October 31, 1975: Queen Release "Bohemian Rhapsody"

October 31, 1975: The British rock band Queen release their single "Bohemian Rhapsody," from their album A Night at the Opera. It was entirely written by lead singer Freddie Mercury, produced by Roy Thomas Baker, and recorded at Rockfield Studios 1 at Rockfield, Monmouth, Wales, about 37 miles northeast of the Welsh capital of Cardiff, and 154 miles west of London.

Traditionally, Bohemia is the westernmost part of Czechia, a.k.a. the Czech Republic, and, before that, the westernmost part of Czechoslovakia. Before that, it belonged to the Austrian Empire; before that, the Holy Roman Empire; before that, it was an independent Kingdom of Bohemia.

But the title of the song does not refer to the place. Rather, it refers to Bohemianism, defined as "the practice of an unconventional lifestyle," often involving musical, artistic, literary or spiritual pursuits.

And yet, the song contains no lyrics reflecting this. It is actually several songs in one:

* It opens with a 49-second vocal part with minimal instrumentation.

* Its 2nd movement, 2 minutes and 16 seconds, has 2 verses, narrated by a man who has committed a murder, and is now on the run, writing a message to his mother.

* Its 3rd movement, 1 minute and 2 seconds, has little relationship to the other 2, and contains features of opera, reflecting the title of the album more than that of the song.

* Its 4th movement, 47 seconds, is pure hard rock, and its lyrics seem to have only the slightest relationship to what has come before.

* Its 5th and final movement, a little over 1 minute (how many additional seconds depends on how long you consider the fadeout to be) is a callback to its 1st, about how nothing seems to matter.

A promotional film was made on November 10 -- the day the SS Edmund Fitzgerald sank -- and helped to usher in the era of music videos. Its diamond formation of the band's faces, a copy of the photo that Mick Rock took for the cover of their 1974 album Queen II, become iconic: Mercury at the bottom, guitarist Brian May at the top, drummer Roger Taylor on the left, and bass guitarist John Deacon on the right.

For younger fans (including myself) who only became fans of Queen with their 1980 album The Game, or even later after their appearance at Live Aid in 1985, it was hard to imagine Mercury clean-shaven with long hair, rather than the more familiar later image of short hair and the thick bushy mustache -- apparently, known in gay circles as a "cockduster."

Supposedly, the image of the band was inspired by a photo of German actress Marlene Dietrich from the 1932 film Shanghai Express, but it is also reminiscent of the shadowy-faced cover of the 1963 album With The Beatles (known as Meet The Beatles on its early 1964 release in America).

The song hit Number 1 on the British music charts, and stayed there for 9 weeks. In America, its 6-minute length was considered an issue for radio stations -- more, apparently, than was asking its audience to show sympathy for the song's narrator, an admitted murderer -- and it only reached Number 9.

After Mercury died in 1991, from the effects of AIDS at the age of 45, combined with the song's inclusion in the film Wayne's World, released 3 months later (but filmed before it was publicly known that Mercury was dying), the song went back to Number 1 on the British charts, but still only got to Number 2 in America. The song's title became the title of a 2018 film biography of Mercury, starring Rami Malek.

As of October 31, 2022, the rest of the band is still alive: May is 74, Taylor is 72, and Deacon is 70. Baker is 75.

UPDATE: It took me until 2024 to think of this, but the 1970s were Schrödinger's Decade. There was too much overwrought music, and, at the same time, not enough of it.

In a 2012 episode of the YouTube series Epic Rap Battles of History, "Nice" Peter Shukoff played Freddie Mercury, against "Epic" Lloyd Ahlquist as Frank Sinatra.

*

October 31, 1975 was a Friday. It was also Halloween. The baseball season had just ended, with the Cincinnati Reds winning a fondly-remembered World Series over the Boston Red Sox. College football games were played the next day, and NFL games the day after that. There were 5 games played in the NBA:

* The Boston Celtics beat the Portland Trail Blazers, 112-94 at the Boston Garden.

* The Buffalo Braves beat the Philadelphia 76ers, 92-87 at The Spectrum in Philadelphia.

* The Detroit Pistons beat the Houston Rockets, 131-127 at Cobo Hall in Detroit. Calvin Murphy scored 40 points for the Rockets, and Rudy Tomjanovich, who would later coach them to 2 NBA titles, added 21 points and 16 rebounds. But the Pistons got 24 each from Bob Lanier and Curtis Rowe, and 20 from George Trapp.

* The New Orleans Jazz beat the Milwaukee Bucks, 100-85 at the Superdome.

