Christmas hit gets a new lease on its 40th birthday

Bob Geldof, Midge Ure and Trevor Horn have announced details of the Band Aid Compilation, brand new ‘2024 Ultimate Mix’ and accompanying video release, commemorating 40 years of Band Aid. 

The latest incarnation of Do They Know It’s Christmas? premiered simultaneously across UK breakfast time radio on November 25, the 40th anniversary of the recording of the original song. It is available to stream on all digital platforms. According to a statement issued by Universal Music Canada, “Do They Know It’s Christmas? – 2024 Ultimate Mix” is available to buy now digitally and physically on the Band Aid Compilation 1CD and 12. Vinyl was released on November 29.

Do They Know It’s Christmas? was recorded on three separate occasions over three separate generations—Band Aid (1984), Band Aid 20 (2004) and Band Aid 30 (2014). What began life as a humble Christmas pop song went on to launch the greatest series of events in pop history. Do They Know It’s Christmas? ultimately corralled the political structures of its time to its own focused ends by assembling a roll call of talent that in effect describes the arc of British rock ‘n roll over these past 40 years. In celebration of this monumental “instrument of change,” producer Trevor Horn has taken these recordings and, through extraordinary music production techniques, blended all the voices of those separate generations into one seamless whole.

Revivified emotional sense

Unveiled on November 25, on ‘Band Aid - 2024 Ultimate Mix’, listeners heard a young Sting sing alongside a young Ed Sheeran. A young Boy George with a young Sam Smith. A young George Michael beside a young Harry Styles. The young Bono with an older Bono, Chris Martin with Guy Garvey, the Sugaabes and Bannarama, Seal and Sinead O’Connor, Rita Ora and Robbie Williams, Kool and the Gang and Underworld. The voices sing on against the Band Aid houseband of Paul McCartney, Sting, John Taylor (bss), Phil Collins, Roger Taylor, Danny Goffey (drums), Thom Yorke (piano), Paul Weller, Damon Albrn, Midge Ure, Johnny Greenwood, Gary Kemp and Justin Hawkins (guitar). 

In achieving this extraordinary musical and production feat, Horn has not just re-imagined ‘the song that changed that world’ but much more importantly has revivified its original emotional sense. To witness once again the great David Bowie, introduce this rag-tag of spotty, pretty young pop stars as they ambled down a Notting Hill Street or tumbled bleary out of cars that early Sunday morning in late October 1984. To hear the legendary Michael Buerk BBC News report that ignited the whole decades long struggle. 

To understand without being hectored or lectured or beaten over the head exactly what was being done, why it was being done and that something profound was about to begin. Director Oliver Murray was enlisted to try and make visually tangible music that was so powerful on audio. He has achieved the impossible by visualising Trevor’s painstaking superlative creation work on video. 

Murray came to prominence last year when he directed the emotional short film that accompanied The Beatles on their last No.1 single, and was tasked with repeating his magical skills on the “2024 Ultimate Mix.” The video was unveiled on November 25, with broadcast details to be announced later.

Bellwether of British values Do They Know It’s Christmas? is not just the sum of British rock music it also accidentally became a bellwether of most of the British visual arts. Through the years the Band Aid sleeve has been issued with original artwork from Peter Blake, Tracey Emin, Damian Hirst and Mat Maitland. 

Sir Peter Blake was initially asked to design a unique cover for the first Band Aid, creating another classic with a collage of standard Christmas card tropes set against the disgrace of a hungry child. This perfectly exemplified the central theme of the song itself - the cornucopia of our lucky wealthy world and the sharing of those spoils with family over a time of togetherness against an unnecessary awful world of utter Nothing, fear and hunger. Sucking everyone into this maw of empathy, David Bley the iconic photographer donated one of his classic photographs for Peter’s montage. Now at the age of 93, Blake was once again called to the Band Aid colours just one more time in celebration of this hugely historic song. And once again, using imagery from the past 40 years that sketches the Band Aid history he has given us something utterly beautiful, instantly classic and completely “on point.” The sleeve itself is drenched with visual compassion, understanding, tolerance and from this great gentle old giant of British art—humanity. 

Ed Sheeran, who was among the artists that performed on the 2014 edition of the single, has since said his vocals are being used without his permission on the latest remix. On December 15, 1984, the star-studded Band Aid track Do They Know It’s Christmas entered the UK chart at No.1. The single stayed at the top of the chart for five weeks, and became the fastest-selling single in UK chart history.

The charity single has raised more than £140 million ($178 million) for causes such as poverty in Africa for the Band Aid Charitable Trust. The song was first written and organised by Bob Geldof and Ultravox’s Midge Ure following a BBC report into famine in Ethiopia, and became one of the best-selling singles of all-time in the UK and beyond.