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| The back cover of the Band Aid extended play single included this group photo identifying many of the participants in the marathon recording session of Do They Kow it's Christmas? |
November
29, the single of Do
They Know it’s Christmas was rushed
into the stores and instantly became a phenomena—shooting
to #1 on the UK charts and staying there for a record shattering five weeks selling 3.7 million copies in Britain
an 11.8 million copies worldwide in five years.
Only
four days earlier on November 25, 1984 a good cross section of the musical
glitterati of the U.K. and Ireland assembled to record a song to raise money for Ethiopian famine relief at Sarm
West Studios in London. They had assembled on short notice—many said they had been commanded to attend by a demanding Bob Geldolf the Irish leader
of the Boomtown Rats, who had conceived of the idea and was a co-writer of the song to be
recorded. Geldolf’s co-writer, Midge Ure of Ultravox did most of the heavy
lifting as producer of the
record over an epic 24 hour recording
and mixing session while Geldof reportedly mostly got in the way and had to be thrown
out of the engineering booth for
interfering.
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| A BBC documentary of the famine and civil war in Ethiopia inspired the all-star fundraising recording. |
In
late October the BBC had aired a stark documentary on the immense
suffering caused by a multi-year drought
and civil war in Ethiopia.
Geldolf was horrified. He
came up with the idea of an all-star
band performing on a benefit record.
He contacted Ure and within a few days the pair had written the
song—Geldolf being largely responsible
for the lyrics and Ure the music. The Geldof began calling the stars of the
British/Irish music scene cajoling, begging, even threatening—“Do you want me to tell the press that you wouldn’t do
it?” to get commitments to appear.
In
early November he used an appearance with Richard
Skinner on BBC Radio 1,
originally planned to unveil a new Boomtown Rats LP, to publicly announce the
project. The immediate press ballyhoo helped convince more
artists to sign on to the project. In
the end, a quite impressive roster
was assembled for the band Geldolf dubbed Band
Aid.
There
were some notable missing stars. Paul McCartney was on board, but the
other surviving Beatles were
not—supposedly out of fear that if they were invited a frenzy for a Beatles reunion
would overshadow the other artists and the project. Only Roger
Daltry was on hand from The Who. No Rolling
Stones were involved and neither were Elton
John and Cliff Richards. Also notable for their absences and uninvited
were top female performers like Dusty
Springfield or Annie Lennox of Eurhythmics and Black stars other than Americans
Jody Watley and Michael Jackson. The rest of the women were part of the
Irish band Bananarama.
Studio
owner, Trevor Horn was originally
set to produce but had other commitments
and was unable to be there. Somewhat
reluctantly Geldof agreed to allow Ure to handle the recording and mixes. Horn did latter produce an extended 7 inch version of the song
with spoken word greetings from many
of the artists over a Feed the World groove on the B side.
Despite tensions between the
two creative forces behind the even, Ure proved to be a brilliant choice.
Ure
and Geldof arrived at the studio at 6 am. They brought with them two vocal
tracks by Sting of The Police and Simon Le Bon of Duran Duran
which were intended to be guides for the other singers. Ure also had a background track including percussion
from a drum machine he had already
recorded at his home studio. Pre-mixing
and editing continued until 9 am when the other artists began to arrive at the
studio, pushing through throngs of paparazzi
and media swarming outside.
On
hand early were Geldof’s band mates, and members of Duran Duran, Spandau Ballet, Kool and the Gang including Kool
himself, Bananarama, and Heaven
17. Culture Club, probably the hottest British act that year, were out
in force—without Boy George, who was
in New
York and had overslept and missed his flight. A furious Geldof called him, reamed him out
and got him to jump on the Concorde.
He arrived late in the day but in time to lay down his solo track—and take verbal pot shots at Le Bon, who he despised.
Only
one of Ure’s bandmates could be there, but Sting was on hand, Bono and a backing member of U2, Paul Young, Paul Weller of Style Council, Marilyn, and others. Phil Collins of Genesis showed up a bit later with his whole enormous drum kit, and his work was stripped in
over a now subdued drum machine track.
Some canned African drumming was also used in the
introduction.