* And the Los Angeles Lakers beat the Seattle SuperSonics, 120-104 at The Forum outside Los Angeles in Inglewood, California.

There were 3 games played in the American Basketball Association, just entering its 9th and, as it turned out, final season: 

* The New York Nets lost to the Spirits of St. Louis, 120-116 in overtime at the Nassau Coliseum. They lost despite 42 points and 14 rebounds from Julius "Dr. J" Erving.

* The Indiana Pacers beat the Denver Nuggets, 111-99 at the Market Square Arena in Indianapolis.

* And the Utah Stars beat the Virginia Squires, 123-116 at the Salt Palace in Salt Lake City.

Only 1 game was played in the NHL: The Atlanta Flames beat the California Golden Seals, 2-0 at the Oakland Coliseum Arena.

Two games were played in the World Hockey Association. The Cleveland Crusaders beat the Quebec Nordiques, 6-2 at The Coliseum in the Cleveland suburb of Richfield, Ohio. And the New England Whalers and the Edmonton Oilers played to a tie, 2-2 at the Northlands Coliseum in Edmonton.

October 28, 1977: Queen Don't Need God (Or the Sex Pistols) to Save Them

Left to right: Brian May, Freddie Mercury,

John Deacon and Roger Taylor.

For the record, Freddie didn't grow the mustache until 1980.

And, at first, Queen's fans didn't like it.

Now, it's hard to imagine him without it.

October 28, 1977: The Sex Pistols release what turns out to be their one and only album, Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols. In spite of efforts by American acts such as The Ramones, it is considered the height -- or, perhaps, the depth -- of punk rock.

The original Pistols were lead singer John Lydon, a.k.a. Johnny Rotten, and bass guitarist Glen Matlock, both 21-year-old natives of North London; and a pair of West Londoners who had been in a previous band together, lead guitarist Steve Jones, 22, and drummer Paul Cook, 21.

The band was put together by Malcom McLaren, who the Pistols realized too late was robbing them blind. They were signed by EMI Records in 1976, and released their 1st single on November 26, "Anarchy in the U.K." Rotten set the tone from the first line: "I am an Antichrist! I am an anarchist!"

On December 1, they appeared on Thames Television's Today, hosted by Bill Grundy. They were replacements for Queen, who dropped out because Freddie Mercury had a dental emergency. The band members were drunk. So was Grundy.

Also a guest was another punk act, singer Siouxsie Sioux, who flirted with Grundy, who flirted back. Grundy was 53 years old, Sioux was 19. Jones called him "You dirty sod. You dirty old man." After every insult, Grundy egged Jones on, leading to "You dirty bastard," "You dirty fucker," and "What a fucking rotter." Grundy got no dirtier than, "What a clever boy!"

The controversy ruined Grundy's career, but it fit the profile that the Pistols were going for. EMI dropped them, but A&M Records signed them. They needed an album, and they had several songs written as they began recording in February 1977. But Matlock, who had written a lot of the lyrics, quit, saying he was "sick of the bullshit."

He was replaced on bass guitar by John Simon Ritchie, a 19-year-old South Londoner who called himself Sid Vicious, and could barely play the instrument at all, but embodied the punk persona (as the British saw it, not as Americans saw it) more than even Rotten did. If Rotten was an anarchist, Vicious was an out-and-out nihilist.

Left to right: Sid Vicious, Steve Jones,

Paul Cook and Johnny Rotten.

For years, until journalists cleared the facts up, there was a dispute among rock fans as to whether Matlock quit on his own or was fired because he didn't fit the punk image. Regardless of which was true, the fact that Vicious was hired because he fit the punk image despite not being any good at playing his instrument showed that McLaren was going for style over substance, which is the very antithesis of rock and roll, and especially of punk.

Only 2 songs on the album had Vicious on them: "Bodies" and "God Save the Queen," the latter written in connection with the Silver Jubilee (25th Anniversary) of the reign of Queen Elizabeth II. Rotten called the government "the fascist regime," even though the left-of-center Labour Party were in power; and said of Her Majesty, "She ain't no human bein'." Were they sincere about their anger at her? Rotten yelled/sang, "We mean it, man!" (After the Queen died, 45 years later, Rotten admitted that he'd always supported her, if not the government the ran Britain in her name.)

The album's title offended many people: "Bollocks" is slang for "testicles," but it can also mean "lies" or "bullshit." (But, like Americans can do with the profanity "shit," adding the definite article "the" makes it a good thing: "It's the bollocks" or even "It's the dog's bollocks.") Some British record stores put masking tape over the word on the cover. American stores, their owners not knowing the term, left it alone.

