During the show, Mercury told the audience about rumours that Queen would disband, and flatly denied them. All 72,000 tickets for the 11 July show at Wembley Stadium sold out quickly, so a second date was added for the following night. The group played for over 150,000 people over the two nights.
They booked out the 400-seat Shaw Theatre, near King's Cross train station in London, and spent a week honing their five-song setlist, getting it ready for the 72,000 fans who would be at Wembley – and the estimated 1.9 billion people watching on television from 130 countries around the world.
Rock in Rio, Brazil, January 1985
The shows on 12th and 18th of January attracted the biggest crowd Queen ever played to, with an estimated 250,000 to 500,000 people in attendance each night.
An estimated record 800,000 attended a free open-air concert by the New York Philharmonic conducted by Zubin Mehta, on the Great Lawn of Central Park, New York, USA on July 5, 1986, as part of the Statue of Liberty Weekend.
Performing in front of an crowd of 120,000, the August 9 concert was the final date of the band's highly successful Magic Tour and the last time the band would ever play with live with Freddie Mercury.
The largest rock n roll concert audience was at the Live Aid concert in 1985. This concert was organized to raise money for the Ethiopian famine relief.
Cameras were hoisted on cranes and throughout the audience of 2,000 extras, who were multiplied with CGI to replicate the 70,000 concertgoers who packed the stadium for the benefit.
Jean-Michel Jarre has attracted a live audience of more than a million spectators on five occasions, three times in Paris, 1979, 1990 and 1995, once in Houston, 1986, and once in Moscow, 1997. He is the only artist ever to have done so. Metallica played Moscow in 1991 in front of 1.6 million people.
Jean Michel Jarre, 1997–3.5 million
The king of big gigs is undoubtedly Jean Michel Jarre, performing a grand total of four concerts with an audience of over a million people each. Back in 1979 he set the world record for the biggest gig ever — his performance in Paris attracted a million fans.
The concert itself was a massive production, with an estimated 300,000 people in attendance. Queen's setlist included many of their biggest hits, including “Bohemian Rhapsody,” “We Will Rock You,” and “We Are the Champions,” as well as newer tracks from “The Works” album.
Sheer Heart Attack Tour
The year 1974 had started with their first trip outside of Europe and an appearance at the Sunbury Music Festival in Australia.
During the show, Mercury told the audience about rumours that Queen would disband, and flatly denied them. All 72,000 tickets for the 11 July show at Wembley Stadium sold out quickly, so a second date was added for the following night. The group played for over 150,000 people over the two nights.
The band's The Magic tour was their biggest ever, performing in vast venues to audiences of tens of thousands. But less than a year later and Freddie, who admitted he found the string of concerts incredibly tiring, would be diagnosed with AIDS and Queen would stop touring.
However, their time as live performers was cut short when the singer was diagnosed as HIV positive in 1987. One of the factual alterations to the Bo Rhap movie meant that the Magic Tour of 1986 was to be the last featuring all four original members of Queen: Mercury, Brian May, John Deacon and Roger Taylor.
“The White Stripes were in fact recognized in the 2009 edition of the Guinness World Records book for the shortest music concert ever when, on July 16 2007, they played just one note at St John's in Newfoundland, Canada,” they said.
The biggest crowd to ever turn out to see The Beatles provided a happier memory of Beatlemania. An incredible 300,000 fans lined the streets from Adelaide Airport to the city centre in 1964. For comparison, better known arrival at JFK, New York in the same year attracted an estimated 5,000.
Live Aid, benefit concert held simultaneously at Wembley Stadium in London and JFK Stadium in Philadelphia on July 13, 1985.
1. U2's 360° Tour: $23-31 Million Per Set-Up. The most technologically advanced and expensive concert stage in history, U2's 360° Tour takes the top spot.
Promoter DF Concerts said it was a "phenomenal number" of ticket sales for one artist. BT Murrayfield posted on social media: "Record Breaking. Saturday night's concert at BT Murrayfield is the highest-selling stadium concert in Scotland ever with an attendance of over 65,000."
Freddie wouldn't give an interview on the day because he had vocal trouble. His doctor told him not to do the show, but of course, he was determined to do it anyway.”
It's been more than 33 years since Queen, spearheaded by their electric front man Freddie Mercury, charged onto the stage of the 1985 Live Aid concert and performed the set often lauded as the greatest live gig of all time.
Was Live Aid Freddie Mercury's last performance? The Live Aid concert happened on July 13th, 1985, but his last live performance was a year later at Knebworth Park on August 9th, 1986.