Secrets of Band Aid 40 years on including group on coke, ‘forgotten’ songwriter & why lyrics were changed
IT is the Christmas song that raised more than £80million for charity, sold almost 12million copies worldwide and features some of the biggest global pop stars of the time.
But today — to mark the track’s 40th year — we reveal how the success of Band Aid’s Do They Know It’s Christmas? was fuelled by day-old sandwiches, booze swiped from a journalist’s nearby home and, for some, Status Quo’s cocaine supply.
The iconic bells on the single were knocked out on songwriter Midge Ure’s Casio keyboard, Boy George was scrambled to the studio from New York by Concorde when he initially didn’t show up, and Duran Duran got locked in the studio toilet.
The incredible tales of the making of the hit charity single are told in an interview with Robin Eggar — one of only two music journalists allowed in the room for the famous studio session by the organisers, Ultravox frontman Midge and Boomtown Rats singer Bob Geldof.
Speaking exclusively to The Sun, Robin said: “It was a remarkable day, given the number of stars.
“There were some hilarious moments and it was incredible to see all these artists in one cramped, slightly worn studio together.
“Bob Geldof corralled and bullied all these artists like Duran Duran, George Michael and U2, who had been competing against each other in the charts and slagging each other off publicly, into one place on a quiet Sunday in London in November.
Good time
“It may never have been the same if it hadn’t been for Concorde. Bob called Boy George and ordered him to fly in from New York on the day.
“Despite all the egos, everyone got on well but there was no catering — people were told to go out and get their own sandwiches and I had to go back to my place to get six bottles of wine, which disappeared in ten minutes.
“Status Quo kept disappearing off to the toilets with others and coming back ‘refreshed’.
“Despite his day starting at 8am, Midge had to kick most people out at midnight because everyone was having such a good time.”
On Monday, it will be four decades since around 40 of Britain’s finest pop stars assembled in Sarm Studios, West London, to lay down the hastily created song, which went on to become the biggest-selling charity record in UK history.
The single was inspired by a haunting 1984 BBC News report from Ethiopia, where famine had ravaged the country and led to 1.2million deaths between 1983 and 1985 alone.
After watching the images of starving children on the dispatch, Bob Geldof called his friend Midge to tell him: “We must make a record.”
Robin, a music reporter who had interviewed some of the day’s biggest stars, said: “Bob went on a mission to raise money. He bullied and corralled anyone he could in music and did it all in a few weeks.
“Bob’s career was a bit on the floor. His partner, Paula Yates, was much more famous as she was presenting The Tube on TV.
“But he had everyone’s phone numbers and wouldn’t stop bullying them to show up.
“The person who gets forgotten a little bit in this is Midge. He was a much bigger star than Bob.
“Once Bob had the confidence that Midge was on board, he then started pushing people. Sting was an easy hit, because he was very keen on all sorts of environmental issues.
“Bob bumped into Simon Le Bon of Duran Duran leaving the Picasso club on the King’s Road just after he spotted Gary Kemp from Spandau Ballet through an art gallery window.
“U2 were there because they were both Irish and it was just easier to do what Bob said as he would never have let them hear the end of it.
“Bob would tell them that others were confirmed, even if they weren’t, so they felt they had to come.
“They initially said, ‘We’re aiming to get a Christmas No1 with the single and make a few hundred thousand quid’ but the reality is the song has made around £80million.”
Midge wrote the music while Bob penned the lyrics ahead of the November 25 recording. But when they arrived at 8am, no one else was there bar the film crew outside.
Robin, who arrived before most of the stars, said: “I knew a lot of the bands and I was living a gentle walk away.
“Paul Young arrived first, Sting then came in carrying the Sunday papers, then Bono and Adam Clayton from U2 arrived.
“Paul Weller turned up and was very nervous. Bananarama pitched up in a battered cab.
“Duran, Duran and Spandau Ballet came in around 10am. They’d been at a TV show in Germany the night before, so they’d all flown in together, and they’d had a drinking competition the night before so were looking a little worse for wear.
“There was no security, no managers, no publicists.
“There was a bit of ‘not wanting to sit at the front of class’ about who sang first. In the end, Spandau’s Tony Hadley eventually volunteered.”
At 11am, Culture Club arrived and Bob realised someone was missing — Boy George.
Robin said: “Bob called him up in his hotel room at 6am in New York. A groggy George was telling him he was going to struggle to make it and Bob just cut in and said, ‘Everyone’s here except you.