Despite the album's strong sales, the Pistols were doomed from the start. Their subsequent American tour did not do well. On January 14, 1978, they played the last show on that tour, at the Winterland Ballroom in San Francisco. As with The Band in 1976, that venue would be the site of the last concert that Rotten, Vicious, Jones and Cook played together.

Vicious stayed in America, at the Chelsea Hotel in New York. In late 1978, his girlfriend, Nancy Spungen, was murdered there. He was arrested as the only suspect. Early in 1979, he was sent to the City prison on Rikers Island to detox from drugs. He was released on February 1 -- and died of a heroin overdose the next day. He was 21.

Matlock built a separate musical career, and swallowed his differences with Rotten, Jones and Cook, joining them on tour in 1996, 2003 and 2007-08. As of October 28, 2022, the 4 original members are all still alive.

*

Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols may have been the most influential album released that day, but it wasn't the best, or even the best album released that day by a British group: On the same day, Queen released News of the World.

It contains perhaps the last true double-sided hit record, which reached Number 4 on the U.S. pop charts: "We Will Rock You" and "We Are the Champions." Lead guitarist Brian May wrote the former, wanting it to sound like a stadium chant -- which, of course, it became. Lead singer Freddie Mercury wrote the latter, and when he sang about paying his dues, and about thanking the audience for "fame, and fortune, and everything that goes with it," he was completely sincere both times.

Neither song was written about the newly-crowned World Champion New York Yankees, although the confluence of events meant that any confusion was understandable.

UPDATE: It took me until 2024 to think of this, but the 1970s were Schrödinger's Decade. There was too much overwrought music, and, at the same time, not enough of it.

*

October 28, 1977 was a Friday. Baseball season ended 9 days earlier, with the New York Yankees beating the Los Angeles Dodgers in the World Series. Football was in midweek.

There were 6 NBA games that night:

* The New Jersey Nets beat the Boston Celtics, 116-109 at the brand-new Rutgers Athletic Center (now the Jersey Mike's Arena) in Piscataway, New Jersey. Bernard King scored 30 points.

* The Atlanta Hawks beat the Los Angeles Lakers, 102-95 at The Omni in Atlanta.

* The New Orleans Jazz beat the Phoenix Suns, 114-107 at the Superdome in New Orleans. Truck Robinson scored 37 points and grabbed 25 rebounds.

* The Indiana Pacers beat the Washington Bullets, 136-127 at the Market Square Arena in Indianapolis. Larry Wright of the Bullets led all scorers on the night with 43 points, to no avail.

* The Golden State Warriors beat the Buffalo Braves, 104-97 at the Oakland Coliseum Arena. Rick Barry scored 37 points.

* And the Portland Trail Blazers beat the Philadelphia 76ers, 98-94 at the Portland Memorial Coliseum. This was a rematch of the previous season's NBA Finals, also won by the Blazers.

There were 2 games in the National Hockey League. The Chicago Black Hawks beat the Cleveland Barons, 4-2 at The Coliseum in the Cleveland suburb of Richfield, Ohio. And the Colorado Rockies beat the Washington Capitals, 8-1 at the McNichols Arena in Denver. The 1977-78 season would be the only time the Rockies made the Playoffs until 1987-88, by which point they were the New Jersey Devils; and the last season for the Barons, who were merged with another bankrupt team, the Minnesota North Stars, who kept that name.

And there were 2 games in the World Hockey Association. The Edmonton Oilers beat the Birmingham Bulls, 3-2 at the Birmingham-Jefferson Civic Center in Birmingham, Alabama. And the Winnipeg Jets beat the Cincinnati Stingers, 3-2 at the Winnipeg Arena.

July 13, 1985: Live Aid

July 13, 1985: The Live Aid concerts are held: One at the old Wembley Stadium in West London, the other at John F. Kennedy Stadium in South Philadelphia. 

The show was organized by Bob Geldof, leader of The Boomtown Rats; and James "Midge" Ure, lead singer of Ultravox. Geldof, Irish, and Ure, Scottish, had written "Do They Know It's Christmas?" for African famine relief, in time for the 1984 Christmas season, and got pretty much everybody who was currently anybody in music in the British Isles to sing on it.

With its success, an American version was inevitable. Producer Quincy Jones called Michael Jackson, at the time the biggest show business figure in the world. Jackson and Lionel Richie wrote "We Are the World," and Jones gathered several American musical luminaries to record it in Los Angeles. It was also a runaway success.

