Who says you can’t breathe new life into an old song? Some people do, unfortunately.
This weekend, history is being made and repeated in one go. 30 years on from the massive success of Band Aid, “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” is being reincarnated for a fourth release – this time to help the victims of Ebola in West Africa.
Just as Bono, Sting and Phil Collins joined the biggest names in pop in a tiny Notting Hill studio for an intensive 24-hour recording session in 1984, tomorrow Roger Taylor, Chris Martin and Elbow join a host of other top musicians in the exact same studio to sing the same song.
Bono will be there flying the flag for the original line-up alongside the likes of One Direction, Ed Sheeran and Adele. The first Band Aid line-up managed to raise over €10 million and now Bob Geldof and Midge Ure are hoping for similar success in raising cash for the Ebola crisis.
Amazingly, however, this tireless duo is actually facing criticism for #BANDAID30. Believe it or not, words like “patronising”, and “tired” have been bandied about this week. 30 years after Peter Blake (famed for the cover of The Beatles’ Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band) designed the Band Aid single, this time round Tracy Emin has been drafted in to do the cover, which will be available to download first thing on Monday morning.
Emin is the artist who made headlines a few months ago when her Turner prize-nominated work ‘My Bed’ was auctioned off. As the title suggests, the piece actually is Emin’s bed: unkempt complete with stains, rubbish and dirty undies strewn around it, but it fetched millions of euro.
If Tracy Emin can make huge money for recycling old and used things, why can’t Geldof and Ure do the same for an extremely worthy cause? Let’s face it, you’re not buying the single from #BANDAID30 for the song, you’re doing it for the cause. Rock on, Bob.
Dee Woods
Morning Glory Mon-Fri 6-10am
