December 3, 1984: "Band Aid," a group of British and Irish singers, led by Boomtown Rats lead singer Bob Geldof, releases its hunger-relief single "Do They Know It's Christmas?"
Robert Frederick Zenon Geldof was born on October 5, 1951 in Dún Laoghaire, outside Dublin. In that city, in 1975, he formed The Boomtown Rats, a punk band which, aside from Bob's role in "Band Aid," is best known for their 1979 hit "I Don't Like Mondays."
The BBC, the British Broadcasting Corporation, played a major role in capturing the poverty and famine affecting people in the East African nation of Ethiopia citizens in 1984, and thereby influenced Geldof to take action. BBC presenter Paula Yates, then Geldof's girlfriend and eventually his wife (and then ex-wife), is considered to have been the brains behind the original Band Aid. It was she who became the driving force that inspired (and helped) Geldof to rally the most famous pop stars of the 1980s to raise money for famine relief.
"Do They Know It's Christmas?" was written by Geldof and James "Midge" Ure, the lead singer of Ultravox. The answer to the question was, "Not necessarily." Ethiopia then had a Communist government, which banned all religious holidays. Before that, the country's people were largely Orthodox Catholic, thus celebrating Christmas 2 weeks later than most Christians, on January 7. There is also the Rastafarian tradition, which holds that Ethiopians are one of the lost tribes of Israel, that their since-deposed monarchy was descended from the affair of King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba, and that the the Queen took the Ark of the Covenant to the Ethiopian city of Axum.
The song was recorded on November 25, 1984 at Sarm West Studios in Notting Hill, West London. The performers were:
* From The Boomtown Rats, Irish: Bob Geldof, Pete Briquette, Simon Crowe, Johnny Fingers.
* From Ultravox, English: Midge Ure and Christopher "Chris Cross" Allen.
* From The Police, English: Gordon "Sting" Sumner -- but not Andy Summers or Stewart Copeland.
* From The Jam and Style Council, English: Paul Weller.
* From Duran Duran, English: Simon Le Bon, Nick Rhodes, Andy Taylor, John Taylor and Roger Taylor. (Although he is also a drummer, Roger is not to be confused with Queen drummer Roger Taylor.)
* From Culture Club, English: George "Boy George" O'Dowd and Jon Moss -- but not Roy Hay or Mikey Craig.
* From Wham!, English: George Michael -- but not Andrew Ridgeley.
* From U2, Irish: Paul "Bono" Hewson and Adam Clayton -- but not Dave "The Edge" Evans or Larry Mullen. Bono didn't want to sing the iconic line, "Well, tonight, thank God it's them, instead of you!" but Geldof talked him into it.
* From Spandau Ballet, English: Twin brothers Gary Kemp and Martin Kemp, Tony Hadley, John Keeble and Steve Norman.
* From Status Quo, English: Rick Parfitt and Francis Rossi -- but not Alan Lancaster, Andy Bown, John Coghlan or Pete Kircher.
* From Bananarama, English: Sara Dallin, Siobhan Fahey and Keren Woodward. (Fahey is Irish, while Dallin and Woodward are English-born-and-raised but of Irish descent.)
* From Heaven 17, English: Glenn Gregory and Martyn Ware -- but not Ian Craig Marsh. (Ware and Marsh had also been in Human League.)
* From The Q-Tips: Paul Young.
* Phil Collins, English -- but not any of his former bandmates in Genesis: Peter Gabriel, Tony Banks or Mike Rutherford.
* Peter Robinson, an English singer who, despite being born male, recorded under the name "Marilyn." (Barely more than a one-hit wonder in Britain, he's never had a hit in America.)
* From Kool & the Gang, American: Robert "Kool" Bell, James "J.T." Taylor and Dennis "Dee Tee" Thomas.
* And from Shalamar, American: Jody Watley.
The song hit Number 1 in Britain, Ireland, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Belgium, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, West Germany, Austria and Switzerland. In America, it only reached Number 13, probably because many of the acts were not yet known there.
The song raised £8 million for Ethiopia within a year, far exceeding Geldof's hopes. With inflation, that's about £23 million, or about $32 million. It inspired an American effort, "USA for Africa," and its song "We Are the World."
In spite of the fundraising of both songs, much of the money was converted not into food for the starving, but into guns and other amenities for the ruling party. In the end, Ethiopia, which had 40 million people before the famine started, lost 1.2 million people to death by starvation, and 400,000 people fled the country. The Communist regime collapsed in 1991, but the country has been in civil war on and off ever since.
Also, ever since, people who have seen their teams win sporting events have taunted fans of the losing team by saying to each other, Bono's attempt to shame the listener: "Well, tonight, thank God it's them instead of you!"
Paula Yates died of an accidental drug overdose in 2000. Rick Parfitt died in 2016. George Michael died on Christmas Day in 2016. Dee Tee Thomas died in 2021. As of December 3, 2022, the other performers are still alive. (UPDATE: Chris Cross of Ultravox died in 2024.)
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December 3, 1984 was a Monday. On ABC Monday Night Football, the San Diego Chargers beat the Chicago Bears, 20-7 at Jack Murphy Stadium in San Diego.
Baseball was out of season. There was 1 game in the NBA: The Seattle SuperSonics beat the Phoenix Suns, 108-96 at the Seattle Center Coliseum.
There were 4 games in the NHL:
* The New York Rangers lost to the Philadelphia Flyers, 6-2 at Madison Square Garden.
* The New York Islanders beat the Vancouver Canucks, 5-4 at the Pacific Coliseum in Vancouver.
* The Montreal Canadiens beat the Hartford Whalers, 9-3 at the Montreal Forum.
* And the Boston Bruins and the Quebec Nordiques played to a tie, 3-3 at the Colisée de Québec.