With both songs having raised a lot of money, a benefit concert was inevitable. It ended up being 2 shows, one in each country. It was a combination of current stars and established legends -- an "All-Star Game" and an "Old-Timers Day" in one. Or, in more recent parlance, an Avengers of rock and roll.

And it wasn't that easy. Geldof called Elton John, and said you gotta do it, because David Bowie and Queen had already agreed -- when they hadn't. While Elton was thinking it over, Geldof called Bowie, and told him that Elton and Queen had already agreed. Eventually, Geldof got everybody he wanted.

*

At 12:00 Noon London time, 7:00 AM U.S. East Coast time, the British leg began at the original Wembley, England's national stadium since its opening in 1923. Holding 100,000 in its normal configuration, the huge stage limited it to 72,000 seats, all sold. Tickets were £5, plus a £20 donation to charity. With Britain's rate of inflation, that's about £82 today. With today's exchange rate, that's about $113.

The Coldstream Guards gave a royal salute, and played the National Anthem, "God Save the Queen." Queen Elizabeth II was not in attendance -- she was already 58 years old, and tolerated rock and roll more than actually enjoying it -- but her son and heir, Prince Charles, and his wife, Princess Diana, were there.

The Anthem done, the 1st band to play was Status Quo. They were followed by The Style Council, Geldof's Boomtown Rants, Adam Ant, Ure's Ultravox, Spandau Ballet, Elvis Costello (singing only one song, The Beatles' "All You Need Is Love"), Nik Kershaw, Sade (who may have the sexiest voice in all of humanity), Sting from The Police and Phil Collins from Genesis together, Howard Jones, Bryan Ferry, Paul Young, U2, Dire Straits, Queen, David Bowie, The Who reunited for the 1st time since their 1982 "farewell tour," and Elton John.

Queen came on at 6:41 PM, and have been widely regarded as the highlight of the Wembley part of the show. They played "Bohemian Rhapsody," "Radio Ga Ga" (the song that inspired Stefani Germanotta, born the next year, to rename herself Lady Gaga), "Hammer to Fall," "Crazy Little Thing Called Love," "We Will Rock You," and "We Are the Champions."

Freddie Mercury and Brian May of Queen

At 9:48, Queen's lead singer Freddie Mercury and lead guitarist Brian May came back out, and played, "Is This the World We Created?" At 9:51, former Beatle Paul McCartney came out, and, with Bowie, Geldof, Alison Moyet and Who guitarist Pete Townshend backing him, sang "Let It Be." At 9:57, the show closed with everybody coming back out, and, over 5 months before the next December 25, sang, "Do They Know It's Christmas?"

Left to right: Bob Geldof, Bono, Paul McCartney and Freddie Mercury

*

Built in 1926, as Sesquicentennial Stadium, for a world's fair celebrating the 150th Anniversary of American independence, and known from that fair until 1964 as Municipal Stadium, John F. Kennedy Stadium was a 105,000-seat horseshoe in South Philadelphia, with The Spectrum and then Veterans Stadium built adjacent. Best known as the site of the annual Army-Navy football game, it was, by this point, rarely used, since it was aging and not well-cared-for.

So, why there? The producer for the American leg was Bill Graham, already legendary for the concerts he promoted in San Francisco, and operator of the concert halls Fillmore West there and Fillmore East in New York. He got well-known TV producer Tony Verna to handle the U.S. broadcast. Verna was a Philadelphia native, and Verna was on good terms with Mayor Wilson Goode, who offered the use of the city-owned JFK Stadium.

Why not New York? The biggest stadium in the Tri-State Area was Giants Stadium, and, this being before the building of the Meadowlands Spur of New Jersey Transit's rail operations, getting there by any means other than car was a miserable experience. Given the inevitable traffic backups, getting there by car wasn't much better. And since both Yankee Stadium and Shea Stadium were owned by the City of New York, they would have needed Mayor Ed Koch's permission to do the show at either one, and Koch, a great booster of the City, but not a rock and roll fan and frequently a dick, wasn't interested.

Tickets were $35, or about $95 in today's money -- hardly an unreasonable price, given how many stars took the stage at JFK Stadium. The crowd was listed as 89,484. They started earlier, their time, than London did: 8:51 AM.

