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Band Aid 20 Recording Takes Place

added 15 November 2004 at 12.23

The new Band Aid 20 charity single, a re-working of ‘Do They Know It’s Christmas’ was recorded on Sunday (November 14) at Air Studios in North London. Xfm was there to report back with all the news, stories and gossip.

The session took place at George Martin’s Air studios in Hampstead, North London in two parts. On Saturday November 13 the core instrumentation of the track was recorded by a band comprised of Thom Yorke (pianos), Justin and Dan Hawkins (guitars) and Paul McCartney (bass), while the producer Nigel Godrich started to piece together previously recorded vocal contributions from Robbie Williams, Dido and Bono from U2.

Dizzee Rascal, Fran Healy from Travis and Joss Stone also came in to record their main parts, with Dizzee’s improvised rap, proving to be one of the most talked-about an impressive contributions to the track.

The second ‘chorus’ part of the session took place on Sunday (November 14) with the assembled musicians resembling a who’s who of popular music. Chris Martin from Coldplay arrived at daybreak recorded his part (he sings the opening line "It's Christmans time, there's no need to be afriad...") then left to avoid the paparazzi, but by midday all the acts had arrived and the now heaving studio had a distinctly surreal air as artists from the musical polar opposites happily chatted away, sharing stories and trying to get Band Aid legend Sir Bob Geldof’s autograph. 

True to the spirit of the event everyone checked their egos at the door, Blur’s Damon Albarn helped out by donning a pink apron and served teas and coffees to everyone, The Darkness happily posed for photos with the Sugababes, and Travis, Midge Ure and Neil Hannon busked Abba songs on the studio grand piano.

Before the chorus was sung Geldof gave a speech to the crowd, explaining how important the project and their input was, and showed horrifying footage of the original famine taken back in 1984 - prompting tears from most of the musicians watching – before introducing Birhan Woldu, one of the now grown-up children featured in the film who had travelled over to the UK.

Despite, or maybe because of, this sobering part of the day, the assembled musicians gave an upbeat, enthusiastic performance, while films crews recorded the event for the accompanying video which, Geldof revealed, features an introduction by Madonna.

As for Bono’s famous line “Well tonight, thank God its them, instead of you” the U2 singer had previously re-recorded at a session earlier in the week as family commitments meant he was unable to be in London on the Sunday. However following technical problems and numerous people (including Justin Hawkins) all attempted to re-create the line, it was decided to use Bono’s original vocal take from the 1984 version of the single.

However as the artists began to file out of the studio at around 7.00pm it was announced that Bono would be flying back to London especially to re-do his part. Which he did, eventually arriving in the studio at 9.00pm direct from Heathrow, to sing a gentler version of the famous line, saying "Rather than that raw, I just tried it more of a whisper tonight."

The single will be released in shops on Monday November 29 on Mercury Records and The Band Aid Trust. It’ll be available in one format only on CD and will retail for £3.99 with all proceeds going to The Band Aid Trust. Funds will be targeted to help victims of the famine in the Dafur region of Sudam.

For the final and complete full list of who is appearing on Band Aid 20,
click on the 'Continue' button below.

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