oh no, it’s going to be a disaster.”

All of the estimated 1.8 billion viewers tuning into the mega benefit concert couldn’t even hear McCartney, let alone the massive crowd that stood before him at London’s Wembley Stadium.

Then something magical happened: the crowd started to sing along and help pick up the song for McCartney. But it wasn’t just the crowd who saw that McCartney needed help, either.

“There were a bunch of people standing around and either Pete (Townshend, of The Who) or David (Bowie) said to me, ‘Come on, let’s help him.’ Literally if you can think of a moment where ‘I am not worthy’ is beyond true, it’s that moment,” Geldof recalled.

Townshend, Bowie, Geldof and singer Alison Moyet huddled behind McCartney on stage to help him sing the song’s final verses when the microphones started to work again, allowing the impromptu quintet – along with the singing Wembley crowd – to complete the song.

Afterward, Townshend and McCartney hoisted Geldof on their shoulders before the Wembley Stadium headliners, including George Michael, Bono, members of The Who, Bowie, McCartney, Queen and many more, all joined together on stage to sing Band Aid’s “Do They Know It’s Christmas” to close out the show.

Return to the stage

The Live Aid benefit was organized by musicians Geldof and Midge Ure to draw attention to a famine in Ethiopia. It spanned multiple locations, drew nearly two billion viewers around the world and raised more than US$125 million for relief efforts.

While Geldof had already secured a lineup of the most famous and revered rock ‘n roll musicians for Live Aid, he said in an interview with Ultimate Classic Rock earlier this month that he felt he needed a Beatle to participate and wrote McCartney a letter at the time outlining his case, asking him to play one song at the end of the show.

“I knew he must get a hundred requests to do things, but I really felt like the program would not be complete without him there. I was not writing to Paul McCartney, the man, I said, but to PAUL MCCARTNEY, the phenomenon,” Geldof explained. “If he played, millions would watch who would not otherwise watch. That would mean money would come in that would not otherwise come in.”

McCartney and his band Wings hadn’t performed since 1979’s Concerts for the People of Kampuchea, and shortly thereafter disbanded in 1981. McCartney hadn’t taken the stage after that but did continue to release new music over the next few years.

So when Geldof approached him about Live Aid, McCartney recalled telling him, “I can’t Bob, I haven’t got a band together now.”

Geldof, according to McCartney, didn’t find that to be a problem at all, telling him, “Well, you just sit at the piano and play your own number.”

Ultimately, McCartney agreed.

“I just had to come. Simple as that,” McCartney said, adding that Geldof was also the person who chose the song that McCartney would sing. “He’s running the whole bloody show!”

Geldof told Ultimate Classic Rock that “there is a hierarchy in rock ‘n’ roll,” with the Beatles being at the top. “So he goes on, one song, to give U.S. the benediction, to give U.S. the Beatles imprimatur, and of course it’s ‘Let It Be,’ which I had asked him to do.”

Live Aid wound up not just being McCartney’s return for a one-off performance. He’s been touring regularly ever since – even up until today, as McCartney, now 83, is set to continue his Get Back tour in the U.S. this fall.

Turns out, the legendary musician isn’t quite ready to just let it be.

By Alli Rosenbloom, CNN