It’s Christmas time. There’s no need to be afraid. Bob Geldof is at it again.
It seems like every year nowadays you can’t move for a new Band Aid lineup re-recording that bloody song again. Now fair enough, the original was great and had a great singalong value, but we don’t need endless permutations of new stars re-recording it every bloody year.
So this year they’re doing something different. The song they’re recording this year uses the same music but is called “Do They Know What Brexit Means At All”, and has rewritten lyrics designed to acknowledge that another vote would be good and to remind them of the benefits of EU membership.
“It just seemed like the right time to do it,” Bob Geldof explained. “So we thought we’d give it a full on campaign song.”
The latest Band Aid lineup includes modern musicians like Paloma Faith alongside older stars, including some like Sting who featured on the original record back in 1984. Bono reprises his line “Well tonight thank God it’s them instead of you!” yet again, which gives him the unique opportunity to chart precisely how much his vocal chords have deteriorated in the last three decades.
The original coda of “feed the world – let them know it’s Christmas time again” now goes “teach the Brits – let them know that Europe loves them still.”
There is an unconfirmed rumour that Theresa May is trying to get the song banned from the radio airwaves.
Early sales figures suggest that it could become a smash hit Christmas number 1.