Band Aid 30 2015 Fights Ebola

Same studio, same month, but several new faces, most of whom were not born when the first Band Aid single was recorded three decades ago.

Saturday saw the remaking of Do They Know It’s Christmas?, the single that raised millions for famine relief in Ethiopia in 1984. Bob Geldof and Midge Ure, the same pair who organised the supergroup of British and Irish pop stars then, hope this weekend’s Band Aid incarnation will bring in similar amounts of money to help combat Ebola in west Africa.

he lyrics to the Band Aid 30 version of the song have been changed too, to reflect the different cause. Several lines from the 1984 song were heavily criticised here and in Africa for being clumsy and patronising, including the one about no rivers flowing in Africa – the continent of the Nile, Congo and Niger.

“And tonight thank God it’s them instead of you” – that unmistakable Bono-voiced line that became beloved of impersonators everywhere – has also gone. This time he sang: “Well tonight we’re reaching out and touching you.”