After
getting everyone together to listen to the background track and samples, they
were all herded together to record the refrain, “'Feed the world, let them know
it’s Christmas time” over and over. Select media were invited to video and photograph
this part of the session, and before the day’s work was done clips were being shown on the BBC and across the puddle in the US whipping up interest in the project.
Then
Ure began recording each of the solo tracks.
Each of the designated singers would run through the entire song,
sometimes multiple times as Ure scribbled notes on how snippets would be used
in the final version. No one wanted to
be first in the booth in front of so many of their peers. Finally Tony
Hadley of Spandau Ballet agreed to be the first.
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| The light and shadow of this photo of the two creative forces behind the song and session reflects the strained relationship between Bob Geldoff (left0 and Midge Ure--Geldoff grabbed most of the attention and glory while Ure did the heavy lifting in the production booth. |
For
Ure, it had to be something of a grueling
assembly line and it did not go flawlessly.
Geldof kept coming into the production booth and trying to tell the
singers what to do and how to sing, usually not as Ure envisioned it. Some of the artists were not quite up to snuff, but nothing a deft producer couldn’t mask in the mix. Until Rick
Parfitt of Status Quo couldn’t
hit key harmonies assigned to him with band mate Francis Rossi. Eventually
Sting, Weller, and Glenn Gregory of Heaven 17 sang the critical
harmonies. Le Bon asked to re-record his
previously laid down track, saying that he was inspired and wanted to “be in
the moment.” Neither Geldof nor Ure sang
a solo, although both were in the group chorus.
Although
Parfitt flunked out of the recording booth, he did bring along a huge bag of cocaine, which he generously shared—hey, it was the ‘80’s, what did you expect? There was also plenty of wine and other spirits and god-only-knows what other drugs of choice. As Uri sweated in the
booth a major party broke out in the studio.
Boy
George, in a bit of a snit, finally arrived early in the evening and laid down
the final solo track. The artists began
drifting away, some carrying of the party in London hotel rooms. Ure,
with Geldof anxiously over his shoulder, began the complex job of editing and
mixing. They worked through the night,
finishing up almost exactly 24 hours after they had arrived in the studio. They both recorded spoken word greetings which were used along with words from artists
who could not perform live including McCartney, David Bowie, members of Big
Country and Holly Johnson from Frankie Goes to Hollywood which
producer Horn layered over the Feed the World riff for the B side of the 12
inch version of record.
If
Ure’s work was largely done, Geldof’s was just beginning. Over the next three days he proved himself
both relentless and a man not to be crossed. When record
label lawyers objected to the use of
their talent and certain managers
demanded star billing for their clients, he rolled right over them with threats of public shaming. Some of the lawyers might have wanted to
continue the battle knowing that they could easily win, but label executives quickly saw a looming public relations disaster and quietly caved.
Geldof
went on the BBC and announced that every
penny spent on buying the record
would go directly to famine relief. The
government of Prime Minister Margaret
Thatcher was not amused. The Foreign
Office fretted that money raised from the record would outstrip government contributions to Ethiopian relief—as indeed it
easily did—making them look bad. And Thatcher
herself was no fan of scruffy musicians
even if pop music was one of Britain’s biggest export industries
and especially of all of the Irish musicians involved who she suspected were IRA sympathizers. The government rushed out a statement that it would impose and collect the
customary Value Added Tax on all
sales which was invisibly imbedded in the cover price despite Geldof’s
promise. Geldof took to the airways with
furious denunciations. After a day or
two the government announced that while the tax would remain in place, it would
donate all proceeds back to the famine
relief charity. Geldof became one of
the few to ever get the Iron Lady to
blink in a public confrontation.
Geldof
got BBC 1 to break tradition and feature an as yet unreleased single on it programing.
Station management ordered it be played
at least once an hour, far exceeding the seven or eight plays a day usual
for the biggest hits. DJs began picking the recording apart in a game to try and identify each of the soloists. The TV show Tops of the Pops featured
it as the opening of every show past
the first of the New Year with a special introduction by Bowie and on a Christmas special invited many of the
soloists to come into the studio to be shot lip-syncing their parts to the record.
The
record was rushed from the pressers
and into the stores by November 29, although December 3 would be the official
release date. It was #1 on the
British charts before a single copy had been shipped. Sale far outstripped Geldof’s original hopes
of maybe £700,000. Millions flowed in
from just the UK and Ireland by the first of the year.
