Band Aid Do They Know It’s Christmas?Watch at the source

Band Aid 40, November 25, 2024

On November 25th 1984, ‘the song that changed the world’ was recorded at SARM Studios in West London. This ‘shout that rang around the world’ was written by Bob Geldof of the Boomtown Rats and Midge Ure of Ultravox and sung by a bunch of young English pop stars who were more or less just out of school and had taken over the pop culture of the world. They hadn’t heard the song, or seen the lyrics but they turned up, on their only day off, and sang their hearts out. They created a song which raised critical funds for the famine stricken in Ethiopia, prompted its brother recording ‘We Are The World’ by USA for Africa, fired the starting gun for Live Aid and Live 8, and culminated 20 years later in forcing the global political process to bend to its focused will at the Gleneagles G8 summit of 2005.

'Do They Know It’s Christmas?' topped the UK charts for five weeks and became one of the fastest-selling singles in British history. And it really did change the world.

The recording features the following artists (in alphabetical order):