‘Boy George was spicy’
There’s a Concorde to London at 9.30am, get on it’. He arrived mid-afternoon.
“When George waltzed in, he said, ‘Could somebody get me some brandy?’. When Bob said he’d have to do his lines first, George was very spicy. Bob jokingly said, ‘Oh, get on with it, you f***ing old queen’.
“George responded, ‘Shut up, you Irish tart’. George sang his line — one take — then swanned off into the studio to basically spread chaos. He gave everyone a boost.”
To keep everyone occupied, photographer Brian Aris got the group to all sing the famous “Feed the World” chorus as he snapped away. Status Quo’s Francis Rossi had them in stitches by saying, “Why is everyone singing ‘Feed the Welsh’?”
Robin recalled Quo guitarist Rick Parfitt also struggled with some of their trademark harmonies — finally leaving Rossi to do their lines alone.
The two songwriters made changes to the song as they went along.
Robin said: “Bob ribbed Midge Ure about the middle section, which he did on his Casio keyboard.
If anything, it’s Jingle Bells mixed with The Dam Busters theme tune.
Midge Ure
“Bob said, ‘It sounds like the theme from Z-Cars done on the Stylophone’. Midge snapped back, ‘If anything, it’s Jingle Bells mixed with The Dam Busters theme tune’.
“They also realised the line, ‘And there won’t be snow in Ethiopia this Christmas’ wouldn’t fit, so changed Ethiopia for Africa.
“I also remember Paul Young was trying to sing his lines and Bob was cutting in from behind the desk and telling him what to sing, but Bob was completely out of tune.
“Paul looked confused. Midge cut in and shouted, ‘You’re out of tune Bob, let them do their business’.”
Robin said Bono wowed with a single take of his iconic “Well, tonight thank God it’s them instead of you” line, while Phil Collins waited seven hours without moaning to record the drums on the track.
There was very little refreshment to hand, with Bob saying, “If you want it, go out to get it yourself”.
‘We’ve buried our egos’
Robin, who appears in the song’s video next to Simon Le Bon after the camera crew thought he was a pop star, added: “The studio rustled up some curry and chips. If you wanted a sandwich or drink, you went to get it from the corner shop.
“There were lots of day-old sandwiches being eaten.”
While the singers were called up in order of chart success, some started to feel in need of a drink.
Robin said: “I had a flat nearby. Adam Clayton and I went back and got six bottles of wine I had lying around. That lasted about ten minutes in the studio. Others went to the off-licence when it opened.”
Status Quo also raised the level of partying. Robin added: “There was a lot of cocaine in the industry then, and Status Quo were very popular, and they’d keep vanishing into the toilets, and everyone came out looking very refreshed.
“They were the biggest party animals.
“At one point they even locked Duran Duran in the toilets. But it was a real collegiate atmosphere. George Michael said to me, ‘What was needed was for everyone to get together. We’ve all buried our own egos for a greater cause’.
It remains one of the things I’m proudest of — just being in the room.
Robin Eggar
“By the end, there were some great scenes. Weller was having a conversation with Jon Moss, from Culture Club, and the singer Marilyn, about Margaret Thatcher.”
Francis Rossi said in 2019 of the original recording session: “I hadn’t expected how much many of us had in common when it came to cocaine. Soon our corner of the studio became the go-to hangout for quite a few others.”
Midge and Bob stayed until 8am producing the record. It was immediately sent for pressing and was on the shelves within days.
It flew straight to No1, staying there for five weeks over Christmas.
The success even inspired the Live Aid concert in July 1985, a remake of the song 20 years on, which this paper backed, and a further update in 2014. A new version, including voices from the 1984, 2004 and 2014 releases, is in the making to mark the 40th anniversary.
Robin, who went on to write biographies of Tom Jones and Shania Twain and run his own communications firm, said: “It remains one of the things I’m proudest of — just being in the room.”
This week, Bob was forced to defend Band Aid 40 after London-born Ghanaian rapper Fuse ODG said the record fuelled “pity rather than partnership”.
Ed Sheeran, who sang on the 2014 release, also said he would have “respectfully declined” the re-use of his vocals on the new song, had he been consulted.
Robin said: “Ed’s views are perfectly reasonable. He should have been asked.”
He added: “However, the original Band Aid was a bunch of very successful pop stars who were appalled by what was happening in Ethiopia and wanted to help.
“British music was in such a good place and it all came together in a tiny studio, on a Sunday afternoon.”