At Christmas time in 1984 the most famous artists in British music business took part in the Band Aid charity project and the single Do They Know It’s Christmas? reached number 1 in 13 countries becoming the fastest selling record in UK chart history.
In October 1984 Bob Geldof saw a television report about the terrible famine in Ethiopia and had the idea to record a charity single to raise money for those hit by the famine. He called his friend, Ultravox singer Midge Ure, who agreed at once, and together they wrote Do They Know It’s Christmas.
On 25 November 1984 the song was recorded at Sarm West Studios in London, which were left to the Band Aid project for free for 24 hours. At his home studio Ure had already arranged a backing track and recorded the vocals of Simon Le Bon and Sting to provide a guide for the other vocalist.
At 9 am on 25 November the first artists (among them Duran Duran, Spandau Ballet, Sting, Culture Club, Paul Young, George Michael, Bono and Phil Collins) arrived at the studios, where the world’s press was waiting. To get all musicians together Ure decided to record the group parts first. The artists formed a huge choir and sang the lines „Feed the world, let them know it’s Christmas time“.
Then he went on with the solo vocal parts. Spandau Ballet’s Tony Hadley volunteered for the unpleasant job to be the first in the recording booth, while all the others were watching him.
Although their vocals had already been recorded at Midge Ure’s private studio, Simon Le Bon and Sting sang their parts again to be part of the moment.
Phil Collins even brought his entire drum kit to the session. Beside Collin’s drums the finished record also features an African rhythm, which was taken from the Tears for Fears song The Hurting.
The last one in the studio was Boy George. After Bob Geldof had woken him up with a telephone call in his New York hotel room, the Culture Club singer took a flight with the Concorde to London and arrived at 6 pm.
After the recording session Midge Ure worked on the mix through the whole night. When they had finally finished the job in the early morning hours, Bob Geldof recorded the following statement: „This Record was recorded on the 25th of November 1984. It’s now eight a.m. on the 26th. We’ve been here 24 hours and I think it’s time we went home.“
Three days later the single was published and until Christmas 1984 already 8 million dollar had been earned for the people in Ethiopia.
80s music mixtape 