Jack Sonni

Live Aid was held on 13 July 1985, simultaneously in Wembley Stadium in London, England, and the John F. Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, United States. It was one of the largest scale satellite link-ups and television broadcasts of all time: watched live by an estimated global audience of 1.9 billion, across 150 nations. "It's twelve noon in London, seven AM in Philadelphia, and around the world it's time for Live Aid...!"

On July 10th, 1985, under the inspiring eye and ear of master guitarist and frontman Mark Knopfler, Dire Straits gave a concert at the famous Wembley Stadium in London. This performance was a show full of hits including ‘So Far Away’, ‘Sultans of Swing’, ‘Why Worry’, ‘Money For Nothing’, ‘Private Investigations’ and of course the beautiful ‘Brothers In Arms’. The gig included two guest players; Nils Lofgren and Hank B. Marvin.

The Nelson Mandela 70th Birthday Tribute was a popular-music concert staged on June 11, 1988 at Wembley Stadium, London and broadcast to 67 countries and an audience of 600 million. It was also referred to as Freedomfest, Free Nelson Mandela Concert and Mandela Day. In the US, the Fox television network heavily censored the political aspects of the concert.

The band with Sting perform at Wembley

In 1985, Dire Straits embarked on a world tour of unprecedented proportions. Promoting their hit album Brothers in Arms, the tour included a thirteen-night residence at Wembley Arena (featuring Eric Clapton helping out) and a brief jaunt at Live Aid (featuring Sting), before winding up in Australia in the Spring of 86. They ended with a 21-night stand at Sydney's Entertainment Center, packing the place every night, and wrapping it all up with one final show on April 26th. Featuring the one-off calypso version of "So Far Away" and an impromtu version of the Australian folk anthem "Waltzing Matilda" (with the whole stadium providing the vocals), it is truly a show for the ages. This show represents a band at their very finest, a band that has perfected the art of transitioning from structured verse/chorus parts to solos and back, bringing the audience along on an emotional and gorgeous journey for each and every song.

Dire Straits’ 1985 album Brothers In Arms celebrates its 40th anniversary with an SDE Exclusive Blu-ray audio. Featuring singles ‘Money For Nothing’ and ‘Walk Of Life’, Brothers In Arms spent 14 non-consecutive weeks at Number 1 in the UK Albums Chart and is the 8th best-selling album in UK chart history. This SDE Exclusive Blu-ray audio features Guy Fletcher’s 2022 Dolby Atmos mix on a physical product for the first time, and exclusively a never before heard instrumental mix of the album available in immersive Dolby Atmos (created by Guy Fletcher). The disc also includes the 2005 5.1 mix of Brothers In Arms and two stereo mixes: the original CD stereo mix and the vinyl stereo mix with edited versions of some songs.