Sir Bob Geldof says new Band Aid single celebrates ‘40 years of British rock’

The singer-songwriter and activist who formed supergroup, Band Aid, back in 1984 has praised the release of an Ultimate Mix 40 years on, calling it “beautiful”. Band Aid 40’s ‘Do They Know It’s Christmas’ brings together voices from the 1984 original, as well as the 2004 and 2014 recordings.

And now Sir Bob Geldof, who first created the group back in the 80s alongside Midge Ure to raise funds for famine relief, has hailed the final product “extraordinary”, saying it is made up of “40 years of British rock”. He joined Ken Bruce on Greatest Hits Radio to tell us more…

“Isn’t it beautiful. I mean seriously, that’s the correct word, it is beautiful. You know Midge and I knocked off this OKish song, and we thought, that’ll do. And it did. And various hit producers did their thing with it, but this makes it into something extraordinary, into a really beautiful pop record.”

Sir Bob told Ken the new track is a celebration of Band Aid’s 40th anniversary: “I was thinking about it and if you look at the three official versions, you can view it as 40 years of British rock. I mean genuine world geniuses who determined the culture. And they’re all on this song. All of them. So you go from a Beatle, the benediction of Saint Paul, through to Thom Yorke on piano, Damon Albarn and Paul Weller on guitar, Jonny Greenwood from Radiohead on guitar, Midge Ure on guitar, Justin Hawkins on guitar, that’s the house band. The house band drummers; Phil Collins, Roger Taylor, Danny Coffey. I mean that’s the house band, never mind the singers.

“And I thought is it possible to put these three very different productions, very different lyrics all on one thing. So I rang up Trevor Horn, who is, you know, a genius. And I said Trevor here’s the quiz band plan, you get to put all these people singing completely different things onto the track. And he’s said look that’s gonna be impossible, it’s all different times and all that, and I said give it a try.

“And what he’s done, properly, forget what it’s about, forget the song, what he’s done in terms of pop production and technology, it’s extraordinary. And so you do get a very young Sting singing with a very young Harry Styles. A very young Bono singing with a very old Bono. Chris Martin with Sinead O’Connor. And this is the weirdest word to use…it’s very emotional.

“And the video…all these people of 40 years, three generations of brilliance, be in one room singing together, and they are. And it’s amazing.

"We have David Bowie at the very beginning, and it's sad seeing David. He was so into this. He was a very kind man. David introduces it and he's wearing my crap t-shirt, Feed The World t-shirt. Because he looked so cool. I said 'David you look a bit too cool, do you want to wear my t-shirt'. He said yeah yeah. And my crap t-shirt looks so good on David, but of course what doesn't."

Watch Band Aid 40's 'Do They Know It's Christmas'...

Sir Bob, who rose to fame as the lead singer of The Boomtown Rats in the 1970s, reflected on how it all started back in 1984: “You get a call from literally the United Nations saying please do something, please alert something. And so you respond the only way you can, you’re a pop singer! So you call up this generation and say do you wanna help. And they all do.”

40-years-old, Bob reflects on the monumental success of Band Aid: “This isn’t what was planned for me, in my head. And now it’s just half my life.

“The six people who started the journey, that I asked to help me for an hour, as John Kennedy famously said, 40 years later, there we are, talking every day about this latest thing.

“It’s mad. You keep saying 40 years and it sort of pulls me up sharp that it has been 40 years.”

Watch Ken's full interview with Bob Geldof...

When was Band Aid 40’s ‘Do They Know It’s Christmas’ released?

It was released on 24th November 2024 – and has joined the race for Christmas Number 1.

Now take our Christmas lyrics quiz...

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