U2's Bono leads the pack

2004-11-16 08:26

London - Twenty years on, the charity hit Do They Know It's Christmas gets back on the airwaves on Tuesday, with U2 frontman Bono leading a pack of fresh-faced British rockers on the same quest to raise funds for Africa.

George Michael has made way for rhythm-and-blues star Jamelia, Cold Play's Chris Martin has bumped out 1980s heart-throbs Duran Duran, but Bono and ex-Beatle Paul McCartney (on bass) have held out for two decades to return along with the revived charity act.

The song, with the same title and lyrics as its 1984 predecessor but a new set of singers, gets its first radio play in Britain on Tuesday, with sales starting on November 29.

Rock rivalry

Its rush recording session at the weekend ran into a spot of rock rivalry when Bono beat out a youngster to repeat his original performance of the song's most famous line.

In that version, which raised eight million pounds for famine victims in Ethiopia, Bono sang the line: "And tonight thank God it's them instead of you."

This time around, Justin Hawkins of The Darkness sang the words at a weekend recording session in north London, and boasted afterwards that his was a superior version.

Not to be outdone, Bono flew into London late on Sunday night to re-record the line himself - and organisers of the Band Aid 20 project said on Monday that his is the one that would be used.

Bono, a high-profile development rights campaigner, said he sang the line "more like a whisper" - in contrast to the original which he likened to "Bruce Springsteen sitting on the toilet".

The Irish star was quoted in The Sun on Tuesday justifying the decision by saying producers Nigel Godrich and Travis frontman Fran Healy had begged him to do it and he had given in.

Looking back at the first Band Aid effort launched by musician Bob Geldof, which kick-started the music charity Live Aid, Bono said Africa aid was on surer footing in 2004.

'A shallow effort'

The funds from Band Aid 2004 will mainly go to fighting famine in Africa, particularly in the war-ravaged Sudanese region of Darfur.

For all the hoopla surrounding the musical effort, where soloists also include Dido and Robbie Williams, some critics derided it as a shallow effort neglecting the fact that most of their aid recipients don't actually "know it's Christmas" because they don't celebrate it.

"Everyone involved in the project... is being upbeat, which cannot disguise the fact that it is one of the worst songs ever written and performed," wrote The Independent's Joan Smith, not mincing words.

Even in 1984, with a far less developed public consciousness in the West about Africa, the song seemed naive since "it was hard to believe that starving children and their parents had given much thought to Santa", especially since most were Muslims, she said.

The World Development Movement, which campaigns for international development, condemned the "negative stereotypes" depicted in the song and regretted it did not "provide a more accurate reflection of Africa and its problems".

Over 3.5 million singles of the first Band Aid song were sold, raising funds to help an estimated eight million Africans.

- AFP