The 1st act was Bernard Watson. Who? His real name was David Weinstein, he was 18 years old, he was from Miami Beach, he had just graduated from high school, and he had no professional musical experience. He slept outside the stadium for a week, hoping to get a ticket, and ran into Graham, and talked him into letting him open. He sang Bob Dylan's "All I Really Want to Do," and a song he wrote, "Interview." (About the only other information I have on him is that he's still alive.)

At 9:01 AM, Joan Baez, a veteran of the Greenwich Village folk scene, the Newport Folk Festival, and Woodstock took the stage. She told a generation too young to have gone to those shows, "This is your Woodstock, and it's long overdue." She sang "Amazing Grace" and "We Are the World."

She was followed by Philly natives The Hooters, then Motown legends the Four Tops. Trinidadian soul singer Billy Ocean was next, and then, a different style from any of those, the British inventors of heavy metal, Black Sabbath, with Ozzy Osbourne singing lead with them for the 1st time since 1979.

If that wasn't enough of a mix of styles, Sabbath were followed by the biggest group in rap at the time, Run-D.M.C. And they were followed by... Rick Springfield. And then REO Speedwagon. David Crosby, Stephen Stills and Graham Nash were the 2nd act from Woodstock, after Baez, to perform. And their soft-rock was followed by another British metal icon, Judas Priest. Then Bryan Adams. Then the Beach Boys, complete with Brian Wilson, although not with Dennis Wilson, who had died a year and a half earlier.

George Thorogood and the Destroyers came up from Delaware, with bluesmasters Bo Diddley and Albert Collins sitting in. Simple Minds came over from Scotland. The Pretenders were next. At the time, their leader, Chrissie Hynde, was married to Simple Minds' leader, Jim Kerr. Then, Woodstock veterans Santana. Motown songwriting couple Nick Ashford & Valerie Simpson, by now singing their own songs, performed with Philly native Teddy Pendergrass, by then in a wheelchair following a car crash.

Madonna was next, with Thompson Twins and Nile Rodgers backing her. Then, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Kenny Loggins, The Cars. Neil Young, who has often performed with Crosby, Stills and Nash, performed without them. Next up was The Power Station: Lead singer Robert Palmer; Duran Duran guitarist Andy Taylor and bassist John Taylor; and Chic drummer Tony Thompson. Then, Eric Clapton.

One man played at Wembley, got over to Heathrow Airport, flew across the Atlantic Ocean on the Concorde, got from JFK Airport in New York by helicopter to JFK Stadium in Philadelphia, and played there, too: Phil Collins. He had played from 3:18 to 3:48 in London, and from 8:00 to 8:35 in Philadelphia -- with the 5-hour time difference, it was about a 10-hour gap.

And that may not have been the most notable thing he did that day. He played drums for Led Zeppelin. Singer Robert Plant, guitarist Jimmy Page and bassist John Paul Jones hadn't played together since drummer John Bonham died in 1980. But, with Collins sitting in, they played "Rock and Roll," "Whole Lotta Love" and "Stairway to Heaven."

Then, as night began to fall over the Delaware Valley, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young did sing together. So did Duran Duran. Then things got serious: On came Philly native Patti LaBelle. Then Philly natives Daryl Hall & John Oates, with former Temptations singers Eddie Kendricks and David Ruffin.

Tina & Mick

At 10:15, Mick Jagger of the Rolling Stones and Tina Turner took the stage, and sang 5 songs together. At 10:39, backed by Stones guitarists Keith Richards and Ron Wood, Bob Dylan, who did not play at Woodstock, came on, and sang "Ballad of Hollis Brown," "When the Ship Comes In," and "Blowin' in the Wind." The finale, at 10:55, was everybody coming onstage to sing "We Are the World."

Between the 2 shows, it was estimated that 1.9 billion people watched at least part of the broadcast, about 40 percent of the world's population at the time. Money raised? According to Geldof, about £150 million, or about $107 million given what was then the exchange rate, or about $291 million in 2022 money.

This was the greatest thing ever to happen at Wembley, or any other sports stadium. England's victory in the 1966 World Cup Final is a distant 2nd.

The old Wembley was not well-cared-for, and a replacement became necessary. It was closed in 2000, demolished, and the new Wembley Stadium opened on the site in 2007.

Mick and the Stones had planned to return to JFK Stadium for their Steel Wheels tour in 1989, but it was ruled unsafe for occupancy, so they headed 2 blocks north to The Vet. The last show at JFK Stadium was The Grateful Dead in 1991. The following year, it was demolished. In 1996, the new arena for the NBA's Philadelphia 76ers and the NHL's Philadelphia Flyers opened on the site. As one bank has bought out another, arena naming rights and all, it has gone through several names, and is currently the Wells Fargo Center.

