Band Aid (band)
Band Aid were a charity supergroup featuring mainly British and Irish musicians and recording artists. It was founded in 1984 by Bob Geldof and Midge Ure to raise money for anti-famine efforts in Ethiopia. On 25 November 1984, the song was recorded at Sarm West Studios in Notting Hill, London, and was released in the UK on Monday 3 December.
About Band Aid (band) in brief
Band Aid were a charity supergroup featuring mainly British and Irish musicians and recording artists. It was founded in 1984 by Bob Geldof and Midge Ure to raise money for anti-famine efforts in Ethiopia. On 25 November 1984, the song was recorded at Sarm West Studios in Notting Hill, London, and was released in the UK on Monday 3 December. The single surpassed the hopes of the producers to become the Christmas number one on that release. Three subsequent re-recordings of the song to raise further money for charity also topped the charts, first the Band Aid II version in 1989. The Band Aid 20 version in 2004 and finally the Band aid 30 version in 2014. The original was produced by MidgeUre. The 12\” version was mixed by Trevor Horn. The supergroup was formed by BobGeldof, who was then lead singer of the Irish band the Boomtown Rats. The group was composed of forty artists to raise awareness and funds for the Ethiopian famine in 1983–1985. The first tracks to be recorded were the group choir choruses which were filmed by the international press. Later, drums by Phil Collins were recorded. Tony Hadley, of Spandau Ballet, was the first to record his vocal, while a section sung by Status Quo was deemed unusable. Paul Weller, Sting, and Glenn Gregory from Heaven 17 sang between contributions from George Michael and Sting. Paul Young from Paul Young has since admitted, in a documentary, that he knew his opening lines were written for David Bowie, but made a contribution to the B-side.
George Michael was not able to make the recording but arrived at 6pm after phone-off with the British Government, who refused to waive the VAT on the sales of the single. The following morning, Geld of appeared on Radio 1 breakfast show with Mike Read, to promote the record and promise that every penny would go to the cause. He then kept an appointment to appear on a show on BBC Radio 1, with Richard Skinner, but instead of promoting the new Boom Town Rats material as planned, he announced the plan for Band Aid. The recording studio gave Band Aid no more than 24 free hours to record and mix the record, on 25 Nov 1984. To do so, the artists recorded a hit single titled \”Do They Know It’s Christmas?\” depicting the poverty-stricken African scenery of the time. Lyrics included a description of the country saying, \”where nothing ever grows, no rain or rivers flow, do they know it’s Christmas time at all?\” Ethiopia follows the Orthodox calendar where Christmas is celebrated on the seventh of January, but the country had a Communist government and as such, religious festivals were not celebrated. The introduction of the track features a slowed down sample from a Tears for Fears’ track called \”The Hurting\”, released in 1983.
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This page is based on the article Band Aid (band) published in Wikipedia (as of Dec. 28, 2020) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