Across
the pond, Americans were introduced to it by relentless play of the video on MTV, then at the height of its cultural influence.
It easily shot up to the top in actual
sales, but the elaborate formula of the Billboard Charts, also factored in radio play and the single only
reached to #3 by that measure. Still,
enormously popular.
During
the run at the top of the British charts, Wham!
had a hit, Last Christmas which stayed at #2. George
Michael and Andrew Ridgeley donated their royalties to Band Aid.
The
record was re-released the following
Christmas and hit #1 again. It has since
been released almost annually and remains a seasonal evergreen. New versions mixing some of the
original artists with newcomers were
recorded in 1989 by Band Aid II and
in 2004 by Band Aid 20.
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| The star studded Live Aid Feed the World concerts at Wembley Stadium in London and JFK Stadium in Philadelphia on July 13, l984 attracted hundreds of millions of world-wide TV viewers and an avalanche of donation. |
Based
on the enormous popularity of the record, Geldof when on to create and produce
the epic Live Aid concerts broadcast
world-wide from Wembley Stadium
in the UK and JFK Stadium in Philadelphia on July 13, 1985. It would raise an additional £150 million
over time from contributions during the
live shows and sales of videos, books, and related material.
As
a result of the record and the concert, Geldof, but not the hard working Ure,
was knighted. He subsequently spent most of his time on
famine relief and other charity projects
and was accused by some of developing a messiah
complex. The example was not lost on
U2’s Bono who was involved in the record early in the band’s career. He likewise became a high profile international charity powerhouse and
has been accused of a similar ego.
One
of the longest lasting effects of
the record and concert were the imitators
they inspired. The following year in
1985 Live Aid participant Michael Jackson would team with Quincy Jones to produce an American
all-star charity record, We Are the World. Participants in that record climaxed the
American portion of the Live Aid concert
with a performance, just as many of the British performers did with Do They Know it’s Christmas at
Wembley. Since then other super sessions
have been arranged to raise money for many causes including for the families of
9/11 and Hurricane Katrina victims.
The
concert would inspire Willie Nelson,
John Melencamp, and Neil Young to begin their annual Farm Aid concerts in Champaign, Illinois in September
1985. Those concerts continue to raise
money for farmers beset by foreclosures, drought, flood, and other disasters.
Despite
all of the success of the record in raising money, there has been
criticism. Much of it directed at
Geldof, who walked away with most of the
credit for the joint effort and whose ego never recovered. Irish singer Morrissey who boycotted
the recording summed up this attitude bluntly:
I’m not afraid
to say that I think Band Aid was diabolical. Or to say that I think Bob Geldof
is a nauseating character. Many people find that very unsettling, but I’ll say
it as loud as anyone wants me to. In the first instance the record itself was
absolutely tuneless. One can have great concern for the people of Ethiopia, but
it’s another thing to inflict daily torture on the people of Great Britain. It
was an awful record considering the mass of talent involved. And it wasn’t done
shyly it was the most self-righteous platform ever in the history of popular
music.
Other
criticism is that some of the relief
funds may have wound up in the hands
of the main insurgent army in the Ethiopian civil war, the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) to buy arms—which Geldof furiously denies. But given the chaotic nature of getting relief to the needy in the midst of a
civil war, it is not unlikely that despite the best efforts of Aid groups on the ground managing
relief some funds got diverted to arms.
Many
on the political left have been
critical calling the record a simple
feel-good sop that doesn’t get to
the roots of poverty in global
income inequality and post-colonial
domination by multi-national
corporations.
Finally,
sub-Saharan Africans have become increasingly vocal in complaining that
the original record marginalizes, victimizes, and misrepresents their
lives. Of course millions of African know its Christmas and celebrate it. Others are Muslim or animist. There are plenty of rivers and rain in much
of the continent, and places where food crops are plentiful and abundant.
Despite
it all, Do They Know it’s Christmas remains
a beloved milestone record for
many. And it is not going away anytime soon.
You can hear it right along with such perennials as White Christmas and Rudolf
the Red-nosed Reindeer on those 24 hour a day Holiday Music Stations right now.
