Band Aid Single Recorded
Notting Hill, London The 24th of November 1984 AD
In moments of odder reflection we may wonder why Bob Geldof has not yet been made head of the United Nations, or at the very least Taoiseach. The future Sir Bob, motivated in late 1984 by reports of mass starvation in Ethiopia, didn’t wait for others; establish a working party; or find reasons not to help. He got things done.
Geldof and Midge Ure rapidly wrote the charity song Do They Know It’s Christmas? They obtained the free use of Trevor Horn ’s Notting Hill studio; and co-opted a galaxy of stars to sing and play on the disc. Those involved in the recording included Paul Young, Paul Weller , Phil Collins , Boy George (who flew over from New York on Concorde), George Michael and Sting . The session was held on November 25 1984; the tapes mastered by the following day; and legal obstacle diplomatically bulldozed to enable the 45 (ask your parents if you don’t know what that is) to be released on the 29th. Normally it took months to cover the same stages. The record went to #1 and stayed there until after Christmas, selling 3.5 million copies.
Not content with that feat, Geldof and Ure, with huge support from Harvey Goldsmith, put on the Live Aid concert the following year.
Another thing we may wonder about is why Midge Ure, the mover to Geldof’s shaker in the Band Aid and Live Aid efforts, has yet to be knighted: has Prince William , Knight of the Garter, really done more than Ure? Or a number of generous donors to political parties?
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