Bob Geldof of the Boomtown Rats is widely credited with drawing the music industry's attention to the famines in Ethiopia. He organized this ad hoc group of mostly British rock stars in 1984 and wrote the song with Midge Ure of Ultravox to raise money for food relief; its success was copied by the artists of several other countries, including USA for Africa, and that all led to 1985's Live Aid concerts. As for the song, well, it's a little dated-sounding, but it's still fun to listen to and try to pick out who's singing lead at any given time. You need the 12-inch single to see who all is involved with the record, though; good luck scaring up one of those at collector prices. UPDATE: There was a Band Aid II version in 1989, although I can't seem to scare up a list of the cast of characters. Meanwhile, a new recording with current stars under the Geldof/Ure auspices was released for 2004. FURTHER UPDATE: Thanks to Jim from basicrep for additional information on Band Aid II -- it was produced by Stock, Aitken and Waterman, hot pop producers of the late 80s, and the artist roster was mostly folks whose non-holiday records they produced. They were: Bananarama, Big Fun, Bros, Cathy Dennis, D-Mob, Jason Donovan, Kevin Godley, Glen Goldsmith, Kylie Minogue, The Pasadenas, Chris Rea, Cliff Richard, Jimmy Somerville, Sonia, Lisa Stansfield, Technotronic and Wet Wet Wet.
"Do They Know It's Christmas," Band Aid (Columbia)
Bob Geldof of the Boomtown Rats is widely credited with drawing the music industry's attention to the famines in Ethiopia. He organized this ad hoc group of mostly British rock stars in 1984 and wrote the song with Midge Ure of Ultravox to raise money for food relief; its success was copied by the artists of several other countries, including USA for Africa, and that all led to 1985's Live Aid concerts. As for the song, well, it's a little dated-sounding, but it's still fun to listen to and try to pick out who's singing lead at any given time. You need the 12-inch single to see who all is involved with the record, though; good luck scaring up one of those at collector prices. UPDATE: There was a Band Aid II version in 1989, although I can't seem to scare up a list of the cast of characters. Meanwhile, a new recording with current stars under the Geldof/Ure auspices was released for 2004. FURTHER UPDATE: Thanks to Jim from basicrep for additional information on Band Aid II -- it was produced by Stock, Aitken and Waterman, hot pop producers of the late 80s, and the artist roster was mostly folks whose non-holiday records they produced. They were: Bananarama, Big Fun, Bros, Cathy Dennis, D-Mob, Jason Donovan, Kevin Godley, Glen Goldsmith, Kylie Minogue, The Pasadenas, Chris Rea, Cliff Richard, Jimmy Somerville, Sonia, Lisa Stansfield, Technotronic and Wet Wet Wet.
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