Band_Aid

The Lord of Misrule's Christmas Guide
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Band Aid 1984 - Do They Know It’s Christmas

On 23 October 1984, Bob Geldof, lead singer of the new wave/pallid punk band ‘The Boomtown Rats’, was sitting down watching the BBC News, when up popped the legendary reporter Michael Buerk with a report on the plight of millions of people starving to death in Ethiopia. The impact of Buerk’s report cannot be underestimated: it allegedly left Geldof (like many people in the UK) in tears, both angry with the world for standing by at such a time and determined that he should be the one to do something about it.

His determination led to the idea of writing a pop song, selling it and giving the money raised from sales to help the people in Ethiopia. So, Bob sat down and wrote a song which he entitled ‘Do They Know Its Christmas’ asking a rhetorical question to juxtapose the lavishness of a Christmas at home in the west with the biblical famine unfolding in Africa.

Bob called up his friend and fellow musician Midge Ure (from the band Ultravox – most renowned for the song Vienna) and roped in Midge to produce the record for him. He also called up the world’s biggest recording artists and demanded that they too should give up their time to help him make the record.

And so, on Sunday 25 November, the 1980s music demi-gods swooped down on a small recording studio in London, freely giving up their time to make Bob’s record: each performer or group of performers singing a couple of lines but with everyone belting out the chorus. It was Bono who got the song’s most self-critical line: ‘Well tonight thank God it's them instead of you’ a line which Bono described in a BBC 3 interview as: ‘It seemed like the most bitterly selfish line, and I think maybe it was the truth of it that unnerved me. I almost didn't want to admit to it.’

The next day, the master-tapes went to the press and the single started to be shipped to the shops. Originally, Bob hoped that they might sell 100,000 copies in the UK, but his ambitions were easily surpassed with the song going on to sell over 3.5 million copies in the UK alone, hitting number one in 12 countries and raising a staggering £8 million. Since 1984, the song has been reissued (it was number one again in 1989) and to date it has yielded over £80 million for famine relief.

Do They Know Its Christmas was the first and greatest charity single and it further spawned the Live Aid concert in 1985 helping to raise even more money for Africa and forcing the public conscience to face issues of world poverty and third-world debt.

Bob Geldof was later knighted by the UK government for his efforts and he is affectionately known by many people in the UK these days as Saint Bob.

1984 Roll-Call
Bananarama
Bob Geldof
Bono / U2
Boy George / Culture Club
David Bowie
Duran Duran
Eurythmics
Frankie Goes to Hollywood
George Michael /Wham!
Heaven 17
Human League
Kool and the Gang
Midge Urge
Paul McCartney
Paul Weller / The Style Council
Paul Young
Phil Collins
Spandau Ballet
Status Quo
Sting

For a note of the song’s lyrics and performers click here.