Do They Know It's Christmas?

"Do They Know It's Christmas?" is a song written by Bob Geldof and Midge Ure in 1984 specifically to raise money for Ethiopian famine relief. The original version was produced by Midge Ure and Trevor Horn, and released by Band Aid on November 29, 1984.

In late 1984, a BBC report by Michael Buerk was aired highlighting the famine that had hit the people of Ethiopia. Irish singer Bob Geldof had seen the report and was moved so much that he decided that a pop record should be used to further increase awareness of the famine and to raise money. Aware that he could do little on his own, he called Midge Ure from Ultravox and together they quickly co-wrote the song, "Do They Know It's Christmas?".

Geldof kept a November appointment with BBC Radio 1 DJ Richard Skinner to appear on his show, but instead of discussing his new album (the original reason for his booking), he used his airtime to publicise the idea for the charity single, so by the time the musicians were recruited there was intense media interest in the subject.

Using powers of persuasion which have since become a major part of the Geldof legend, he put together a group (Band Aid), consisting of leading Irish and British musicians who were among the most popular and recognised of this era.

The recording session
Respected producer Trevor Horn was approached by Geldof to produce the song, but he was unavailable. Instead, he gave use of his studio, SARM West in London, free of charge to the project for 24 hours, which Geldof accepted, assigning Ure as the producer instead. So, on November 25, 1984, the song was recorded and mixed.

Geldof and Ure arrived first at dawn so that Ure could put the recorded backing tracks, put together at his home studio, on to the system at SARM. He also had vocals recorded by both Sting and Simon Le Bon of the song which he had acquired from the artists early in order to provide a guide for the other singers.

The world's media were in attendance as artists began arriving from 9am. Duran Duran, Spandau Ballet, Paul Young, Culture Club (without Boy George, initially), George Michael (though not Andrew Ridgeley) of Wham!, Kool and the Gang, Sting, Bono and Adam Clayton of U2, Glenn Gregory of Heaven 17 (whom Ure personally ordered down) and his bandmate Martyn Ware, Phil Collins, Paul Weller (though not Mick Talbot) of the Style Council, Francis Rossi and Rick Parfitt of Status Quo, Jody Watley of Shalamar, Bananarama, Marilyn (who was not invited but arrived anyway) and some of Geldof's bandmates from the Boomtown Rats all arrived. Only one of Ure's Ultravox colleagues, Chris Cross, attended. Geldof, noticing Boy George's non-attendance (despite ringing him up in New York the day before demanding he sing on the record), went back to the phone to get the Culture Club frontman out of bed and on to Concorde.

Ure played the backing track and guide vocals to the artists together, then decided, in a way of getting all involved straightaway, to record the crescendo first, which also allowed the 'team shot' of the day to be photographed. The artists were put in a huge group and sang the 'Feed the world, let them know it's Christmas time' refrain over and over again until it was completed.

Then Ure sought a volunteer to be first into the studio to sing the main body of the song. Eventually Tony Hadley of Spandau Ballet took the plunge, with plenty of rival artists watching him, and sang the song straight through. The other assigned singers then did likewise, with Ure taping their efforts and then making notes as to which bits would be cut into the final recording. Le Bon, despite having already done his bit at Ure's house, re-recorded his so he could be part of the moment. Sting also recorded the words again, this time to provide harmony.

Phil Collins arrived with his entire drum kit and waited until Ure was ready to record him over the electronic drums already in place. The song ended up as a mixture of Collins' drums and Ure's initial drum pattern, taken from a sample of The Hurting by Tears for Fears.

Not all went smoothly. Ure stated in his autobiography that he was constantly battling with Geldof, the song's lyricist but not renowned for his melody skills, and telling him to 'fuck off' when he would come into the production booth and wrongly tell the artist behind the mic what to sing. Ure also had to shelve an attempt by the two members of Status Quo to record the "here's to you" harmonies because Parfitt couldn't hit the note. Rossi afterwards told Ure that Parfitt never sang in the studio, only onstage, and he should have kept him away from the mic. This section was eventually taken on by Weller, Sting and Gregory.

Boy George arrived at 6pm and went straight into the recording booth to deliver his lines. Once he had finished, Ure had all the vocals he needed and, as the artists began to party and then drifted away, began working on the mix. A B-side, featuring messages from artists who had and hadn't made the recording (including David Bowie, Annie Lennox from Eurythmics, Paul McCartney, all members of Big Country and Holly Johnson from the most successful British band of 1984, Frankie Goes to Hollywood) was also recorded over the same backing track. Trevor Horn arrived back to his own studio to put this together.

Despite being singers themselves, neither Geldof nor Ure had a solo line on the song, though both took part in the 'Feed the world' crescendo.

Ure worked on the mix through the night and finally completed the task at 8am on the Monday morning. Prior to departing SARM, Geldof recorded a statement: "This record was recorded on the 25th of November 1984. It's now 8am on the 26th. We've been here 24 hours and I think it's time we went home."

The song was quickly dispatched to the pressing plants who had promised to have the single pressed and ready by the Friday. A spell of publicity and final legal details followed, then it hit the shops on Monday December 3rd in a sleeve designed by Peter Blake. It went straight to #1.

Participants
The original Band Aid ensemble consisted of (in sleeve order):

Adam Clayton (U2)
Phil Collins (Genesis, solo)
Bob Geldof (Boomtown Rats)
Steve Norman (Spandau Ballet)
Chris Cross (Ultravox)
John Taylor (Duran Duran)
Paul Young
Tony Hadley (Spandau Ballet)
Glenn Gregory (Heaven 17)
Simon Le Bon (Duran Duran)
Simon Crowe (Boomtown Rats)
Marilyn
Keren Woodward (Bananarama)
Martin Kemp (Spandau Ballet)
Jody Watley (Shalamar)
Bono (U2)
Paul Weller (The Style Council)
James "J.T." Taylor (Kool & The Gang)
George Michael (Wham!)
Midge Ure (Ultravox)
Martyn Ware (Heaven 17)
John Keeble (Spandau Ballet)
Gary Kemp (Spandau Ballet)
Roger Taylor (Duran Duran)
Sarah Dallin (Bananarama)
Siobhan Fahey (Bananarama)
Pete Briquette (Boomtown Rats)
Francis Rossi (Status Quo)
Robert 'Kool' Bell (Kool & The Gang)
Dennis J. T. Thomas (Kool & The Gang)
Andy Taylor (Duran Duran)
Jon Moss (Culture Club)
Sting (Former member of The Police)
Rick Parfitt (Status Quo)
Nick Rhodes (Duran Duran)
Johnny Fingers (Boomtown Rats)
David Bowie
Boy George (Culture Club)
Holly Johnson (Frankie Goes to Hollywood)
Paul McCartney (Former member of The Beatles)
Stuart Adamson (Big Country)
Bruce Watson (Big Country)
Tony Butler (Big Country)
Mark Brzezicki (Big Country)

The text from this post is from The Wikipedia which is published under the GNU Free Documentation License.