Geldof: Baby’s tear tragic inspiration for

IF Bob Geldof harboured any doubts about reprising his world-famous Band Aid song, they were extinguished by a single heartbreaking image from West Africa. The Irish Mail on Sunday can reveal that he was spurred to mobilise today’s pop stars after seeing a brave nurse wipe away a tear from the cheek of a child dying of ebola.

‘The nurse forgot where she was, and what was happening, and wiped a tear from the child,’ said Geldof. ‘The child died and the nurse died. You can’t get more tragic than that.’

After this, Geldof – once disinclined to revisit Do They Know It’s Christmas? after 30 years – was utterly convinced of the need for a new version of the song.

And so yesterday, in the footsteps of George Michael, Sting, Duran Duran and others, whose 1984 efforts raised money for famine relief in Ethiopia, stars such as One Direction, Rita Ora and Ed Sheeran gathered in a West London recording studio for Band Aid 30.

Speaking to the MoS on the eve of the recording, Geldof described ebola as pernicious and ‘anti-human’, rendering people ‘incapable of touching’.

He added: ‘You have a five-year-old daughter in agony who is not even allowed to be comforted by her mother.’

Fixed in his mind, as he rewrote some of the lyrics to the song with producer Midge Ure, was the image of the nurse wiping away the child’s tear. Now the line, ‘Where the only water flowing is the bitter sting of tears’ is replaced with ‘Where a kiss of love can kill you and there’s death in every tear’.

Yesterday’s recording received a boost with news that the British government will waive VAT on the charity single – it is not yet clear whether the Irish Government wil follow suit.

Back in 1984, Geldof had to twist then prime minister Margaret Thatcher’s arm to agree to this, but British Chancellor George Osborne didn’t need convincing yesterday.

‘Amazing that the government has just said, “Fine, keep the tax,’ said Geldof after speaking to Mr Osborne. ‘The next stage now is to turn this into a phenomenon like it was in the 1980s, and the only way to do that is to get people to buy the thing.’

Yesterday, just as their predecessors had done 30 years ago, the artists, bleary-eyed, started to arrive for the recording from 6.45am.

They included Sam Smith, Coldplay’s Chris Martin, Elbow, Olly Murs, Seal, Jessie Ware, Sinéad O’Connor, Ellie Goulding, Paloma Faith and electronic band Clean Bandit. Bono was the only artist taking part who sang on the original single. He arrived late and blamed airport fog. ‘I’d be happy just to stand in the background and wave,’ he said.

Organisers hope the track will be completed in time for its first pub- lic performance during tonight’s edition of The X Factor. Geldof said: ‘It really doesn’t matter if you don’t like this song. It really doesn’t matter if you don’t like the artists, it really doesn’t matter if it turns out to be a lousy recording – what you have to do is buy this thing.’

He arrived with daughters Pixie, 24, and 31-year-old Fifi, who can be seen in the original video as a baby. Midge Ure posed for pictures with his four daughters, none of whom were born at the time of the first recording.

Singer Emeli Sandé said during a break in the recording: ‘Bob called me personally and talked through the severity of the ebola problem.

‘And he gave a really touching speech beforehand which really got everyone into the right frame of mind… he was saying we shouldn’t see it as them and us because tomorrow it could be us all suffering.

‘It certainly made everyone sing with a bit more passion. It took a while to get the harmonies right but it was sounding great. It took about five takes.’ She added: ‘Bono said it will be your hairstyle you remember in 30 years and regret.’

Some of the stars could barely contain their excitement and provided regular updates on social media. X Factor finalist and charttopper Olly Murs tweeted: ‘Been hanging out with this lad Harry Styles,’ and added, ‘Plus with these legends Bono, Chris Martin and Sir Bob Geldof.’

A spokeswoman said every penny raised from the sale of the download, CD and app will go to the ‘fight against ebola’.