Band Aid were an international charity supergroup founded in 1984 by Bob Geldof and Midge Ure in order to raise money for famine relief in Ethiopia. They released a single, "Do They Know It's Christmas" (Geldof/Ure) (Mercury FEED 1) in the UK on December 15 1984, having recorded the song in one day on November 25. The record was written by Bob Geldof and Midge Ure and produced by Midge Ure and Trevor Horn and became that year's Christmas Number One hit single.
The single was released as a 7" (3'55) and a 12" version (6'18).
The record was re-issued the following Christmas and reached Number Three on December 7, 1985. In all it raised in excess of £8 million.
Following the success of the original 1984 Band Aid single, Geldof organised the charity concert Live Aid.
The original Band Aid ensemble consisted of (in sleeve order):
In 1989, a new line-up (reflecting the musical climate at the time), Band Aid II formed after a second famine struck Ethiopia. This different line-up re-recorded "Do They Know It's Christmas?" (PWL/Polydor FEED 2), and the song was again Christmas Number One in the UK charts.
The line up this time consisted of:
In 1986 the anarchist band Chumbawamba released the album Pictures of Starving Children Sell Records, intended as an anti-capitalist critique of the Band Aid/Live Aid phenomena. They argued that the Band Aid record was primarily a cosmetic spectacle designed to draw attention away from the real political causes of world hunger.