Do They Know It's Christmas?

Seems like almost every single big Brit artist of the 80s took part on this song.

Anyone know why Queen wasn't featured? Perhaps they were in the middle of 'The Works' tour when the song was recorded.

Also I happened to notice that Elton John wasn't there. Was he?

Probably because of South African tour... That's why they weren't invited

Fred commented that he wasn't there at the time they recorded it, but he doesn't know if he'd be invited anyway because he was probably too old. Note that non of the ex-Beatles was there either

The live version features Elton, Paul and Freddie though

If my mmemory serves me they were in New Zealand when the recording was done and when Bob Geldof phoned to ask Spike to ask the band would they be interested in doing Live aid

From memory it was rush released the week after it was recorded, and went straight to number 2, which was 08/12/84.

Meaning it was released 01/12/84, having been recorded 26/11/84 (Sunday)

At which point Queen were (most likely) in the UK resting after Sun City, or recording in Munich.

I love the video :)

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From what I remeber it was all put togethr in the space of a couple of weeks - Geldof called Midge Ure who was performing on The Tube (80's Rock show Channel 4) at the time - They rang up everyone they could muster and recorded it some three weeks after the initail contact.

Queen had finished playing Sun City by that time, in the pre Live Aid video broadcast on the BBC (conducted in The Shaw theatre, where they were rehearsing for Live Aid) Freddie said they were contacted but couldn't appear because they were in different parts of the globe.

for a full list of people who appeared on the single http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Band_Aid

I recall that they were going for the "new and funky" artists of the time and overlooked the bands that had "been around a while". Although I could be completely wrong, it's in the back of my memory somewhere!

The song entered the UK charts in 1984 at No 1, as it did again in 1989 when re-recorded by another set of artist's.Queen did'nt attend because they were out of the country when the song was put together by Bob Geldof & Midge Ure in response to the news footage of the famine in Ethiopia, the disc sold over 4 million copies and all royalties went towards the disaster.

This topic comes up from time to time.
I think freddie said in an interview that he was in germany in the time, that the project featured lots of new bands, and that he regretted not attending.

If you think about it, there were plenty of other huge british acts that werent there (Stones, bowie, robert plant, etc. )

I was sure it was bacause of the South African Tour, after which they were cut from Bob's List of people to be on the record.
Oh well, they stole the show at live aid anyway, and showed them all what they'd been missing.

I seem to remember David Bowie was there, but only in the last choruses, a little similar to Bob Dylan on 'We Are The World'

Do they know its Christmas--Band Aid(1984)

Artist's that took part, Adam Clayton, Bono(U2), Bob Geldof, Johnny Fingers, Simon Crowe, Peter Briquette(Boomtown Rats), David Bowie, Paul McCartney; Holly Johnson(Frankie goes to Hollywood), Midge Ure, Chris Cross(Ultravox), Simon le Bon, Nick Rhodes, Andy, Roger and John Taylor(Duran Duran), Paul Young; Tony Hadley, Martin and Gary Kemp, John Keeble, Steve Norman(Spandau Ballet), Martyn Ware, Glenn Gregory(Heaven 17), Francis Rossi, Rick Parfitt(Status Quo), Sting; Boy George, Jon Moss(Culture Club), Marilyn; Keren Woodward, Sarah Dallin, Siobhan Fahey(Bananarama), Jody Watley(Shalamar), Paul Weller(The Jam), Robert 'kool' Bell, James Taylor, Dennis Thomas(Kool and the Gang), and George Michael.

http://user.sync.hu/joanpesci/blame_it_on_rio.htm

"I would have loved to have been on the Band Aid record but I only heard about it when I was in Germany. I don't know if they would have had me on the record anyway, because I'm a bit old"