Geldof to unveil star line-up for Band Aid 30 years on

Sir Bob Geldof is preparing to release a new version of Do They Know It’s Christmas? to coincide with the 30th anniversary of Band Aid. The Boomtown Rats frontman and Ultravox’s Midge Ure, who co-wrote the first Band Aid track, are expected to announce today the new line-up of pop heavyweights for the fourth recording. According to newspaper reports, boyband One Direction have been approached by Geldof to sing on the new version. The original Do They Know It’s Christmas? was released in 1984 to raise £8m for famine relief in Ethiopia. The charity song was re-recorded in 1989 and 2004. Critics have argued the song’s lyrics are “patronising and out-of-date”.

The song perpetuates the myth that Africa’s problems can somehow be blamed on lack of rainfall and failed harvests. Of a continent inhabited entirely by starving children with flies on their faces sitting in the sunbaked bed of a dried up stream.

Mark Curtis, director of the World Development Movement

The Irishman was joined 10 years ago by what were then fresh faces on the music scene including Will Young, Jamelia, Ms Dynamite, Rachel Stevens, Natasha Bedingfield, Busted, Katie Melua, Coldplay’s Chris Martin and Travis singer Fran Healy. Mercury prize winner Dizzee Rascal won acclaim for writing and performing a rap to accompany one of the verses. The original Christmas recording was an instant success, becoming the biggest hit in UK singles history for more than a decade, and led to the Live Aid concerts which raised around £150m.

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