For anyone who remembers July 13, 1985, Live Aid wasn’t simply a concert.
It was an event.
For one extraordinary day, televisions around the world carried performances from London and Philadelphia featuring Queen, U2, David Bowie, Madonna, The Who, Duran Duran, Elton John and a ridiculously long list of other artists who helped define the decade.
And now, 40-plus years later, Shane Robitaille has turned that day into the destination for an ’80s road-trip novel.
Shane joins us on this episode of Stuck in the ’80s, along with researcher Livi Stanford, to talk about his novel Live Aid Runaways and the enormous amount of work that went into recreating the summer of 1985.
A Road Trip to Live Aid
Live Aid Runaways follows teenagers Nick Stark and Stacy Rivera as they set out on an epic journey toward Philadelphia and JFK Stadium, where the American half of Live Aid was taking place.
It’s part coming-of-age story, part road trip and part love letter to one of the biggest pop-culture moments of the decade.
Which, frankly, is already three things designed specifically to get our attention.
But Shane didn’t want Live Aid to simply serve as a colorful backdrop. He wanted the details to feel right.
That’s where Livi Stanford came in.
Recreating July 13, 1985
During our conversation, Shane and Livi explain how they researched the concert, tracked down people who experienced Live Aid firsthand and worked to capture details that might never show up in a simple list of performers.
What did the stadium feel like?
What were people talking about?
What was happening away from the stage?
And how do you take a massive historical event that millions of people remember and weave fictional characters through it without losing the reality of the moment?
Those questions became an important part of creating Live Aid Runaways.
We also talk about the music that shaped the story, the challenge of researching an event that has already become mythology and why Live Aid continues to occupy such a gigantic piece of Gen X memory.
Why Live Aid Still Matters
There are certain dates from the ’80s that instantly transport you back.
July 13, 1985, is one of them.
Maybe you watched Live Aid from beginning to end. Maybe you were waiting for one specific band. Maybe you were furiously changing channels, trying to figure out what MTV or the networks were going to show next.
Or maybe your strongest memory is simply realizing that seemingly everybody in music had decided to show up on the same day.
That feeling is a huge part of what Live Aid Runaways is trying to recapture.
And for those of us who would happily climb aboard the Podcast Time Machine for one more afternoon in 1985, that’s a pretty tempting premise.
Listen to our conversation with Shane Robitaille and Livi Stanford as we revisit Live Aid, the making of Live Aid Runaways and one of the most unforgettable days of the decade.