Same studio, same month, but several new faces, most of whom were not born when the first Band Aid single was recorded three decades ago. Saturday saw the remaking of Do They Know It’s Christmas?, the charity single that raised millions for famine relief in Ethiopia in 1984.
Bob Geldof and Midge Ure, the same pair who organised the supergroup of British and Irish pop stars then, are hoping that this weekend’s latest Band Aid incarnation will bring in similar amounts of money to help combat Ebola in west Africa.
It was an early start for the pop stars old and young who began arriving in an assortment of gleaming, tinted-window vehicles at the Notting Hill recording studios in west London just after 9am, some more bleary-eyed than others.
“It very much reminds me of 30 years ago. Everyone’s bleary, pop singers, as George Osborne said, are not very good in the morning,” said Geldof, who was frontman for Irish new wave band The Boomtown Rats.
Liam Payne, of One Direction, told fans he’d slept in. By the time U2’s Bono turned up at midday, fresh young thing Rita Ora had already recorded her segment and left. “I just wish we didn’t have to do this,” said Bono as he arrived. “There will come a time when we won’t.”
Geldof, who arrived with his friend Sinead O’Connor and was joined by two of his daughters, Fifi and Pixie, gave the stars a pre-recording pep talk, sounding, he said, “like the headmaster”.
“The record, it’s a song, it’s a track but it’s an event, and the next stage now is to turn it into a phenomenon like it was in the 1980s,” Geldof told BBC TV as he arrived at a recording studio in west London.
But it was an emotional moment, singer Emeli Sande said afterwards. “Bob gave a really touching speech, so that really got everybody in the mind frame that we needed to be in to remind us that it’s fun but we’re here for a really serious reason.”
Geldof had been keeping tight-lipped about who would sing the opening line — in 1984 it was Paul Young — and there had been wide speculation that it would be Chris Martin of Coldplay, especially after the no-show of Adele — a disappointment that had her fans in a dispirited twitter on social media sites.
“Adele is doing nothing, she’s not answering the phone,” Geldof told the Sun on Sunday. “She doesn’t want to be bothered by anyone... She’s bringing up a family you know. Some people just don’t think they can’t make any impact by coming along.”
A representative for Adele told The Sun: “Bob and the organisers spoke directly with her management but at no point was she confirmed. Adele is supporting Oxfam’s Ebola Appeal with a donation.”
In the end it was One Direction.
“It’s huge to be involved,” Niall Horan from One Direction told the BBC. “Hopefully it goes to number one and raises a lot of money for a really worthy cause.”
The lyrics to the Band Aid 30 version of the song have been changed too, to reflect the different cause. Several of the lines from the 1984 song were heavily criticised for being clumsy and patronising, including the one about no rivers flowing in Africa — the continent of the Nile, Congo and Niger. “And tonight thank God it’s them instead of you” — that unmistakable Bono-voiced line — has also gone. This time he sang: “Well tonight we’re reaching out and touching you.”
There was a change in the attitude of the government too. The chancellor, George Osborne, announced via social media that he had spoken to “the remarkable” Bob Geldof: “Told him we’ll waive VAT on #BandAid30 so every penny goes to fight Ebola.”
It was all in sharp contrast to the wrangling in 1984, when the prime minister, Margaret Thatcher, refused to allow VAT to be waived on the original Band Aid single before finally relenting under Geldof-led pressure.
The Band Aid 30 musicians — including Seal, Roger Taylor, Ed Sheeran, Jessie Ware, Ellie Goulding, Bastille singer Dan Smith, Olly Murs, Sam Smith, Elbow’s Guy Garvie and Karl Hyde of Underworld - are following in the footsteps of dozens of African artists who have been using music to raise awareness of Ebola. Save Liberia was released last month by the Liberian Allstars, a supergroup of the country’s best-known musical talent. A video and song called Africa Stop Ebola by multilingual Africans, including Amadou & Mariam, Mory Kante and rapper Didier Awadi, has been adopted as an anthem against the disease. In May a song entitled Ebola Is Real became the number one tune on Liberian radio. Solome Lemma, co-founder of the grassroots response initiative Africa Responds, said she was disappointed that Geldof hadn’t worked with African artists: “There’s a multitude of artists from the three most affected countries — Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea — and the rest of Africa that he could have brought on to do a different song. The first one was flawed in every way, including the terrible, patronising lyrics,” she said, adding that Geldof and his famous friends could have contributed in “other ways”.
But Ultravox’s Midge Ure, who co-wrote and organised the first Band Aid, said the song was by no means a masterpiece, but is more about getting people as engaged with the fight against Ebola as they were in 1984, when a total of £8 million (Dh46 million) was raised. Geldof said: “It really doesn’t matter if you don’t like this song. It doesn’t matter if you hate the artists. What matters is that you buy the record.”
The Band Aid 30 single was to be first broadcast on television on X Factor on Saturday night and is to be released on Sunday. It will cost 99p to download or £4 to buy on a CD, which will include a Tracey Emin-designed cover featuring the words Faith, Love and Trust in neon. The new single was not quite the bookies’ favourite to take the Christmas number one spot. That position was held by whoever wins the X Factor final.
You can also donate to Medecins Sans Frontieres, the key medical charity working with Ebola patients in west Africa. To do so visit msf.org.uk/make-a-donation.
The new lyrics to the song include... “but say a prayer — pray for the other ones... At Christmas time — it’s hard but while you’re having fun ... There’s a world outside your window and it’s a world of dread and fear... Where a kiss of love can kill you and there’s death in every tear... And the Christmas bells that ring there are the clanging chimes of doom... Well tonight we’re reaching out and touching you... No peace and joy this Christmas in west Africa... The only hope they’ll have is being alive Where to comfort is to fear... Where to touch is to be scared... How can they know it’s Christmas time at all?”
