introduction

i am british, married an australian... we met in the states & are both designers.

we have two boys ~ oscar, 6 & flynn 4, lots of pets & live in an old house ~ this blog is the craziness that happens day to day! opinions, reviews, places to go, situations & everything else in between!

Wednesday, February 17, 2010

[ BAND AID! ~ let's do this! ]

sooooooo ~ i was driving along this morning deep in thought, thinking about whether we could do another haiti benefit concert in the summer... a big one!! (i hope mr RAY is reading this xoxo!!) or EVEN 2 concerts a year & the money raised would go to worthy causes & started thinking about band aid, you know 'do they know it's christmas?' bob geldof & midge ure....

first of all !!LIGHT BULB!! i never realized before, this morning, BAND AID means band aid as in what you put on a cut!! i'm english & we call them plasters... but even so i should have made that connection!!! i feel like i've had a revelation!! I MUST BE THE ONLY ONE WHO DIDN'T KNOW!!! a bit like when i was arguing over the phone with my sister about austin powers (one of my all time favorite films!!) she said something like 'didn't mike myers do a great job playing dr evil.' i remember replying almost in a 'what on earth are you talking about' voice... 'no no no no, mary.... mike myers played austin powers!!' & we argued for ages because i just didn't believe it!!! hahahahaha!!!

secondly... i can't believe this was 1984!! TWENTY SIX years ago!!

anyway i was looking up about band aid & found this really interesting!!

Bob Geldof, after watching a television news report by Michael Buerk from famine stricken Ethiopia, was so moved by the plight of starving children that he decided to try and raise money using his contacts in pop music. (The news report itself has become famous, being voted among the greatest television moments of the Century.)


[i think this is it:]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mj2jf0US8zI

Geldof enlisted the help of Midge Ure [i had a HUGE crush on midge!! & my first single was vienna!]  from the group Ultravox to help produce a charity record. Midge Ure took Geldof's lyrics and created the melody and backing track for the record. Geldof called many of the most popular performers of the time, pursuading them to give their time for free. His one criterion for selection was how famous they were in order to maximise sales of the record.
The recording studio gave Band Aid 24 hours free to record and mix the record on 25 November 1984. The recording took place between 11am and 7pm and was filmed to release as the pop video. The first track to be put down was drums by Phil Collins including the memorable opening 'African Drum' beat. Tony Hadley of Spandau Ballet was the first to record his vocal while a section sung by Status Quo was deemed unusable and replaced with the Paul Weller [YES!!!!!]/Sting/Glen Gregory section. Paul Young has admitted since in a documentary that he knew his opening lines were written for David Bowie who was not able to make the recording but made a contribution to the B-side. Boy George arrived last at 6pm after Geldof woke him up by phone to have have him flown over from New York on Concorde to record his solo part. [BRILLIANT!!!!!]

The following morning Geldof appeared on the Radio 1 Breakfast Show to promote the record and promised that every penny would go to the cause. This led to a stand-off with the British Government, which refused to waive the VAT (tax) on the sales of the single. Geldof made the headlines by publicly standing up to Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and, sensing the strength of public feeling, the government backed down and donated the tax back to the charity. [GO BOB!!!!! i can't believe this happened in my lifetime, where the hell was i!!]
The record was released on 15 December and went straight to number 1 in the UK pop charts outselling all the other records in the chart put together. It became the fastest selling single of all time in the UK, selling a million in the first week alone. It stayed at Number 1 for five weeks, selling over 3 million copies and becoming easily the biggest selling single ever in the UK. (It has since been passed by Elton John's tribute to Diana, Princess of Wales, but it is likely to keep selling in different versions for many years to come.)


[ WON'T it be sooooooo cool to have benefit concerts for kids, really cool singers... money to worthy causes, my cogs are spinning!!! ]





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