Do they know it’s awful, Bob
MIDGE Ure originally hated hit song Do They Know It’s Christmas? because Bob Geldof sounded like a “demented Bob Dylan”.
The Ultravox frontman teamed up with the Boomtown Rats star to create the charity record in 1984.
It raised millions for famine victims in Ethiopia and the single has remained popular to this day.
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But Midge, 67, said: “I was sitting with Bob’s girlfriend Paula Yates at the time doing The Tube in Newcastle and Bob phoned and said, ‘ I want to do something, can we get together?’
“And he came over with this halfbaked song that every time he played it to me was different – he sounded like a demented Bob Dylan! It was different every time, it wasn’t much of a song.” Midge took away the song and added some melodies and his own style.
Geldof was not too happy as he hated synthesisers.
They both eventually came to like the new version and added the “feed the world” chorus at the last minute. It was recorded with an all- star line- up known as Band Aid, including the late George Michael, U2’ s Bono and Boy George.
Midge said: “I just layered it and layered it, I played every track on it except eventually Phil Collins’ drums. It was weird because Bob was popping in the studio quite a lot just to check how it was progressing and bemoaning the fact that I was turning his thing into this alien creature.”
Do They Know It’s Christmas? was voted the nation’s sixth favourite festive song in an ITV poll.