Band Aid Feeds The World – remembering a Christmas miracle

In 2024, Band Aid celebrated the 40th anniversary of Do They Know It’s Christmas? with a compilation edition of the various incarnations. Here producer Trevor Horn explains the thrill of merging so many great artists together and Midge Ure tells us the full story of how the original song came to be…

When Midge Ure published his autobiography, If I Was, 20 years ago, he was keen to stress that his memory may have misled him at times, even in his own life story. “I didn’t want to upset anybody,” he tells Classic Pop from his home studio. “They were just my recollections – honest, but possibly inaccurate at times, because everyone remembers every story differently.”

This idea of false memory was brought home to Band Aid’s co-founder when the head of his record label, Chrysalis, found the demo of Do They Know It’s Christmas? while searching for unheard music to put on the reissue of Ure’s debut solo album The Gift last year.

Recorded “at my kitchen table on my toy keyboard”, it’s emotional for CP to hear the demo, let alone Midge Ure, when it turned up after 39 years. The demo was lost partly because Ure had written the title of another song on the cassette.

Feed The World

It’s so basic that you can hear Ure try out different counter-melodies. There’s certainly no hint of the song building to its “Feed the world” climax. But the main melody is right there, a piece of classic 80s iconography even in the demo’s tinny-sounding state. It’s what Ure calls “My Z-Cars theme”, after Bob Geldof’s initial response on hearing the demo was that it sounded like the title music to the 60s police drama.

It’s what you’d expect from a first demo. It isn’t, however, what Ure had expected to hear. “I was stunned when I first heard that demo again,” he admits. “I had no recollection of doing it. My memory was that, as soon as I sat down with that keyboard, I instantly came up with the song – and it’s blatantly obvious from the demo that that’s not the case.”

Instead, as Ure describes: “It meanders all over the place. I was trying a variety of different things for the song. You can hear there are obvious bits I’m honing in on. The weird way I write music is that the songwriting and production are all one process. To me, music, lyrics, melody, counter-melody: they’re all as important as each other. Hearing that lost recording was such an eye-opener for me.”

A-list Supergroup

Ure was shocked that Do They Know It’s Christmas? had such a basic demo because it’s well-known that he and Bob Geldof only had four days to write it in. And with Geldof understandably determined to persuade as many A-list popstars as possible to appear on Band Aid, it was left to Ure to actually get the song into shape.

As Ure puts it: “While Bob had the massive task of doing the persuading, I had the massive task of turning Bob’s bizarre ramblings into a coherent song to work with my Z-Cars theme. I didn’t have time to wander down King’s Road to have lunch with whoever happened to be passing to ask them onto our song. I was manacled to the desk.”

That Ure was able to create such a classic is a Christmas miracle. It’s a song that’s survived Band Aid II, Band Aid 20 and Band Aid 30, each with a new generation of pop talent bringing their own contemporary twist, respectively produced by Stock Aitken Waterman, Nigel Godrich and Paul Epworth.

Mixing The Eras

Rather than get, say, Dua Lipa, Sam Fender and Celeste to cover Do They Know It’s Christmas? again, for the latest version, Band Aid 40, Trevor Horn was brought in to mix together the single’s previous incarnations. The process has enabled him to figure out why the song is so adaptable. “It’s almost like a folk tune,” considers Horn. “It is a pretty simple song: it cycles around four chords; F, G, C, and D Minor, while the bridge is A Minor to G. It’s the simplicity that makes it.

“There are elements, like the ‘It’s Christmas time’ section, that are pure folk. Charity records can be pretty clunky, and Band Aid was much better than I expected it to be. It was interesting hearing so many people singing on the same song, all singing their own bit. I hadn’t heard anything like it.”

Ure is more critical of his own composition, insisting: “I’m not so sure it is so adaptable. Look, there are better Christmas songs. I like the Christmas songs I grew up with, like Little Donkey, and Band Aid wouldn’t make it into my Top 10 Christmas songs. You can choose so many Christmas songs that are beautifully constructed and have beautiful melodies.

“I’ve no idea why Do They Know It’s Christmas? works, but it might be about the social impact it made, as much as the song itself. It could be that we look at the world through rose-tinted glasses to how it was first made. Whatever the reason, it does seem to be a song that people want to reinterpret, and that’s great.”

Social Impact

As well as merging generations of talent from Boy George to One Direction via Coldplay, Band Aid 40 features elements of BBC1 newsreader Michael Buerk’s original report from Ethiopia in 1984, which caused Geldof to first create Band Aid.

“I could give you a complicated answer about featuring the reportage, but the truth is that Bob wanted me to do it,” smiles Horn.

By then, Horn had already asked ZTT co-founder Paul Morley what to include. “One of Paul’s ideas was: ‘Put Michael Buerk in’,” says Horn. “Listening back to that report now, what Buerk says is profound.”

When he first saw Buerk’s film, Geldof phoned his wife Paula Yates while she was about to host The Tube to say that he wanted to help. Famously, Midge Ure was stood next to Paula.

“If Bob could have chosen anyone to write Band Aid with, he wouldn’t have sought me out at all,” admits Ure. “From Ultravox, I’d have been too electronic and too stylised for Bob. But, at that moment, I was the only songwriter on the end of that phone.”

Joining Forces

At least the pair knew each other. “If I hadn’t known Bob, I might have said no to being involved,” Ure says. “I didn’t know what the famine was about. Bob was on the phone straight after the broadcast, so obviously I hadn’t had chance to see the report. But I’d known Bob since The Rich Kids, as he’d come to see us in Dublin. We weren’t bosom buddies, but I’d had dinner at his place a few times. Everybody knew Bob. If you didn’t know him from The Boomtown Rats, you knew him through Paula, who’d interviewed everyone.”

The next day, once Ure was back from The Tube, he and Geldof met to discuss what to do. “We had to write our own [original] song,” Ure explains. “It couldn’t be a cover, because otherwise half the royalties would go to the songwriter. And we quickly realised it had to be a Christmas record.  “On a purely fiscal level, Christmas No.1s sold more than a No.1 at any other time of year. Mull Of Kintyre was mentioned.”

Geldof already had the germ of an idea. Ure recalls: “Before that first meeting, Bob had the structure of something. It was a song the Rats had said no to. In Bob’s mind, it just needed a bit of tweaking. I went home from that lunch and came up with the Z-Cars bit.”

In 2020, Geldof explained to Classic Pop that writing Do They Know It’s Christmas? with Ure was key to his confidence as a songwriter. He had never written a song with anyone away from The Boomtown Rats before and wasn’t sure that he could.

Making History

“I had very little confidence in myself as a musician,” Geldof told us. “When I spoke to Midge, he was having hits and I wasn’t. When Midge said he’d do it, he asked if I had a song we could work on. That was normal – just one songwriter talking to another. But I freaked out a bit. Midge told me: ‘You write a bit, I’ll write a bit, we’ll see what comes out.’ That assumption I was on the same level as Midge did so much for my confidence.”

It’s a revelation that shocks Ure, who says: “I’d never thought of it that way, because Bob was always a songwriter to me. Yes, the Rats were on the wane a bit at the time. But, when they were riding high, their stuff was fantastic. Bob wasn’t just some loudmouth, he came up with interesting songs. So I hadn’t thought on any level that I was helping him to write.”

The pair met for lunch again the next day, this time at Ure’s home in Chiswick, West London, where he had recently built a home studio. “Bob played me the song idea he had,” Ure remembers. “But, every time he did so, it sounded different. It was quite a malleable idea, but the elements were there.

“Bob then began switching his time between bludgeoning poor artists he met on the King’s Road and bludgeoning record companies to do it for free. All of that was imperative, and it let me get on with putting these totally incompatible elements together.”

Against The Clock

Geldof suggested Trevor Horn should produce Band Aid, but Ure grins: “Trevor takes his time, and time was the one thing not on our side. Trevor is pedantic, and rightly so, because it’s why his are some of the best productions ever.” Horn totally accepts Ure’s view, laughing: “Midge is right, I would have taken too long. I was pretty crazy about my output at that time.

“When you listen to the original Band Aid, Midge did a really good job. It’s unfair, but a lot of people keep praising me for Midge’s work and think I produced it. I have to tell them: ‘No, it was Midge Ure, it was just done at my studio.’”

Having recently built his home studio for Ultravox’s Lament helped shape Do They Know It’s Christmas?: “I was emotional back-up for Bob, and someone who knew technically what to do,” Ure reflects. “Band Aid wouldn’t have happened the way it did if I didn’t know technically what I was doing. Understanding how to put arrangements together and operating a studio were key to how quickly we turned the song around.”

How would Do They Know It’s Christmas? sound if Bob and Midge had four months to write it, rather than four days? “Bob would have analysed it to death,” laughs Ure. “It could have dragged on and had the life beaten out of it. Working against the clock worked out incredibly well.”

We Are The World

To prepare for Band Aid 40, Ure rewatched the original Band Aid documentary, which made him appreciate the magic of the deadline. He explains: “The footage shows Bob keeps popping in on the day of recording, telling everyone: ‘You need to sing it with more emotion. Sing it like this: ‘Giiiiive!’ And I’m there going: ‘For God’s sake, Bob, you’ve got to let them sing it the way they want.’ Those singers weren’t doing an entire performance. It’d be four words, so let them sing it the way they want.”

This is, of course, a contrast to USA For Africa’s We Are The World in 1985. Midge Ure was as surprised as anyone watching Netflix’s recent documentary, The Greatest Night In Pop, on how Quincy Jones produced Michael Jackson, Lionel Richie, Stevie Wonder and co.

“USA For Africa was the antithesis of Band Aid,” says Ure. “They had weeks to put it together, and they did it brilliantly. They could plan whose voice worked best in that key, who could put the right amount of power into any particular line. Watching that was incredible. The Band Aid documentary is like a Carry On movie by comparison. And that’s commendable, because Band Aid wouldn’t have worked any other way.”

While Ure downplays Do They Know It’s Christmas? as a song, he is understandably proud of how he masterminded pulling it into shape so quickly, saying: “There’s a uniquenessto it that neither Bob or I would have done on our own. It doesn’t have a normal song structure, it’s like no song I’d written before.”

Inspired Afterthought

That doesn’t mean it’s something Ure has considered revisiting in terms of its songwriting style, as he adds: “Nothing repeats in Band Aid. Choruses are what I grew up with, that’s the structure I know. Yet, in trying to write a song everyone would go out and buy, we ended up with one that doesn’t have a chorus.

“It starts quiet, and progresses into a beast at the other end. There’s no singalong bit until ‘Feed the world’ at the very end. To try to keep the song interesting for people all the way through, Do They Know It’s Christmas? had to morph throughout. The melody has to build and grow, creeping up to hit the point of ‘Feed the world.’ At the end of the fourth day, we hadn’t written the ‘Feed the world’ section. That was an afterthought, through realising we needed something everyone could sing along to.

“I think the beginning of the song is great. The clanging chimes of doom is an ominous, dark, haunting, miserable beginning that sets it all up and reflects what we’re singing about. But we had to turn that into a joyous singalong. Doing that in the space of three-and-a-half minutes is an odd thing to try to pull off. It came together incredibly well, but we had a bunch of talented people to help us.”

That Geldof cajoled so many stars together looks even more remarkable now that email and WhatsApp would have made it so much easier. “We didn’t speak to any adults,” admits Ure. “We only spoke to artists. Sat outside the studio, we had a moment of not knowing if anyone would come. Everyone was all over the world – Duran and Spandau coming back from their TV show in Germany, Boy George on Concorde. It was a miracle that everyone turned up.”

On Best Behaviour

Not only did everyone turn up, they all behaved themselves, too. The single was recorded with the minimum of fuss. “Everyone in pop is incredibly competitive, particularly singers,” Horn points out. “Simon Le Bon, Bono, Sting – they were all alpha males in there. But it felt on that day none of that counted. Everyone recognised there was a higher cause – you don’t often get that in pop. Nobody was pulling rank, everyone was very malleable.”

Horn admits there was a possible ulterior motive for the chilled mood: “Everyone could tell Band Aid was going to be big. If you were on that song, you were going to be a bit of a legend. So you’d best behave and get on with it.”

That was another contrast to the powerplays in USA For Africa, as Ure reasons: “Everyone stood behind the mic and sang like angels at Band Aid. That’s unlike the American song, where everyone tries to out-sing each other with vocal gymnastics. Ours was the opposite, because we weren’t looking for magic moments. Band Aid was: ‘We’re looking for what you do.’ They understood the grasp of what they should be doing. They sounded like themselves, not trying to outdo each other.”

Despite the sense of community, Do They Know It’s Christmas? wasn’t wholly without problems. Ure recalls: “Seeing the Band Aid footage again also made me realise just how many people were in the control room with me. I look like a rabbit in the headlights, because I was intimidated. I look like a kid who’s wandered in off the streets among all these rock stars. We were grateful for them being there, so I wasn’t going to kick them out. It was so strange to see all of that again – the chaos, the bewilderment, the enthusiasm.”

Magic Moments

Of course, magic happened from certain individuals. “Bono was obviously a moment,” smiles Ure. “It’s well known Bono had problems with the context of ‘Thank God it’s them’. Once Bob explained it: ‘It means ‘Thank God it’s not you,” then Bono took it and belted it out. I wasn’t expecting that. On the guide vocal, I sang Bono’s line fairly low-key. Between Bono singing it and Phil Collins’ drums coming in then, the whole song just lifted at that point.”

Having stuck the Band Aids together, Horn recognises how well all of the subsequent singers have shone in the new track. “Hearing them all makes you realise who has a distinctive voice,” he says. “It was an interesting experience to have so many great singers in the computer. Sam Smith: woah, what a distinctive voice. Boy George is incredible, too. You can tell him a mile off.

“I started by thinking of this as being like a 12″, but that was difficult because the original Band Aid multitrack hardly has anything on it. It’s mainly vocals, with a fairly spare backing track.” Horn’s solution was to get his regular keyboard player, Jamie Muhoberac, to add parts Horn could dot around his new version.

Horn soon realised that some fundamentals had to stay. “I wanted to still start with Paul Young,” he says. “Paul’s voice is so classic, it had to stay. Chris Martin has a great voice, too, and I was pleased with how Paul’s voice goes into Chris’. It is interesting how well Sting’s voice works, too. Sting blends with everyone, so I use a lot of his harmonies. Sting sounds fantastic, even with people who he never sang with on the original.

Less universal is Dizzee Rascal’s rap from Band Aid 20. Great rapper though he is, Dizzee’s verse could have jarred next to, say, Tony Hadley. “I didn’t really like where Dizzee sits in the 2004 version,” confesses Horn. “I thought he was really shoehorned in, so I wanted to give Dizzee more space now.”

Band Aid II

There’s one key aspect missing in Trevor Horn’s mash-up of the past Band Aid singles: nobody from Band Aid II in 1989 was able to be included. “Nobody could find the multitrack for the Stock Aitken Waterman version,” reveals Horn. “I phoned Midge to get the multitrack of the original Band Aid, and Universal were able to locate them for the 2004 and 2014 versions, but Band Aid II is currently missing.”

Band Aid II features the likes of Jason Donovan, Bros, Jimmy Somerville, Cliff Richard, Kylie and Chris Rea.

Is there anyone Horn would have loved to include on Band Aid 40 if the tapes had turned up? “When I knew I couldn’t have the multitrack, I didn’t listen to it,” he admits. “Marti Pellow has a great voice. So has Jimmy Somerville, but Marti is more to my own taste. Using him would have been interesting.”

A Christmas Classic

Horn and Ure are both delighted Do They Know It’s Christmas? has become as standard as Christmas carols, with Ure quietly chuffed that teachers explain the reasons why Band Aid happened to schoolchildren who sing it during the festive season.

That doesn’t mean Ure is blind to criticisms of the song’s lyrics from a 2024 viewpoint – but he’s frustrated when people don’t recognise they were written from a 1984 perspective. “Had it been written today, we might have had a different take on it,” he offers. “Bob’s lyrics might have been less abrasive. It’s radically unfair to look back and go: “Them instead of you”? Ouch! “Here’s to them”? Oh no!’ It’s what worked at the time.

“We were trying to make something inherently fluffy in its nature, which is a record to get played in the charts, for a cause. It wasn’t meant to be an analytical song and, as a song, it wasn’t groundbreaking. As an event, that is when it became groundbreaking.”

An inherently fluffy song raising money for a cause is a large constant between all five takes of Do They Know It’s Christmas? As Ure insists: “Being covered by every generation means money for the cause. That’s it. Every generation should do its own interpretation. Whether I like it doesn’t matter. Whether the public likes it doesn’t matter, so long as they buy it! None of it matters, so long as those funds are generated. The style of any version, who sings it: it’s nonsense. It doesn’t matter. Trevor’s new version won’t sell a gazillion copies like the first one, because it’s being released in a different world. But it can make people aware of what happened then and what’s happening now. That’s what matters.”

Still Matters

So who’s on Band Aid 50 won’t matter either? “Nope! Band Aid is a platform, a soapbox. In order to get the word out, you need the biggest artists to do that. If Taylor Swift is still around in a decade, then she is cordially invited to come along and bring her fans with her. It’ll be the same principle, just 50 years later.”

Midge Ure is concerned for the future of Band Aid, as the charity doesn’t have a natural replacement for Bob Geldof to take over the running of the project.

“I’m worried about what will happen when Bob is too old,” Ure ponders. “We have to pass the baton on and figure out what to do with its legacy. There’s no one waiting in the wings to take over, no one of today’s musicians who might do it that I know of. Somebody might have spoken to Bob about that, but I don’t think so.”

The charity doesn’t have the same high profile that it did in the 80s, as Ure says: “It’s not the beast that it was back in the day, but it’s just as important. Everyone has their own causes now, but maybe there’s someone out there waiting. [Me and Bob] still email all the time, assessing requests for funding from agencies in the field and funding the ones who fit the brief we’ve had for 40 years. It still matters.”

For more information visit the Band Aid Trust here

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