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The Latest Breaking News from Band Aid

The Guide #188: How 25 years of music has shaped the charts from monoculture to mass playlists

In the first in a new miniseries, we look back at the biggest songs of the 21st century to trace how music – and the way we consume it – has evolved

The Guardian - UK

‘They didn’t call us for Live Aid’: the stars behind Black Britain’s forgotten charity record

In 1985, a star-studded lineup of Black UK musicians, including Aswad, Dennis Brown and Janet Kay, recorded a charity single to raise funds for famine-stricken Ethiopia. Why are their efforts so little known?

The Guardian - UK

“Bob Geldof said, No, Queen have peaked. I don’t think they should play.” Queen would never have performed their iconic set at Live Aid if Band Aid mastermind Bob Geldof had his way, and Freddie Mercury initially wasn't that keen either

"Freddie smelt blood. He went for the throat."

Louder

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“The Edge is multiple echoes and jangling guitars… I’m not convinced… I don’t want to burst the Edge’s bubble”: Midge Ure talks The Edge missing Band Aid and his Thin Lizzy baptism of fire

Plus nearly joining the Sex Pistols and why Lizzy didn’t play Live Aid

MusicRadar

“Phil Lynott said, ‘Gary Moore is out the band. Could you come over tomorrow?’ My initial reaction was, ’I’m not the guy you should be asking’”: When Midge Ure joined Thin Lizzy on a make-or-break US tour, he had just one day’s notice and no rehearsals

The Live Aid orchestrator and Ultravox synth-pop pioneer looks back at his trial by fire with Thin Lizzy, swapping out his Yamaha electric because it wasn’t cool enough, refusing to join the Sex Pistols, and how The Edge might have changed Band Aid’s charity single

Guitar World

FireAid, with Billie Eilish and Lady Gaga, is the latest in a long line of massive benefit concerts

FireAid, featuring Billie Eilish, Lady Gaga, Sting, Red Hot Chili Peppers and others in a fundraiser for Los Angeles-area wildfire relief efforts, is the latest event to combine music and philanthropy

The Independent UK

Wham!’s Last Christmas remains top of UK singles chart for another week

Duo’s festive record made history when it became Christmas No 1 two years in a row

The Guardian - UK

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“He got a kidney infection, so he’s in hospital… That’s a bit of a drag, because he was going to be the lead guitarist”: The iconic charity rock song that missed out on its star guitarist due to illness – and why it could have sounded very different

Do They Know It’s Christmas? could have ended up with more guitars had fate not intervened

Guitar World

Wham!’s Last Christmas is Christmas No 1 for second year running

Duo’s Andrew Ridgeley celebrates success of song that is ‘almost as much a part of Christmas as mince pies, turkey and pigs in blankets’

The Guardian - UK

The charitable ‘gaze’ is a complicated thing

Letter: Paul McGilchrist responds to an article about Band Aid and recalls Josiah Wedgwood’s anti-slavery medallion

The Guardian - UK

Band Aid 40 enters UK Top 10 as Christmas No 1 race hots up

More than half of this week’s Top 40 is Christmas-themed, as classics by Wham! and Mariah Carey eye a potential No 1 position

The Guardian - UK

“They pick one crisis in one country and they paint the whole of Africa": Fuse ODG, the rapper behind Band Aid’s 40th anniversary controversy, releases his own We Know It's Christmas clapback track

First he persuaded Ed Sheeran to step away from the track. Now he’s made his own answer record to set the story straight

MusicRadar

Hunger: What's changed since Band Aid?

"Yet in terms of the global persistence of famine, things have not got better in the intervening 40 years"

Salon

A new Christmas single – but do they know it’s Ed Davey?

The bungee-jumping Lib Dem leader could be just the man to reinvigorate a genre beset by cynicism and creative inertia

The Guardian - UK

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The Guardian - UK

Band Aid 40 fails to reach UK Top 40 in opening week

All-star version of Do They Know It’s Christmas?, spliced together from previous versions, falls short of the No 1 success of those earlier hits

BANG Premier

Bob Geldof received emotional thank you from Ethiopian waiter for changing his life

Bob Geldof received an emotional thank you from an Ethiopian waiter whose life was changed by Band Aid.

The Independent UK

Ed Sheeran announces ‘biggest ever’ India tour

Grammy winner performed a sold-out show in Mumbai earlier this year

BANG Premier

Bob Geldof wants to 'have a talk' with Ed Sheeran

Bob Geldof plans to "have a talk" with Ed Sheeran following his criticism of the new Band Aid 40 release but insisted he thinks the 'Shape of You' singer is a "really good bloke".

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Pedestrian.tv

Liam Payne’s Vocals Have Been Used Posthumously On The Same Christmas Song Slammed By Ed Sheeran

“Had I had the choice, I would have respectfully declined,” Sheeran said of his involvement in the song.

The Conversation

Band Aid sang ‘feed the world’ 40 years ago – where is hunger still an issue today?

The 40th-anniversary remake of Band Aid’s Do They Know It’s Christmas? charity hit was released on November 25. The new mix, which features vocals recycled from previous versions of the single, still includes the original track’s “feed the world” message and lyrics.

The Guardian - UK

The Long Wave: How Brazil is celebrating its Black heritage

Afro-Brazilians marked Black Consciousness Day as a national holiday for the first time, but the celebrations are facing resistance. Plus, a fertility ‘miracle’ rattles Nigeria and Kendrick Lamar’s surprise drop

The Independent UK

Ricky Gervais leaves Bob Geldof unimpressed after cracking joke about Band Aid star on One Show

BBC series’s host Angellica Bell placed her head in her hands after Gervais made the quip

Evening Standard

Bob Geldof says he will chat to Ed Sheeran after his criticism of Band Aid 40 charity single

The singer-songwriter said he didn’t give permission for his vocals to be used on the latest iteration of the classic song

The Independent UK

Bob Geldof says he’ll ‘chat’ to Ed Sheeran as listeners call Band Aid 40 song ‘awful’

‘The debate must be made and it means we can argue our point of view even more strongly’

BANG Premier

Mike Stock hits out at Bob Geldof for omitting Band Aid II from Do They Know It's Christmas? Ultimate Mix

Record producer Mike Stock has hit out at Bob Geldof for reducing 1989's Band Aid II to a "footnote" as it is not included in the new 40th anniversary 'Ultimate Mix' of 'Do They Know It's Christmas?'.

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