Band Aid has released a new short film celebrating the charity supergroup’s 40th anniversary, and looking back on the making of “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” The film was directed by Oliver Murray, and narrated by actor Jeremy Irons.
Formed in 1984 by Bob Geldof and Midge Ure, the group came together to help raise funds to support famine aid in Ethiopia. The BBC’s coverage of the famine had inspired The Boomtown Rats frontman Geldof—who also acted with the encouragement of his partner, Paula Yates—to take action, recruiting a group of primarily British and Irish faces to record “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” The artists featured on the original 1984 record included Boy George, Duran Duran, Bono, Phil Collins, George Michael, Duran Duran, Culture Club, Kool & The Gang, Chris Cross, Bananarama and more. Paul McCartney, David Bowie and others also provided spoken messages on the single’s B-sides.
In support of the record, the group also played a series of Live Aid shows run by Celebrity Charity, and broadcast in over 160 countries. Together, Band Aid and Live Aid raised about $150 million for famine relief.
Since 1984, multiple iterations of stars have come together to re-record the single for different charitable causes. In 2004, Band Aid 20 released an edition with all proceeds going to support humanitarian aid in Sudan’s Darfur region. Bono and Paul McCartney were the only original Band Aid artists to sing on this edition—the new version featured Sugababes, Robbie Williams, Gary Lightbody, Jamelia, Estelle, Dido, Coldplay’s Chris Martin, Natasha Bedingfield, and Dizzee Rascal, who was the only artist to add new lyrics. Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood of Radiohead played piano and guitar, respectively.
The group’s most incarnation, Band Aid 30, released a version of the song in 2014 to help aid victims of the Ebola outbreak in Western Africa. New faces included Seal, One Direction, Sinéad O’Connor, Ed Sheeran, Sam Smith, Jessie Ware, Emeli Sandé, Paloma Faith and Clean Bandit. The record was remastered just this year, marking 40 years since Geldof and Ure’s initial brainchild.
Listen to “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” now.
