Cher was one of the singers in the final concert – while largely unnoticed, her voice was easy to pick up.

A reunited Deep Purple were also due to appear from Switzerland via satellite, but pulled out after guitarist Ritchie Blackmore refused to take part in the event. Eurythmics were slated to play Wembley but cancelled after Annie Lennox suffered serious throat problems. Huey Lewis and the News and Paul Simon both accepted requests to play the Philadelphia concert but later issued press statements stating they had chosen not to appear after all, citing disagreements with promoter Bill Graham. Deep Purple appeared at Geldof's Live 8 sequel 20 years later, performing at the Toronto leg of the event.

It was also rumoured at the time that George Harrison, Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr would reunite as The Beatles; making it the first time the trio had performed together in over 15 years. The rumours at the time also were based around the possibility that Julian Lennon would join the Liverpudlian trio, taking over his late father John Lennon's role. In the end only McCartney appeared at the event.

Bob Geldof also invited Def Leppard to perform at the event, but due to Rick Allen's car accident and uncertain future of the next album, they turned it down.

Bob Dylan's performance generated controversy for his comment:

"I hope that some of the money…maybe they can just take a little bit of it, maybe…one or two million, maybe…and use it, say, to pay the mortgages on some of the farms and, the farmers here, owe to the banks…"

He is often misquoted, as on the Farm Aid website, as saying:

"Wouldn't it be great if we did something for our own farmers right here in America?"

In his best-selling autobiography, Is That It? (published in 1986), Geldof was extremely critical of the remark; he states: