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Band Aid is a British and Irish Charity Supergroup founded in 1984 by Bob Geldof and Midge Ure in order to raise money for Famine Relief in Ethiopia by releasing a record '''''Do They Know It's Christmas?''''' for the Christmas market. The single surpassed the hopes of the producers to become the Christmas Number One on that release and on two subsequent releases. It was produced by Trevor Horn . BACKGROUND The name ''"Band Aid"'' was chosen because it had a double meaning. At one level it means ''a band of musicians getting together to offer aid'' but, at another level, it is also an acknowledgment of the fact that such a gesture is like putting a BAND-AID (a brand of Sticking Plaster/adhesive Bandage ) on a gaping wound and does not address the full extent of the problem of world famine. The group has been reformed on three occasions, each time from the most successful British and Irish Pop Music performers of the time to record the same song at the same time of year. Co-writer Midge Ure has commented that "Every generation should have its own version". RELEASES The original Band Aid single, "Do They Know It's Christmas?" (Geldof/Ure) ('' Mercury FEED 1'') was released in the UK on Monday 3 December 1984 and entered the charts at No.1 the following week (w/e 15.12.84). It was recorded in one day on 25 November . The song was written by Bob Geldof and Midge Ure and produced by Midge Ure and Trevor Horn and became one of the best selling singles of the year. The single was released as a 7" (3'55") and a 12" version (6'18"). In 1985 , following the success of the original 1984 Band Aid single, Geldof organised the charity concert Live Aid . The record was then re-issued and reached Number Three on 7 December 1985 . In all it raised in excess of £8 million ( 13,727,991). In 1989 , a new line-up, reflecting the musical climate at the time, formed after a second famine struck Ethiopia. Band Aid II featured a different line-up and re-recorded "Do They Know It's Christmas?" ('' PWL / Polydor FEED 2''), and the song was again Christmas Number One in the UK charts. A cassette single designated as FEED 3 was released in 1991 . It contains the main 7" mixes of both previous versions. It did not reach the UK charts. In 2004 a third line-up known as Band Aid 20 , re-recorded the single for the 20th anniversary of the project. The style change between Band Aid 20 and previous incarnations of the song was greater than the change between the first two Band Aid projects. This was partly due to the length of time between the releases and because it was thought that releasing a third version too similar to the original would be less powerful than creating a new interpretation. The 2004 version entered the charts at number 1 on 5 December 2004 , and went on to become the 2004 Christmas Number One. ORIGINAL BAND AID Chronology (1984) Bob Geldof , after watching a BBC Television news report by Michael Buerk from Famine -stricken Ethiopia , was so moved by the plight of starving children that he decided to try and raise money using his contacts in Pop Music . The news report itself has become famous, being voted among the greatest television moments of the century, and it remains Buerk's definitive work, even though most of his career was spent as an Anchorman . Geldof enlisted the help of Midge Ure from the group Ultravox to help produce a Charity Record . Midge Ure took Geldof's lyrics and created the Melody and backing track for the record. Geldof called many of the most popular performers of the time, persuading them to give their time for free. His one criterion for selection was how famous they were in order to maximise sales of the record. He then kept an appointment to appear on a Radio 1 show with Richard Skinner , but instead of promoting the new Boomtown Rats material as planned, he announced the Band Aid plan. The recording studio gave Band Aid 24 hours free to record and mix the record on 25 November , 1984 . The recording took place between 11am and 7pm and was filmed to release as the Pop Video . The first track to be put down was drums by Phil Collins including the memorable opening 'African Drum' beat. Tony Hadley of Spandau Ballet was the first to record his vocal while a section sung by Status Quo was deemed unusable and replaced with the Paul Weller / Sting / Glenn Gregory section. Paul Young has admitted since in a documentary that he knew his opening lines were written for David Bowie who was not able to make the recording but made a contribution to the B-side. Boy George arrived last at 6pm after Geldof woke him up by phone to have him flown over from New York on Concorde to record his solo part. The following morning, Geldof appeared on the Radio 1 breakfast show with Mike Read to promote the record further and promised that every penny would go to the cause. This led to a stand-off with the British Government , which refused to waive the VAT on the sales of the single. Geldof made the headlines by publicly standing up to Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and, sensing the strength of public feeling, the government backed down and donated the tax back to the charity. The record was released on 3 December and went straight to number 1 in the UK Singles Chart , outselling all the other records in the chart put together. It became the fastest selling single of all time in the UK, selling a million in the first week alone. It stayed at Number 1 for five weeks, selling over 3 million copies and becoming easily the biggest selling single ever in the UK. It has since been passed by Elton John 's tribute to Diana , Princess Of Wales , "Candle in the Wind 1997", but it is likely to keep selling in different versions for many years to come. After Live Aid , ''Do They Know It's Christmas?'' was re-released in late 1985 in a set that included a special-edition "picture disc" version, modeled after the Live Aid logo with "Band" in place of "Live". An added bonus, "One Year On," a statement from Geldof and Ure on the telephone, was available as a B-side . "One Year On" can also be found in transcript form in a booklet included in the Live Aid DVD set, the first disc of which features the BBC news report along with the Band Aid video (with "One Year On" scrolling upwards in the credits). Participants The original Band Aid ensemble consisted of (in sleeve order):
