When Bob Geldof met Midge Ure

In a unique twist, modern technology has enabled the original singers to perform alongside today’s chart-toppers, with some artists even singing alongside younger versions of themselves!

The legendary collaboration between the biggest rock and pop stars of the eighties has been recreated for a new fundraising single that was released on Monday 25th November. The remixed Band Aid: Do They Know It’s Christmas will be raising money to help alleviate food poverty in Africa.

Also included in the new version are vocalists who took part in the 2004 and 2014 recordings to mark the project’s 20th and 30th anniversaries.

When did Band Aid start?

The 1980s was a decade of post-punk, indie, new wave, rock and electronic music, with Band Aid founders Bob Geldof and Midge Ure being leading lights of the music industry at the time. Their famous meeting to plan the groundbreaking charity fundraiser took place on 5th November 1984.

Ure was then a 31-year-old Scotsman who had enjoyed chart-topping success with his band Ultravox, thanks to their electro-pop single, Vienna, in 1980. Irish singer Geldof, 33, was frontman of new wave band Boomtown Rats, whose singles I Don’t Like Mondays and Rat Trap had also rocketed to number one.

At the time, TV news reports were showing horrific images of the famine in Ethiopia that left 1.2 million people dead between 1983 and 1985. Ure and Geldof decided to do something to help and came up with the idea of a charity single, with all the proceeds from sales helping the starving population.

In an interview in 2023, Ure said he and Geldof spent two hours discussing all kinds of ways to raise money, eventually dismissing most of them as “ridiculous” and deciding the only thing they were good at was singing and songwriting. They eventually decided on a Christmas charity single, but had to move fast, as they had less than two months to enlist the help of the biggest stars of the music industry.

Ure recalled he played the first version of the music to Geldof on a toy keyboard. Initially, Geldof wasn’t too impressed, telling Ure it reminded him of the theme tune to TV police series, Z Cars, but given the timescale, he said, “It’ll do,” although he had his doubts.

Despite his superstar status, Geldof recorded the lyrics by singing and playing his old guitar upside down, as he was left-handed, but it was made for a right-handed guitarist. Ure recorded Geldof’s live performance on a cassette tape and then spent four days in the studio adding other instruments and arranging the song.

At the same time, Geldof contacted all their friends in the music industry and persuaded them to go along to the Sarm West Studios in Notting Hill, London, to record the track.

Band Aid members

Geldof and Ure also got to work on polishing up the track and invited some of the leading singers of the day to the recording studio to perform free of charge. Ure recalled how being well-known in the music industry, each with a large fan base, undoubtedly helped the single’s meteoric success.

The stars who joined the Band Aid recording included David Bowie, Paul McCartney, U2 frontman Bono, The Police, George Michael, Boy George, girl group Bananarama, Phil Collins, Spandau Ballet, Duran Duran, Status Quo, Kool and the Gang, Paul Young and many more.

A vast amount of publicity surrounded the recording, with the world’s media focusing on the amount of music industry royalty taking part. Ure recalled, “Then, of course, the whole thing went mad.”

How much did Band Aid raise for charity?

Initially, Ure and Geldof had hoped to raise around £100,000 with Do They Know It’s Christmas and would have considered that to be a good result. However, to their delight, the track went on to raise more than £200 million to fight famine across Africa. The single has sold more than four million copies to date.

The Band Aid charity, officially called Band Aid Charitable Trust, has been responsible for organising the aid provided by the fundraising activities. Initially, the proceeds were used to help people affected by the famine in Ethiopia.

Over the years, funding has also been provided for both emergency and long-term projects across Africa, including helping people impacted by the Ebola crisis and shipping essential supplies such as high-protein foods, grain, medicines and other medical supplies to famine-hit areas.

40th anniversary Band Aid single

The new single features original voices from the 1984 recording, alongside some of the younger artists who appeared in later versions in 2004 and 2014.

Many vocalists from the three previous versions of the recording – Band Aid in 1984, Band Aid 20 in 2004 and Band Aid 30 in 2014 – all feature on the 2024 single. This was made possible by the wonders of modern technology, which seamlessly unites them as if they were all in the studio together.

Legendary record producer Trevor Horn took on the mammoth task of bringing together the three earlier recordings and mixed them with the new track. The second recording featured stars such as Robbie Williams, Snow Patrol, Busted, Daniel Bedingfield and The Sugababes, while the 2014 release featured Olly Murs, Rita Ora, One Direction and Paloma Faith.

In the 2024 recording, the young Bono sings alongside his older self. Other singers from various eras have taken part either live, or from earlier recordings, and include Sting, Roger Taylor, Damon Albarn, Gary Kemp, Robbie Williams and the late Sinead O’Connor, who sang in the 2014 version.

The new single, Band Aid 40, was played on UK breakfast radio shows on 25th November for its grand unveiling, with the Band Aid charity distributing the proceeds to the most needy areas in Africa to help fight famine.