That is the insight from man behind the biggest charity gig of all time Sir Bob Geldof, just months before its 40th anniversary in July.
Sir Bob was keen to shut down suggestions that Queen’s set prompted millions of viewers to call in to donate large sums, as put across in the film biopic We Will Rock You.
The Boomtown Rats frontman feels that film portrayal was false, insisting Bowie played a captivating set and included a harrowing video of famine victims, which “melted down” phone lines.
The Heroes singer, who died in 2016 aged 69, had vowed to not perform if he was not allowed to air footage of Africans dying from starvation to explain the reason behind the iconic July 1985 gigs in London and Philadelphia.
Sir Bob, 73, admitted: “The Queen movie has it that Queen do their piece and the world goes crazy and the phone lines collapse.
“That’s not true. The whole world loved their set. They won the day.
“But what really happened was that David came on, he was really nervous, trembling at the side of the stage. That was weird. And he goes on and he kills it and he does Heroes.
“And then the pace is going nuts. And he sort of interrupts them impatiently. And he says, thank you very much. I want you to look at this. And he just points to the screen. And it’s the most staggering thing.”
He added: “Here’s the youth of the world, at the height of their beauty, at the peak of their health, beautiful girls on beautiful boys’ shoulders, their tops off and this blistering blue sky day. And they’re smiling and just so in love with that moment and Bowie, and they look up at the screens with full expectation.
“And it’s fascinating, you watch their faces crumple and the girls have got their tops off. And even though they’ve got bras on, you can see them cover themselves up as if they’ve been suddenly exposed to something that they can’t quite understand.
“They’re just staring transfixed by what they’re watching. And the girls are trying to get down. And that’s the moment where the phone lines melt. Literally in some places, phone lines collapsed.
Actor Rami Malek won an Oscar for his portrayal of Mercury in We Will Rock You.
