Just in time for Christmas there is a new version of Bob and Midge’s ‘Do they know its Christmas?’. Tipped for the Season’s Number One slot, a group called ‘The Fire Tones’ are singing their hearts out for two charities: The Fire Fighters Charity and The Band Aid Charity Trust. It’s an emotional video to watch, and Amazon sales have been brisk so far.
The original Band-Aid single ‘Do they know it’s Christmas?’ was released in 1984. The hope was to raise cash for famine relief in crisis ridden Ethiopia. At the time it was a huge novelty for a group of pop and rock artistes to get together and sing for charity in the form of a super group. The Band-Aid single featured various big-haired stars of the day, such as Status Quo, Bananarama, Bono, Sting, George Michael and Boy George, and was released a few weeks before Christmas. It leapt to the No.1 after selling a million copies in the first week, and over 3 million before the end of the 1984.
A Live-Aid concert was to follow in 1985 when rock group Queen took to the stage and performed what is thought to be the best ever live performance of a rock band in front of a full capacity audience of 170,000 in Wembley Stadium. At the same time, there were live concerts all over the world, including Philadelphia, Soviet Union, Japan and West Germany. In all, it is estimated that the Live Aid concerts were watched by 1.5 billion people in 110 countries. The money raised from the Live-Aid project topped £150 million, and most of it went to help fight famine.
‘Do they know its Christmas?’ is a song which is often played at this time of the year, and many may remember the original, and other versions too with every passing generation. But we wish the Fire Tones our best wishes for their crack at this festive favourite. For all your fire safety needs including fire risk assessments, installation and maintenance of fire alarms, smoke alarms, extinguishers, fire blankets and fire safety training for your staff contact us at Bath & West Fire & Safety.