(UPDATE: In 2025, the naming rights ran out, and Wells Fargo chose not to renew. With the teams in partnership with Xfinity/Comcast, the building became the Xfinity Mobile Arena. With city-specific irony, a competing company named the arena in Charlotte, North Carolina the Spectrum Center.)

In 1986, Spin magazine published an exposé on Live Aid's actions in Ethiopia. They claimed that Geldof deliberately ignored warnings from Doctors Without Borders, who had complained directly to Geldof even before the show, about the role of the Ethiopian government under Derg leader Mengistu Haile Mariam in causing the famine; and that, by working with Mengistu directly, much of the relief funds intended for victims were in fact siphoned off to purchase arms from the Soviet Union, thereby making the situation even worse. (Presuming everything in the chart above is true, it looks like Huey Lewis had a point.)

Geldof reportedly responded by saying, "I'll shake hands with the Devil on my left and on my right to get to the people we are meant to help."

*

July 13, 1985 was a Saturday. It was the off-season for the NFL, the NBA and the NHL -- and, more to the point of one of the countries involved, for England's Football League.

Summer is cricket season in Britain, but that's Australia's Winter. At any rate, "The Ashes," the periodic test-match series between England and Australia, was underway at that point. Live Aid fell in the middle of the 3rd Test, at Trent Bridge cricket ground in Nottingham, but it was accepted as a day off.

With the series starting on June 13, England ended up winning the series on September 2, 3 matches to 1 with 2 draws, and regained the trophy, said to be an urn containing "the ashes of English cricket" (actually, the burned remains of a ball) after Australia's 1st-ever win over their colonial fathers in 1883.

This was also the period of America's experiment with Spring Football, the United States Football League. The next day, July 14, 1985, the USFL Championship Game was played at Giants Stadium. The Baltimore Stars beat the Oakland Invaders, 28-24.

It would be the last USFL game. The owner of the New York market's team, the New Jersey Generals, convinced the other league owners to abandon the Spring schedule, and go directly head-to-head with the NFL in the Autumn. But they didn't have the money to do that and to maintain their antitrust lawsuit against the NFL. So there would be no 1986 USFL season.

Then came the verdict: The jury found in the USFL's favor, that the NFL was a monopoly, but awarded just $1.00 in damages. Since antitrust awards are tripled, it was $3.00. It was a slap in the face, but since it was a "win," it couldn't be appealed. The USFL was dead. And it was all because of the ego and the typical mismanagement of the Generals' owner. His name was Donald Trump. It wasn't the first thing he royally screwed up, and it wouldn't be the last, or the biggest, or the most damaging.

As for Major League Baseball games played on July 13, 1985, a full slate was played: 

* The New York Yankees beat the Texas Rangers, 3-1 at Yankee Stadium. (That's another reason Yankee Stadium couldn't be used for the American leg of Live Aid: It was booked.) No home runs, but they got the runs they needed to support the 46-year-old knuckleballer Phil Niekro.

* The New York Mets beat the Houston Astros, 10-1 at the Astrodome in Houston.

* The Atlanta Braves beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 13-5 at Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium. Good thing the Phillies were on the road, because having a game at Veterans Stadium while Live Aid was going on at JFK Stadium would have been a parking and traffic nightmare.

* The Chicago White Sox beat the Baltimore Orioles, 10-8 at Memorial Stadium in Baltimore.

* The San Francisco Giants beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 4-1 at Three Rivers Stadium in Pittsburgh.

* The Kansas City Royals beat the Cleveland Indians, 5-1 at Cleveland Municipal Stadium.

* The Montreal Expos beat the Cincinnati Reds, 6-3 at Riverfront Stadium in Cincinnati.

* The Minnesota Twins beat the Detroit Tigers, 6-4 at Tiger Stadium in Detroit.

* The Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Chicago Cubs, 9-1 at Wrigley Field in Chicago.

* The St. Louis Cardinals beat the San Diego Padres, 7-3 at Busch Memorial Stadium in St. Louis.

* The California Angels beat the Toronto Blue Jays, 4-3 at Anaheim Stadium in the Los Angeles suburb of Anaheim, California.

* The Oakland Athletics beat the Milwaukee Brewers, 2-0 at the Oakland Coliseum. Tim Birtsas and Steve Ontiveros (not the earlier Cubs infielder) combined on a 5-hit shutout.

* And the Seattle Mariners beat the Boston Red Sox, 6-5 at the Kingdome in Seattle.