House of Cat

music/art/culture

Feeding the World

Posted on | December 19, 2009 | 1 Comment

dotheyknow

In 1984, Irish singer Bob Geldof saw a news report on the famine in Ethopia. Apparently it made quite an impact, as Geldof was moved to do some fundraising to help. He called Midge Ure from Ultravox and together they wrote the song “Do They Know It’s Christmas.”

Geldof, who was scheduled to promote his latest album on BBC radio, instead turned the focus to the new song, the proceeds of which would aid famine victims. His interview created a nice media buzz and Geldof was able to attract the most popular British and Irish musicians of the time to form the “charitable supergroup” Band Aid. The allstar ensemble included U2, Queen, Duran Duran, The Police, Culture Club, Bananarama, Kool & the Gang, Jody Watley, George Michael and a whole slew of others.

If you were there, you remember that this song was the biggest thing of it’s time. It captured everything we loved about ’80s music and culture, introduced global issues to our mall-going minds and gave us a sense of pride that we were contributing to something important by buying the record.

Band Aid emerges every decade or so to re-record “Do They Know It’s Christmas” with a new lineup of top-40 rockers, but from my child-of-the-’80s, totally nostalgic viewpoint, the cause would be better served to come up with something new, as no re-do will ever compare to the original.

What do you remember about Band Aid?

Do They Know It’s Christmas by Band Aid

Related Posts
Royal Mail Rocks
The Greatest Form of Flattery
The Best Albums of 2009
Dark Was the Night

If you like this article, share it!
Facebook
Twitter
StumbleUpon
Delicious

Category: Culture, Music
Tags: > >

Comments

One Response to “Feeding the World”

  1. Anthony
    December 23rd, 2009 @ 6:04 AM

    I love how seasonally appropriate your posts always are!

Leave a Reply