The sleeve artist, Peter Blake , was also credited on the sleeve. BAND AID II Participants The line up for the Band Aid II project consisted of (in alphabetical order):
BAND AID 20 The Band Aid 20 single was first played simultaneously on the '' The Chris Moyles Show '' on BBC Radio One and the breakfast shows on Virgin and Capital radio at 8am on 16 November , 2004 . The video was first broadcast in the UK simultaneously over multiple channels, including the five UK terrestrial channels, at 5.55pm on 18 November 2004 , with an introduction by Madonna . British Artist Damien Hirst designed a cover for the Band Aid 20 single, featuring the grim reaper and a starving African child. However this was later dropped after fears that it might scare children. The single was released on 29 November 2004 and all money raised will go toward Famine relief in the Darfur region of Sudan . One of the new ways to buy the song by downloading it from the Internet hit a problem when Apple Computer 's ITunes Music Store initially refused to supply it due to their fixed pricing policy. A partial solution was reached after a few days enabling UK users to download the song at the standard iTunes price, with Apple donating an extra amount (equivalent to the price difference) to the Band Aid Trust. The CD version sold over 200,000 copies in the first week to become the fastest-selling single of the year. Participants ;Organisers and producers:
;Instruments:
;Vocals:
Bono , Paul McCartney and George Michael were the only artists asked back who lent their voices to the original Band Aid. There was a reported dispute over the line ''Tonight thank God it's them instead of you'' which Bono sang on the original version. Justin Hawkins of The Darkness laid down a version of the line but Bono insisted on re-recording his version, which was eventually used on the record. Strangely, although he wasn't invited, Blur 's frontman and songwriter Damon Albarn appeared at the sessions, wanting to somehow assist the recording process of the charity single. He wasn't allowed to sing but Bono advised him how to be most useful for the singers. "I asked him to make the tea," the U2 frontman explained to Xfm, "I saw him on Thursday night. He said 'I don’t know what to do' I said, 'Make tea,' he said 'You really think so?' I said, 'Yeah, make tea!'." Albarn quite happily responded and thus served biscuits and tea for the participants as well as appeared briefly in the video, at which Bono "fatherly" commented: "Good on him. I always knew that boy would turn out good in the end." The single sold 72,000 copies in the first 24 hours when it was released on the 29 November 2004 , and went straight in at number one in the UK charts on 5 December 2004 . It stayed at number 1 for Christmas and the week after, all in all holding onto the top spot for four weeks, just one week shorter than the original did in 1984. WHO SINGS WHAT ON EACH VERSION The Lyrics The first line of the recording is sung by Paul Young on the 1984 version, Kylie Minogue on the 1989 version, and Chris Martin on the 2004 version. The line was originally written for David Bowie who finally sang it at the Live Aid concert. Another lyric which appears to have been tailored to the singers performing in 1984 is ''The bitter sting of tears'' performed by Sting. The most controversial line in the song is: ''Tonight thank God it's them instead of you.'' Bono was unhappy with this line and tried to change it at first, due to the possible interpretation that the singer is thanking God for inflicting misery on other people rather than on them. Bob Geldof had deliberately put that line in, however and the two friends fought over it - Bob obviously winning. Later, Bono admitted that it is a painful truth that, while we can feel sympathy and guilt about the plight of others, we're still not prepared to take their place. 1984 Musicians
1989 Musicians
2004 Musicians
RELATED PROJECTS The Band Aid project inspired other charity records around the world including We Are The World by USA For Africa in the USA , Nackt Im Wind by Band Für Afrika in Germany , Ethiopie song by Chanteurs Sans Frontiere composed by Renaud Séchan in France , Tears Are Not Enough by Northern Lights in Canada , Sammen For Livet by Forenede Artister in Norway , Stars with Hear 'n Aid (international Heavy Metal artists), Voices That Care for Operation Desert Storm , and many others. Parodies In October 2005 Vice Records released a song titled Do They Know It's Halloween? by a collective consiting of many well known musicians from the Independent Music scene going under the label of the North American Halloween Prevention Initiative (NAHPI). Proceeds from the single were donated to Unicef . REFERENCES
A CRITICAL PERSPECTIVE In 1986 the Anarchist band Chumbawamba released the album '' Pictures Of Starving Children Sell Records '' as well as an EP entitled "We Are The World", jointly recorded with US band A State Of Mind , both of which were intended as anti-capitalist critiques of the Band Aid/ Live Aid phenomenon. They argued that the record was primarily a cosmetic Spectacle designed to draw attention away from the real political causes of world hunger. However, it can be argued with hindsight that Geldof and Bono have actually had a wider influence on both the powerful and the public than their critics could have envisaged. Live Aid is now widely recognised as the event which prepared a generation for the Jubilee 2000 and Make Poverty History / Live 8 movements. TRIVIA
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